More Rig Photos!

A few weeks ago I tried-out my Automotive Rig for the first time, with awesome results. After sharing the photos I had several other owners who were interested in having a giant metal pole suction cupped to their car!

Just like the last time, I found myself waking-up at 4am so that I could be out on-location just as the sun started to rise. I didn’t really know of any shooting locations in the area, so just chose some areas that might have things that would look good in the background.

The first location was a roundabout in the housing development of one of the car owners. I setup the 16′ pole on the suction cups and had the owner drive slowly around in circles while I walked along stabilizing the camera (by holding the camera strap). The results from this setup were nothing short of spectacular!

Previously I had tried to avoid directly lighting the cars (with the sun), as I feared I wouldn’t be able to get the long exposures that I desired. I quickly realized that with the ND filter and a circular polarizer I was more than capable of getting multi-second shutter speeds, even in direct sun light. Also, just like all other types of photography, proper use of golden hour light made the photos absolutely pop!

After shooting the first car, the group headed out of the housing complex towards a more industrial area (and to get some coffee/energy drinks). I had scouted (via Google Earth) another shooting location in a Park-and-Ride lot that would work well. Like the other area, there were rows of trees that allowed for lots of motion in the background.

This location was fully lit by the sun, resulting in some complications when setting-up the rig. I had to take care to keep the shadow from the camera rig (and me while supporting it) from covering parts of the car being shot. After a couple of passes we started thinking outside the box a little…

The owner of this GTO has spent countless hours painting and polishing every little piece of his car. He also runs his car at the drag strip with the hood removed, so it only seemed fitting to take some photos showing off the engine bay.

As with last time, I learned more and more as the morning went on about what does and doesn’t work. I think I did a much better job keeping track of the basics (exposure, white balance, etc.) and that really made processing the images easier. I feel confident that I should be able to mount the rig to other cars and get respectable photos… I already have a few ideas for things to tryout on the next shoot!