Light graffiti, a process where light is "drawn" over a time lapse photograph with devices like LEDs and glowsticks, has always interested me. Through exploring the idea further, I decided to apply light graffiti to skateboarding as a way to visualize movement and skate surfaces. By attaching lights to the helmet or board and shooting a time lapse photograph, the skater's movements and ramps can be visualized in an artistic way.

note: this project is currently in-progress and I'm updating it as I produce more material

latest [12-27-08] Dan and I worked on more experiements with exposure, shorter runs, helmet lights, and holding a flashlight while skating.

[12-26-08]

These shots are the beginning of a synthesis between the ideas of mapping skate surfaces and visualizing skateboarder's movements. For this session, I lit the only the board but in future shoots I plan to light the skater AND the board. The shots will also be shorter to make more concise presentations.

The 1st halfpipe picture shows only red light because I hadn't decided to use light on both sides, which ended up making a more interesting picture because you can see when the board is turned around.





[12-19-08]

My first tests with the new shirt and light layout were quite successful, though they weren't skateboarding photos but rather me running around my living room.

[12-18-08]
The solution was to attach more lights in more places using a blacklongsleeve shirt with 3 superbright blue LEDs attached to the 3 main joints [wrist, elbow, shoulder] of one arm, and a string of red LEDs that lay out in a similar configuration [hip, knee, ankle]. At first, it seemed innacurate to use only one arm/leg at a time, but the photos with both arms/legs lit turned out messy and indecipherable.

[11-15-08]

The first shots I did were quite ambiguous because there were only lights attached to the helmet, while most of the interesting movement was in the arms and legs.