Experiments with drone lightpainting on Hive

When I was a kid I was terrible at Space Invaders and found controlling objects on a screen quite tricky. I tended to crash a lot in driving games despite being quite good at it in real life. So the prospect of flying an expensive drone with many controls to fly up, down and sideways fills me with dread; I know for a fact I will crash the damn thing and end up with nothing to show for my £1000 spent.

So when a mate, who possibly has more money than sense buys a drone, it was surprisingly therapeutic for me. Seeing the drone in action and how to control it has given me the confidence to buy one and try it out for myself!

This is a post of images where a drone was involved but not actually flown by me. It will be a long time before I have these skills! I simply stood by and watched with my camera!

HayFeverFest at Magpie Mine

John Lennon once sang, "Living is easy with eyes closed" but last night was certainly no Strawberry Fields Forever with the hay fever I suffered! Myself and a bunch of leading ne'er do well lightpainters assembled at Magpie Mine in the middle of the night but waiting for dark to arrive I could feel my eyes gradually getting worse!

This morning after the night before I don''t regret the hay fever one bit. I got a chance to meet up again with some of the best after dark photographers there is. All of whom probably have hay fever now too....

All that grass pollen!

I'm looking at this photo the morning after the night before thinking there is no wonder I got hay fever!

I shot this image without red lighting inside the main building. I did shoot a few with lighting inside but I was surprised to find I preferred it without.

Lightpainting circles in the sky

All credit for the uber accurate circle in the sky goes to @inksurgeon where he's still mastering the technique of lining up the centre point over an object on the ground. For my part in this photo, I have to judge when to end the exposure so as to create a completed circle.

So far I found I prefer to have a reference point in the sky so I can end the exposure but it's not as easy as you would think!

Practicing Spirals in the Sky

As I say, the night was purely experimental and it seems that drawing spirals in the sky isn't easy. More like an "E" than a spiral!

Circles over the Windmill

This shot was my first drone lit lightpainting shot. Ideally I'd like to incorporate a star trail sequence in some way but lately I seem to be cursed by a lack of clear skies!

Windmill Haze

This evening was slightly cold and looked like we were in for some condensation on our lenses. I was surprised to see the resulting haze created by the moisture in the air. I can't remember ever seeing a hazy drone circle like this.

And finally...

Not all lightpainting drone circles go according to plan but you do end up with happy accidents. Here the drone's batteries were dying and the "return to home" feature activated right in the middle of my 40 second exposure. Not bad though!

About me:
I usually specialise in shooting lightpainting images but occasionally dabble in urbex and artistic model photography. I'm always on the lookout for someone to collaborate with; please don't hesitate to get in touch if you'd like to create art.

Social Media
https://www.facebook.com/fastchrisuk
https://www.flickr.com/photos/fastchris/

WHAT IS LIGHTPAINTING?

Lightpainting is a photographic technique in which exposures are made by moving a hand-held light source while taking a long exposure photograph, either to illuminate a subject or to shine a point of light directly at the camera, or by moving the camera itself during exposure. Nothing is added or removed in post processing.

Single exposure Light Art Photography - no layers - no tricks - no photoshop

If you would like to see more lightpainting please give the Lightpainters United Community a follow and you will be introduced into the illuminating world of light painting!

If you want to see more examples of lightpainting, feel free to check out these guys:

Mafu Fuma | Oddballgraphics | FadetoBlack | DAWN | Mart Barras | Stefan Stepke | Nikolay Trebukhin | Lee Todd | Stabeu Light | Maxime Pateau | Stephen Sampson | lightandlense | Neil Rushby | L.A.C.E.

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