Two orbs of spinning steel wool to light paint a tree.

Out for a Spin: Light Painting with Steel Wool

Two orbs of spinning steel wool to light paint a tree.
That’s one way to backlight a tree — 14mm | f/8 | ISO 100 | EXP 30 sec
Light painting with steel wool to create the illusion of a tunnel.
Have you ever seen a portal? — 14mm | f/8 | ISO 100 | EXP 30 sec
Light painting with steel wool to create an anticyclonic effect.
Anticyclonic — 14mm | f/8 | ISO 100 | EXP 30 sec
Spinning steel wool overhead to light paint a position reminiscent of a resplendent She-Ra lifting her sword.
She-Ra? — 14mm | f/8 | ISO 100 | EXP 30 sec

It’s pretty amazing what steel wool, wire whisks, 9-volt batteries, cameras on tripods, and some friends can do. And frankly, if you’ve already shelled out the cash for the camera and tripod this becomes cheap fun with pals. It’s best paired with dark nights, bonfires, and any libation of your choice.

Every now and then—probably not as often as we should—we get together to just spin steel wool and hang. We probably first started dabbling with this about two years ago. Many others have pulled off far greater feats of light painting goodness. My friends and I? We’re still getting our feet wet but having fun doing it.

Some shout-outs

As usual thanks to Ben Wurst (my frame guy) of Reclaimed LLC—excellent 100% salvaged wood crafts and custom framing that will make the most excellent holiday gift—for hosting. His house and wood shop are housed on ample property at the edge of the Pines. Giving us ample room—and darkness—to safely spin steel wool at our leisure. Ben’s got another angle of the tree (the double orb above) over on 500px.com. That’s my camera shooting in the foreground. Check it out.

And of course to Jen (rocking the steel wool in Have you ever seen a portal? and She-Ra? Bonus points are in order as these were her first two attempts at spinning ever. And thanks to Jackie for doubling up with me in That’s one way to backlight a tree.

For everyone else that was there—when are we doing this again?


Posted

in

by

Comments

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.