Well it's September and summer is nearly over. I'm looking forward to dark nights earlier in the day where I can get out in to the night and practice my dark art of lightpainting.
During the summer months, it's really difficult to get out at night because here in the UK it gets dark so late in the evening. At my age, staying up till 3am has become increasingly difficult because of the ensuing hangover the following day. And I haven't drunk a drop!
So this is a post of edited shots taken since May this year where I've searched high and low for places to shoot. In compiling these images, I thought I might struggle to get enough images together and that this summer had been pretty terrible for photography. But no, it's been quite productive!
Spinkhill Days
Not far from where I live is this abandoned railway tunnel. I still can't believe I didn't know about this place being only 10 miles away! I placed an ungelled flashgun behind the model and lit up a couple of smoke pellets and wafted them around for added atmosphere. And using a 12mm fisheye lens really helps the sense of scale.
Reservoir Togs
I was tipped off about this abandoned water works about 40 miles from home. At first I didn't think it was worth the effort to go visit but once inside I threw a smoke pellet and bagged a silhouette shot. It's not often I can get a long exposure image in daylight.
This is 
Inside George Barnsley's
Unfortunately this place is now closed off and boarded up but this summer I've been in to George Barnsley's about half a dozen times. I take the view that I might only get once chance to shoot a location so I try to shoot it to death as much as possible. But this summer, it was free reign for ages. Until someone set the adjacent building on fire and now this place is shut tight!
Graff
We went for a drive to Digbeth in Birmingham, an area known for some good quality graffiti artwork. Unfortunately, Digbeth now has bad memories for me since I got a Congestion Charge Ticket for £60 because rather stupidly I was driving a gas guzzling, lung polluting pick up truck at the time!
The Lord Line Building, Hull
I realised this summer I might have an addiction to stairs. Looking back through the images I shot this summer, I wierdly have an awful lot of stairs!!
Hopefully I'll be back to shoot this place in the dark later in the year!
George Barnsley's shelving
I couldn't get enough of this place during the summer!
West Burton and the Windmill
Driving to shoot North Leverton Windmill one evening, we noticed that the miller had lit up the windmill in the dark. You could see it from miles around. Great marketing for the windmill I thought.
It's also a Eureka! moment when you realise you can compress perspective with a longer focal length and make the power station behind seem much closer even though it was at least a mile away from the mill!
Sweating Buckets in a WW2 Air Raid Shelter
We managed to find this long air raid shelter in Derbyshire and even though it was extremely bright weather outside, I managed to bag a photo in complete darkness. This was memorable because whilst shooting this, I was literally sweating buckets in 39 degree heat!
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/
