Light Painting Forestry and Logging Equipment
Here’s another cool light painting project of forestry and logging equipment created for Fornengo Forest Products located in Danbury, Wisconsin.
Here’s what everything looked like before light painting. The John Deere 1210 Forwarder and the Tigercat H822E Skidder with a Waratah HTH623C Harvester Head are pretty impressive machines!
This light painting project was created about 15 miles from Danbury. After keeping Josh and Brandie Fornengo out well past all of our bedtimes the night before, Josh’s brother Brandon was “on call” for this one. His wife, Tanya, dropped by to see what we were up to as well.
This project was much easier, time-wise, in two ways. One, there were just two rigs in the image. And two, they weren’t all spread out over a couple of acres! I was back in my hotel room by a little after 11 pm, instead of 2 am the night before (which I guess was really that morning)!
This project was the second of three that I created for them over three nights. The first project’s full story, featuring the six forestry harvesting rigs that you see below, can be found at the link below.
Light Painting for Fornengo Forest Products
This is the final artwork created at the first Fornengo Forest Products light painting project. In this cool image, from left to right, we have a John Deere 948L-II Grapple Skidder, a SERCO 300 Series Loader, a John Deere 2154G Swing Machine with a Pro Pac Delimber, a Tigercat 625E Skidder. a SERCO 300 Series Loader with a 72″ SERCO Saw, and a Tigercat X830E Feller Buncher with a Tigercat 5400 Felling Saw!
The Stars of the Show
The rig on the left in this light painting project is a John Deere 1210 Forwarder. The one on the right is a Tigercat H822E Skidder with a Waratah HTH623C Harvester Head attached. That bugger caused more than a little trouble in this light painting project. We’ll get into that in a moment.
When I arrived, Brandon and I looked at two spots to create this light painting project. I selected this one because it was much more level. I started setting up my gear as Brandon walked down the road to get the John Deere 1210 Forwarder. When he returned, I had him use it to level off a spot for my camera and tripod just as Josh had done for me the night before on the first project.
Brandon and I got everything all set up, and then we waited for it to get dark enough to start light painting everything. As you might guess, these rigs are both big and heavy! So much so, that the Waratah HTH623C Harvester Head that’s attached to the Tigercat H822E Skidder would have to be repositioned (more than once) because it kept sinking into the ground, and tipping sideways!
It moved very, very slowly. However, each time it did, the boom arm on the Tigercat H822E would get pulled down a couple of feet too! That meant there would certainly be alignment problems in post-production. I had to realign many of the images while creating the master file. Not very much fun, but thankfully, it was doable.
Light Painting a John Deere 1210 Forwarder
Here’s the light-painted close-up of the John Deere 1210 Forwarder. This thing can load and unload logs very quickly!
At 45,900 lbs (empty), this John Deere 1210 Forwarder is pretty serious when it comes to loading and hauling logs! It features a self-leveling cab for comfortable operation on uneven ground. The cab also rotates 360 degrees for better visibility and has very advanced boom controls for precise log handling. It comes fully equipped with very strong axles, and increased diesel power, and provides great performance and stability in diverse logging conditions.
Light Painting a Tigercat H822E Skidder with a Waratah HTH623C Harvester Head
Here’s a zoomed-in version of the Tigercat H822E Skidder with the Waratah HTH623C Harvester Head.
The Tigercat H822E Skidder is specifically designed for selective harvesting and felling operations. It has a compact track with a powerful boom and harvesting head. In this case, it’s the Waratah HTH623C Harvester Head. This big rig is specifically built for efficient and precise tree harvesting while minimizing site damage.
The Waratah HTH623C Harvester Head can handle logs up to 34 inches thick and precisely cut them to any length while doing so! It also weighs in at an impressive 6702 lbs! It was that weight that caused the problems for us that night.
Here’s a pic taken with my iPhone of the Waratah HTH623C Harvester Head. Hard to believe this dude weighs nearly 7,000 lbs!
Since we don’t leave engines running when we light paint vehicles of any kind, that meant that the boom arm on the Tigercat H822E wasn’t being held in place by its hydraulics. Well, the sheer weight of the Waratah HTH623C, combined with the angle of the boom arm, and the soft ground, caused the whole boom arm to slowly sag! Not exactly great when you’re expecting dozens of exposures to line up later on in post-production!
So, I ended up taking very small light-painted pieces of the Waratah HTH623C and realigning each part, one tiny layer at a time, in post. Not exactly ideal, but I managed to make it happen!
Light Painting Forestry and Logging Equipment
In addition to the sheer size and all of the incredible details that heavy equipment has, my favorite thing about these types of projects is that there’s minimal cleanup required once it’s completed. The dirtier the machinery is, the better!
Here’s the completed one-of-a-kind light painting of the John Deere 1210 Forwarder and the Tigercat H822E Skidder with a Waratah HTH623C Harvester Head. Pretty amazing engineering here!
Compare that to a fancy sports car, or a show truck, where I can spend a couple of hours or more just cleaning specs of dust and pollen off the vehicle! It’s a nice change of pace, that’s for sure!
The Build Video
I’ve created a short “Build Video” that contains the images used to create the final light painting of these cool pieces of forestry and logging equipment. It also shows the final image getting built, one layer at a time, using Photoshop and other programs. It’s pretty cool! Please check it out at the link below on our YouTube channel.
If you’re enjoying this project, we have many other light paintings of heavy equipment featured on our dedicated Light Painting Photography website. Please click on this link to be taken there.
A big thanks to the Fornengo family for asking me to create your light-painted art for your company! I had a blast (and there’s still one more to go)! – M&J