My ongoing love affair with San Francisco grew stronger last night as I made letters and shapes with light sources and other photography enthusiasts in Dolores Park.

Organized by the great online photography community of JPG mag, the cult camera purveyors Lomography, and my inspiring friend Amit Gupta and the wonderful Photojojo newsletter crew, fifty people arrived at dusk to paint the park with lights of varying sizes and shapes.

I freestyled for a bit on my own (hidden behind the light above and below),

and then Amit took this of me,

before writing his name (this is difficult to do and Amit, of course, managed it on the first try).

A little later, as the sky darkened further, Kelly of Photojojo (she’s great) came over and wrote her name,

and then more people I had just met stepped in front of my camera, Christian forcefully writing pi,

gracefully scrawling a nickname (Crystal is my friend David Sasaki‘s sister and this is his nickname for her),

and carefully drawing the three letters in Crystal’s friend Zon’s name.

LED lights were shared; ambitious group photos were attempted; small groups clustered across the park, helping each other tweak camera settings and exposure lengths, appreciatively admiring the results of the photographers around them.

The streaks of light last night made visible the way I see the beautiful energy of this city—swirling above and around those who live here, who also make space for those of us who pass through as often as we can—

More photos in my Flickr set; explore more Flickr photos on lightpainting and thanks again to Amit for letting me borrow his tripod and generally bringing the awesome—

Related posts:

1. of leaves and light
2. transformative light in Miami
3. sun light, Ms. Albright, first spider I see tonight

1. Amanda:
   September 4th, 2008 at 4:27 pm

   Oh I so wish I could have been there. I love San Francisco so much, and to gather with other creative-minded souls in such a beautiful city sounds simply divine. Plus, knowing you, the event was preceded and/or followed by a special dining experience…

2. Stewart:
   September 4th, 2008 at 6:38 pm

   …That looks like album cover material for yours truly. Hot.

3. Antony Loewenstein:
   September 4th, 2008 at 7:01 pm

   The randomness of the light, shapes and moods is truly breath-taking. So an album-cover kind of groove. And so the kind of fun that should be had in various countries, such as, perhaps, Down Under.

4. Jessica:
   September 4th, 2008 at 7:10 pm

   Viva Gaia 2.0!

5. Ben:
   September 4th, 2008 at 7:12 pm

   Very cool. I know you normally reserve listening recommendations for kthread cooks posts, but I can’t help offering a companion song for this post: The Indigo Girls’ “Let it Be Me.” Seems perfect for a social justice-oriented place like San Fran.

6. Jessica:
   September 4th, 2008 at 11:21 pm

   That is awesome!! And that picture of you is beautiful. You look wonder-ous. Wonder-filled.

7. Kristen:
   September 5th, 2008 at 9:30 am

   Thank you, all these wonderful comments from my favorite people.

   Amanda, yes, we then went to dinner at Aslam’s Rasoi (goat cheese naan!) Maybe we can paint with light next week in DC? Looking forward to seeing you—

   Stewart, what if we paint a piano with light? Loves it.

   Antony, I think lightpainting should definitely be a global thing.

   Jessica, so very glad we found our new vintage store, was fun to shop with you—the dress is fun to wear and makes me smile—

   Ben, that is the perfect recommendation. As always, you know how to complete a kthread post.

   Jessica, thanks. We will have to lightpaint Buffalo sometime—I was, and am, so inspired by the movements of curving light—

8. David Sasaki:
   September 6th, 2008 at 3:41 am

   Booger has a friend named Zon? Where does she meet these people? I’m way jealous – these photographs turned out excellent.

9. El Oso » Archive » Ars Electronica:
   September 6th, 2008 at 5:16 am

   [...] huh? It’s called lightpainting. Amit seems like a master. Check out all the pictures on Kristen’s flickr [...]

10. Kristen:
    September 6th, 2008 at 6:49 pm

    Zon seemed very nice, David. And he told me my dress reminded him of the Power Rangers, which made me laugh. These must be the eclectic people in Crystal’s neighborhood; you’ll have to lightpaint with her when you’re on this coast—

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Posted Thursday, September 4th, 2008, 10:04 am * Filed in Design. * Tags: amit, christian, dolores, gupta, jpg, jpgmag, kristen, kthread, lightpainting, lomography, mag, park, Photography, photojojo, taylor. Follow responses through the RSS 2.0 feed. Leave a response, or trackback from your own site.