Long-Exposure Photos Turn Rock Climbing Routes Into Epic Rainbow Bursts Across the Landscape

Long Exposure Photography

Fisher Towers near Moab, Utah

Luke Rasmussen, aka PhLuke Photos, creates rainbows that illuminate the desert at night. With his incredible long-exposure photography and rock climbing skills, he produces trails of colors that span the height of tall formations. Rasmussen does this by strapping LED lights to his body and then leaving the shutter on his camera open. He then quickly works his way up and down the chosen rock. “I have to climb as fast as possible to get the right ‘flowy’ look that I'm going for,” Rasmussen explained on Reddit. The resulting effect looks like a ball of energy is vibrating in short bursts across the landscape.

Since we last caught up with Rasmussen, he has continued to climb and has traveled beyond his home in Nevada in order to capture some amazing long-exposure shots. He most recently worked with the camera brand Lumix for a spectacular picture of the Fisher Towers near Moab, Utah. “In order to get it, I used the Lumix's Live View Composition mode which takes a series of exposures and builds them together in-camera to produce one final image,” he wrote on Instagram. “This removes much of the guesswork that usually goes into adjusting the settings for long-exposure images. And, on this particular night, I was very happy to have that guesswork removed. It turns out that even at midnight it is quite hot in the desert in August. And that it gets even hotter when you put on a sweatshirt with a bunch of super bright lights.”

Scroll down for more of Rasmussen’s latest photos, and be sure to check out our interview with him where he sheds even more light on how he creates his work.

Photographer Luke Rasmussen climbs rocks to create long-exposure images that transform the landscape into bursts of rainbows.

Long Exposure Photography

Rainbow Light Photography

Rainbow Light Photography

Rainbow Light Photography

Long Exposure Landscape Photography

Long Exposure Landscape Photography

Long Exposure Photography

Rainbow Light Photography

Long Exposure Landscape Photography

Long Exposure Landscape Photography

Long Exposure Photography

Luke Rasmussen: Website | Instagram

My Modern Met granted permission to feature photos by Luke Rasmussen. 

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Sara Barnes

Sara Barnes is a Staff Editor at My Modern Met, Manager of My Modern Met Store, and co-host of the My Modern Met Top Artist Podcast. As an illustrator and writer living in Seattle, she chronicles illustration, embroidery, and beyond through her blog Brown Paper Bag and Instagram @brwnpaperbag. She wrote a book about embroidery artist Sarah K. Benning titled "Embroidered Life" that was published by Chronicle Books in 2019. Sara is a graduate of the Maryland Institute College of Art. She earned her BFA in Illustration in 2008 and MFA in Illustration Practice in 2013.
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