Community opportunity to 'paint with light' returns with RIT Big Shot 36

Rochester Institute of Technology’s annual Big Shot is returning for its 36th event on Friday, Sept. 20. The Rochester community is invited to shine a light on RIT’s Student Hall for Exploration and Development (SHED), the university’s newest facility housing makerspaces, performing arts areas, and high-tech classrooms. 

The event is free and open to the public. RIT students, faculty, and staff can RSVP online, but volunteers outside of RIT do not need to register. Registration is not required to participate.

Volunteers are asked to arrive by 7:15 p.m. and check in at the welcome tent adjacent to the SHED between the Student Alumni Union and Eastman Hall. The first 500 attendees to arrive will receive a flashlight and Nikon hat. 

“The SHED was chosen because it’s a brand new structure at RIT and we wanted to highlight it and share it with the world,” said Dan Hughes, lecturer and lead coordinator for this year’s Big Shot. “It’s a new and exciting community-based place where students can embark on cool projects, so we thought the location would be a great fit for us.”

RIT Big Shot, described as “painting with light,” engages student and community volunteers by asking them to provide a light source while RIT photographers shoot an extended exposure image. It’s a signature event for RIT’s College of Art and Design and is led by the School of Photographic Arts and Sciences (SPAS), which is nationally recognized for its degree programs.

Hughes said that the SHED presents some unique technical challenges for this year’s project.

“With the SHED, we've got two of the most difficult kinds of lighting situations to control because it's all reflective metal and glass. Glass transmits light, or it lets light through, whereas the metal reflects the light,” said Hughes. “We have to be even more precise when asking volunteers where they need to be lighting the subject so we can achieve that aesthetically pleasing effect.”

Hughes and the Big Shot team plan to take the first photograph at 8 p.m., with three photographs to follow before wrapping up at 8:30 p.m.

The event is part of RIT FallFest and is sponsored by the School of Photographic Arts and Sciences, NTID’s Department of Visual Communications Studies, and Nikon.

For help with navigation and parking, participants can reference the interactive campus map.

About RIT Big Shot

RIT started its Big Shot project in 1987. The event has traveled to several national landmarks and twice crossed the Atlantic Ocean. Through their viewfinders, RIT Big Shot photographers have captured landmarks in the United States such as Kodak Tower in Rochester; Churchill Downs in Louisville, Ky.; the Alamo in San Antonio; and the Smithsonian National Museum of the American Indian in Washington, D.C. Internationally, the RIT team has captured Pile Gate in Dubrovnik, Croatia, and the Royal Palace in Stockholm, Sweden.

To learn more about the project and view photographs of past Big Shot images, go to the Big Shot Facebook page or the Big Shot webpage. The project also can be followed on X at @RITBigShot along with the hashtag #RITBigShot.