photo art

painting with light

I was thinking about painting with light today (and how fun and easy it is) and I came across two great photographers/collectives that have mastered this technique. The first I want to show you is Burn Blue Photography aka Toby Keller. I thought this series was amazing, and I loved how the light seems so natural like it is part of the landscape. And of course any post about painting with light has to mention LICHTFAKTOR. They specialize in this sort of thing, so obviously their photos are amazing, you have to go see their website for more.

All you need to do to pull this sort of thing off yourself is have a camera that can do long exposures, a tripod, and a flashlight (or anything that generates light).

1. set your camera on your tripod (or really, any sort of stable surface where it won’t move)
2. set the shutter speed to the longest speed you have (usually bulb, but basically the setting that keeps the shutter open until you press the button again)
3. make sure you’re in a dark room or if you’re outside there isn’t a lot of ambient light that’s going to overexpose and ruin your photo.
4. jump into the photo! i know it seems weird, but because it’s so dark and if you keep moving, the camera will not expose you (or usually not all of you).
5. wave your flashlight/light source around and draw pictures. Simple!

You’ll have to experiment with settings and exposures, but it’s pretty easy to figure out, especially with a digital camera so you can see right away what works best. It’ll vary according to how much ambient light is already present, but you can get some pretty awesome results with minimal effort!

Another cool way to do it is use your handheld flash and expose only parts of the subject. You can also use any sort of flashlight to expose your subject matter, instead of pointing it at the camera, use it to illuminate what you’re taking a picture of, it makes a really cool soft and flowing looking exposure!

everything i have, simon evans

Again, not technically photography (medium is pen, paper, scotch tape, and whiteout) but wouldn’t it be a great photo project idea, to photograph everything you have and turn it into one huge piece of art? Check out artist Simon Evan’s work Everything I Have and get inspired to catalogue all your material possessions:

julia guo, curvy

This is technically not photography, but I’m obsessed with this image and I just had to post it:

Artist is Julia Guo, for Curvy.

graphic intersections: submission

Came across this cool project called Graphic Intersections from The Exposure Project, here’s the explanation from the website:

Graphic Intersections is a collaborative project loosely based on the old Surrealist and Dadaist game The Exquisite Corpse. Designed to unite disparate artists in an interconnected photographic relay of images inspired by one another, this project strives to emphasize a system of response entirely rooted in unmediated visual reaction.

The first photographer made a photograph, which was subsequently forwarded to the second in line.  The 2^nd then, based solely on their own visual, emotional, intellectual or philosophical response, in turn made photographs in artistic reaction to the one they were given.  The artists involved were not given any written material to accompany the photograph, nor did they know whose image they were responding to.  This was designed to propagate chance, or as the Surrealist’s put it, exploit “the mystique of accident.”

Ultimately, Graphic Intersections to challenge the bounds of sequential, narrative imagery, while simultaneously fostering stronger lines of artistic affiliation.

Check out the previous project, and submit to the new one, there’s still time!

its nice that zine: if drawings were photographs

Found this via My Love For You Is A Stampede Of Horses. It’s a zine from It’s Nice That, called If Drawings Were Photographs. Apparently the idea behind the zine is “Tom gave drawings to Rob and Rob tried to make them into photographs.” I think it’s hilarious, the photos and the drawings are both great. Check out the link to purchase the zine, and see some samples from it below:

timelapse street light with bugs

Normally I think bugs are kinda gross. But these timelapse photos of a streetlight with bugs flying around it are actually really beautiful. Who knew insects could make art?

flight patterns from Charlie McCarthy on Vimeo.

cassandra c. jones: found photography

Extremely interesting Boing Boing video interview with artist Cassandra C. Jones. She uses photography found on the internet and “glues” images together to create her art and to explore how we relate to these images. And I totally want to buy her wallpaper:

camera line drawings

I’m in love with these camera line drawings and solid line drawings by illustrator Rod Hunting, on T26. The only thing that would make it better is if there was a Pentax K1000, aka My Favourite Camera Ever.