Beautiful Light Painting Photos Created With Dancers and Athletes

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Combining light painting with sports that involve long fluid motion is a match made in photography heaven that companies like Red Bull have already taken advantage of to create some pretty spectacular shots.

Photographers Joanna Jaskólska and Zach Ancell both had similar ideas, and their resulting photo series — Breakdance Baby! and Trajectory — are both unique examples of the awesome photography you can create when you mix dance, athletics and light painting.

First up is Jaskólska, whose photo series Breakdance Baby! was created by putting a special LED wand in the hands of her breakdancer friends Max and Chris and then letting them do their thing. This is only her first experiment with the light painting/dance combination, but she assures us it’s “definitely not the last:”

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Ancell’s series Trajectory is similar in that it is capturing movements of dancers and athletes with some help from light painting, but his photos are shot against a black background. His photos show athletes going through the motions you may see them make on the field, court or stage; only when the shutter is slowed down, we get to see the trail they leave in their wake.

After many moths of work putting together composite after composite, he wanted to do something different. He set a goal to shoot 50 test shoots over the course of the year, and the first manifestation of this goal is his the 17 photos in this series:

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You can see more from either Jaskólska or Ancell by following the respective links to their websites. Be sure to keep an eye out as they continue to experiment and Jaskólska in particular continues to merge light painting and dancing in future shoots.

(via Laughing Squid and Behance)

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