Lightworms

Many years ago, I was concerned about exposure and clarity. I packed an 8X10 view camera around and sometimes would take a half hour to set up a shot, because film was expensive and development in my amateur darkroom was time-consuming and cumbersome by today's standards.

Today, my digital camera allows me to spew hundreds of exposures at a sitting and pick the very best one for display.

So why did I pick this one, you ask?
1) My master-blipper wife told me in the field that it was blippable.
2) The scientific aspect makes it interesting to me.

We have a state park close to our vacation rental that has a beautiful Christmas light display every year. Years ago, as the display grew, all the lights were incandescent, and I'm sure there was a terrible electrical draw. As Light Emitting Diodes (LEDs) became more affordable, there was a gradual shift until now, all the acres of bushes, trees and a house are covered in strings of LEDs at a tremendous savings in electricity.

So how does that relate to this photo?
Thermal Inertia.
Incandescent lights heat up a filament until it glows white-hot. When the power is turned off it gradually cools off and stops glowing. LEDs are solid-state, and convert electricity directly to light, so are instant-on and instant-off.

So with our 110 Volt Alternating Current (110VAC) that we use in the US, thermal inertia keeps the incandescent filament glowing as the current changes from +110V through 0V to -110V at 60 cycles per second, and the light is constant.

LEDs, instant on-and-off, respond instantly to +110V, 0V and -110V. They pulsate at 120 on-off cycles per second, which you can't see straight-on, but if you look by in passing you can see the strobe effect.

To get this photo, I put the camera on maximum telephoto and focused on a small grouping of lights. Then I let my shaky hands on a cold almost-winter night do the rest. If you look closely, you'll see that the photo is made up of many identically-shaped tracks, one per LED, the shape of the tracks dictated by the camera shake.

If you count the pulses in one light track, you'll know how long the camera's shutter was open - 120 pulses per second, right? And you might question if you might have too much time on your hands.

Anyhow, it was a beautiful night. Our church family met out there for caroling in the gazebo, then we wandered around the grounds, stopping for refreshments provided by volunteers at the house.

~:-)