For the photo shown to the right, taken at night in a Texas ghost town, Danser assembled the following items: a powerful, handheld LED light; his Canon 5D Mark iii camera and Canon 16-35 mm L lens (at 16mm); Canon 580ex 2 flash; a red gel (piece of red cellophane to color the light of the flash); a tripod; and his girlfriend’s finger (to graciously hold down the shutter release button because he forgot his bulb release at home!).

Danser told Pegasus: “So, I set my camera on bulb mode and had my girlfriend hold down the shutter release button for 13 minutes, while the camera was very sturdy on the tripod. The place was pitch black except for the stars and the moon (very little ambient light pollution in the desert). As my girlfriend was keeping the shutter open, I walked to one side of the structure and methodically shined my flashlight (rated at 2000 lumens, so it’s pretty bright) all along the exterior and front facade of the building. This lasted for about five minutes before I turned the flashlight off and ran to the other side of the building and ‘painted’ for another five minutes.”

Danser said that one of the important tricks of light painting is to show off the textures of the buildings by shining his LED flashlight at an angle instead of from the camera position.

After “painting” the sides of the building for five minutes each, he ran inside and popped off about 10 red-gelled flashes to create the effect of a warm glow pouring out of the building.

When asked how he was able to run in and out of the building without showing up in the photo, Danser simply replied that “The camera could not ‘see’ me because I was moving quickly, and there wasn’t enough ambient light to expose me in the picture.” While popping off the gelled flashes in the building, he always made sure he was not visible to the camera.

After 13 minutes at an aperture of 2.8, Danser was able to get an excellent exposure of the night sky while having ample time to do all of the “light painting” that he had planned beforehand.

Soon I hope to try some light painting of my own with less expensive equipment to show you how anyone can adopt Danser’s technique. After all, light can be used in all kinds of art and photography projects.

In the meantime, check out this Danser’s website to see tons of beautiful experiments playing with—and painting with—light. Thanks, Matt!

Summer is the perfect time to complete partial kitchen remodels. You don’t have to do a lot to give your kitchen a facelift. Little things like updating the paint, hardware on the cupboards and drawers and lighting can make your kitchen look fresh and new again without a lot of time, energy or expense. Many of the little fix-it jobs you can handle yourself like repainting or adding fresh hardware. Other jobs that involve electricity should be left to an electrician in Glendale. The team at The Electric Connection is here to help you make your kitchen new again with the installation of under-cabinet LED lighting.

LEDs are the latest and greatest lighting revolution. They are extremely bright and require very little juice or electricity in this case, to run. Less electricity is always a welcome benefit and will end up saving you money on your monthly electric bill. There are a couple of different options available to you when it comes to having LEDs installed under your cabinets. You can go with a fixture that contains a few super-bright LEDs or you can opt for a light strip. The flexible light strips are often more convenient because you can choose just how much light you want illuminating your counter space. Sometimes you need a little and sometimes you need a lot.

After you have chosen your LED fixture, you will want to hire an electrician licensed to work on Glendale electrical projects to complete the installation of the light strips if that is your choice. The electrician will go about installing the lights by wiring the strips to a plug that you can plug and unplug as necessary. These light strips can be placed anywhere in your home, really. Your bathroom, hallway and closet spaces are all ideal places to add a little more light. Give The Electric Connection a call today and schedule your LED installation.

As a Top Plano Electrician, I know better than anyone how powerful and useful electricity is. It also makes me more aware of what most people tend to ignore or forget: electricity is dangerous. Electricians are required by law to carry insurance, and for good reasons. Electric current is capable of starting fires and destroying your property and equipment in a matter of moments. The proper safety precautions really can save lives, and there‘s always something we can do to improve home safety.

One of the most important precautions is located in your electrical panel: the circuit breaker. It is designed to keep you from using more electricity than the wiring or receptacle can handle at one time, what we refer to as overcurrent protection. This protects your wiring from taking on too much current, which can cause the coating around your wiring to melt, the leading cause of electrical fires. Circuit breakers serve another purpose as well; not only to protect from surges coming from outside your home, but from potential hazards within it as well. Current flowing through a failed piece of equipment or appliance can cause sparks, which have the potential to start fires or damage other electrical devices. A properly functioning circuit breaker can shut off the power to this device. It’s very important, however, that you use a circuit breaker of the proper size for the circuit to ensure that your wiring is properly protected.

Circuit breakers come in specialty varieties as well; the most important are ground fault circuit breakers (GFCI), for wet locations, and arc fault circuit breakers (AFCI). AFCI’s, in particular, can help prevent some of the most common dangerous situations in your home.

I’ve dealt with plenty of cases where electrical fires have started because people ran an extension cord under the carpet, so that they can power the lamp in the center of the room. Over time, people walking over the cord stretches out the wiring, making it so thin that the current overloads the thinly stretched wire, creating an arc fault; the electricity “jumps” the wire, completing the circuit in a way the cord can’t handle and generating heat that starts a fire. Arc fault circuit breakers prevent this by shutting the circuit down when the arc fault occurs.

So what do you need to know about arc fault circuit breakers? To start with, by code AFCI’s should be installed on any circuit that isn’t protected by a GFCI or directly wired into an appliance. It’s in your best interest to have your safety devices routinely inspected to maintain their optimum performance and capabilities; in particular, your circuit breakers should be inspected at least once a year. The inspection process is quick and relatively inexpensive, and something that simple really can save the lives of you and your family.

If you have been thinking about getting a specific job done around your house, but have always hesitated because you don’t know how much it costs, we can help. As with any job you need to hire somebody else to complete, you want to have an idea of what it is going to cost. So how do you get an electrical estimate from an electrician? Glendale homeowners can call The Electric Connection and talk with a member of our team. Although it is virtually impossible to give an exact quote, especially over the phone, it is possible to give a pretty good estimate if you know exactly what it is you need like a fixture installed or an outlet replaced.

If you need an estimate about a problem you are having in the house, but are not entirely sure what that particular problem is, things change a bit. An electrician will need to do some testing and diagnosing before an estimate can be given. The time it takes to do this can vary depending on the situation. However, the electrician should give you the fee for hourly rates and explain material costs. Although it is impossible to give exact estimates, an electrician can certainly give you an idea of the problem once found and the cost to fix it.

If you know you need a bigger job, like an electrical panel upgrade, this is something you will want to get an estimate for beforehand. This protects you from getting an astronomical bill after a job is completed that catches you off guard. Always talk with the electrician. Glendale residents will want to make sure they are only hiring a certified, competent electrician to complete any electrical jobs. The Electric Connection has licensed and bonded electricians and would love to help you get your next electrical job completed. Give us a call today.