Sunday 29 September 2013

Bathed In Light (All In Camera Lightpainting), Ukanc

Via Flickr:
This is the view of the Savica river, shot from a bridge three hundred yards or so from where it feeds into Bohinj Lake. It's outrageously, muscle-throbbingly cold even in the middle of summer. Whilst shooting these, I ended up in conversation - for a couple of hours - with an interesting local chap, who briefed me on the state of the economy, politics, environment, etc. in the former Yugoslavia. It was a hugely engaging discussion, but meant I shot fewer runs of this than I meant.

Still, he said the water is so cold as it flows from an underground cave system. Six degrees centigrade was the temperature he believed it to be. Not having a thermometer with me, I can't corroborate the exact number. All I can offer is the fact that wading in it felt like you were being burnt alive - the line blurring between hot and cold, until the nerves registered only "unacceptably extreme".

The light painting is done with a high power LED, with a white baby sock as diffuser, in a zip lock plastic bag. The diffuser was removed to get the starbursts. The trees on the right were lit with a Canon 600 EX-RT flash; 6 full power blasts from just off axis.

We've just booked for another week in Slovenia next April, and Bohinj will definitely be on the agenda again. This stream will obviously be horrifyingly cold. I'm just hoping the evening will be warm enough that I can cope with the standing around between shots.