Light Painting

Recently I've come to really enjoy Light painting. Whats light painting you say? Allow me to elaborate: Light painting is when you take a picture of yourself or someone else drawing images with light. If done right it can look like you have honed the mighty power of Zeus himself and can hurl lighting bolts at anyone you choose! Ok, that might be a stretch but it actually is really amazing and is really easy for even a novice photographer to do.

First your gonna need to find a dark space with very little to no light in the room. The less light you have the better this will work. Then your going to need to find a camera with a manual shutter feature that you can set to the "bulb" setting which is going to be the slowest shutter speed. What your gonna look for here is usually a little M next to all the other camera settings like automatic or motion capture settings. Most of those little cameras people tote around in there purses or back pockets don't have this setting so your gonna need to find a fairly advanced camera to do this.

When you have the bulb setting as your shutter speed this means that you shutter is going to be open the entire time you have your finger pressed on the capture button. What this allows the camera to do is it lets the camera absorb all the light in the room. But wait, there is no light in this room for the camera to absorb! Well not yet anyway.

The next thing you need to do is find a tripod, some sort of controllable light source (I suggest a small LED flashlight), and someone to take the picture. Once you all that prepped you can begin light painting. Go into the dark room with the camera all set up and stand in front of it. Have your photographer hold down the photo capture button down and then turn on the flashlight and draw and image with the light source facing the camera. Your going to want to be somewhat quick with your drawing because have a light source pointed a the camera for too long with white out your image and nothing will show up. When your done drawing turn off the light and have the other person let go of the button. What you should see in the photo is luminous lines drawn in the air. Hopefully it looks something like the image below.

Now that you know the basics lets talk about aperture. The aperture controls the size of the hole that lets the light into the open shutter. In relation to light painting the smaller the hole the longer you get to draw. With a bigger hole your going to accept light from the outside more rapidly and before you know it your going to have an image that all blurry and whited out.  My knowledge of your specfic camera is very limited but to adjust the aperture on mine I find this little -/+ button and then use the shutter speed scroll knob to adjust the size of the opening. Now apertures go against common logic with sizes and the numbers associated with the size. When you adjust the size you must remember the bigger the number the smaller the opening or hole. So lets say your camera ranges from a 5.6 opening to 22, the 22 is going to be the smaller opening and thus will allow you more time to draw.

But don't just settle for drawing with light, get creative! Have someone behind the camera flash the light on you for a small period of time so that only you show up in the image then move positions and have them shine the light on you again before you let go of the capture button the image should turn out a little like this one below.

So now that you understand the basics of light painting get out there and paint the world!

Band of the Week

Here is my first segment of band of the week. The fine gentlemen of Brand New have won this honor so lets get to know them. My obession and love for this phenomenon of musical talent is quite substantial people. Brand New hit the music scene around the turn of the mellenium from Merrick, New York. The members that currently comprise the band are: Singer and guitarist, Jesse Lacey; Lead guitar, Vincent Accardi; Bass guitarist, Garrett Tierney; Rhythm guitarist and keyboardist, Derrick Sherman; Drummer(ist? haha) Brian Lane. Let me tell you ever since these guys hit the punk rock scene they have been turning head and turning regular people into hardcore fans. Its like this, if you like Brand New you like them a lot. I've never met anyone who liked Brand New and couldn't rave about how amazing they are. There different from most punk bands in that they truly have deep lyrics. Carefull not to fall in though kiddies cause they don't create a ditch for their words, were talking like Grand Canyon deep status. However this kinda deep status doesn't occur till the second album Deja Entendu.

Here's my suggestion start with their first album "Your Favorite Weapon" some favorites of mine are Jude Law and a Semester Abroad, Mix tape, Failure by design, and Socco Amarreto Lime. The whole damn album is got some really great fast paced punk songs that really catch the ear by the lobe and yank. "Deja Entendu" has got to be the the fan favorite album though with hits like The Quiet Things No One Will Ever Know and Sic Transit Gloria... Glory Fades. But my all time favorite is I Believe You But My Tommy Gun Don't. And if you love Deja Entendu like the rest of the Brand New Army then you have no reason not to dig their latest albums The Devil and God Are Raging inside and Daisy. In fact you may even love them more.
Check them out at the bands main website http://www.fightoffyourdemons.com/ for access to alot of there music and videos.

Lookin for some brand new boots?

Have you ever just walked around without shoes all day? Its kinda nice on a warm summer day. Maybe your just walking in grass or taking a stroll on the soft warm sand of the beach. But what about walking down a dirt road? rocks jutting out of the ground and cutting your foot. suddenly a walking without shoes isn't a good idea. Oh well just throw some sandals or nike's on and walk down the road easy. But what if you don't have shoes? what if you've never had shoes? Suppose you had to walk around on the hard, rocky ground with nothing protecting you feet. Kids around the world have to do this everyday. The truth is not everyone has the extra money laying around to buy shoes. Most of the money has to go to food or shelter, mean while a childs feet are getting bruised and cut just by a normal days walk.

I know us fortunate people of today who actually have shoes and live a better life would never have to worry about such a thing. Its our duty to help those who need it then. But what should we do? Well you can do something that you probably know and enjoy very much, shop. Buy a Pair of TOMS shoes and they will donate a pair of shoes to someone in need. TOMS has already donated 60,000 shoes to countries like Argentia and South Africa and isn't stopping yet. And all you have to do to help is buy a pair of shoes, and believe me these aren't some ugly pair of crocs your buying. TOMS shoes are some pretty sweet lookin kicks and their are tons to choose from.

Check 'em out at www.TOMSshoes.com and also check out other ways you can help the cause
So go buy some shoes already!

Heart Clock

When you think about all we are a big clocks. our heart is counting beats like seconds and eventually we all hit midnight. Time is one of the most precious things be have and yet its always flying by like a grocery bag in the wind or a balloon floating up to heaven till it pops. People tell us not to waste time because of this. To not fool around, to not day dream, to not stop and just look up at the sky and get lost in the clouds. But people are wrong. Time is only a waste if you think it is. So of the best time i've "wasted" today was just sitting and thinking. our hearts just keep on tickin tick tock bump bump. So cherish your time in any way you can.