Painting with light

A couple of months ago I did a photo challenge and on day 16 the theme was 'long exposure'. I didn't really know what a long exposure picture was and read up a little on the internet but I struggled to capture anything worthwhile. I had wanted to use the photo challenge to explore and use my camera in new ways and I felt as though the long exposure day was an opportunity missed. The day passed and it niggled at me.

Then, last night our children were in the bath playing with some brightly coloured neon light sticks in the dark and apart from the fun and the giggles, I wondered what would happen if I tried to take long exposure pictures...

And it worked!! My little artists waved their light sticks around whilst I snapped away - experimenting with the shutter speed settings on my camera. I'm thrilled with the pictures and glad to have discovered a new photography technique.

I can't take any credit for the colours or the composition of these pictures; though they may look abstract to an outsider observer in them I see playtime and the interaction between my children at one of their favourite times of the day. I can see my baby girl bending a blue neon light stick around her wrist to make a bracelet, a light hearted squabble over the pink and yellow sticks and my son conducting an imaginary orchestra with a bright neon yellow baton. Bathtime memories painted in light.