Pinheiro Manso, aka Pinus Pinea, the pine tree growing on the sandy terrain around Lagoa de Albufeira. A humble plan of going to the beach turned into a group of 6 people learning new light paint techniques, throwing sand in the air, climbing trees, waving fiber optic whips, and being the exotic fauna of this admirable south Tagus flora. Thank you guys for a joint adventure to creat Light Painting Trees on the Easter Sunday 2019.

Heavily protected against snakes and scorpions I went out to seek the Milky Way and this tree. We had some 30°C of sorts, so I was melting away and had to keep it simple for this Light Painting. Here I present to you my first Black Fiber Brush used on a Tree Experiment. Its a 133-second single exposure at ISO 1600 on my Laowa 12mm Zero D at F2.8. This shot was taken in Bonwa Phala, South Africa, 2024

So glad I was my Canon was actually in Bulb mode running and I got the shot of me crashing my DJI MavicPro drone into the tree. Attached was a smell Lumecube. It crashed into it and fell down from branch to branch to the ground. Apart from the damage to the drone I really really love the picture.

The Tree’s Heart Beat – Drone Light Painting
One of my last years travels also brought me to Lisbon and the coast of Portugal. Right next to the property of that friend I found this wonderful tree. Attaching a little light to my drone and flying next to the tree gave me this wonderful picture. So the tree has been only lit by the LED light on the drone. The exposure time here is 31sec. at ISO 50 using my Canon EOS 5D Mark IV.
Funny side note: the owner of the next property thought this is a police drone and tried to shoot it down with an air rifle. He didn’t get it so I am still flying.

This might just be THAT TREE that started all tree light paintings I did. The first time I came to White Pocket Arizona I didn’t even find that tree. Overwhelmed with all the beauty and all these different spots I was so busy photography the night was over before I found it. Second time around here it was. The next two times it was always a must photograph spot. MY favorite tree.

This might just be THAT TREE that started all tree light paintings I did. MY favorite tree.

This is a lucky shot one gets rarely. Last year Natalia Cerqueira and I been to the Ancient Bristlecone Pine Forest in California photographing at night. So take a 4000 years old tree, 3 Shooting Stars (the third one is hard to see in low res) and a plane adds the Milky Way and wait for this to happen in front of you in the same minute you sit there. We got lucky and managed to get it in one single long exposure Light Painting. Starting off with the first 2minute of the exposure at F22 ISO 3200 lighting up the Metusalem, then when we were finished with that we gave the Milky Way another 30 seconds to develop, changing the settings of the lens to F2.8. Then we saw 3 shooting stars in the sky plus that airplane. What a surprise! What makes that picture so special is that there were no layers needed in post-production. Just the way I like it, No Photoshop needed.

I really have a thing for trees. Here is one of my favorite Light Painting Trees. This Boab tree I got this one in the middle of nowhere in Western Australia.

One of the hottest nights I ever spent Light Painting. 39.5° C 2 AM – impossible to sleep full-on sweaty sleeping on the car in the middle of nowhere. Anyhow the photo was totally worth it. This Boab Tree was so impressive and also noisy. What you can’t see nor hear are all the frogs that were sitting in that tree. So cool.

What I did here is actually really simple. It’s a 40sec. exposure and I run with my colored flashlights towards the tree and shine at the ground first then the tree second. If you look closely you can also see my feet. I think it adds some organic texture and makes it more real than just some photoshopped effect. So both photos have not been edited in photoshop. Both are single exposures no layers or composites. All I did here is some soft edit in Lightroom to get out the Milkyway. Which was actually really simple, because there was pretty much no light pollution in the wild, wild Western Australia. ISO 3200 also helps 😉

Find more Light Painting inspiration. Have a look at Drone Light Painting or Landscape Light Painting