Monthly Archives: December 2012

Duck Brook Bridge Light Painting

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Fantastically Freezing Fun for Fifty Folks!  The temperature was a chilly 21 degrees with a stiff breeze. Brenda and I arrived an hour early to assess the ice conditions and determine how risky the placement of people would be. After surveying the entire area, we thought it would be safe for folks to venture around the bridge and avoid icy patches, so long as they were careful.

We asked folks to arrive at 3:30 allowing time for logistics and organization. At 3:40 only ten people had arrived and I started wondering if we were going to have enough light painters to illuminate the bridge – the estimate was at least 35 needed to bathe the bridge in light. My fears quickly waned as more and more folks showed up, by 4:00 we had critical mass – a rough count of 45 people.

Duck Brook Bridge is the largest bridge of the project to light paint. While on top of the bridge, I divided the group into 4 teams each armed with a walkie-talkie and a designated location. Brenda had the great idea of putting all the little kids in the far barrel – there was no ice and no way for the kids to fall off a cliff!  Each team assembled in their respective location and checked that they were out of view of the camera. The before shot.

Duck Brook Bridge Acadia National Park Pre Shot

There’s a lot of area to cover on this bridge, with a long expanse and three barrels. We have never shot three barrels before! After a few shots and lots of adjustments, the image was starting to take shape. There was one final adjustment, I asked Kevin and Amy if they could run across the bridge and light the far wall from the stairs above. They said, “No problem” and ran off in a dash. Here’s the final image.

Duck Brook Bridge Light Painting Acadia National Park

 

A huge heartfelt thanks to everyone who participated! We really needed all 50 light painters for this bridge. Even with that many people, we still had to shift folks around to cover the entire bridge. Brenda started baking Snicker-doodles cookies early that morning and everyone enjoyed them. Others brought holiday cookies and brownies to share even before the bridge shot.  Scarlett was trying to negotiate holding onto her cookie while having to perform the serious responsibility of picking the winning raffle ticket with Eric Taylor’s name. He won the Amphitheater Bridge print.

Duck Brook Bridge Light Painters Acadia National Park

Twenty new folks joined us for this bridge. Everyone had fun. Everyone was safe and there were no injuries. All in all a very successful bridge shot in every way possible, in spite of our wind blown rosy cheeks.

 

The Gear List

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Ever wondered what we actually bring to the bridge shoots?

Gear for Painting Bridges

Can you spot the items in the picture:

  • Camera with wide angle lens
  • Tripod and ball head
  • Laptop with tethering software
  • USB cable to tether camera to laptop
  • Remote shutter release cable
  • Laptop bag
  • Camelbak as camera bag
  • Eyeglasses
  • Headlamp (with red light option, for nighttime)
  • Pad of paper and pen for sign-in sheet / emails
  • Bag of raffle names (I see Mike and Dexter tickets)
  • Business cards for anyone who wants one
  • 4 – Walkie talkies for easier communication
  • A roll of gaffers tape
  • Flashlights:
    • HID Green Force dive light
    • 2 LED Halcyon scout dive lights
    • UK 1200 dive light
    • Nite Rider 10 watt bike helmet light
    • UK 4C LED dive light
    • UK pocket backup dive light
  • 2 bins filled with treats (currently, two cookies from the last shoot)
  • 10 Vivtar strobe flashes
  • Speedlight strobe flash
  • Spare AA batteries
  • Raffle print 12 x 18
  • 3 Glow sticks to help light the path
  • Coil of rope

Thinking back to a simpler time, the gear for our first shot at Bubble Pond Bridge:

  • Camera with wide angle lens
  • Tripod and ball head
  • Eyeglasses
  • Camelbak Backpack
  • Headlamp
  • One container of cookies
  • 3 Flashlights

Amphitheater Bridge Light Painting

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Holy Guacamole! Forty-two people took part in light painting the bridge – crushing the previous record! Thankfully they made the 1.8 mile hike; we needed all of them and their flashlights. We had 9 light painters positioned at the top of the bridge shining their lights through the ‘peep-holes’ and more folks under the big barrel, others lighting the face and some behind the bridge lighting the icy waterfalls.

Here’s the before shot.

Amphitheater Bridge Acadia National Park

Given all the light power, my first shot was incredible bright – brighter than ever before!  I had to change the settings on the camera (or that’s what I first thought) to adjust for all the additional lights (22 new people came out for the shoot). I tried all different settings: smaller apertures, down to the smallest, f/22 and shorter exposures, a quick 3 seconds.  The results were the same – the bridge always seemed blown out.

Amphitheater Bridge Acadia National Park

Tom, who was close by, overheard my concerns and came over to assess the situation. After showing him the images and explaining the camera adjustments, he said “What about ISO?”  Oh yeah, I had adjusted the ISO earlier in the evening, before the actual shoot. I looked directly on the camera, rather than the tethered laptop and sure enough, the “ISO-Auto” was set – ignoring my manual setting. Thanks Tom, issue solved. In hindsight I laugh at the thought that I kept asking Carol to turn down the brightness setting on her “Fenix Tactical” flashlight! Here’s the image, beautifully illuminated by many light painters:

Amphitheater Bridge Light Painting Acadia National Park

 

Click on the video below, taken by Jenn Booher, to see the light painting:

 

Did I mention, 42 folks involved, including 22 new folks.

Amphitheater Bridge Light Painting Acadia National Park

Brenda baked 7 dozen Triple Chocolate Cookies for the shoot.  Apparently, as the motto goes, “If you bake the cookies – they will come!” and they came. Sean brewed up a gallon of hot apple cider for all to enjoy. And speaking of Sean, he won the raffle of the Chasm Brook Bridge print – Chris pulled the winning raffle ticket.