Light Painter Introduction - Rod Evans - Interview Series #03

The lightpainting community is small and spread all over the world. A close association, which is perceived far too little in the world of photography. We want to change this. In order to bring you some artists closer, we asked some active artists to introduce themselves and to answer a few questions about light painting and their relation to it. Today we would like to introduce you to a very talented artist from Australia.

- Rod Evans -

01. Please introduce yourself shortly. Name, Age and where you from etc.

My name is Rod Evans. I’m 43 years old. I am Living in the hills near Byron Bay, NSW, Australia

02. How and why did you start Light Painting?

The first time I tried light painting was with my friend Caroline Fisher who herself had recently discovered it and was experimenting regularly with all sorts of light toys. I remember doing my first steel wool spin on the street outside her house and being completely blown away when I saw the image on the back of her camera. From that moment on I was hooked.

03. What means Light Painting for you? What is your motivation? What drives you?

Light painting for me is a form of meditation as it brings me into the moment and allows me to momentarily put my worries aside. It’s a way for me to focus on simple things like body movement and how I’m going to position myself to create the image I have planned in my head. Most of my light designs are hand drawn so I really love the connection between mind and body when I’m creating shapes, in particular using my peripheral vision to keep my spacing consistent.
Living in the paradise of the Byron Bay hinterland is one of the main motivators for me to get out and light paint, especially the fact that my backyard has very dark skies so the Milky Way and stars are extremely bright, so I tend to combine astrophotography and light painting in a lot in my images.

04. What gear do you always carry with you?

I use a rifle bag to carry my light painting gear. It most always contains:

• A black fibre-optic brush from Light Painting Brushes
• A homemade PVC pipe with slots and holes cut in it
• Coloured acrylic tubes
• An assortment of small coloured plastic toys that I can attach to the ends of the acrylic tubes.
• Homemade plexiglass blades.
• Water blaster pool toys
• A Nitecore P26 flashlight
• A Klarus ST15R
• A couple of RGB flashlights from Lightexcursion
• A Fiberflies Pixel Whip
• Coloured acrylic rods
• Glow in the dark stars that I can place on the ground to use as markers/reference points
• Grey water hose adaptors and butterfly clamps that allow me to attach tools to my flashlights.
• Coloured gels
• Lumecubes
• Electrical tape/Cello tape

The camera gear I carry is:

• Canon 650D
• Wiefeng tripod
• A Yongnuo speedlite/flash
• Yongnuo remote shutter control
• Insta360 ONE X (360 camera) and tripod

And the most important thing….LOTS OF SPARE BATTTERIES

05. What was your most memorable Lightpainting experience, event or moment?

Two moments come to mind, the first was accidently starting a small bushfire in a National Park when I was spinning steel wool a few years ago. I quickly extinguished the blaze but it really scared me as it could have easily gotten out of hand, so I am now VERY careful about where and when I spin wool. The second was a recent shoot where I found my self balanced precariously over the top of a 20 foot high waterfall. I was standing over the creek so the water was flowing between my legs (see image below). The rocks were very slippery so I had to be extremely careful. For those types of shoots I usually tell someone where I’m going and roughly when I’ll be home so they can send out a search party if I fail to return.

Titel: 360 Steel Wool

06. Who or what inspires you?

The light painters who first inspired me were probably Roland Brei and Tom Hill. I love Roland’s precision in creating images that are perfect in almost every detail. He dedicates so much time and energy to his process, it really is amazing what he can create ( I really wish he would share his techniques though, he generally keeps them secret). Tom Hill was a huge inspiration for me because he does very complicated and intricate hand-drawn designs that are usually perfectly symmetrical. The way he illuminates the surrounding environment is also quite phenomenal. Plus, he isn’t afraid to share his tools and techniques which is a huge bonus for me. Other people who continually inspire me are: Vingt Cent, Jason Rinehart, Chris Bauer, Mafu Fuma, Gunnar Heilmann, Jason Page, Eric Pare and Aaron Culmer to name a few.

07. What is going to be the next Light Painting Tool you build or buy?

I recently went to an acrylics factory and got some plexiglass offcuts so I’ll design and cut some new light blades in the near future. I’d also like to design and 3D print my own plexiblade holders to attach the blades to my flashlights.
I’m also waiting for the new RGB Critter flashlight (from Ants on a Melon) to be delivered around June, I’ll hopefully have some fun with that.

08. What is your workflow?

My workflow (for editing images) usually always starts in Lightroom. There I will adjust the exposure levels, clarity, white balance, contrast and noise levels but I will sometimes use Photoshop to fix or erase unwanted artefacts in the image.
From my experience, most light painters appear to be diehard followers of the SOOC (straight out of camera) workflow but I personally love playing around in Photoshop so sometimes I will take one of my light painting images and combine it with one of my Milky Way shots. As long as an image is pleasing on the eye then I don’t care too much about how it was created. In most cases, whenever I post a composited image, I will advise my audience that it is such.
I also use my Insta360 ONE X camera to capture 360 light painting images. As it captures in RAW, my workflow usually starts with Insta360 Studio desktop app to stitch the image and then Lightroom and Photoshop to adjust exposure etc.
I also like to create video tutorials on how I create some of my light designs and the tools I use. One of my favourite tools for capturing video at night is a phone app called ‘Pablo’. It does a wonderful job at capturing light trails as they happen (and keeping them on screen the entire time) and shows the audience the exact moves I use to create my shapes.

9. What are your best or most favourite 3 pictures?

These shots are high on the list.

10. What is your favorite environment to shoot in?

I really love using reflections in my images so my backyard pool gets featured quite a lot, though I do go down to the beach or by a creek and wave lights around from time to time.
I also have a black backdrop set up in my shed at home so that’s a good space for me to shoot indoors when the weather is nasty.

11. How long have you been light painting?

I’ve been light painting solidly now for around 3 years.

12. What did you do before getting into light painting?

I worked as a video editor for many years of my life but I’m currently working as a primary school teacher. In the past year or so I have been into a number of small schools, blacked out a room and got the kids in there to do light painting. They absolutely love it and usually come up with ideas and techniques that I’ve never even thought of.
Light painting is such a wonderfully creative and inspiring experience for everyone that takes part.

Thanks for taking the time for the interview and the inspiration mate.

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