Big Shot still going strong

Photo by RIT Big Shot photographers

The Strong in Rochester

Beams of playful light danced around the campus of The Strong in Rochester for the making of RIT’s 26th Big Shot photography project.

About 1,000 volunteers, armed with flashlights and camera flash units, bathed the exterior of the museum and portions of the interior with light to provide the primary light source for a nighttime photograph.

The volunteers were tasked with continuously painting their assigned area with light while RIT photographers, perched on the terrace rooftop of the ESL Federal Credit Union, shot an extended exposure. To provide perspective in the photo, families were posed in the front of the children’s museum along with a Radio Flyer wagon, one of the toys inducted into the National Toy Hall of Fame.

“We made four exposures and after each one we made some lighting adjustments,” says Michael Peres, chairman of RIT’s biomedical photographic communications program and one of the Big Shot organizers. “It was truly Big Shot magic how it all came together with the volunteers, even the beautiful weather.”

The final image is a 15-second exposure at f11.

RIT’s Big Shot project began in 1987 as way to teach students about flash photography. To view the nighttime images of all 26 Big Shot subjects, go to the RIT Big Shot website.


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