Photographer Uses a Drone to Light-Paint Baby Yoda in the Brilliant Night Sky

Baby Yoda Light Painting

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Everyone is captivated by Baby Yoda (aka the cutest Star Wars character ever). Artists, bakers, and now photographers have paid homage to The Child through their creativity. Using a combination of drone technology and long-exposure photography, Russell Klimas made a light painting of a giant Baby Yoda against the brilliant backdrop of the night sky.

“The inspiration to do this was simply because I was watching The Mandalorian and generally like to do drone light painting of show, video games, or causes that I'm passionate about,” Klimas tells My Modern Met. “It seemed like a good fit with Baby Yoda being so popular!”

The photographer produced the light painting using a DJI Mavic drone with a Lume Cube Strobe attached to it. Because it would be nearly impossible to sketch Baby Yoda when flying the drone by hand, Klimas used two programs to plot the device’s course. One was Google Earth and the other was a flight app called Litchi. After tracing a photo of Baby Yoda on Google Earth, he imported the path in Litchi. “It took me an hour to program it,” Klimas recalls. “The image itself took 18 minutes once the drone started going.” During this time, he used a tripod and long exposure to photograph the portrait.

Despite working on the image remotely, Klimas was able to outline Baby Yoda’s green skin and trace the rest of his robe in a reddish-brown color. “The different colors for Baby Yoda were created with filters I placed over the light,” he explains. “Once I was finished with one color I covered the lens of the camera so it could fly back down and I could change the color out.”

Photographer Russell Klimas used a drone to create a light painting featuring the adorable Baby Yoda.

Baby Yoda Light Painting

He traced a photo of The Child using Google Earth and then imported the path into an app called Litchi, which painted the image in the sky.

Baby Yoda Light Painting

Baby Yoda Light Painting

Baby Yoda Light Painting

Once the drone got going, it took 18 minutes for it to complete the portrait. Klimas captured the image using long-exposure photography

Baby Yoda Light Painting

Russell Klimas: Website | Facebook | Instagram

My Modern Met granted permission to feature photos by Russell Klimas. 

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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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