a daily photo from joshua l. smith
One of our favorite father-daughter adventures is traveling to gardens and conservatories. Visiting the indoor gardens (like Nicholas Conservatory in Rockford and Garfield and Lincoln Park Conservatories) and seeing the colorful plants when it’s monochrome outside has become a highlight in the colder months. The girls bring paper, pens, and colored pencils and draw the flowers, ferns and greenery (and I sometimes draw a bit too) while I wander around and take photos.
In October, I led a workshop on “Night photography & Light Painting” at Elgin Area Camera Club. The only problem was the weeks leading up to my workshop; they were rainy, overcast, and generally not friendly to those kinds of photography. Instead, Sarah and I purchased several different kinds of glow sticks and LED lights, and over the next week, we tried all sorts of photo experiments with the new toys.
We enjoyed this so much that even after the workshop night, Sarah and I continued playing with the lights and having fun.
For those that are intesterested, we used regular white Christmas lights, Super Z Outlet Upgraded Light up Foam Sticks (link), Lumistick 12” Jumbo Glow Light Sticks (link), and SurLight 4 Piece Car 72 LED Strip Lights (Amazon no longer lists the items that we bought, but here’s a very similar link).