Living in a country where the sun doesn't rise for months on end could pose some challenges, but Finnish artist Janne Parviainen has made the most of such a situation - by painting with light.
These eerie pictures are the result of what Parviainen calls "an accident." He explains, "I had forgotten the long exposure mode on my camera, and realised I could 'write' with streetlights by moving the camera while it was exposing."
He posted the photos from his new discovery on Flickr and they quickly caught the attention of Light Junkies photography group, inspiring him to "explore the medium further."
Surprisingly, Parviainen says he prefers to use natural light and with no editing afterwards.
"The idea of light painting is that all photos should be straight from the camera", he explains.
Parviainen tells us how being at one with Finland's inhospitable winter temperatures helps: "The best possible condition for light painting is definitely during full moon, especially in winter when there's lot of snow on the ground. Really low temperatures make for nice crispy and clear photos, although it's not the most comfortable condition to be taking photos."
Helsinki Safari from Hahmo on Vimeo.
Over 800 of Parviainen's light paintings were used in this stop-motion video of a skeleton band.
The illuminated bodies in Parviainen's images are created through "the basic idea of tracing your body with light", as the artist's subjects follow the shape of their bodies, or their bones for the light skeletons, with LEDs. "It's as simple as that", he says.
Parviainen captures it all on a long exposure - which can vary from a few seconds to hours. "Everything you see in the photo has really happened, the camera has just captured the fast beams of light into a single image."
He says his inspiration is in the painting's creation, "Seeing something you have imagined come to life is always so rewarding. I really love the fact that you can draw in three dimensional space with light painting - it's something you cannot achieve in any other art form and it makes my brains sizzle with ideas!"
Check out the amazing images in our gallery below.