• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Skip to footer
  • Home
  • BLOG
  • TUTORIALS
    • Free Patterns
    • Free Printables
    • SEWING
      • Technique
    • CRAFTS
      • Printables
    • CROCHET
    • Baby
    • KIDS
      • Boys
      • Girls
      • KIDS CREATE
      • Lego
      • Parenting
    • Women
    • Men
    • Holiday Projects
      • Birthday
      • Valentine’s Day
      • Easter
      • Spring
      • Mother’s Day
      • Father’s Day
      • Summer
        • Color Your Summer 1
        • Color Your Summer 2
        • Color Your Summer 3
      • Halloween
      • Autumn
      • Thanksgiving
      • Christmas
      • Winter
    • Accessories
    • Home Projects
    • No Sew
    • Gift Ideas
      • Teacher Appreciation
    • Party Ideas
    • Photography
    • RECIPES
      • Allergy Friendly
      • Baking
      • Sweet
      • Savory
      • Beverage
      • Breakfast
      • Holiday
      • Soups
      • Vegan
  • SHOP
    • SHOP
    • Cart
    • ACCOUNT
  • ABOUT
    • CONTACT
    • Featured
  • SPONSOR
    • PRESS
  • Privacy Policy
  • TERMS OF USE

delia creates

holiday, kids, kids create, photography, tutorial · January 4, 2013

Glow in the Dark Photography Fun…with kids!

After a fun dinner with friends, we came home early on New Year’s Eve to put Natalie to bed. Such is our life with small kids. But I don’t mind. We created some of our own fun at home.

We broke out the glow sticks for bath time, and then carried them into the living room for a hyper, crazy dance party with the two older boys.

Eventually our dance party led to some really cool night photography.

It’s a pretty simple project, but you’ll need a dSLR.

*Set your ISO to about 1600.
*Set your camera on a tripod or a flat surface. I used the top of our arm chair.
*Adjust your shutter speed to about 15 seconds. Yep, not 1/15 of a second. A full 15 seconds.

*Oh, and you need a small light source: a small flash light, led light, sparklers, or in our case glow sticks.

*Ask your subjects to hold still and press the shutter button. If your lens is on auto focus it can sometimes take awhile for the camera to focus well enough to take the picture. I keep it on auto focus because I don’t trust my manual focusing ability, especially in the dark.

*Once the shutter opens, any movement will be picked up into a whirlwind or a flurry of light.

Neat right?

You can try writing with your light as well. I was the only one interested in that though. 🙂

The boys kept trying to make it look like they were Ninjagoes using their spinjitzu. 🙂

This was such a fun family activity that appealed to everyone. My husband and I have done it as an at home date night before, but have never done it with our kids. They absolutely had a ball.

Hey and if you need more New Year celebration ideas to do with your kids, I wrote an article for What to Expect’s website. Go here to read it.

Their site was down for the holidays, so it’s a bit late, but I shared a few ideas that would be appropriate for almost any celebration with kids.

We had an invitation to go to dinner with friends so we weren’t able to do everything that I mention in the article. We did do family activities new and old and had a great time. I love holidays like New Years because it’s laid back and just pure fun.

I hope you all have the most wonderful 2013!

Have a great weekend!

P.S. Oh and if you are having deja vu with this post, I accidentally posted it earlier this week. 😉

Previous Post: « Natalie’s Christmas Dress
Next Post: Hats for Winter Wonder »

Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. Jessica at Me Sew Crazy says

    January 4, 2013 at 4:51 PM

    COOLEST PHOTOS EVER DELIA!!! I keep thinking I want to have a glow stick bath time, and we haven't done it yet.

    Last night we had a major dance party to some fun 70s music – there is nothing quite like letting loose and having fun with your kids!

    I love that you guys do that too 🙂

    Reply
  2. Andrea says

    January 4, 2013 at 5:07 PM

    These are really cute! I love sparkler photos like this but hadn't thought of using glow sticks! Fun!

    Reply
  3. astr!d says

    January 4, 2013 at 7:05 PM

    thats awesome!!! i think i want to try with my kiddos!

    Reply
  4. Charity says

    January 4, 2013 at 8:52 PM

    Those are some really awesome photos! I love it. =)

    Reply
  5. Elise says

    January 4, 2013 at 9:22 PM

    The pics turned out great! How fun!

    Reply
  6. Joanna P-G says

    January 4, 2013 at 9:27 PM

    hi
    Happy New Year
    you have lovely photos!

    Reply
  7. Christie says

    January 4, 2013 at 11:51 PM

    So awesome!!! I bet your kids love looking at the pictures. You are such a fun mom, Delia!

    Reply
  8. Moore Minutes says

    January 5, 2013 at 6:25 AM

    These are so amazing!! WOW.

    Reply
  9. Lindsay says

    January 5, 2013 at 6:45 AM

    This is such an awesome idea! I’ll have to do this next year with glow sticks. P.S. Your New Year’s was much more exciting than mine — and I don’t even have kids yet. 🙂

    Reply
  10. dana says

    January 8, 2013 at 6:13 AM

    this is so fun!

    Reply

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Recipe Rating




This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

Primary Sidebar

Search this site:

Reader Perks

Reader Perks

Footer

  • Facebook
  • Flickr
  • Instagram
  • Pinterest
  • Twitter
  • YouTube

All Images On This Site Are Protected By Copyright

You may not use any images from this site unless you meet one or more of these requirements: 1) You receive permission in writing from Delia Randall for each specific image you would like to use. 2) You use ONE image in a round up or feature post with a link back to the appropriate post or the main site for credit and for full posts/tutorials. Thank you!

Archives

Search This Site:

© 2023 delia creates · Design By Bloom