GOLD COAST PHOTOGRAPHER PAINTING THE NIGHT SKY
WHILE most photographers are busy capturing the sunrise, this Gold Coast photographer is more interested in what happens after dark.
Marcio Martins has been exploring the city at night for the past three years, searching for the best places to do some ‘light painting’.
“It’s like painting with photography,” he said.
“The lights you see there, I have different tools like flashlights and pipes for creating special effects.
“It’s not photoshopped … it’s a long exposure, two or three seconds to even a minute, depending on what you’re trying to achieve.”
Mr Martins also uses Christmas lights, orbs, LEDs, pixelsticks, pixelwhips, sparklers, fire twirlers, chains with steel wool attached to the ends of them, and even a makeshift light sabre bought off the internet to create the special effects.
While ‘light painting’ has been around for about a decade, Mr Martins said the past year or two had seen a surge in photographers practising the art.
Once a month, the Palm Beach resident also teams up with more photographers to scout new locations across the city and experiment with tools and techniques.
He said they loved to find places with reflections, such as water, that the light could reflect off, or even use tunnels and other abandoned areas.
“It’s all about the movement, what we do with the light,” he said.
“My creativity is the limit.”