Camera Play

Matt pointed out a little article in Backpacker about using your camera and headlamps to create interesting or fun photographic effects.  Like using a headlamp inside of a tent to lend it a glow in evening photographs.  Or experimenting with camp lanterns vs. headlamps vs. flashlights.  But, most intriguing to me was the writing with headlamps in photos...just wait, you'll see.   Not wanting to wait to try it out until we went camping we just turned off the sitting room lights and off we went.

Because everything must we drawn in reverse we thought a heart was an easy, symmetrical shape to start with.

By setting the camera to have a long exposure time and low ISO the movement of the headlamp beam is captured enabling a couple of people with nothing better to do (apparently) to play for a good half hour drawing and writing with light. 

Beth

Partial Steal Your Face (Grateful Dead logo)

You have to write backwards in order for it to show up forwards on the photo.  That was the challeneging part.  Well, that and remembering how to adjust the exposure time on my camera.

Smile!

Matt

It was especially interesting to me because I have been reading a lot about the history of early photography and I know that the long exposure times of those early cameras was an obstacle to great photos simply because the subjects had to stay perfectly still in order to not be blurred in the photos.  This was especially tricky when trying to photograph children.  Thus, I even understood the mechanics of how this trick worked which made it all the more interesting and fun to me.

Fun, with a reversed N.

Peace!

Check it out sometime when you've got a dark room and a little time on your hands.   We had a blast.  I was howling with glee behind the camera every time we'd get one to come out.  I can foresee us playing with this on some dark nights in the forest.