Stalking Cars
One of the shots I’ve wanted to try is a long exposure at night while cars are driving past. I like the motion and the colors I see in other people’s photos when they make similar photographs.
Last night I set out to do just that. It turned out to be more difficult that I originally thought. The difficulty had nothing to do with making the photograph, it was getting willing subjects to drive past. I live in a very small town East of Park City, UT called Kamas. It is a wonderful place to live, but not too many people moving around after dark. I shot this at 8:30pm and had to wait for cars to go by! I contemplated calling some friends and have them stage a drive-by but then felt that was cheating somehow.
A few things I learned:
- Put a headlamp in my camera bag. I had a devil of a time reading the settings display as I was trying to dial in a good exposure.
- Turn off the IS feature of my lens. You’ll notice some wiggle in a few of the stationary objects of the photo, this I believe contributed to this problem as I was tripod mounted.
- Use Mirror lock-up. This to may contribute to the vibration I saw. Additionally, passing cars will contribute, but there is very little I can do about that.
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