I've been a big fan of camera rotation photography where the camera is rotated on it's lens axis during a long exposure. I've also been a fan of steel wool burning, although lately I've not done much of it. I've also been on the lookout for what seems like years trying to find a stairway suitable for combining sparks and rotations.
Last night I stumbled across this stairway on an evening urban explore. I set up the camera with the subject on the right hand third and the centre of the stairway in the middle of my frame. The model here, Lee, spun steel wool and I replaced the lens cap early so as not to overexpose the bottom half of the frame. The bottom half of the frame needs to remain dark and unexposed so I can add more light from the rotation. Lee quickly loaded up more steel wool and I rotated the camera on it's lens axis by 180 degrees. Lens uncapped as Lee starts another spin, end the exposure, job done!
I've done this type of shot before in an abandoned bomb store and this is still one of my favourite lightpainting images:
And this is a slightly different take on sparks and rotations. Here I've used a fisheye lens and spun two lots of wool with the camera in portrait orientation. Then I've swapped tripods and lens while the camera still exposing to point at a lightpainter holding a torch. When I created the two lots of sparks, I made sure the centre of the frame remained more or less unexposed in order to add more light after the lens and tripod swap:
All of the above images were created in one photographic exposure and are not Photoshop creations.
About me:
I usually specialise in shooting lightpainting images but occasionally dabble in urbex and artistic model photography. I'm always on the lookout for someone to collaborate with; please don't hesitate to get in touch if you'd like to create art.
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Amazing work! Love the stairway ones
Thank you! Very much inspired by MC Escher :-)
Ahaaaaa... Had to google that name - I see what you mean; a maze of stairways... Reminds me of those in Harry Porter!