Sometime's You Just Need to Have Fun

While I love myself some candid work, I've been in a little bit of a rut when it comes to being a bit more creative with my photography.


While scrolling through Instagram I came across a reel by a photographer named Summer Grace. In the reel she took a cheap fiber optic light (the one I bought was about $15) and just had fun with long exposure photography. The photos looked gorgeous, and it made me excited to shoot the idea (which the photographer urged people to go out and do.)


So I spent this Wednesday evening with a new photographer friend of mine and we made our first attempt at this idea.


I started off with photographing my friend...wasn't coming out exactly like we hoped, but we got some good shots out of the first handful of images, as shown below. We were still very much trying to find what placement and speed work best.

 

Golden light streaks creating an ethereal motion blur effect on black background.
Flowing teal-colored smoke or light trails creating an ethereal pattern against darkness.
Monochrome light trails forming a feathery pattern against a dark background.

 

When the lamp had to be recharged we moved on to normal light photos while we waited and then ended up moving on to using myself as the subject and have Jon photograph me while I moved the lamp across my face, which was an add experience for myself since I'm not one to get in front of the camera much. But I actually loved these photos.


Photos below feature me as the model and were taken by Jon Pugh.

 

Vibrant blue and green light streaks creating an abstract pattern in darkness.
Purple and blue light trails swirling in an abstract pattern on black background.
Ethereal blue light formations creating a ghostly effect in the darkness.
Abstract pattern of blue and red light trails blending together on black background.

 

This was a shoot I thoroughly enjoyed. We didn't get the exact results we were expecting, but that's the fun of running with an idea or inspiration and figuring out what works for you!

Jon and I plan to do another test of this in the future and honestly, I plan to continue doing type of shoot with other friends because it was a blast and the results are gorgeous, even if the aren't perfect.