Night shot! Tricky. And more so because we were driving. Low light. There are plenty of distractions. There is no composing, no positioning, and nothing to do other than shoot and hope for the best. Serendipity! It’s just a grab shot. It worked. If you don’t try…
Colleen’s a good sport. Lisa (first wife) was not. Shhhh… Colleen doesn’t care for me to mention “her” name. You see where this is going? Ha ha! I stop – the car – for photo-ops. A lot! …well not so much anymore. No need! I developed a technique to shoot on the go! Oh no! Well, sometimes. Colleen has actually gotten pretty good at shooting bridges on the go. It’s do it or I do it. She prefers…. See, control is a subtle issue with any couple. Ha ha, again. Well, one can shoot wide, medium, or tele. Just zoom in and out. Don’t try this while driving kids. Leave it to the experts. I do it without looking. And I hope for the best. And I am lucky sometimes. I have a very understanding wife. I have a wife who helps. And so we get along so well… As the song goes – Love Is Better, the Second Time Around.
We shoot bridges. Colleen does! I do! It became a thing with us recently although I have been shooting bridges from the car for quite some time. Lately Colleen shoots because she hates the idea that I am driving distracted. Nonsense, I am just navigating by the camera LCD screen. No!
Okay. I probably started many years ago holding my camera as I drove in order to catch the sunrise as I drove to Maine near dawn. No stopping. It would have delayed the trip. Ha ha. Well, it was fractured reasoning but it stuck. I have the camera on automatic/program mode. Simply turn it on, point and shoot. I don’t even look at the LCD screen any more. There are many reasons why this technique is inferior and doesn’t work. And sometimes the image is certainly ok. I liked the clouds and my position relative to the bridge in this image.
So, it’s simple. Point and shoot. Don’t overthink the shot. The camera will do the heavy lifting. If you don’t get a shot, no harm done. And I am amused that Colleen is such a good photographer even if she doesn’t know it.
I have to admit that Colleen is a better photographer now. She started as close eyes, press shutter, hope for the best. I have convinced her that nothing will happen if you press the shutter. That is to say there is no harm no foul. No undue expense is associated as compared to shooting film. Seeing the shots she takes has not changed. She doesn’t just as she never developed her film.
She got the Goethals Bridge. Picturesque. The clutter in the foreground cannot be avoided. But she got a great shot of the span. Cudos.
NYC skyline. We try. She tried. It’s nearly impossible from the road on the Jersey side. Too much clutter in the foreground. The Empire State Building is distinctive. The uptown skyscrapers (on the left) are all new. Have I been gone from Manhattan so long? Wow! What happened to urban planning? The super wealthy billionaires gotta have their view. The 99 percenters are definitely not welcome in those high rises.
Lesson: ?? Shoot out the car window. With abandon. No worries. Accept foreground clutter. Take what the view gives. Come away with an image. It’s documentary. It ain’t fine photography. We got a memory. It binds us closer in shared experience.
We are on the road. Yes, driving at (xx) speed. I take what I can get. We don’t stop. No time? Lazy? Not spectacular enough? Eh? The clouds all afternoon were spectacular. I was bedeviled by the telephone poles and wires that obscured my view. Finally! As we crossed one bridge the clouds over another were in view. No matter that my foreground had bridge and a car included. Hey! What you do you want from a one handed no look photo through the car window?
I coulda done better. The camera set on automatic did pretty good bidding for me.
PhotoCritical 