Lighting, before joining Flux, was foreign to me. The subject had yet to come up in my experience, but I knew it eventually would. My first assignment was a self-portrait. Although the most difficult part was deciding how to portray myself, the thought of tackling studio lights gave me nightmares. Once I decided that I wanted to be on a bike in my photo, the rest of the project had to come together. I wanted to be moving, because my life is never at a standstill. I also wanted to shine somehow. That's how I want people to see me, and that's how I want to see myself. With some help from my photo teacher and mentor, I went about setting up my shoot. 

For this photo, taken at night, I had fireworks taped to the handlebars. As I was riding the bike downhill, I needed to combat the effects of having streaks of light ahead of me, instead of behind. This is what a typical shot would have done. We set up a flash to the side of my path, about where I would stop riding. Another flash came off the camera, which  was set up  with the rear sync turned on, meaning that the flash would light at the last possible moment while the shutter is still open. The shutter, set on a speed of 1/15, was pressed as I began riding down the hill. At the last moment, just as I approached the camera, the flash would go off, leaving the streak of light behind me, as it would look to the natural eye. This shoot was very difficult because of timing. Lighting the fireworks, while still having enough time to ride downhill, proved difficult.  But in the end, I'm happy with the results.