Mammoth Light Painting

In October during the 8th Annual Bluff Arts Festival,  sculptor Joe Pachak along with artist JR Lancaster, Raini Pachak and a host of friends and helpers constructed a life-size mammoth in the center of town to celebrate the mammoth petroglyphs along the San Juan River.  The ancient rock art is believed by some archaeologists to be between 13,000 and 11,000 years old, making it the oldest in North America.  The creators of the sculpture are planning to set the mammoth on fire using flaming atlatl darts on the Solstice.  However, there is a controversy brewing about the destruction of such an amazing piece of art.  Perhaps a Save the Mammoth movement will materialize.

Regarding the photos, they are experiments in light painting.  This is done at night with the camera on a tripod and during a long exposure using a flashlight to "paint" the subject.  Exposures are always a guess; but luckily, you can look at the LCD screen and try again and again.

The top photo was taken under a beautiful Milky Way sky at an ISO of 1600, f2.8 for 25 seconds.  Light from a D-cell type Maglite flashlight was "brushed" over the mammoth for maybe 5 seconds.

The second image was shot under a partial moon at ISO 800, f2.8 for 30 seconds.  That bright spot in the upper right corner is the moon.  No flashlight was used only moonlight.

The third shot was under an almost full moon again at ISO 800, f2.8 for 30 seconds, and a very short blast of flashlight on the mammoth.  Unfortunately, the result looks like a daylight picture.  Yes, that is the moon not the sun in the image.  The long exposure caught a little moon motion and, of course, Simone the dog couldn't hold still for 30 seconds.

The final image was taken at 4:00 am after the moon set.  The camera settings are again ISO 800, f2.8 for 30 seconds.  The flashlight was used for about 5 seconds.  In Lightroom, I changed the white balance a little to remove the overly warm light of the flashlight.  Compare the color to the top image, which was not color corrected.  I also used the in-camera noise reduction setting, which as its name suggests, reduces digital noise...always an issue in long time exposures.  I increased the overall contrast a tad and added a little vibrance, one of my favorite Lightroom tools.

So there you have it.  Go out at night armed with your camera, tripod and flashlight and capture a mammoth.