Louise - Blinding (Patreon)

That time I almost went blind.

So a while back I had this brilliant idea to get a laser and do some long exposure photography involving models. I thought I could get a relatively cheap laser to make it happen...hours of research later and I am the not so proud owner of a 100mw 405nm purple laser. Turns out they need a special battery, along with a charger for that special battery, and specialty shipping from China, so in the end the $12 laser I thought I was buying turned out to be $100.

Along the way I learned much about lasers and how damn dangerous they are. The wavelengths for purple and blue are the most dangerous because our eyes are much less sensitive to that spectrum of light. This means if you can see the beam, that the power level is much much higher than that of red and green lasers. The power of these lasers is such that a single flash to the eye is strong enough to cause permanent eye damage and possibly permanent blindness. You cannot blink quickly enough to eliminate the damage caused by this wavelength and power level.

So with the greatest plans to be extremely careful, I set up this shot with the beautiful Louise. Luckily, she is a very disciplined very amazing girl who understood the danger levels involved and kept safe. (seriously this thing even has a key on the back so that you can lock it off from being used or accidentally fired)

The title post shot was safe enough, however on the shot below, I had not recognized her belly button ring as a potential reflector (it's not in this shot because we took it out after the first try)....it hit me directly in the eye on the first attempt and I spent the next few days freaking out... I went and did some eye tests and researched more and it seems I am likely fine considering the reflection was more of a refraction than a direct reflection (i saw the beam spread out into 6-8 different directions when it hit the diamond on her bellybutton ring) however it was an absolutely terrifying experience for me and I hope you all enjoy the resulting photos.

Now for the other shots that we managed to accomplish before calling it a night. The entire time my heart was racing and I was a little out of focus because I was quite certain I had received significant eye damage (there are no nerves in your eye so there is no pain or obvious way to know you've been damaged) but at the same time there was nothing I could do immediately within reason so we continued with safer setups.

Anyway, for now I am retiring the laser. I would really love to do more with it, as it was a huge learning experience and took some of the wildest camera settings I've ever used (max ISO, multi second long exposure, for my fellow photogs out there) ; I looked into getting safety glasses but a single pair is over $60 and they are not even considered safe for if the beam hits your eye directly or on reflection...to me this is the same as not wearing safety glasses since that's my biggest concern and I would need two pair one for me and one for the model.  There are some lab safety glasses but they are wayyyy up there in price (+$1000)