Steel wool and light painting has become my favorite photography style in recent times. The ability to create another step further than most types of photography has every aspect to draw me in! Challenges, risk and most of all fun.
I wanted to share some of the most challenging, risky and fun steel wool shots that I have done and share a little bit of the stories behind them.
This shot was taken only a couple of weeks ago. I was in an abandoned glass factory with my daughter. We were there to do some cool birthday portraits of her, but when I saw this large puddle I could not resist doing a steel wool shot!
The only place to stand without being in the water, was on an old broken wood pallet. I had recently played around learning light painting orbs and decided to give a steel wool orb a shot. The challenge and risk to it? Well the pallet was broken and not sturdy at all, which made moving around in a circle on it to do the orb precarious to say the least.
Thankfully it worked and I didn't get soaking wet in disgusting water lol
For this next one we were downtown Hamilton. Wanting to get some of the city in the background but were having a difficult time finding a dark enough spot to do so. Until we found this entrance to an underground parking garage. We hummed and hawed about it for a little while because in the transit terminal above it, there was a security guard (using steel wool is considered a pyrotechnic and has a hefty fine of $350 if caught doing it).
We finally said screw it and did it! The shot came out fairly well and the funniest part was that three security guards came walking out of the parking garage as we packed up our gear. Maybe two minutes after we had finished the shot.
This one doesn't have much of a story to it, I just personally really like it. The back light from the church effected the steel wool a lot, but it also lit me up really well. There is some blur but to see me that clearly in a 30 second exposure with movement, is rare.
This last photo is in my opinion the most risky that we did out of these four. There is a four story building in the downtown core that has very east access and that we had gone on many times. This time it was just after a strong rain so everything was soaking wet. Which gave us the idea that it would be possible to do some steel wool (I cannot say this enough! Steel wool is a fire hazard, you must be very careful where you use it). The problem was that there is apartment buildings right across the street with a full view of the roof and the chance that any of the sparks could go over the edge and rain down on to the sidewalk below.
Knowing there might not be another chance for this, we set up in the safest spot that we could figure out and got at it. Thankfully everything was good, no one saw us or if they did they didn't say or do anything and we got a pretty decent shot out of it.
I'm going to end this post by reiterating about the safety involved with steel wool. It is a huge fire hazard so heavy precaution needs to be taken whenever it is used. We have had several small fires start while shooting and were thankful that we had ways to contain it (Fires in small patches of brush that we didn't see etc). Get out there, experiment, push the limits and have a blast doing so! But as I like to say hope for the best and plan for the worst.
Hello @terrywayne, thank you for sharing this creative work! We just stopped by to say that you've been upvoted by the @creativecrypto magazine. The Creative Crypto is all about art on the blockchain and learning from creatives like you. Looking forward to crossing paths again soon. Steem on!
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The more you practise the luckier you get
Couldn't agree more!
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Awesome shots @terrywayne
How do you have fixed the steel wool?
Thanks! I'm not 100% on what you mean but if you are asking how it is done. I have a kitchen whisk tied to a dog leash. Stretch out the steel wool and then stuff it into the whisk. Light it with a lighter or a 9 volt battery and start spinning. I'm in the process of producing tutorial video's on photography and steel wool will be one of the episodes. That will have a full break down of how it is done :)
Sorry for my bad expressions :-)
That answers my question super. I had no idea how the steel wool is attached to the leash because it burns up. But the kitchen whisk is a great idea.
Then I am already very curious about the tutorial :-)