Spinnin' Wool in the Desert

While in Vegas, I met up with a local pro, GW who runs The Las Vegas Photographic Society Meetup.  He was very curious about light painting and wool spins and wanted to learn more. He agreed to take me out of town for some LP fun.

We drove about 20 min from the Las Vegas strip to the edge of town.  For those of you who have never been to Vegas, there is truly a line where the buildings and roads end and the desert starts.  We did a little off-roading in my rental car to a spot above the city with the skyline in the background. 

We parked our cars and when I got out I was surprised how light it actually was.  I really didn't even need a flashlight.  It was cloudy and the city lights were lighting up the clouds and then bouncing off the sand.  Sand is a lot more reflective that I would have thought.  I had heard that in order to escape the light pollution of the city you have to drive about 150 miles out of town to be able to see the stars.

Anyway, GW brought his 13 year old son Justin with him.  Justin was very excited to try a wool spin.  He is into anything with flames or sparks.  We had a great time.  The light painting was challenging due to the excessive ambient light, but the wool spins came out great.  

In the desert, there aren't many landmarks that you can include in your image to really give a sense of shooting there.  At this location there was a lone Joshua tree and a pyramid hill in the background that added an interesting fore and background.  Otherwise, there is just a lot of sand.  By the way that "hill" in the background is probably about a mile away and is several hundred feet high.

Later that week, GW invited me to do a brief Light Painting presentation for his meetup group.  I am now a member of the Las Vegas Photographic Society.  I got to meet some great folks and now have some new friends to shoot  with when I am in town next year.