It's early Sunday morning, 5am to be precise. I'm loading my rig setup into the car, strobes in case I decide I need them and my camera and supports. The garage door creaks open like a hefty medieval churchs door, and clatters to a full open. I back my road worn Civic out of the light and into the misty ink of morning. The suns presence is somewhat hidden, a thin strip of blue scars the horizon, accented by the caramel strip, barely noticeable. The crunk of the door against concrete means we're good to go, I pull out of the driveway, breath hanging midair in front of me.
God I love this part.
The open road, the frost sparkling in the dregs of moonlight and the quiet rolling sound of the road under the winter tires. For those of you who've had the (fortune?) of not needing winter tires, they sound like miniature tractor wheels at mach nine. I pull into the drive through and order 2 coffees. Anyone who wakes up for me to photograph their vehicle gets the honorary coffee, its the properly civilised thing to do. I arrive, and quickly scout out the location, the talent car purrs to life, the 370Z has always held a part of my heart, and here I am today, bleary eyed and caffeinated ready to say hi. We position the car, I let my client wake up while I walk around the car, looking at the angles through the lens. We have a shoot window of mere minutes, and I have to grab 3 shots. The rig is aircraft grade aluminum, its strong and light, and is held onto the car via 2 heavy duty suction cups, superclamps and pivoting arms. I use a stabilising cable to tighten it up, still seems like utter black magic to me. I fire off 2 30 second exposures, then we roll. The car is on the flat and we have no option to push so we're doing this running (BIG NO-NO in rigging), thats why I grabbed the static shots. Then we switch the rig up, and get the rear shot. The lights gone beyond where I need it, I dismantle the rig, then ask to shoot a few more candids. No matter how many times I photograph cars I always leave wanting more time. I was just finishing up when I saw the ditch was perfect height difference. I fire off a few shots, for personal use - not thinking anything of the exposure etc, I simply ball parked it in my head and shot those settings. Cavalier, but my clients got better things to do. It's funny how sometimes those shots can end up being your favourite. I love the other shots, but this shot for some reason stands out to me more than the other images, sometimes the technicalities get trumped by pure emotion. This was one of those days!
Shot with a handheld 5Dmk3 17-40mm f4 (CPL) @31mm, ISO 100, 1/60th AWB, RAW.