Getting the kids involved - long exposure light painting with my nephews

Light Painting With the Kiddos

Some of the best art experiences (most, in fact) I've had have come from my family, most importantly from my grandmother, who was an amazing artist in her own right, but also from my parents and aunts and uncles.   My nephews are lucky enough to be growing up with a great teacher in my sister, but if I know anything, its that kids sometimes don't listen to their mom, so I thought it would be fun to do a little something fun and different with them.  We were spending the week at the beach, so all we had to do was let them stay up a little late (always a selling point), and troop down to the beach with a tripod, camera and a bunch of lights.  I had found a few cheap light up toys, and my sister brought some long rope lights.  We first wired up the kids with lights on their heads and arms, then added in some other lights and had them run around in different patterns as well as just freestyle it.  They enjoyed seeing the results of what they were doing.  Eventually everyone got a turn, including myself, my dad, sister, her fiancé and the kids.   The great part about a simple project like this is that it requires very little planning, and lets the kids see the results immediately and have ideas for what other moves they'd like to do.  Next time, we'll have to try and do some more complex designs and try to find a location without the background lights.

The kids all wired up - F on the left with white and red, and T on the right with green and purple

Wild silly running, as well as a single light-up ring on each hand

T's light trails resulting from cartwheels

Added in a little flash to freeze a few ghostly images of them

F hard at work

T deep in the moment

Blue and green

T jumping rope while Sean writes "hello" with one of the light up rings

Dad and I spinning rope lights

Michelle's monster drawing

T and Sean making a fish (looks like a Halibut with it's mouth pointing down)