Citizens of the city

Today's blog posts will be about fantastic Eric Pare photographer who is capturing movements in his pictures. Eric Paré, a visual artist, has created a lifestyle that combines his passions for photography, travel, and light painting. He travels the world with his light-painting tubes, combining light-painting and landscape photography in breathtaking locales while giving every technique tip along the way. He is living in Montréal, where he uses 176 dslr cameras on a full 360-degree camera array to perform light-painting.

By combining studio and outdoor photography, he can continue to push his boundaries while maintaining a balance between the two complementing sides of his craft. He and his creative collaborator Kim Henry have polished the tube light-painting technique in recent years, making it generally accessible to beginners while constantly adding new tactics to generate a variety of pictures.

He demonstrates that simplicity is often the key by employing a single tube, a lantern, and a feather, and he continues to bring people together as part of the tube tribe. Eric Paré has managed to develop a twenty thousand member learning community all related to his light-painting technique while growing his 360-degree bullet-time photography enterprise while living the dream life by travelling by tube. His work has appeared on CNN, MTV, BBC, Vice, and TEDx, and he has recently completed large-scale campaigns for Audi, Twitter, Adobe, HP, Intel, Facebook, and Canon.

As he describes himself:" I play with light, space and time through light-painting, bullet-time and stop-motion techniques to create a unique animated photography signature. Everything I do is lit by hand, one frame at a time". (Eric Pare, 2022)

Following the My Modern Met - a website which promotes creativity and culture: “Visual artist Eric Paré toys with the concepts of time, light, and space with his signature light photography. Each enchanting image is expertly brought to life through long exposure. Paré’s portfolio showcases a bewitching collection of images that explore the delicate beauty of the human body hypnotically paired with light and movement”. 

I am really impressed and inspired by those pictures. I like the fact that Eric Pere mostly capture the women and they play vast role on those images. Women playing with light - for me this is a metaphor of feminity. However, women are captured outside in nature. That creates an impression of something pure and in other hand wild. In his pictures women are represented as powerful characters even if they are slim or 'tiny'. 

In today's class we discussed panning technique. Panning in still photography refers to the technique of opening the camera shutter and then horizontally moving the camera before the shutter closes. Panning is used also in time-lapse photography.

In reference to my research I went outside the campus and shoot my own images. Here I add my contact sheets with shots using panning technique, I add EXIF details and make reflection. 

Now is to choose the best pictures and add EXIF details:

Canon EOS700D f/8 Exposure time 2sec ISO 100 focal length 26mm

I set up 2 sec exposure in shutter speed setting of my camera. I can see good composition of this image. I can see the 'rule of thirds' in it.  I like the contrast between white light and dark surrounding. I think this photo well gives back idea of 'painting with light'. I consider this image as the best one in terms of panning. I like the foggy and mysterious climate of it. Also in my opinion that light add energy to the picture. I love it.

Canon EOS 700D f/7.1 exposure time 2sec ISO100 focal length 26mm

Again quite happy of the outcome of this image. Dark, mysterious and interesting. We can see citizens of the city in it. I like how the light comes out of the cars upwards and also they are similar to the flashes of storm. And also we have leading line on the right side of the picture. 

 

                   Canon EOS 700D f/5.6 exposure 2sec ISO 100 focal length 55mm

                              Canon EOS 700D f/5.6 exposure 2sec focal length 55mm

                                   Canon EOS 700D f/5.6 exposure 2sec focal length 55mm

Here I have three pictures of well known building on the DMU Campus. At a first sight normal university building but now looks outstanding with lights. In the second picture I can imagine shapes of horse riders. Also I like foggy and enigmatic climate of it. Shapes of the light are kind of Chinese alphabet to me. I'm happy with the outcome. However, all of three pictures were taken with the same camera settings but the outcome looks different. 

 

Canon EOS700D f/5.6 exposure time 2sec ISO250 focal length 45mm

Here I wanted to capture something colorful. I found graffiti in surrounding of campus. In my opinion the fairy-tale character looks scary now. I considered the rule of third in this picture. 

Canon EOS700D f/4 exposure time 2sec ISO100 26mm

Here I almost see a painting such as impressionist painter Claude Monet was doing - a brush strokes. Wonderful play of light and mixed colors in it. 'Rule of thirds' as well. Then my imagination also gives me an idea of 'third dimension'.

                                                  Claude Monet - Halcyon Gallery

Canon EOS 700D f/6.3 exposure time 2sec ISO100 focal length 26mm

Here in the background we can see foggy buildings and then in foreground cars moving and sort of dynamism and energy is created by the light and colors. Good contrast between something calm and vigorous. Very energetic center of the city.

Canon EOS 700D f/6.3 exposure time 2sec ISO100 focal length 26mm

Here is my favorite image because I can see shapes of cats in it. I was surprised by the outcome and it makes me smile and happy. 

                              Canon EOS700D f/36 exposure 2sec ISO400 focal length 48mm

Swans and Soar river became now a vital part of my life as a student at the DMU University. Every day I'm crossing the river to get to the campus. Day by day I can observe wild life and it makes me to feel as I am a part of the nature and I love it.  Here I captured a swan. It looks like a swan with the ghost of it. In my opinion quite interesting outcome of wonders of nature. 

Canon EOS700D f/36 exposure 2sec ISO400 focal length 48mm

Here I captured three swans on the Soar River. The outcome reminds me about Duane Michals photography and his image 'The Spirit leaves the body'(1968). 

                                   Duane Michals - 'The Spirit leaves the body' (1968)

 

Canon EOS700D f/5.6 exposure 1/20sec ISO 6400 focal length 55m

Here we can see lights reflecting on the site from the traffic. Quite interesting and colorful outcome. What I would to differently is to make this image more sharp and clear with changing setting of a shutter speed for 1/60sec, 1/125 sec or higher.  

    

Canon EOS700D f/4 exposure 0.6 sec ISO 100 focal length 24mm

Here I captured citizens of the city - DMU graduates at them graduate day in the heart of Leicester city. I can see a metaphor that they are coming from and are connected with the city. I like the fact people are in the center of my image. 

                                 Canon EOS700D f/10 exposure 2sec ISO100 21mm

Here I took my first photo with focusing on exposure. I was surprised what DSLR camera can do. I moved my hand to the right and with set up of exposure for 2 sec I captured the image. 

Also I share with you two photos from studio exercise 'painting with light' using Nikon camera. 

                                          Nikon D3100 f/ 5.6, 2''1/2 sec 29mm ISO400

                                  Nikon D3100 f/5.6 2''1/2 sec 29mm ISO400

My reflection start with thoughts that I am surprised what interesting photos I can do using DSLR camera. With this technique and those images I can see the world around me from a different perspective. Photographing 'citizens of the city' and 'painting with light' was an interesting and joyful part of my photography course. I can't wait to see another photography techniques which may surprise me as well. What I could do differently for the next time is to practice more and more with shutter speed camera setting to achieve much better results and do much more images. Overall I'm happy with the outcome. 

Sources:    

https://ericpare.com/about

https://www.adobe.com/uk/creativecloud/photography/discover/light-painting-photography.html

https://digital-photography-school.com/6-tips-master-panning-photography/

https://www.halcyongallery.com/claude-monet/biography/

http://www.artnet.com/artists/duane-michals/