I saw this idea on a fellow 365er’s blog, Jen, (check out her photos they are A-MAZ-ING!)  Since I don’t have any sparklers floating around, I thought about trying this with a flashlight.  I am SURE my neighbors think I’m crazy since I set up my tripod outside at 9pm and stood there moving a flashlight around :O)  Oh well!

You will need a tripod, stool, chair, ladder, or anything flat and sturdy you can set your camera on.  The key is making sure that your shutter speed is open long enough to capture what you are writing.  This one was open for 6 seconds.  I took this one by myself so I used my remote (love love love my remote :O)  Okay, so once you have your camera safe and secure and your shutter speed open a good length of time, start writing :O)  If you choose to write words you need to write your letters reversed (like a mirror).  I tried writing several words and only had luck with one of them.  This is why I choose to do a heart.  The secret to getting your heart to connect in the same spot is to find a spot on a wall or tree to start your heart and then end your heart in the same place (this took me about 5 minutes to realize :O) he he. I don’t know if this makes a difference or not but I didn’t turn my flashlight on until the button after the shutter button was pressed and I turned it off when I was finished. Another thing I did (not sure if it made a difference) was to turn off my auto focus and put it on manual. I then focused it to where I thought it looked sharp.

Go out and have fun playing with your shutter speed and flashlight.  You don’t have to have a remote to do this, you could always bribe a spouse or friend to help :O)  Don’t forget to come back on Friday to share your picture and see others!