If you made my Skytalks talk in Vegas this past weekend thank you so much!  It was exciting to see so many people running around wearing badges I designed!

I promised links to my presentation.  I have modified it slightly to include some more of what I said while the slides were up.  Download them and check them out!  Powerpoint and Keynote formats.

 Last night I had the chance to shoot a fun shot for the Skytalks 2015 artwork.  303 coughed up contributors such as Mar (model), Night Music (Marc, Erin, Chad, Don doing pyrotechnics) with addtional assistants/watchers (Tilver, chance, Bert, BK, Feedle, Cass) and a videographer friend (David Quakenbush).  We also had four firefighters and one fire marshall supervising.

First order of business was Night Music experimenting with various forms of explosives.  They hadn't shot indoors before and we got to shoot this at a firefighters training burn house!  I didn't get great shots of this stage because nobody was allowed in the building, lest it crumble and fall on our heads in a tragic moment. After we deemed it safe to enter we took some more test shots inside.

One of my goals was to see if I could do this using the in-camera multiple exposure feature.  I actually built a second physical shutter I could attach to the end of my lens but the sizes didn't match and it created a sort of tunnel-vision that would have required me to be farther back from the shot than I'd have the luxury of doing in an enclosed building.  

So we tried the multiple exposures.  I drew the letters in the air using a Pixelstick and lit Mar with a flashlight.  Night Music set of charges in the background.  While the multiple exposure technique was close it didn't end up being the best we'd get.  After doing a set of shots with the firemen we shot another round with Mar, this time capturing individual light elements that I'd assemble in post-processing.  We got the best flame, the best body position, the best Pixelstick lettering.

So despite this not being my normal light painting way.... I present for your enjoyment this year's Skytalks 2015 artwork.  

CLICK HERE FOR LARGER VERSION

Several months ago I got to shoot with Ed Word and Annie MacMackin for this year's Skytalks artwork.  I've bee honored to be a part of this every year since its inception other than year two.  This year we went with the theme of the surveillance state.  Enjoy!

A few months ago I did an art pice on my iPad for this year's SkyTalks track at DefCon.  I was pleased enough with it.  That was originally going to be the end of my involvement with the project since I wasn't going to ba able to make it this year and I didn't have a ton of time.  BK asked me for some assistance with the the badges and it caught me at a moment where I actually had a moment so I obliged.

After reducing my work to black/white/single color I was struck with the contrast of this piece versus my orignal piece.  BK asked me to do the DefCon program page for SkyTalks as well and I had to make a decision.  I agreed to do the page but I also made the decision to completely retool the main design, using the badges as an inspiration.  Here is the result in wallpaper form:

Here is a link to the full 1920x1080 resolution version.

Finally, here is the page that will be appearing in the DefCon program:

In short, there are some fun talks lined up and some great people involved.  If you can make it to Vegas for DefCon 21 drop by SkyTalks and tell them you like the art!