Monday, May 2, 2011

Transit #2 - logistics are fun.

So, now that we've cleared the essential concept-making-ness, I guess that the next thing to do is figure out how to keep up with my mouth. Or at least, make sure that it's possible to box the idea I just sold everyone.



The first thing I started doing in this regard was to go back over photos I'd already taken, and take some more that all happened in the car. Checking things like available shots, focal lengths, lighting availability; stuff like that.



Things got interesting with the initial experiments - I didn't have the car we travel in on hand - (a van to accommodate our cats, rats and elephants. And family members too I guess.) so instead I spent a couple of mornings and an afternoon fiddling inside the small car I drive instead.



This car is a small car. Small and blue and noisy and old and I love it to bits.



In terms of lighting, I discovered the obvious. The sunlight available at and given time will not be direct, and it won't be coming directly from above. Unless the van suddenly turns into a convertible. And that would be bad.




So, the greater portion of light streams in through whatever windows are closest to it. This I think will make achieving a workable white balance interesting - I am expecting quite a few images to either have an underexposed interior or overexposed windows. I don't want to use the flash unless it's absolutely necessary. Small spaces + bright flash = blown out, flat, flooded images. And blindness. I could add extra artificial lighting if need be that isn't a flash - or at least isn't as hard and white.



The windows of the car will probably either serve as a framing device, extra background, or a big black nuisance. Considering that the whole concept of the project revolves around the travel in the car, I think that it would be pointless trying to pretend that the steel structure of the car shouldn't be there.



Solution?
Take photos anyway. Embrace the framing. Do what has always been done and rock the spandex. So to speak.

What else can I address?

ah. kay.

I think I can do some depth-of-field work - photos with a foreground item in focus and nothing else. These can assist in picking up the small intricacies of travel; the texture of an item or simply to reflect the nature of human memory (this is what I mean by that). I recently figured out how to use the macro button on the camera. So I can do this with minimal effort.



In terms of problems I think I'll encounter, there will probably be a few.

Lighting. Too little, too much, in the wrong spot...I'll fiddle a bit with the shutter speed, and ISO to achieve what I'm after. I haven't found the settings to change the aperture on the camera yet.





Taking-photos-that-require-a-steady-base-in-a-car-that-is-moving-and-vibrating.



'Nuff said.

Simple travel logistics - where and when we stop; things I can take photos of in these places. Then again, I can usually improvise things to get where I'm going. Plans have been changed recently, so I won't be travelling the whole way north with the folks - they leave before I finish uni classes, so I'll fly to Brisbane and have the Brisbane-Hervey Bay (Northbound) leg to take photos on and the southbound trip will be the full length.
The time we leave will also influence the photos taken. We usually leave early morning - like about 0700 or 0800.

I'm also rather heavily relying on something I started calling the 'gambit factor' until I looked up 'gambit' to double check the meaning and realised that it's not a gambit at all.
Basically, I know that there is a certain amount of things that you cannot predict that can happen in a short period of time - things that often are out of control and can be crazy-good or crazy-bad. I tend to just roll with the punches and keep snapping. Sometimes I catch pictures that won't ever be repeated in the history of whatever we are measuring. It's like, the perfect mix of random elements to produce the maximum awesome.





Come to think of it, I think that's called Life.

Anyhoo. I'll write up a reflection on the snaps and travels shortly. Enjoy.

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