Fissure - Lightpainting on Hive

On Friday I found myself in a beautiful part of the UK I haven't visited before. Phill F was up from down south and we arranged to meet up and shoot this beautiful tree above Malham in the Yorkshire Dales. It sits on a Limestone pavement created by ice melt at the end of the last ice age. The ground was challenging to walk on in broad daylight but once it went dark it was a broken ankle waiting to happen.

For this shot I had already planned the effect I wanted to achieve and knew I would need a light source on the end of something. That something was an old telescopic tripod leg with a torch and gel attached to the end. This was perfect for walking back to camera from the tree, lighting the fissure as I went. I was aiming for a lava effect and I think I succeeded.

Phil fired the shutter and I lit the back side of the tree with my BLF Q8 torch. At 5000 lumens it made light work of this and once happy Phill replaced the lens cap and I made my way to this side of the tree with my telescopic lighting rig. I turned on the torch with an orange gel from www.lightpaintingbrushes.com on the end, Phill took off the cap and I slowly and tentatively made my way back to the camera lighting as I went.

Once behind the camera again I made my way down the left hand side of the frame...just out of shot and side lit the ground using the Q8 again. Lighting in an oblique angle so as to bring out all of the textures and forms of the ground. It's such a great way of achieving really dramatic light without much hassle.

Once happy with that element I went and stood behind the camera and let the sky burn on for another minute or so.

It's been a while since I went out shooting with a specific idea and come away with exactly what I had in my head.

Phill got the drone out later on once the clouds had dissipated and those are some shots I will post on another day. Suffice to say having a subject like this tree, the leading lines of the floor and perfectly clear skies made for some beautiful photographs which I can't wait to share.

All shot during a single long exposure with edits in Lightroom to the Raw file.

Sony A7ii
Nikon 20mm f1.8 @ F8
430 seconds
iso 200
Manfrotto Carbon Tripod
BLF Q8 5000 lumen torch
Lightpainting Brushes tools and custom rig for the orange lighting

For more examples of innovative and original lightpainting including camera rotation photography, check these lightpainters: @fastchrisuk @dawnoner @mafufuma @oddballgraphics @martbarras @stefan.stepko @rod.evans.visual @yo-hoho @maxpateau These chaps are amongst the best there is!