The Kiln at the End of the Universe

It's not quite the end of the Universe but it's certainly a long drive in to Derbyshire. The East Buxton Lime Kiln in the Peak District has been a favourite place for @fadetoblack and I for quite a number of years. I've lost count how many times I've been here and possibly how much money and effort I've spent to get here. It certainly has been worth it judging by the hundreds of images and good times we've had!

Located on what was once a major railway route through Derbyshire, East Buxton Lime Kiln sits alongside the old Midland Line and is now repurposed as a walking and cycle path known as the Monsal Trail.

From 1880 until 1944, the lime kilns produced over 50 tonnes of quicklime everyday. During the 1800s, the demand for quicklime increased for the growing steel and chemical industries as well as agriculture. To meet this demand, limestone quarries and kilns opened next to railways like this on the Midland Line now Monsal Trail. Trucks used to bring in coal to burn in the kilns and take the quicklime away.

What remains is an enormous structure of flying concrete buttresses with a cave entrance leading to the kiln furnaces.

The main reasons for this kiln being the lightpainting location of choice is that it's dark inside and roughly equidistant between myself and @fadetoblack, my lightpainting buddy extraordinairre! Other reasons would be it's fairly close to a car park with a flat walk of only 500 metres and the kiln itself is sheltered from the weather, great on a rainy night. (That's not to say the kiln doesn't flood; it does; big style!)

I also have to say that the kiln has very much been a breeding ground for new ideas for both Tim and I over the years. We haven't always come back with "keepers" but it still amazes me how many images we've squeezed out of one location.

So this is a post with some of my favourite images shot inside the Lime Kiln on many great memorable nights:

The Kiln at the End of the Universe

This is a two part shot using an iPad as a light source and a fisheye lens to exaggerate the sense of scale in the kiln. It's not a very big space to work in but just about big enough for a pair of ne'er do well lightpainters like us. This is one of the first times I used an iPad for a lightpainting image and is shot in one photographic exposure.

If Carlsberg did lightpainting....

I keep coming across images in my back catalogue photos which I think, "this has to be one of my best ever!" This was certainly a memorable night and I remember almost skipping back to the car with excitement after nailing this one!

This is another two part image, shot in one exposure where I rotated two lightblades on a flash stand and then refocussed on @fadetoblack using alternate colour gels over a rear mounted flashlight.

The Outside

For context, this is the outside of the kiln:

And at the end of an evening's lightpainting, I stayed behind for an hour and captured a series of 30 second exposures to create this star trail. Conveniently, the kiln lines up quite nicely with Polaris!

Hanging around....

We'd seen a shot by a lightpainting legend, LED Eddie and he was the inspiration for this image. I remember that this didn't quite work out as planned but I liked it nonetheless. Another image all in one exposure where the camera is rotated 180 degrees during the exposure. A real headturner!

Take your brain to another dimension, play close attention....

I like the idea of using camera rotation during an exposure to make the viewer turn their head or change reality. This is a three way rotation with the camera angled at 120 degree increments. As you might guess, I'm a big fan of MC Escher, a graphic artist who liked to confuse the heck out of his consumers.

Just hangin'

I took a non lightpainting mate out to the kiln to demonstrate the art of lightpainting. I didn't know it before I arrived but the kiln was flooded with about 8 inches of water. My mate Suz didn't hesitate to get her feet wet and jumped right on in. Another camera rotation image with a simple 180 degree flip.

Models and Smoke

We managed to persuade an unsuspecting victim aka model to join us for an evening's lightpainting. Here the model posed in front of a flashgun fitted with a home made gadget I called the "quadrablaster" Basically a cross piece of wood fitted over the flashgun splitting the light in to four quadrants. Each quadrant had a LEE colour gel. Note to self, dig out the quadrablaster!

A Model and Lightpainting with Three Left Feet

This was another two part image shot in one exposure. First I spun a half orb and then the model moved in to position in the dark and I fired a flashgun to light her up.

These half orbs are damned difficult to get right. The trick is to spin a light on a cord over the same spot on the floor and rotate yourself through 360 degrees to create a full circle or orb. This is made even more complicated by the fact I have to push a momentary switch on the orb tool to make the light appear only on the bottom half of the circle! Like I say, damned difficult!

Lightpainting with a Master Lightpainter

@fadetoblack and I have collaborated together on many occassions with other lightpainters. This time was the turn of Darren Hopkins (not on Hive but ought to be). His party trick or speciality is to create complex orbs of light with all sorts of things thrown in it.

Notice the convenient puddle in the frame reflectiing parts of the orb.

Integrated Lightpainter

I've been obsessed for quite a while with using circuit boards in lightpaintings. This is another two part shot where I managed to shrink @fadetoblack down to the right size to fit inside this circuit board. Shot in one photographic exposure with mid exposure lens and tripod swaps. Red colour courtesy of Morrisons Supermarket budget fabric conditioner bottle...

At the end of the evening we managed to unshrink @fadetoblack and return him home to his wife back to full size!

About me:
I usually specialise in shooting lightpainting images but occasionally dabble in urbex and artistic model photography. I'm always on the lookout for someone to collaborate with; please don't hesitate to get in touch if you'd like to create art.

Social Media
https://www.facebook.com/fastchrisuk
https://www.flickr.com/photos/fastchris/

WHAT IS LIGHTPAINTING?
Lightpainting is a photographic technique in which exposures are made by moving a hand-held light source while taking a long exposure photograph, either to illuminate a subject or to shine a point of light directly at the camera, or by moving the camera itself during exposure. Nothing is added or removed in post processing.

Single exposure Light Art Photography - no layers - no tricks - no photoshop

If you would like to see more lightpainting please give the Lightpainters United Community a follow and you will be introduced into the illuminating world of light painting!

If you want to see more examples of lightpainting, feel free to check out these guys:

Mafu Fuma | Oddballgraphics | FadetoBlack | DAWN | Mart Barras | Stefan Stepke | Nikolay Trebukhin | Lee Todd | Stabeu Light | Maxime Pateau | Stephen Sampson | lightandlense | Neil Rushby | L.A.C.E.

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