On The Road

So....this image was conceptualized during a long night spent shooting in Joshua Tree NP. we'd finished for the night at about 2am, and decided to crash in the car rather than drive back to Palm Springs....so that we'd be present and ready for a Cholla Garden sunrise.

So...

The idea was to contrast the stop sign and the moon with the taillights of a moving car...and the idea was spawned from the surprise passing of three motorcycles in the middle of the night.

So, at around 3am...the only two people in JTNP that winter morning set out to figure out the exposure...and the corresponding speed of the rental car required....


First...set the camera to properly expose the sky for 30 seconds to avoid too much star movement. Get composition correct and lock everything down.

Then, jump in the car. One person drives...the other exposes the camera.

Two test frames to determine whether the brake should be applied or if the running lights are sufficient (brakes should be applied...for future reference).

Too slow...and you ultra-saturate the image.

Too fast...and you risk not enough exposure to provide significant contrast.

But you need to get the sense of depth that could come from capturing the taillights heading off well into the frame.

Here's the formula that we came up with. 25MPH, riding the brakes, trip the shutter 1s before the car enters the frame to avoid oversaturating the foreground with the foglamps. Oh yeah...running lights and fog lamps. No headlights.

Does this do anything for you? Or is it just a silly experiment that photographers engage in when they can't sleep in the middle of the night in a National Park?

C&C is really requested...as this is an image that has been requested for purchase more often than most in my portfolio. I'm trying to figure out why.



Robert