Some residents of the Jordan Pond Gatehouse have graciously invited us to paint the gatehouse and offered their help with the project. This is another demonstration of the community helping with this project. By working with the gatehouse residents we will have greater access to the the building and grounds which will dramatically improve the final image. We will be able to light area that would otherwise be inaccessible. I’m really excited to be working with them and very grateful for their generosity. We’ve set a date in October with them for the shoot. This is a big house, we’re gonna need lots of light painters!
Monthly Archives: August 2012
West Branch Bridge Painting
Our fourth bridge painting. The single greatest concern and challenge was getting everyone safely in place. After the recon-mission, we realized that we would need ropes on each end of the bridge to assist folks(including me) down into the ravine. On one side we tied a rope to a tree and on the other side we tied it to one of Rockefeller’s teeth. I said it was like flossing his teeth. We asked everyone to arrive earlier than usual to traverse the terrain in daylight. We had fifteen light painters including five first-time painters; thanks for spreading the word. Here’s the before shot.
After switching lights and adjusting the lighting a few times, here’s the final image.
Everyone made it safely in and out of the ravine and we took the group shot on top of the bridge.
We enjoyed Brenda’s home-baked brownies (Howie’s recipe). I heard afterwards that Kevin doesn’t usually like brownies, but this time he had two! Lenny won the raffle of a Hemlock Bridge print. We all enjoyed the walk back as the carriage road was glowing with an almost full moon and the evening temperature was delightfully cool.
Hemlock Bridge Painting
Our third bridge painting and the largest undertaking to date. This is a large bridge and we needed a lot of light painters. We put out the word and we had 11 first-time light painters! Brenda felt a bit frazzled with having to explain the process to the first-time folks, coordinate everyone and run back and forth every time I needed a light adjustment. It was all worth it, in the end we were rewarded with another beautiful image. Kim was stoked to use her new 3 Mega Lumen Q-Beam flashlight, she affectionately refers to as her ‘deer jacking’ light. We had some trouble lighting the background tress, but Joel figured out the problem and changed his angle. Everyone did a great job of hiding just out of sight. Here’s the before shot.
Here is the final shot. This is the first bridge shot taken with my new full frame camera. This project pushed me to a full frame camera sooner than I expected. I’ve been hearing rumors of the D600 coming out around December or January, but I (uh, I mean the project) couldn’t wait. These images deserve a full frame camera.
Here are all the light painters.
We held the first raffle of the previous bridge print and Kim won! Gayle came to visit and brought a couple of quarts of blueberries. So, Brenda and Gayle baked blueberry and oatmeal cookies for the snack.
Cobblestone Bridge Light Painting
After our success at the first bridge, we set our sights high and tackled Cobblestone Bridge next. Partly because it is a favorite of so many, and partly because we wanted to see if we could be successful shooting a large bridge. We scouted it out with the help of Tom and his sister who was visiting. She gave us some hints on lighting, since she has worked in theater in the past.
The before shot.
The night of the shoot, we were happy to see 15 light painters. Brenda’s sister and nephews were visiting, that’s three extra people we could count on. Brenda was still new at setting up the light painters, but with the help of Tom, we got everyone set. We had to reposition a few people, and rearrange lights some, but we ended up getting a great shot.
I set my camera in the middle of the stream to get the shot. There is no way we could have done this shot in the spring – I would have ended up under water!
The light painters.
We all enjoyed whoopee pies made by Brenda and her sister; a family recipe.