Lights, Camera, Action…

What do you do when you are a photographer, your husband is an electrician and you really like to travel? You play with Light Painting, you get really good and really creative and then you start teaching others. Well that’s what Deanne and Bill Holmer did. Melbourne Light Painting was started after years of experience in honing their craft. They run Light Painting workshops in Melbourne and Surrounding areas.

We first met this dynamic duo over 12 months ago and have attended many workshops with them, fun and laughter is guaranteed with these two and to have the privilege of spending a weekend in their company a real treat. This was more of a jam session than a workshop and we got to experiment with new toys and new collaborative ideas.

The first night was spent in the Californian Redwood Forest in Warburton, the usual LED light orbs and Vortex shots, then the play really began, lighting up the forest, creating aliens, and doing weird and wonderful stuff with horse and rabbit heads ~ I just happened to bring with me :-), led lights and redwood nests. The highlight of course is always the flaming steel wool…I guess it is known as their signature piece, unfortunately for safety reasons it can not always be done……..it is very dangerous and may things have to be taken into consideration, the environment, how much room is available, weather conditions and the like; we were lucky, the area had a huge soaking the day before and on the morning we arrived, as well as a small amount of snow…….NOTHING was going to catch alight this weekend.

We also played with torches, Arduino controlled digital light wand, very cool. The culmination of the weekend was awe inspiring by design, possibly never to be repeated mammoth effort of lighting up the entire tower at the Mount Donna Buang summit with LED orbs, and flaming steel wool off the top, with a backdrop of the milky way, snow and alpine trees. Breathtaking and exhilarating and a rare treat to be a part of something like this…………this is not something they can or could possibly hope to do in a workshop environment, so we were thrilled to be a part of it.

As we stood there literally freezing (1c) we looked at the images in our cameras whooping with delight at what we had captured.

I would just like to Thank Bill and Dee Holmer for allowing us to share this experience with them, a true privilege and loads of fun and laughs, and also our other travelling companions for the weekend Bevlea and her Husband David, I hope the fun & the friendship will continue for many more trips in the future. If I had never started my blog, picked up a camera, took a few chances and joined a few Facebook groups, we would never have met these people and enjoyed such an awesome weekend……..isn’t life funny?

If you are in Melbourne (Australia) and are interested in attending a Light Painting workshop, look them up…….you WILL NOT be disappointed.

Til next time, safe travels and happy snapping…

~ Julz