P#21: Capturing the Movement of a Red Car at the Intersection

As Luck Would Have It

Bryan Peterson: This photograph is one of my favorites. It was taken in Leon, France on a winter day. I just happened to be going out on the balcony where I still indulge in that horrible habit of smoking. I was going to have a cigarette and it's pouring down snow. I noticed the intersection on the corner of the building that we live in, on the fourth floor.

I'm watching cars pass through the intersection and immediately I'm drawn to the visual elements of that intersection, which are heavy black and white looking lines, black from the pavement and white from the stripes that are painted on the streets. As luck would have it, once I got set up, it was only a matter of time, but one thing I learned from that is that there are a tremendous amount of white, gray, and black cars in the world.

I patiently waited. I shot along when the white ones came and the black ones came, and the grey ones as well. I even shot a green one. That didn't really do much for me, but when that red one came through the intersection it was like, "Yes, that's the shot." (click the image for a larger version)

The important thing to note about this shot is the exposure, not the fact that it was taken on a snowy day. I was shooting down, so I didn't have to worry about the sky. With all that black and white, it basically became a mid tone shot. It was aperture priority -- aim and shoot.

What's critical here is to know that I deliberately chose an aperture that would force a slow shutter speed. In this case, I believe it was around f16 which then gave me a 15th of a second so as the car went through I could capture the motion. The last thing I want to do is freeze the car, no pun intended, because then it's going to be a car that just stalled in the middle of an intersection.

I wanted to get a sense of energy, because around that car are diagonal lines making an x shape, which is a line of tremendous movement and speed. It only stands to reason that I'm waiting on a red car, the most advancing of all colors which in and of itself just pulsates with energy. Then I bring in that final touch of the shutter speed -- a slow one to get a streak of movement.

Enough for me. I was done and happy as a clam in high tide. I went into the computer, downloaded it right away, and I was jumping off the walls when I got that one.

In Conclusion

Some of the best photographs you ever take will happen by chance. You won't go out looking for them. They'll come to you. Then it's a matter of putting the pieces together to create that once-in-a-lifetime shot. That's exactly what Bryan Peterson did with this picture of the red car going through the intersection.