I love playing with motion and long exposures. When I saw that my circus artist friend Jusztina of Delighter’s theatre had some LED hoops, I couldn’t wait to set up a photoshoot.
We managed to do so at the end of last January. The advantage of this time of year (if you can deal with the cold weather) is that it gets dark pretty early in Edinburgh. We could have done this in a number of places but we chose to shoot at the Scottish Parliament.
The basic idea is really simple. I had two flashes on Jusztina fire at the beginning of the exposure and then she would move during the next six seconds. We couldn’t stay very long because of the cold, but we managed to get quite a number of “keepers” during the hour we were shooting.
The LEDs on the hoop would change colour as time went on.Absolutely love the colours created by Jusztina’s movement.It was windy that evening as you can see from Jusztina’s blown hair.It does look easy, doesn’t it. Beautiful pattern after beautiful pattern.I would ask Jusztina to avoid placing the hoop where her head used to be, but in this case it kind of worked out.I like the ghost-like shadow of Jusztina on the right.Another beautiful pattern of colour.With people photos, I generally like to see both arms, but the colours look good.There isn’t a “perfect” photo in this series, in that I can find something to nitpick about in every one of them, but this is my favourite.Trying some different poses.Tried again.Another variation.The wind was picking up so she tied her hair up.Dress blowing in the wind.Some smaller, tighter hoop movements.
Jusztina had brought a range of LED hoops. Our favourites were the multicoloured ones above, but when their batteries ran out, we tried some of the others.
Only two colours, but red and green provide great colour contrast.The fact that the patterns were quite unpredictable made this process really fun and addictive.Jusztina is a very skilled hoop artist and it is clear the photos in the series owe a lot to her talent.Her starting position has quite an effect on the pattern produced.Some different colours now, in the cool tones.A single colour doesn’t work quite as well, but I still like this one.Final pic.
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2 Comments
Did you use high speed sync to fire a flash at the end? Any tips on how this was technically accomplished?
I used a flash at the beginning of the exposure. No need for high speed sync since I used a long exposure (a few seconds)
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2 Comments
Did you use high speed sync to fire a flash at the end? Any tips on how this was technically accomplished?
I used a flash at the beginning of the exposure. No need for high speed sync since I used a long exposure (a few seconds)