This image is a composite of four images of the Great Hall of the Folger Shakespeare Library, combined in-camera. I made a copy of the combined image, flipped it vertically, expanded the canvas of the original combined image downward, and pasted the inverted copy below the original combined image, thus creating a mirror image of the composite.

While home bound during our recent ice storm, I decided to try some techniques presented in a Photoshop summit. The sunset photo was taken in Delaware last summer. I used color channel curves and masking to give more depth and variety to the sky and the bay. The second image is of the Flying Wallendas, who came to the Smithsonian Folklife Festival in 2017, shortly after I moved to Washington. They were tightrope walking above the Mall! I tried to incorporate them into the clouds using layering, adjustments, and masking. This was all a pretty serious challenge for me but great fun.

There is a lot of serendipity with light painting even with advance planning—so it is important to keep shooting, make adjustments, and capture multiple images. The light is delivered by a light wand tool from behind the balls. The lens balls and the reflective mylar underneath them bounce the light around. The colors of the light demand attention because some are hotter than others requiring exposure adjustments. Here the colors were relatively similar, and the intense saturation made the simple geometry just pop.