Instagram Friends

Thanks for checkin' out Bsombin'! Over the years, I've met a lot of amazing people and made some good friends through Instagram. From the models and photographers that I have collaborated with to the entrepreneurs and businesses that have hired me, Instagram has helped me to connect to a lot of people who I probably wouldn't have met otherwise.

A few years ago I started following a photographer from Arkansa named Luke, after he followed me. Luke would share his favorite accounts with his followers, on his IG story. One of the accounts that he shares on his story belonged to a guy named Aaron. I think Aaron was living in Colorado at the time. But, Aaron and I also started following one another, thanks to Luke. After following him for a bit, I noticed Aaron was shooting in LA and around California. Mean while, Luke decided to take some time off of Instagram and went missing in action.

It had been a while since I had heard from Luke. But last week I got a message from him asking if I was still in LA and if I wanted to meet up with him and Aaron to shoot? He said they were going shooting the next day and then he was leaving back to Arkansa the following day. Fortunately, I was able to meet up with them. I had some stuff to take care of during the day. But I was able to meet up with them at night. I had asked them what they wanted to shoot, so I could plan a little tour for them. When I gave him some options, Luke was quick to answer rooftops and steel wool. So I wanted to take them on a tour of a couple of easy to access rooftops before heading into the LA river to spin wool. We started with a helipad on an rooftop close to the 110 freeway. We had good luck there. We all got shots we were really happy with and were able to get in and out without any problems. After that, I took them to another helipad on a rooftop that's just outside of Skid Row. That spot was a little more challenging due to a gate that had just been installed around the helipad. But we managed to get on the helipad and get some cool pics anyways. The next (and final) stop on the tour was the LA river. I wanted to take them to a spot on the train tracks where I had shot at about a year ago. The thing to keep in mind when showing people around downtown, though, is that things are always changing and they change pretty fast. So, the spot I took them to was gated off and we couldn't get in. I can be very persistent, when I make up my mind to do something, however. And I wasn't about to let Luke and Aaron go home without some steel wool shoots. So I started looking for another way in and was able to get us onto the train tracks after a walk around the block. The next problem we encountered were the newly installed flood lights that made the spot too bright for steel wool shots. I suggested going down into the river, to get out of the light, and shooting by the water so we could get a little bit of a reflection off the water's surface. We found a good spot and were able to shoot for a little bit before we got chased out of the river by some guy with a flashlight. Still, it was a successful mission. We got out safe and everyone got at least a few good steel wool shots before we had to call it a wrap. By the time we got back to the cars, it was a little past midnight. Luke and Aaron had a long drive back to Aaron's, and I had to be up early the next day, so we called it a night. After saying goodbye to the guys, I headed home to go through my pics. Not sure when I will see Luke again, since he's back in Arkansa. But, now that I know Aaron lives out here in Cali, we'll be shooting again soon. I didn't shoot a lot, that night, since I had already been to all of those spots several times. But I still managed to get some pictures worth sharing...

I feel very fortunate to have had all the great experiences and to have met all the amazing people that I have found through Instagram. I think it's important that we try to use our social media to connect with others in order to help one another grow and build. But I also want to remind everyone to be very careful when meeting people that you've met online. Not all the people who I've met have been as cool as Luke and Aaron. But that's another story for another time... I hope you enjoyed the pics, Thanks for checkin' out the blog. Please check back soon for more Bsombin'!

Slow Exposure Spins - Pt.2

Thanks for checkin' out my blog. If you've been waiting for this next part of the slow exposure spinning "tutorial", I apologize for the long wait! The work load has been heavy and there hasn't been much time for sleep (let alone blogging). But I didn't want to hold things up any more than I already have. Lol. Before I get into my explanation of how to spin wool, here's my disclaimer...

First, I am not a professional pyrotechnic! I don't even know if you could call me a professional photographer! Lol. I am not claiming to be any type of authority on anything either. I just like taking pictures, have learned a good amount about spinning through research and practice, and want to share what I have learned with anyone else that might be interested in learning how to capture slow exposure images. 

Second, spinning steel wool is dangerous!! When you spin, you take the risk of burning yourself and/or anything/anyone that is around you. Hopefully, no one is thinking about doing this anywhere near flammable gases; liquids; or materials of any kind. If the thought had crossed your mind, DON'T!! The shower of sparks can easily set fire to things or cause serious injuries when it shoots everywhere. So if you are going to try spinning, stand at least 50 ft. away from anything or anyone that you don't want to shower with red hot balls of burning steel wool. ...Maybe 100 ft., just to be safe. The burning wool balls go far and burn red hot. They can go right through fabric and cause some bad burns, if they land on you. I know because I learned the hard way just how fast the red hot steel wool projectiles can burn through clothes and singe skin. So make sure to always spin outdoors and stay away from dry vegetation, brush, fabrics, etc. 

So here's what you'll need...

1. A camera that has a long exposure option, to shoot with. Some compact/point-n-shoot cameras & most SLR cameras have this option available. Or you could try finding a long exposure app to download for your smart phones.

2. A tripod or something that can substitute as one. ...Anything sold that you can set the camera or smart phone on top of to keep it perfectly still during the exposure time.

3. A cooking wisk or something similar that will hold the mass of wool while still allowing the small bits to tear off and spin into a shower of flames.

4. A rope or chain to tie to the wisk. I suggest making it about 3 ft long. The longer it is, the harder it will be to start spinning and to control once in motion. Plus it will increase the range of the spark shower and give you even less control of things. You don't want things getting out of control, when flaming fire balls are involved!! But I wouldn't make it too short either. Then your fiery donuts will look more like sparkling donut holes. Also, be careful how you attache the rope/chain to the wisk, to avoid having the wisk come loose and fly off while you are spinning.

5. Steel wool. There are different counts on wool and not all wool burns the same. Some burns faster and hotter than others. So depending on what you are trying to get out of your spinning shots, you might want to try different kinds.

6. A lighter. Not matches, since you will need to be able to start swinging the wisk as soon as you get the wool lit. You'll need at least one hand free, in order to get things going. So matches are out of the question. You don't want to have another person light the wool either, since you won't be able to wait too long for them to get to a safe distance before you start spinning. If you wait too long, the wool will go out.

7. A partner to click the shutters. ...Unless your camera has a timer or remote control. But spinning is safer and more fun if you have someone to shoot with. 

Below is a picture of the wool, wisk, rope, & lighter that my daughter and I used on our little wool shoot. I actually found everything at the 99 Cent Store and was able to save some time and money verses going to a couple of stores and paying 2-3 times more. 

Now you know what you need. Once you have all your supplies and tools ready, the spinner will start by loosening up a roll of steel wool to make it easier to light. Just place the wool into the center of the wisk, the way I have shown in the picture. Once you get the wool lit and starting to burn, begin to slowly spin the rope at a short length and gradually let the length increase with each spin. Remember that the harder and faster you spin, more wool will burn; the sparks will fly farther; and the wool will burn hotter. This mean it becomes more dangerous and you won't be able to do as much in the shorter burn time.

While the spinner is starting to spin, the shooter will hit the shutter buttons on the camera or cameras. The best settings for a spin will vary, depending on the camera you are using; the amount of environmental light surrounding the spinner; the type of wool being spun; & amount of time you want to spin. I shoot with a few different Canon cameras. I usually keep my exposure time between 10-15 sec, the ISO around 600 for shorter times & around 400 for longer exposures. I like to experiment with the aperture, but I don't stray too far from around f/8.

As you can see in the picture above, it's best to have a lot of wool, when you go to spin. Especially on your first spinning adventure. You will need to get at least a couple of test spins in to figure out your settings. And the wool goes fast, once you start. It wasn't hard for me to go through a whole pack of wool on one shoot. So I suggest taking, at least, a pack or two.

Below is one more spinning shot, from that last father-daughter photo session. I used the supplies I have shown above, had my daughter's Canon XTi on a tripod, and had the settings at 15sec, ISO600, & f/8. I did edited the picture in Photoshop, to add a little saturation. But the edits were minor...

The last post will come a lot sooner than this one did. That's when I'll explain how to make a light orb. But, for now, I need to get back to work. ...Check back soon for more light painting and Bsombin'!

Slow Exposure Spins - Pt.1

What up world?! Thanks for checkin' out my blog! In a previous post I mentioned that I was going to be sharing some pics that my daughter and I shot over her Spring break. Also, I said I would explain how we created the images we captured. So here is the first part of that light painting post I was talkin' about... 

I decided to put the "ends" before the "means", on this post, to show what it is I'm talkin' about, before I start explaining what we did to get the pictures. Below are some of the better shots we got out of the couple dozen attempts we made. It's 2 steel wool spins and 2 light stick orbs. In the next post, I'll show you what we did, for those looking to capture some spins and orbs of your own. Check back soon for the second part of Slow Exposure Spins and for more Bsombin'!     

Purple Rain

So, what I did was take some slow exposure shots of yours truly spinning steel wool (..the homie Jefroe hit the trigger after I set up my camera and started spinning). Then, I took the images into photoshop and adjusted the exposure, saturation, and hue, to take golden rings of fire and turn them into Purple Rain 1&2.

Lurkin' by the seashore

Thanks for checkin' out the blog! As I often do, I went out to shoot my city, one October night. I decided to hit up Jefroe, my brotha-from-anotha-motha, to see if he wanted to ride shot-gun on the mission. He was down, so I scooped him up and we set out for the west side.

...We had tried to go and shoot the marina one night, several months prior, but construction on the 405 freeway killed that plan. After sitting in bumper to bumper traffic from 12 - 3a.m., we aborted the mission and wasted a night of shooting, on our first attempt. On this October night, however, the freeway was wide open and there was nothing keeping us from our objective. We landed in Playa Del Rey around 12a.m. and began our adventure on a bridge over Ballona Creek. It was the perfect place to break out the steel wool and pop Jefroe's "steel wool cherry"! Lol. I went through a whole pack of steel wool on, the bridge, before getting the attention on some LAPD officers that were ticketing some guys doing donuts in a parking lot on the other side of the marina. After shooting fireballs all over the bridge, with them watching, we packed up and disappeared into the night. 

After cruising around the marina for a bit, we headed to the Venice canals for some more fiery fun. Jefroe was lovin' it, as I'm sure most photogs do their first time shooting wool! I did all the spinning, for the night, and had Jefroe click the shutter for me, after setting my camera up. Unfortunately, I blew it on the best spin/shot of the night, and got fuzzy doo-doo, thanks to me forgetting to turn off the autofocus. But Jefroe had his setting right and our teamwork resulted in some awesome captures. You can see some of the pictures on his Instagram account. (You're just going to have to scroll down through a lot of his lil' squares before you get to them, since it was back in October.) ...If you'd like to peep the homie's work, and give him a follow, check out @atlastleague. 

We cruised around a bit more, after the canals, but hunger's call distracted us and lead us back to the greasy goodness that is Tommy's Hamburgers. ...Tommy's Chili cheese fries and burgers are know to induce food commas. So, with grease in gut and gas in butt, we called it a night and headed back home, before the "comma" started to kick in. It was a good way to end a great night of "lurkin'". Here are some of the captures I brought home that warm October night. Check back soon for more images from my beautiful city and more Bsombin'!

Poetry & Motion

"My Light Song"

I will sing my light &

Shine through the black of night

To the deaf, show the sounds of joy,

To the blind, sing the joy of sight

My shine will not mute,

My song can not fade,

For the meek and the broken,

Croon bright and parade,

For the lost and the lame

Glow a luminous serenade,

This song must beam bright,

This loud shine must be played

From now till the reaper,

My light song, I will sing

To lending sound and sight to the needy &,

To bring glory to my king!

-Bsomb4

Color Splash Black & White Ghost Spinner

Thanks for checkin' out the Bsombin' blog! I recently posted a few steel wool posts. In one of them, I mentioned some of the things I learned on my first "spinning" adventure with @xrissvlad. One of the things I mentioned was to not use your autofocus when shooting steel wool, because it can lead to blurry captures. I got a lot of blurry wool shots. I decided to try and use them, somehow, though. So I got to editing shots and got some pretty cool results. Below is one of the edits. ...a ghostly color splash black and white image of wool being spun on top of a flipped over Honda... I'll be posting a few more horrible shots that got edited into useable images, like this image and the image on the "Night Train on 1st St." Both images came from the throw-away folder and were edited back to life. Check back soon to see more edits, captures, poems, paintings, drawings, & more! 

Steel Wool Pt.2

L.A. Locomotive

Steel Wool Pt.1

I got bit by the "Instabug", and the infection is getting worse and worse. Instagram has lead me to do a lot of things that I wouldn't have thought to do without it. This past weekend I met up with a fellow Instagramer that goes by @xrissvlad. We headed out to downtown to go check out some freeway spots. But, we ended up spinning steel wool around East L.A. & the L.A. river, instead. Neither one of us had played with steel wool before, so we had to learn some things the hard way.

Lesson 1 - Steel wool can break off in large pieces that will set you on fire if they get on you. ...lucky for me, I was wearing an old sweater that I didn't mind messing up. I just didn't think I was gonna have to stop, drop, and roll with it on. Lol. Xris also got a little heated when some wool landed on his neck. Fortunately, it wasn't a large piece and he was okay, though. 

Lesson 2 - Autofocus is a bad idea when shooting steel wool. The extreme lighting in a dark setting makes the autofocus trip and potentially good shots become blurry messes. Some of the best opportunities of the night yielded fuzzy funk instead of amazing captures, because of my autofocus issues.  

Lesson 3 - Make sure to plan out your shots carefully. You might only get one chance to get the capture, depending on when and where you decide to shot fireballs all over the place. ...And that is what you'll be doing if you spin steel wool. Fireballs of various sizes fly all over the place and they go far and bounce off of things too! A get-away plan isn't a bad idea either, depending on where you'll be starting your fire storm. 

Last, but not least...

Lesson 4 - If you spin the wool with a whisk, it's a good idea to bring a spare or the tools you'll need to fix the whisk if it breaks. Good thing is, this one wasn't one of the hard learned lessons, since Xris came prepared for such an event. Otherwise, we would have had to end the light painting session early. But he fixed the broken whisk and we were able to go back to shooting the shooting fireballs again.   

Despite the fires and burns, we had a lot of fun spinning wool and I will be doing it again! Here are some of the light captures that I got during my first steel wool adventure. You can see Xris' captures on Instagram @xrissvlad. Dude is talented and definitely worth checkin' out!