A new discovery - Steel Wool Photography, a very unique and fun technique akin to light painting. The equipment for steel wool photography are as follows:
- Camera with manual functions, particularly long exposures
- Tripod
- Cable release or remote release highly recommended
- Steel wool (the finer the grade the better, 00 or 0000)
- Whisk or other device for holding wool, preferably not flammable
- Non-flammable cable or rope
- lighter or 9V battery
- fire extinguisher, water bucket, wet towel, something to control fire emergencies
- creative personality that verges on pyromaniac
- similarly disposed assistant highly recommended
- safe location with low traffic
How to do Steel Wool Photography? There are numerous sites out there explaining it step by step in more thorough detail than me, but here is the essentials.
Buy steel wool! Unfortunately, in a country like Mongolia or Korea, that is easier said than done. It appears the entire country of Mongolia does not know what steel wool is, nor is it sold there. It is also not commonly found in South Korea, however, after a six month search on foot, I was finally able to locate some online for a few cheon won (cheon is the korean equivalent to 1000, 1000 won is roughly equal to 1 dollar).
Buy steel wool! Unfortunately, in a country like Mongolia or Korea, that is easier said than done. It appears the entire country of Mongolia does not know what steel wool is, nor is it sold there. It is also not commonly found in South Korea, however, after a six month search on foot, I was finally able to locate some online for a few cheon won (cheon is the korean equivalent to 1000, 1000 won is roughly equal to 1 dollar).
Next step, find a location. The ideal location should have few lights overhead, low volume of traffic (as this reduces risk of fire accident as well as risk of visit by local law enforcement), and low risk of fire (middle of grasslands plains in the middle of a 6 month drought would not be recommended). In Korea, satisfying these criteria is really not so easy to do, however, luckily there are a few bridges over streams near our apartment that have sand beds that make for perfect location with few peeping eyes.Last step, just for safety, is wait for a rain to dampen everything, reducing the risk of unintentional fires. And the results of all this effort are an amazing experience with great results. Or in our case, amazing experience with out of focus results. But it was our first time, really just a trial run for next week, where I will spend the day digging up potatoes at her dad's farm and the night we shall use the farm as a backdrop for this!
During the session, it is important to note that if you want to focus, or see anything, you should change the ISO settings to the highest you can to take sample shots for framing. After you take these samples, DON'T FORGET TO CHANGE THE ISO. Unfortunately one of my shots was taken at ISO 800, leaving it too bright to use untouched. Additionally, with ISO 100, shutter speed ranged from 10 to 15 seconds typically. In order to capture the whole image in focus, the aperture should probably be around f/22. I am only guessing that based on my failure with f/8.Note: no animals were hurt during this experiment. This includes burning of fur of cats and dogs, burning feathers of ducks, burning scales of fish, and burning skin or clothing of homosapiens. This clause excludes any harm that may have befallen mosquitoes, flys, and other unseen insects in the nearby facility. Sorry Charlotte and Jiminy Cricket!
