Shruti Goradia's Posts
Painting with Light
RIT Big Shot aka Photo Geek gathering. Last Thursday a bunch of us from work along with our better halves and friends went over to Schoen Place dressed in black, armed with flash lights, strobes, cameras and other flash devices. (The entire crowd together resembled a cult gathering.) The purpose was to participate in the annual RIT Big Shot (http://www.rit.edu/~bigshot/) which is a project to Paint with Light.
Inspired by the Sylvania Big Shot, this annual event invites community members to use handheld electronic flash units and flash lights to illuminate buildings while a single camera takes a picture with a timed exposure. We could see that a lot of planning and thought had gone into the event. Groups of people were instructed to light different parts of the landscape at different times.
Looking across from where the camera was.
Lighting the trees
A majority of the people were on the opposite bank from the camera (see the group of people in the Big Shot). A few folks, on the same side of the bank as the camera went first lighting the boat, followed by people across the bank, lighting the buildings in the foreground and lastly the people in the back lighting the trees. (We lit the trees between the two towers and would like to believe they're the best lit trees!)
The results are spectacular as you can see from this year's Big Shot Picture:
You can view past pictures at:
http://www.rit.edu/~bigshot/all_photos_gallery/index.htm
You'll notice in the picture the variety of flash instruments our little group carried. From Joel's strobe lights , to Aaron's (Jenny's husband) ginormous flash light to my tiny little hand helds. And because we're border line geeks we experimented various ways use the flash units (aka have fun). I've never had so much fun, just standing around waving a flash light. I am so glad I work with such a fun bunch of people I call my friends. We regularly meet up outside of work too.
Lighting the group
Not so great attempts at lighting faces
Comments
Posted By: Duverins (6/5/2008)
Comment: Current and upcoming missions to Mars hope to find some sign of past or present life in martian soil.
Posted By: Vishal G. (5/16/2008)
Comment: hot damn. this was one of the coolest things I've done. initially, I was skeptical but the results are just outstanding. Also, I think half of the lighting effect was supplied by Aaron's humongous light saber!
Posted By: Laura Burroughs (5/15/2008)
Comment: Hi Shruti, If you look at all the Big Shots on the RIT site I've taken part in most of them as an RIT Student and then Alumni. I'm actually one of the baseball players in the Silver Stadium shot. I stood very still and had a little flash that I aimed at the person in front of me! I completely forgot about this event or I would have been there!!
Posted By: Shruti (5/13/2008)
Comment: Kendall, the Big Shot is an annual event coordinated by RIT and community involvement is highly encouraged. You should definitely join in next year. This was our first year. There were over 600 people there.
Posted By: Kendall (5/13/2008)
Comment: Shruti, thanks for the great blog entry. I would like to attend one of these Big Shot events. I have a variety of flashlights and cameras to bring. Maybe we could find something gynormous that would require a lot of light and make it a Kodak-wide event. It could earn us some good press and afford an opportunity for Kodakers from throughout the company to gather together. Not to infringe on your more intimate outings with your friends, it could just be a one time, or annual, event. Maybe we could light up Highland Park in its entirety, if there is a vantage point from which it could be captured. Or the entire south wedge, or Mount Hope Cemetary, or...
Posted By: Karl Heinz Kremer (5/13/2008)
Comment: You did a nice job on the trees, but in my opinion the best lit object in the picture is the tower on the right :) I have a few pictures of the event (and close-ups of the tower) up on my blog: http://khk.net/wordpress/2008/05/10/rits-big-shot-2008/ (I think I saw the big yellow flashlight at Starbucks before the event - I don't remember the guy, but I do remember that flashlight).