Light graffiti (also often known as light painting or light drawing) is a fantastic and creative way to express your artistic side, ‘draw’ silly shapes, or doing something you can enjoy with your mates. It needs to be dark when you do this, but essentially it can be done anywhere; at home, in the garden, or out in the wilds. The principles of light graffiti are not that far removed from waving a sparkler around on bonfire night to make swirling shapes; the only difference is that you are capturing the pattern or light trail on camera. You have complete control of the light source (try and think of torches like brushes with an endless supply of paint coming from them.)

There are some basic things you need to get you started:

• A camera (ideally a digital SLR) capable of taking long exposures
• A tripod
• At least one standard torch
• A dark space to create your masterpiece

Mount the camera on a tripod, then using the control dial, switch it to manual mode. Shutter speed can be set to 15-30 seconds, or if you have a remote cable release, switch the camera to Bulb mode which will allow you to take exposures lasting a lot longer. For the aperture setting, anything between f8-f11 is a good start. Choose ISO between 100-200.

Next step is to ensure your images are not blurry. One way to do this is to take the lens off auto setting and manually turn the focus ring, taking a few test shots as you go, or ask someone to hold a light source in frame and auto focus off the bright spot.

When you’re ready, hit the shutter button or cable release, step into frame, turn on the torch and start creating! If you do not have a cable release or you’re doing this on your own, you may wish to use the camera’s timer control, allowing you that extra few seconds to step into frame before you hear the ‘click’ as the camera starts exposing.

When you’ve finished painting with your torch, turn it off, return to the camera and finish the exposure.

Here are some basic examples to get you in the mood:

Once you’ve got the hang of it, take things a lot further by using different torches and try your hand at more elaborate shapes, There are no limits, so push your imagination. Most of all have fun!

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I’ve been in that situation a few times, the images are technically good, but I just feel they are empty and lacking any passion. One of the things that I’ve discussed with the Real Mark Scholey several times is ways to rediscover that passion and drive; and our conversations always come back to shooting a project. Sounds easy doesn’t it, that’s what I thought.

Setting out with the idea of a project, you can’t just think of a subject and shoot it. It actually takes quite a bit of planning, especially if your goal is to produce a body of work at the end of it for a book or a small gallery exhibition. It takes time, and lots of thinking, planning, re-planning, adapting the project as you progress it. But one thing it does for me, is hand me the passion for creating art again.

And project planning is just what I’m starting now after a period of feeling a little flat and jaded with my own photography. The results of which shall be shared on these very pages!

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Speech of Scholey from James Burns on Vimeo.

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It’s that time of year when the 4Togs (well, the 3 least-hairy 4Togs, anyway) like to pack up their bags and head for pastures new.

So, whilst Mark is chained to his desk (which he quite enjoys, apparently), the rest of us are upping sticks and heading to Newquay for some sun, sea, surf and shandies. You can expect a variety of daftness over the course of the next week as we share our adventures with you all.

We welcome audience participation, as always, so if you have any suggestions on where to go, what (or who) to see, or adventures to have – please let us have them. So far, all I’ve managed to come up with is a day out as the Pyrites of Penzance

Watch this space… The frolics start Sunday!

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So what seminar did I go for? It was the three day workshop with David A Williams and his ‘Almost Alone’ sessions. Why this course you may ask, well I knew I needed to work on posing groups and couples for portrait sessions and it would be relevant to wedding photography. It also gave me the chance to meet one of the most wonderful and respected photographers. All I can say is that I was not disappointed with my investment in any way, being a hands on course, with posing sessions as well as talks about several areas of posing groups, couples and individuals, it went further and demonstrated  lighting (both available and flash), telling the story of wedding days and even into album design. All this was offered up by the most energetic and caring person I have had the pleasure to meet, David Williams, he also has a wicked sense of humour. One of the highlights was the one on one critique session, it was a great experience and not one negative in there, all the feedback was positively re-inforced to encourage learning and self improvement.

So have I improved following on from the course? I know I have, but I’ve not stopped yet… every day is a new chance to learn and improve, one of the key things that I took away with me, was that now matter what skill level you are at, you can always learn something new and improve yourself. All this without buying any new kit!

So go on, treat yourself to a workshop, course or seminar.

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p.s. We still have more to empty yet…

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I’m excited and awake to watch it (6.44am right now UK time). loads of new rules, more tyre choices and some funky wings! I really can’t wait for it all. I am a huge Gear head, love all thing Motor and racing. I’d like Hamilton to take a second title but the heart is loving Brawn GP…

I only need to hear the first few notes of the classic BBC F1 song (click the triangle upper left) to get in *that* zone for motorsport!

It’s all counting down, interviews on the gird now with the drivers… so close to the excitement, drama and sheer noise of the season!

C’mon, share your predictions for the final champion.

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The weekend speaks for itself; it’s THE WEEKEND! It’s where the fun is at, no work all play (if you have to work at weekends, then it’s your own fault, we have no sympathy, unless you work in a pub which makes you a saint). Monday and Tuesday you can still remember the fun of the weekend although they are a bit mundane being back to the day job. Then you have Wednesday, which is the middle of the working week, half way there, it’s a milestone day, the light at the end of the tunnel can be seen midday on Wednesday. I don’t really need to explain Friday, it’s the gateway to the weekend where all the fun will be.

This only leaves Thursday, what does it do? It’s just makes the week longer, a nothing day, can’t even have pizza on a Thursday (everyone knows that it’s always pizza on a Friday) because the laws of Pizza Friday, having pizza on Thursday would create a failing of law, order and the universe as we know it! I mean Thursday, it’s no fun, it’s just the packing in any parcel, it’s just bulk, I think Thursday should be dropped from the week purely because it does nothing.

So as a day, Thursday has kind of failed at everything. Would we really miss it anyway?

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I’m a serial sufferer of the age old problem of Procrastination, a scourge of many if not most people. Don’t get me wrong it’s not that I’m lazy or have nothing to do, believe me as I’m in the process of going self-employed, I have a mountain of tasks, work, errands and jobs to get done. It’s just that it’s easy to find distraction… (drifts off gazing out the window at the clouds…) See, just done it again, I’m writing an article for the blog, and Wham! several minutes have passed by doing, well, nothing really.

So how do you cure it, I’ve no idea. Seriously, I’m a full-time sufferer of this time-eating disorder. Anybody who can invent a cure for it then you need to copyright it immediately, and get your arse over to the Dragons Den for some investment. To try an counteract my procrastination, I’ve tried various things, such as:
-disconnecting the internet (not good when I need to research stuff or send emails)
-sitting in a darkened room (can’t see my keyboard or the page I’m writing on)
-switched off the computer (useless as most of my work is on there)
-No phones on (so how do my potential clients reach me)
So you see, there aren’t any real cures for it right now (pauses typing to go reply to a Tweet) other than trying your best to focus on the task at hand and even then it’s far too easily to become distracted and find the Procrastination monster has struck again…

Blimey, guess what… it’s just got you as well, by reading this article you’ve allowed yourself to become distracted! So be careful and be safe, because procrastination is infectious!

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As you can see… My little finger doesn’t normally bend outwards at such an obscure angle, but after sustaining a double dislocation and 5 fractures to it during a penalty shootout on Friday, it did for a short while. Fortunately, Matt was around to capture the event for posterity!

Oh, and if you’re interested, we won on penalties, 4-2. I even saved one after doing this. Now that’s dedication…

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