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Painter at work by moonlight
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This is Drogheda based painter Richard Moore painting at night, around 1am, under a full moon. Richard mostly paints subjects from history and mythology in the Boyne Valley, I wonder can you work out what he’s painting here? :)
The painting is burnt out which is a bit unfortunate and the tripod was almost in the ditch to get everything in so there’s a bit of camera shake here over the 30 seconds or so exposure, not enough to dump it though IMO. He tried to stand very still over the length of exposure but you can see movement, he paints by torchlight (held in his left hand) which has resulted in the painting burning out.
Awesome shot – I love it. Can’t wait to get home and view it on a proper monitor. (I’ve got a rather crappy monitor at work!)
Nice idea, ken. An idea for next time – if you used flash for this kinda shot, you might have been able to get rid of the motion of the painter, while retaining the overall feel of the image. Tough to get that right, mind!
Tim
Great photo.
I think there’s very little motion in the painter – was he frozen solid? Maybe he could have turned his torch off just for this shot?
Hi folks, thanks for the comments and suggestions. There was flash used in this, off to the right of the frame, hence the road is partially lit. Unfortunately the moon was so bright the camera still captured some of his impression over the 30 seconds plus there is a large spotlight over his shoulder behind the trees that I tried to block with the tree and his body but it too acted as a sort of rim light, again giving some movement in the pic.
I wanted to catch some stars which come out quite well in the large print, as the constellation Cygnus is of special significance to the painting he is working on, hence the juggling of exposure time and the attempt to freeze the painter in action. He was holding the light to illuminate the painting, I asked him to move it over the painting for the 30 seconds but it rested on this spot for too long. I have others I took at the same time but fog kept rolling up from the river and obscuring the passage tomb so they all have faults in one way or another, this is the best overall but I’ll review the rest again.
He was delighted with it though!
I think it is an amazing shot, I love the sky over the tomb, I would love to see a larger version of the shot.
it’s really nice to see the reality and the reality gone through an artist’s mind in the same picture! love this!
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