slag rayne on the silos
This is a composite photo of 3 separate images merged into a single exposure. What I did was first light-paint the silos with a powerful light source for the first photo. For the second two, I actually had to climb up the rickety, rusting structure which had some missing stairs and was generally quite sketchy and a rush to climb up there. Not just because the structure was so dilapidated, but because what I was doing... I almost knew I was going to have to deal with some sort of encounter with the law to pull this one off. It ended up manifesting that way as well. This was a highly visible location in a small-ish town in Poland.
I had spent about an hour on the location, which was across from some abandoned rail road tracks. It was about 11pm at night and across the tracks there was a large facility adjacent to this one that was also patrolled by security. As I was setting up my tripod for the shots, a security guard shone his flashlight at me for several minutes. At the time, I got sort of annoyed, like "you really think I'm up to no good huh?" while I was there with clearly a tripod and camera. In retrospect, he had reasons for being suspect. I just stood there and watched him shine his light at me and eventually he left. Alas, the real encounter with the law wouldn't happen until I had actually packed all my gear away after finishing the shots.
As I had put the last of my things away, I saw approaching headlights coming in and laughed to myself. I remember I was casually taking a farwell-location piss at the time. The thought of making a dash biking away briefly passed through my mind but I felt calm and I wasn't about to start trying to run from the cops with like a camera bag and a tripod bag to boot. Would have just made myself seem like I was doing something 'wrong' when in my mind, I wasn't doing any harm. Had it been really, really dry and a risk of fire I of course don't spin steel wool but everything was covered in a thick layer of dew. I wasn't really vandalizing anything either, and the only person I was risking was myself.
I spoke to the cops and it's amazing what you can get when you speak to people - anyone for that matter and speak 'person to person' with compassion/understanding the results can be astounding. I simply showed them the pics I had been taking on my SLR and told them what I was up to. They thought I was crazy and did seem concerned for my safety however I assured them I realized what the heck I was doing, was sober, had a phone in case of emergency, etc. They of course looked up my information and it was a small town so it wasn't hard for me to corroborate things as well. So they just told me to go on home which I gladly did.
It was funny though because at one point they asked if maybe I was a terrorist but I got the vibe they were sort of taking the piss at that point we all had a good laugh in the end. Including the security guard whom they had brought along with them - I questioned the guard weather it was him earlier with the light earlier and he seemed confused... I was sure it was the same security guard from before who called me in but they denied it and made a motion in the opposite direction, towards which there was a street. I said aha... Said goodbye and headed out. So happy to have pulled off something which I had thought about earlier and it's amazing when you actually show up and put your ideas into motion!
One of the original exposures during which the steel wool had launched itself out of it's cradle leading to this 'spiral' effect
Thanks for stopping by! Live your dreams! 😄 💓
Check out some of my random photography posts:
- for, we have arrived [ABANDONMENT ISSUES PHOTOGRAPHY pt. 2]
- City Tour [Street Photography | Kraków, Poland]
- on his way to work, he was [Golden Hour Photography]
- They see me rollin'... [vehicular photography] They Hatin'! With bonus video!
- HOTEL FORUM [architechtural photography] Communist Relics
- Returning Home with the Goods [Streetphotography]
- Riding a bike out in the middle of nowhere!
- Looking towards Anacortes
- The Switchyard
I like your way of seeing things, what imagination!!!
Thank you very much, thanks for stopping by and glad you liked it :)
Wow...what a nice experience accompanied with this masterpiece
Thumbs up
Thank you very much kind sir! 😌
That’s a really cool shot. I’ve always wanted to do one of those. Are you able to give me the instructions on how you pulled it off?
I’ve tried using sparkles but failed LOL
Yes, I've been thinking of doing a tutorial, but to sum it up... get some steel wool that is of a fine grade 0000 superfine or at least fine grade - if it's too coarse it will not burn. Make sure it's steel wool as well and not one of those 'kitchen scrubbbies' if you know what I'm talking about. Then you will need a whisk, like for making batter and whatnot. You put your whisk on a string so you can swing it around and the steel wool goes in the whisk. You can use a regular lighter to iginite the steel wool, or what's cool is using a 9v battery. You can light the steel wool using the battery, just be sure to keep the wool and the batteries separate i.e. not in the same pocket/bag. Yowza! 🎇
Another thing is that when you are swinging the steel wool, be careful when going over your head. My friend was doing this after a few drinks and he had a piece of burning metal land on his scalp and it left a bald spot! Maybe wear a hat/hood or at the very least, limit your alcohol intake beforehand if you are planning to have some drinks! 🤪
Dude that is amazing! Thank you :D
I'm going to have to give it a shot soon. Will definitely have to limit alcohol intake hahaha.
Can you also let me know what program you use for editing?
Hey, Pardon the late reply. I generally use Photoshop Lightoom 5 to organize and do simple edits and anything beyond what is capable of I'll use Photoshop CS6.
All good! Don’t sweat it :). Thank you for the response though.
Looking forward to your future posts.
I always liked these kind of photos, and the story behind is amazing, the way as you talk with the law, it's just amanzing, keep like that, and congrats :D
Thanks for checking out the pic and story! And I don't always have such luck with the law ;) But different approaches can yield different results right?! :)
Congratulations! This post has been upvoted from the communal account, @minnowsupport, by SyNRG from the Minnow Support Project. It's a witness project run by aggroed, ausbitbank, teamsteem, theprophet0, someguy123, neoxian, followbtcnews, and netuoso. The goal is to help Steemit grow by supporting Minnows. Please find us at the Peace, Abundance, and Liberty Network (PALnet) Discord Channel. It's a completely public and open space to all members of the Steemit community who voluntarily choose to be there.
If you would like to delegate to the Minnow Support Project you can do so by clicking on the following links: 50SP, 100SP, 250SP, 500SP, 1000SP, 5000SP.
Be sure to leave at least 50SP undelegated on your account.
Very nice work.