Saturday Photography Challenge: Create Your Own Challenge

Digital Photography School’s challenge this weekend is to create your own challenge. Pick something that you have been wanting to try and go for it.

I have been wanting to try the light drawing night photography technique they featured in an article this week. My husband and I set up the camera in the backyard after the kids went to bed (hence the reason for the garden hose) and made a “date” night out of it.

It was a blast! Here are some of my favorites. The first two I submitted to DPS for the challenge – the hose one is straight out of camera and the second one of us kissing is edited. {We look way blurry because the shutter speed was so long…in case you were curious. : )}

If you would like to try this on your own here is what you do:

If you have a DSLR set up your camera on a tripod or flat reliable surface {you most likely want it high up too}.

Set your ISO at 400 and dial your shutter speed down to 15-20 seconds.

Turn off your auto focus if it is on.

I don’t have a remote shutter release so we used our timer and it worked just fine. So set up the timer.  
{In case you were wondering: If you try to take the picture by pressing the button with your finger you will get camera shake since the shutter speed is so slow. That is also why you are using a tripod…to eliminate any shaking. So use I highly suggest using the timer or a remote if you have one.}

Take a flash light or other light and draw pictures in front of the camera once the shutter is released.

*If you don’t have a DSLR I bet you could still do this with your point and shoot camera if it has a timer and you can slow the shutter down enough.

I think this would be so fun with kids, especially older ones {mine just go to bed at 7:30 and are on the young side}. You can stay in the picture or hop out before the camera sees you. Possibilities are endless! We stayed outside for 2 hours just messing around with different ideas.

For most of these I didn’t even edit them because they didn’t need it. I only edited to bring out the blurry images of us more or to just play around with it. So this is a really cool beginner project that doesn’t require much by the way of equipment (if you can find a flat surface to use instead of a tripod).

Have fun!