Making "Neon"

In my writeup on last year's card I mentioned that I had a great idea that I couldn't make work. This year's card represents my attempt at executing that idea. I have always thought that "painting with light" is a fascinating technique. You've probably seen the Sprint commercials where things like suns and comets are painted with flashlights. I wasn't so ambitious, but my idea last year was that Benjamin and Jeremy would use flashlights to spell out "Happy New Year".

So last year I set up my camera in a dark room and had Benjamin and Jeremy try to spell out various words to see how it would work. You can see some of the test shots below.

If you look at these images you notice a few things. First, while the boys are capable of spelling out pretty complicated things, they're not really that legible. Plus, in the shots where you can actually see one of them, they are obviously completely blurred from all the writing. Finally, how was I possibly going to get all three words into one card.

It didn't seem feasible and I was running out of time. So I tabled the idea.