Laser Painting

I got a 5mW green laser from DealExtreme a few weeks ago and have been wanting to use it for some photos. I'm terrible at drawing with the laser, so I just tried writing my signature. To make it more interesting, I decided to include myself in the shot while doing the laser painting all in one photo.

I set up my Nikon D60 on a tripod at f/10, 200 ISO, and 20 seconds on the exposure. Strobist: Sunpak 333 at full power with the head zoomed to 135mm on a light stand, camera set to rear-sync flash (that's where the flash doesn't go off until the shutter closes, which means I was able to run in at the end and still be in the photo). The trick was getting proper lighting on myself without shining too much on the fence behind me or overpowering the laser. It took a bit of trial and error, but I eventually positioned it in front of and to the right of the camera with the flash facing almost to the left but tilted towards me enough to get some light.

I could have easily merged this from two shots, but it was a lot more fun and challenging this way. There's no post-processing other than cropping off a bit from the edges. Unfortunately, I didn't really have a surface other than the fence that I could use, so I had to deal with the small breaks in the lines from the spaces in between the boards.