In late 2025 on cold, clear nights, I wandered San Francisco with my fabulous Contax G2 camera, rolls of Fuji 200 speed color negative film, and puffy jackets to take photos of lights. But not ordinary photos of lights.
“Light painting” is a popular activity, where a person moves lights in front of a stationary camera with its shutter open to paint shapes, letters, and patterns. I wanted to do light painting, but with a reverse technique: I decided to move the camera while viewing stationary lights. And there was nothing to stop me!
I tested out my approach at a light art installation in our local botanical garden, where I learned the nuances of how close and bright the lights needed to be, and the best length of time for exposures. Once I studied my results, I decided to go for closer, bigger, brighter lights. Between San Francisco’s neon and seasonal holiday lights, I had plenty of colors and signs to work with.
While I felt foolish and a bit fanatical for going out on such cold nights that I had difficulty feeling my fingertips, the air was very clear, and the lights were brilliant. Those nights were beautiful, and I was elated to be outdoors with so many potential subjects.
Not all of my experiments satisfied me. Some signs remained too legible; some parts of signs I wanted to emphasize were either blurry or overwhelmed by other colors. After many nights out and time to reflect on which images I like most, I was able to assemble this collection of my favorites.
You can preview the softcover version of entire book at Blurb; a hardcover version with a truncated preview is also available.