If you follow Eric Paré’s work, you know him for stunning light painting photos. He uses all sorts of tubes to paint with light, but this time, he had to improvise. He and his girlfriend Kim Henry created a dress, jewelry and a tube for the shoot using only stuff they found in a hotel room. Some paper, a shower curtain, and a towel did a trick – and they ended up with pretty cool shots.
Eric and Kim had this idea when their flight to New York was canceled and they got stuck in Chicago for a night. As they were riding to their hotel room, they started joking about using a bed sheet to fake a dress and using whatever they could find in the hotel room as a light-painting tube.
When they got to the hotel, it turned out that the shower curtains and hooks would do the trick. They improvised a dress with the shower curtain and a white hotel towel. The hooks ended up on Kim’s wrist as bracelets.
As for the tube, the couple gave it a try with the plane tickets. They rolled them to create a tube and went out at dusk to take some shots. It didn’t take long before the tube fell apart, but hey, they did end up with some cool photos.
Eric writes that they didn’t do miracles shooting with an improvised tube behind a McDonald’s restaurant. “But we certainly made a point by showing that no matter the conditions, there’s always a way to see the positive side and make the best out of it.” Eric believes that you shouldn’t wait for the perfect conditions or until you have the right equipment.” Just go out and shoot. Do it,” he adds.
I tend to agree with Eric. It’s great if you have perfect conditions and professional gear to shoot. But sometimes, you will find yourself in a situation when you’ll need to improvise and work with what you’ve got. You can turn a bunch of random items into photography props if you have some imagination. And after all, sometimes all that matters is to have fun.
[Paper tube and shower curtain dress -Tube Stories 101 | Eric Paré]
