Micro-assignment 6

My action word is swirl.

intransitive verb
1. a : to move with an eddying or whirling motion ; b : to pass in whirling confusion
2. : to have a twist or convolution

The word swirl causes me to think of spinning things, like spinning pencils and Ferris wheel, as well as the spinning motion. My first thought was that I could stick some glow in the dark material to my pencil and spin it. But I didn't have any of the stuff, so that idea quickly went out the window. Then I remember something that I used to do when I was younger. Back then, my family went visit our relatives every year in a very rural area. At night, it was complete darkness, compared to the light polluted city where I lived. We would burn incense so that the tip glows orange, and then went out into the dark and swirl them around to see the streaks of light for a split second. It was fun at first, but all we got was very short light streaks that gets boring quickly.

So now I had a new idea. I would tie a piece of paper to the tips of a pencil, burn it, and take long exposure shots of me swirling it around. But then, my mom didn't want me to burn things inside the house, and I didn't think that the paper would burn long enough for me to take pictures of it, especiall when it is outdoor. However, after some research on light painting, I found out a better idea: use a flash light. It wouldn't be as exciting as fire, but it is a lot safer and easier to work with. Finally, the idea evolved from just simple swirls to swirly letters, to my name in swirly letters, to the word swirl in swirly letter.

An unlikely brush

The problem was that I had no clue how to do long exposure/light painting. Fortunately, I found the "advanced manual" for the camera, which shows that, apparently, my camera can do quite a bunch of stuff.

I also had to research light painting. The process was actually quite simple. Someone have hold down the shutter button while I draw in front of the camera, making sure that the flashlight is pointed toward, but not directly at the camera

Freddiew!

I didn't have a tripod, so I had to ask my sister to take the pictures for me. She was reluctant at first, but then she loved it when she see the pictures. Even my mom got involved. She did a whole bunch of L's, though none of them actually made it to the final composition. This really was the most fun project I did this quarter.

Here's my sister trying out the "magic."

After 77 shots and compositing in Photoshop, here's the final result: