Experimenting with Optics + Light

When you fire a frame with your camera, you are literally painting that exposure with the light of that scene. This concept  has always fascinated me, and from time to time I like to intentionally play with that concept, pushing that light to create luminous paint strokes, if you will.

For an upcoming photo project I am experimenting with slowing down a fixed exposure in order to capture motion as something moves across an otherwise fixed scene. This can be challenging during bright daylight as the camera will quickly overexpose if the shutter is left open for more than a tiny fraction of a second. In order to compensate for that tendency to overexpose, today I have been playing with different kinds of mesh and filters.

A side effect of the mesh is that it creates lovely, ephemeral and soft bokeh patterns, made more subtle when using a wide aperture. (click on photos to enlarge, and note patterns in the background) 

I kind of love it. 

When you zoom in close on these files they start to look like a painter's brush strokes. 

Optics + light... how fun.