Photography, to me, always includes a search for new ways to be creative. Different cameras, different lenses, Film or Digital, different subjects, and different locations are all part of what makes this medium so exciting.
This last weekend I visited the lakeside town of Kelowna. Usually, when I have an evening there, I like to spend the time photographing the lights near the water. But on this occasion I thought it would be fun to see how creative I could get with my sporty little car.
I have always like photographing cars. Sure, like any car lover I don’t hesitate to make quick snapshots of some neat automobile driving down the street, but it's so much more interesting to position a car in in some location and pose it with a background that shows it off. On my trip to Utah and Wyoming last summer I made lots of photographs of my black Honda.
Over my years with photography I have attended many workshops, courses and lectures on photography. With regards to cars I remember getting up before daylight so I could make the almost six-hour, pre-Coquihalla drive to a morning lecture by two professional studio photographers in Vancouver. Montazambert Brothers Photography had a large downtown studio not far from Canada Place, and were offering a class for those who were interested in their successful approach to commercial automobile photography.
The Montazamberts' lecture, although at that time mostly slides, did include some hands-on examples of the large lighting equipment they had used for a recent job. That was way before digital, Facebook and YouTube. The only way to see them was to attend their on-site lecture. I enjoyed learning their studio techniques, but alas I never had a big studio or wealthy big-city clients like them.
This last weekend my friend Jo talked me into going to an outdoor concert by local country singer songwriter Tanner Dawson at Grizzly Winery in Kelowna. The music was great, the location was beautiful, and the wine was expensive. We decided to stay overnight and, of course, do photography.
Normally we would be wandering the after-dark waterfront, but this time we talked about trying something different. Now there’s a project…see what kind of car portraits could be made using the existing light in store parking lots and anywhere else that had pools of light.
For my first photo I pulled my car around back to the winery’s shipping area. There were large barrels and shipping containers and fortunately no large trucks, parked cars or after-hour workers, so I could easily move my car around for some good portraits. I liked the stacked wine barrels best. Parking in front those there was plenty of illumination from the overhead yard lights, and at 800 ISO I could get good hand-held shots.
After leaving the winery we chose a nearby pull-off with bushes and streetlights. That place was very dark and gave me a chance to play with the shadows.
We then drove around town searching for light. There were many well-lighted storefronts and parking lots, but it was the car sales lots that looked best, and we chose Kelowna Porsche’s lot. Their neon sign wasn’t positioned very high on the building, and made a slight red glow on the cars with soft light everywhere.
I kept expecting to be run off by security guards, but none showed up. I expect there were people inside sitting beside camera monitors watching every corner of the lot. We put on a good show to entertain them as Jo posed and I moved the car from place to place for the best portraits under the light.
What a great way to finish the evening. Trying something new with a camera is always fun for me. Now that I am thinking about it, I remember the words of Richard Avedon: “There is nothing like photography….In visual terms there has been nothing like photography in the history of the world. There is no vocabulary for it. Photography literally stops something dead. It’s the death of the moment. The second a picture is taken that life is held, stopped and over. That moment is over."
Stay safe and be creative. These are my thoughts for this week. Contact me at www.enmanscamera.com or emcam@telus.net.
