Searcher - a light painting by LaceLight Photography

Searcher - a light painting by LaceLight Photography

Paul Spencer won our monthly photo competition in association with the Echo Camera Club Dorset with his stunning image 'Searcher'. We loved the image so much we asked Paul to tell us more about himself and the way he does his photography. Here is what Paul had to say:

"All of my images are created in-camera and I do not use photoshop in any of my images. I shoot in RAW with my camera (Sony A7iii) and make global adjustments using Lightroom to convert to Jpeg.

The winning image was shot in where I live in Corfe Mullen. Only a 15 minute walk away from my house is Ashington Cutting, part of the dismantled railway line that ran from Broadstone to Blandford. There is a wooden walkway through part of it as the ground is fairly boggy underneath, this adds a little more interesting texture than the ground.

Firstly I set my camera up (Sony A7iii with a vintage Sigma Ultrawide manual lens 24mm F2.8) on a tripod and framed the main composition, taking a few test shots of my silhouette (just holding a torch to light my background) Once I was happy with my position I mark the ground with a glow in the dark pebble, so I can return to the same spot. At this stage I remember my focus distance and aperture F7.1 on the lens. I then set up a stencil cut from card and fixed on a light stand, in-front of the camera, and focus on the stencil and change the aperture to F11 (as much closer to the lens). I then lit the stencil from behind to get an exposure I was happy with, by counting how many seconds the light was on and remembered (8 seconds). So the shot is now ready to be executed, In nearly complete darkness!!!

Camera set to Bulb, ISO 100 and manual lens at F11, focused on the stencil. I open the shutter with my remote and proceed to sweep the light behind the stencil for 8 seconds, then I cap the lens and turn on my head torch to change the focus and the aperture to f7.1. I also remove the stencil. I then remove the lens cap and move to the spot on the walkway where I placed the glow in the dark pebble standing facing away from the camera and lit the background with a blue LED torch. I then walked back to the camera and lit up the foreground quickly with an orange LED torch and let a bit of the sky to burn in for a little longer and closed the shutter."

That's how Paul acheived the shot. If you would like to have a go at doing this yourself, look out for Castle Cameras' events in the new year when we are planning to do a workshop together.

Here is a little bit about Paul and his journey into photogpraphy:

"I was born in 1969 and have lived and worked in and around Bournemouth all my life, currently living in Corfe Mullen with my Wife and two Sons. The thing I love about Light Painting and Night Photography is the sense of adventure and that it is a little edgy, going out into the darkness (sometimes alone) to create an image. When creating some of the more complex images I really have to focus my concentration and love the experience of being “in the zone”. I have travelled across the UK to visit some great locations, landmarks, follies, castles, structures, and natural spaces and met up with some great Light Painting Photographers along the way. I started Light Painting about 11 years ago after being inspired when my Chiropractor showed me a photo he’d taken for his Masters In Photography in which he had used a line of blue LED lights stuck to a stick to create a ribbon of light. I then bought a DSLR and started to make my own light painting tools with LED strip lights and various different types of diffusers, It was at this time that I decided to create a little more mystery by creating the name LACE (Light.Art.Colour.Experiments) to post images on Flickr, Facebook and Instagram. I have never really been that artistic but can apply myself creatively with this artform and it has become a bit of an obsession in which I have met a small band (nationally) of some great Light Painting Artists and a further World Wide community.

I currently make and sell a 3D printed Light Painting Tool called a Backlight Scanner which is the only light source used in the image above “The Cutt” and is used to light the scene by walking through the scene towards the camera without the light source being seen.

I am also a keen on landscape photography and also have a Flickr account under my name Paul Spencer."

Here is some more of Paul's awesome light photography: