Exploring NC

An assignment was given in class to go out and paint something with light….pretty exciting!  We had a week to work on it, but since I already like light painting, I kept shooting after the assignment.  The first scene I chose was from Fort Macon near the NC coast.  This place is really cool(and free), and I explored around some of the darker areas.  The architecture of this place is right out of an old movie, since the fort was built and used in the civil war.   I finally found a door that I liked, and I figured out that a long exposure would bring light from the sunset underneath the door.  I checked my initial exposure (keeping it relatively dark) and then began to see how many flashes I had to put in for the effect.  I ended up using a 30 second exposure, and while the picture was taking, I shot the strobe off 3 times on the left, 3 on the right, 2 from behind, and 2 on the floor.  Here is the final result:

Last night after the assignment was turned in, I decided to go check out the sunset near a local lake.  While on my hike I found a tree with a lot of nice bends in it.  With the sun almost set, I decided I could use an aperture of 22 to give the sun a ‘star’ effect.  After I figured out the exposure for the background, I took a 6 second exposure and flashed the tree about 6 times with my strobe.  Here is the end result: