We shot the methods of rolling along in the world back in assignment 18 I believe. Now we are going to focus on the people who love their transportation choices.

Cars, trucks, motorcycles, bicycles, skateboards, skates… whatever moves us moves those who love to move.

We are going to capture that love affair with our vehicles (no matter what) by doing a portrait of someone WITH their vehicle of choice.

This will be a complex image to create since you will have to find lighting suitable for the vehicle, and suitable for the subject.

For the image above, I waited till the sun was right over the horizon casting long shadows toward the subject and his much loved car. This light also struck the building full of paintings of heroes of the movies (an old Blockbuster store). The light and shadow created a delicate setting for Bob to move in and out of the darkness depending on where I had him standing. In the end, I chose this shot with the shadows starting to creep up his jeans.

He is standing in the shadow, with a Profoto in a small octa to camera left set to keep him lit at the ambient, while falling off to the shadow on his jeans. A careful blend of strobe and ambient to bring him into the ambient exposure.

Please find a subject, scout a location, and create the shot with clarity of purpose and your creative aesthetic. Take all the gear you need to do the excellent work I want from you on this. Fill cards, extra stands, flashes, LED’s… all of that stuff is wasted if it is not with you at the ready for this shot – if needed.

One shot of the subject with their vehicle.
We need to see the vehicle – or at least enough of it to know what it is.
We must see the subject as well.

Put your creativity caps on… this one is deceptively easy – easy to make a cliche shot of someone standing next to a car in their driveway. Easy to make a shot of someone sitting on a motorcycle, or a bike… easy to cliche it.

No cliches please.

Remember the behind the scenes shot.