Experimenting with Light Painting Photography Devices on the Streets of Paris

Photography Tips

Photographer Benjamin Von Wong has broken out his trademark pyrotechnics once again, but this time he’s combined flame and electric energy for some pretty hot results (literally!). Creating a visual story featuring three Victorian-era gentlemen (who were actually professional pyrotechnicians), Von Wong experimented with some innovative special effects using fire, sparks, and electricity while in the historic city of Paris:

Limited to a scaled-down travel kit, only Nikon speedlights and some Elinchrom Ranger Quadras were used to light the foreground, requiring Von Wong to play around with different exposures to get the effect just right.

“Using a combination of shutter drag and flash, we created a series of images that would showcase the characters in action.”

On their second day in Paris, the team added electricity into the mix with a homemade Tesla coil for a quite possibly never-before-seen photographic effect combining the warm glow of firelight with the white-hot crackle of lightning.

“We have now invented a brand new thing called ‘lightning painting’ by using a lightning rod and a Tesla coil.”

You can see some of Von Wong’s other work involving pyrotechnics here, here, and here.