I consider myself lucky enough to live on the edge of Sherwood Forest in Nottinghamshire. It still has miles and miles of woods which also makes a great location to shoot in the dark. It can be a little spooky on your own with all sorts of painful sounding noises in the middle of the night, a place not for the faint-hearted!
Stranger Things
After I shot this, someone told me this reminded them of a TV series, Stranger Things. I had no idea... Quick and simple to do, big flashgun at the rear of frame with a willing volunteer aka victim to stand and hold a big flashlight aloft. It helps if there is a bit of moisture in the air to carry the beam.
Turning the forest on it's head
For a few years, I've been a big fan of camera rotation photography where the camera is rotated on it's lens axis during a continuous single exposure.
Just a simple dead or nearly dead tree without much foliage makes a good subject for rotation. For these shots, I turn the camera to a 45 degree angle and expose for the first of four rotations. In between each rotation I replace the lens cap with the camera still running and turn 90 degrees and repeat for the full circle:
A windy night in Sherwood
An aimless wander in to a part of Sherwood Forest I've never been in and stumble upon this gem of a location. The trees would usually be sharper but they've ended up light painting themselves in the wind....
Tree of OCD
Shot in Budby Forest, Nottinghamshire, this is quite possibly the longest star trail I've ever done at just under 2 hours long. Thanks to Rob Bates for helping prevent me getting bored waiting that long for the sequence to finish! This is approx 240 x 30 second exposures stacked in Photoshop with one of the frames showing the tree backlit. The curved distortion is created by tilting a fisheye lens backwards towards Polaris (aka North Star).
Little John?
Another example of the extreme distortion created by tilting a fisheye lens way back; it creates a pleasing sense of scale in the forest. Another simple shot to make; a big flashgun at the rear of frame with a quick swipe from an LED panel across to light up the foreground.
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.
Social Media
https://www.facebook.com/fastchrisuk
https://www.flickr.com/photos/fastchris/
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