After going through some of the more recent photographs I’ve made, I realized that I have been shooting from inside the car a whole bunch. Normally I’m not a fan of car shooting. The dirty windows. The unexpected bumps. But apparently I have strayed from that belief, at least momentarily. I suppose it may be my renewed focus for all things still photography. The first 3 images were taken on the drive home from The Fog Laden River. I used my Sony a7M2 with a 1 second shutter speed. It was really more of an experiment than anything. I’m not saying I’m particularly proud of any of the images, but they do give me ideas for the future. Namely when shooting at slower shutter speeds to intentionally move the camera during the shot.
Odds are you’ve seen photographs that were made the same day as most of these, but for one reason or another I just haven’t shared them. I think it works out perfectly. I am on the lookout for a wider photographic project. Something that will test my creative abilities in both photography and writing. I have a couple of ideas that I’m kicking around, but nothing is really sticking. In the mean time I’ll just compile these photographs from random days of me being driven around by one friend or another. And yes, I do have a driver’s license, but who doesn’t like being driven around? Plus it gives me a chance to shoot something cliche and attempt to make it not so.
Case in hand, rain drops on a pane of glass. I can say with fair certainty that this subject has been shot over 1,000,000 times just yesterday. So how could I shoot it different? While I would focus the lens on the drops themselves, the camera would focus on the entire scene, not ignoring what lies behind the glass. I also wanted to add some movement to the shot. The first idea I had was to capture the first wipe of a rain draped windshield. I had never shot this before, so I was a bit in the dark on the correct settings. I knew I wanted motion blur with the wiper, and that I would only have one shot. Overall I’m happy with how it turned out. I would have liked a bit more motion blur, but I’ll take it.
In the above photograph, what initially called me to shoot it were the colors of the lights against the sky. I figured the colors alone wouldn’t be strong enough to I decided to attempt a slower shutter speed, hoping I could squeeze some motion blur from the passing vehicles. After a couple of test shots I dialed in the ideal location of the passing vehicles and snapped away.
I chose to shoot the below photo with a faster shutter speed, as I wasn’t looking for motion blur, I was looking for contrast. We haven’t had much snow in Harrisburg this winter, so when we did have a light dusting I felt I needed to shoot it, even if it was just from the whip. And if I wasn’t gonna shoot many snow shots, I felt it had to be in black and white.
I imagine this is what a stakeout looks like… Haha! Sam lights a ciggie after slamming a quad-espresso on ice in under 2 minutes. Nicotine and caffeine, a marriage as old as time! Jokes aside, I do really like the composition and lighting of this shot. I also dig the composition of the last shot shown, the one of the overpass on 581.
Since shooting with a wider angle lens, it has forced me to abandon my desire to isolate an object in it’s environment and to actually shoot the object in it’s environment. No more, I wish I could zooms! I just need to shoot the best shot I can with what I have. And I also need to be cool with “missing shots”. Sometimes moments happen that aren’t meant to be recorded with a camera, and I’m cool with that. Doesn’t mean I’m leaving my camera at home though!
