Light graffiti: Like an advanced-photographic version of writing your name with a sparkler on Bonfire Night, Michael Bosanko has spent the past five years developing his art

Created by Welsh artist Michael Bosanko, the Light Graffiti effect is achieved using only five coloured torches and a long exposure on a digital Canon camera.

Like an advanced-photographic version of writing your name with a sparkler on Bonfire Night, Michael has spent the past five years developing his art.

Based in Cardiff, Mr Bosanko, 39, draws most of his light art either in the empty urban night spaces of cities like Newport and his home town, or in the more desolate landscapes of the Brecon Beacons hills.

"I use my torches like an artist would use a paint brush," says Mr Bosanko.

"I employ an exposure that lasts from ten seconds to one hour and then try to let my art manage to create what I had imagined.

"What I feel I am trying to convey is a sense of an aesthetically pleasing shape that clearly does not belong in that particular place or area," said Mr Bosanko.

Covering the lens of his average household torches in coloured paper allows Mr Bosanko to bring different shades of the spectrum to his work.

"To get the best results the shoot depends on the amount of ambient light that is available.

"If I am working in an urban environment like a city then there is lots of ambient light that means I have to work quickly.

"Some people have asked if I have ever used photo-shop on my work and I have to tell them that it is simply created with a torch, a camera and the canvas of the night," says Mr Bosanko.

"The inspiration for my Light Graffiti came to me around five years ago when I was on holiday in Greece," says Mr Bosanko.

"I was taking a picture of a very bright moon one evening in Greece when I noticed a swirling effect because the exposure had been left too long.

"I then realised the beginning of my work in light art and have continued ever since."