Recently I have had a fair number of people reach out and want to discuss my overall work flow when shooting rolling images of vehicles; and the reasons behind the choices I make to create the images.  Now being that it is quite slow for me these days, and I have very little video experience, I figured a short blog post regarding my favourite way to capture your most liked images would suffice for the time being. I should mention that I am working my way towards a video platform and trying to make the best choices regarding how to go about that. But thats enough of a tease for now.  Let’s get to it, shall we?

How in the world do I make a car look like that?

The absolute first thing I want to say is that safety is the most important thing here. Taking these kinds of shots naturally incurs  all sorts of risk. Being that 99% of the time the camera (and sometimes myself) are partially or completely outside of a moving vehicle there are steps to take to make sure I am getting the best possible images, in the most controlled environment possible. This is not to say that risk should be avoided, because in all honesty, one of my favourite rolling shots I’ve ever captured (Of the two Lamborghinis below) was taken with my hand inches away from the moving wheel of a 1967 Pontiac Firebird Convertible driving at full highway speeds along the coast of Okanagan Lake. 

“How is that even slightly controlled though Shane?”

“That seems incredibly dangerous.”

Okay okay, thanks Mom. Here are some of the practices put in place (regarding that particular image)

First of all, it was taken during a very large charity event. So large in fact, that entire section of highway was blocked off by the Police to allow the least amount of interference for videographers, photographers, drivers, and co-pilots. Second; I was attached to the car via a safety tether which attached directly to where the seat belt bolts in. I wasn’t going anywhere. As far as my driver: there are conversations to have before I jump out of any vehicle. I need to make sure that my driver is competent, confident, and knows how to manage a vehicles movements to create the smoothest possible ride while they have some wind resistance that is my ass, out the side of the car. Finally my camera. That financial mistake I love so much is triple wrapped around my wrist, all the way up my arm with a Takata camera strap that I have come to trust more than I maybe should. I also have to just make sure I don’t let go. Sounds easy doesn’t it?

“But what about the back road images where there are no Police escorts?”

Like this one?

Yeah yeah yeah, you got me. I didn’t have the authorities closing off this road for me. So what could I possibly have done to make sure that this was as controlled as possible? Well first of all; it’s a back road. Not just a side road around the city either. It’s about a half hour drive outside of the city to get to the turnoff and another 15 minutes to get to the small section of road near the end of a new development to get to where we opened the hatch to dangle the camera out the back.  Again, a tether was in place, and my driver had a run down of the “how to drive with a person hanging out the back.”

At the end of the day. Safety is the most important thing to consider when taking these types of photos; hence the long winded description about it!

Now let’s get into the camera work ya? 

The real big “secret” to taking great rolling shots? Lie to your camera!! 

“What?”

Exactly. The trick with them isn’t driving so fast you cant help but capture motion, its not being so low that you scrape knuckles. (Although I did skin my own while shooting the above rolling shot of the yellow ST and the grey Evo above.) Nope. It is creating a situation in which your camera thinks the vehicle you are shooting, and the vehicle you are shooting out of are both standing still. How do you manage to trick a sophisticated piece of equipment worth more than rent in most cities believe it is static when it is in fact moving you ask? Easy.  Steady speed from both vehicles. You see, if both the vehicle shooting and the subject vehicle are moving at the exact same speed, and the distance between them stays the exact same while the shutter is open; (I’ll get into shutter speed in a second) the camera is forced to pickup the motion in the world surrounding the subject, instead of in the subject itself. Communication between the drivers and the shooters is a must. I typically use hand signals and yell at whoever is driving the vehicle I’m in, but radios seem to be the most efficient. 

“But what about the actual settings you use?”

I got you. The typical settings (and the reasons I use them) are as follows!

ISO: LOW LOW LOW LOW LOW!!! Grain across the images is the opposite of what I want, and if I’m shooting in the bright light, or even into sunset, I will hover my ISO around 50-100. If we are shooting in the dead of night, I may go up to 400-600 and MAYBE as high as 1200 if the situation depends on it! When it comes to ISO, I personally say the lower the better. It keeps the grain out of your image, and typically allows for a sharp shot! The trick here is learning your camera. Play with it in all sorts of lighting and find your cameras “Safe Zone” - ie. Minimal grain under all situations.  But maybe you like the grain. Great, put it at 12000. Its your shot. I don’t care.

Aperture: This is that setting that Apple put in their iPhone a few years ago and called “portrait mode” and every white girl and basic bro went mad for it. The background is “blurred.” but not from motion. This is not how you capture the speed in a motion shot. It’s how you get a creamy background in a tight portrait. I shoot a very narrow aperture when shooting rollers to balance with a longer shutter speed. Usually between f7 - f14. Some people say that is way too high, but it works for me. This lets my camera take the entire car into focus while providing me with the ability to use a longer shutter speed to capture the Motion Blur. You would notice a “soft” or “blurry” trunk or roof line if your aperture is too low when shooting automotive. It was one of the first lessons to learn. If you want more on how I control that; slide in the DM’s. Or bug me to write about it. 

Shutter Speed: This is where the blur comes from. Shutter speed measures how long your shutter is open for, in seconds. So a shot a 1/100 of a second, is a much faster speed than one at say 1/50.  When it comes to rolling shots, I will typically set my shutter around 1/10 - 1/30 for a reliable result at slow speed, and 1/40 - 1/60 for a highway speed. The slower the shutter, the longer your exposure, and the more motion you are able to catch in camera. But be careful, 99% of rollers are blurry. If you’ve shot them before, you’ve probably spent the next 2 hours combing through 1689 images finding the 3 that turned out okay. The longer that shutter is open, the greater the chance of catching blur in the subject if the speed isn’t just right between the two cars. You’ll also be more at risk for catching any bumps in the road on camera, and those look terrible on rolling shots. 

AF Mode: This one is important. And quite self explanatory, but it is something I overlooked for a long long time until I really understood it. There are three main modes. (I am speaking specifically about Sony here. Nikon is very similar and Canon has the same exact settings, except under different names. Learn your own gear.) My three settings are AF-A, AF-S, and AF-C. Lets start with AF-A. This is Area Focus - Automatic. Let the camera guess what is happening basically. Is the subject moving? Is the subject still? who knows. The camera will take its best guess and try to give you the shot you want. Next lets go into AF-S. Area Focus - Static. This is telling the camera your Subject is still. It’s not moving. Like a glass of juice, or that fruit bowl everyone seems to think looks so dang good in the morning light during your 5th hangover in Mexico. AF-C is Area Focus - Continuous. This is letting the camera know “Hey, that subject is moving, it’s doing a thing!” The camera can then adjust the way it focus’s to capture a moving subject. If you haven’t guessed by the way I’ve structured the last three sentences. I shoot AF-C for my rollers. It communicates to the camera that the subject may move slightly inside the camera’s mind and allows the focus settings to keep up easier than if I were to use AF-A or AF-S. I haven’t tried it yet, but a gimble and AF-S may have some interesting results…I should buy a gimble. (Steady Cam)

The best piece of advice that I can possibly give to you when shooting anything at all; is to learn your gear. Learn what you are comfortable shooting, and how you are comfortable to shoot it. Once it feels easy to you; step your game up. Learn something new. I’ve spent countless hours outside of vehicles trying time and time again to get that perfect shot, and your know what? Most of them have flaws, big flaws. Granted, I will always be my own harshest critique, but isn’t that what inspires me to do better?  There are loads of things I would love to try, and have yet to experiment with, but this gives you a quick run down on how I manage to capture the rolling shots that I do. Handheld, and with the best possible results out of the camera. This blurb has nothing to do with any of my post production work, and by no means am I a certified photography instructor. But hey, there’s no bad place to learn something from! Post production is a whole different discussion and if you didn’t hate this little rambling, maybe you could convince me to do one on my Editing workflow. 

Moral of the story: The more you practice, the better your results will be. (Duh) Now go take some rad photos and share them with me on social media!!

- SOL

I have a theory. It’s a silly theory, but it still holds some truth to it. It was formulated by myself and some friends in Dublin Ireland, in 2012. The original thought came after a fairly lively pub crawl, and it was, in a large part due to some stand up comedy we had seen earlier in the evening. 

We were sat in a dimly lit pub in the early hours of the morning finishing yet another pint of Guinness. But from what I remember it goes like this; People who live in rainy climates, are typically happier than those who live in more fair weather areas. It was all just a laughing matter at the time, and we had joked about how people in the Okanagan couldn’t handle any type of weather that wasn’t perfect; but it wasn’t until I moved somewhere rainy again that I realized how true it seems to be. If you live in the Okanagan, how many times have you said to yourself that “people forget how to drive as soon as it rains or snows”?  Probably every single time it rains and folks start ice skating in their vehicles.  Golfers sit on the nineteenth green, boats stay moored at the marina’s, and god forbid you have to leave your house if you’re not working on a rainy day. I always appreciated the shocked looks on Okanaganers (Okanaganites? whatever; you know what I mean) faces when I’d tell them I don’t mind the rain!  In Dublin, and now in Victoria, it is so natural to have to deal with less that perfect weather on a regular basis, that it has become second nature to find the good parts of the “bad” weather. Be it catching a quick drop on your tongue before you step inside, the way the rain makes every part of a city smell and feel fresher; or just the rainbow and the end of it. Rain has it’s good parts. Regardless of where you live in Canada, we are fortunate, and very spoiled when it comes to weather and climate, BC more so than others in my (very biased) opinion; but I have yet to find an area with a higher level of entitlement to the sun than the Okanagan Valley! It’s as if there is a curse anytime the weather push’s the residence towards an activity that isn’t over indulging in booze on a beach, a boat, or bougies. Maybe it’s the fact that it rains so sparsely there in the summer months that the grey skies seem even darker; or possibly its that it rains enough in other areas that it gives those who live in it a different perspective as to how nice the sunshine is!

If your biggest problem for a day is that it’s too wet outside to go enjoy your day; I truly believe that you have no choice but to feel nothing but thankful. At the end of the day, you can feel however you choose, but I for one would choose to look towards the positives of the things we have no control over.  There has to be a reason the song isn’t “Singing in the Sun” right?

If you have been scrolling around trying to find Chapter 1-27 on this website, I should tell you now; they don’t exist. The title is merely my attempt to be witty.  The entire idea of completely up-rooting my entire life and moving to Vancouver Island began on my 28th birthday. Seems a little more fitting now doesn’t it?

The one that started it all

The attached photo, of the falls is the one that started it all. I might even say it’s my favourite photo I’ve taken to date. (Definitely my favourite selfie I’ve ever taken.) It was captured at Goldstream Provincial Park, on June 11th 2020, about an hour later than I would’ve liked. The day was pretty casual; started by sleeping in later than I wanted too, and along with that my typical indecisiveness on what to do for the day.  I ended up using a quick google search (something like “cool things around me”) to find this hidden gem of a fall. With only a photo, and rough idea as to where to go, I set out with Google Maps as my guide. The drive was shorter than I expected and after I found a parking spot near the trail head I set off into the park.  A few steps down the trail I found a scenic break in the tree’s that the mist was framing perfectly. It wasn’t until I went to unpack my tripod that I realized it was sitting in my room, firmly attached to my other backpack… I had two choices. Pack up, pack out, and get the tripod, or attempt to shoot the entire day handheld, in challenging light, with grey skies and slight rain looming over head. Being that I really had nothing else to do for the entire day, and the drive was a short 20 minutes, I opted to go grab the tripod and make the journey back.

Round two. Camera, Check. Tripod, Check. Tim Hortons coffee, Check. Back to the parking lot, back through the tree’s, and into the break. I had missed the scene I was originally hoping to capture, so I instead set off to find the waterfalls, and the trestles that Google had told me all about.  After about 45 minutes of skirting the parks sidelines, I finally came to the conclusion that the “tunnel” I was supposed to walk under, was in fact the one that at a glance, looks like it isn’t for people to walk through, but rather a river to drain out of. Pro tip - go through it, its exactly where you want to get too.

The weather had opened up a little, and the sun was out in force. I made the decision to head up the mountain instead of through the valley, and find the top and rail trestle first. Take the waterfall as my reward for climbing up and back down towards the end of my adventure. The first time I had a hint of the falls was from the top; which from along the trail, is fairly underwhelming. I passed it off as just every other waterfall and continued straight up the winding path. Another wrong turn, (and about 15 minutes of pinging my GPS through the AllTrails app) lead me way out through more of a meadowy setting on the westside of Goldstream Park. Pretty, but not what I was after. After finding the original trail, and heading up another steep embankment, I finally found the railroad tracks, the trestle, and the view I was searching for. While not an entirely breathtaking view, (photo attached) it did make for a good place to play with some interesting angles of the bridge, and capture one of my “foot shots” that Instagram seems to love so much.  The 800m climb to the trestle, combined with a lack of preparing on my end, and a 300 foot unguarded straight drop to the river below, provided for an exhilarating walk across the trestle to the other side. Tired, sweaty, and almost over heating, I figured it was time to treat myself to the waterfall I had come here for originally. A trail on the far side of the trestle was able to take me almost straight down, and once there I made the short trek up the creek bed to the waterfall. 

It sits nestled in a corner, towards the back of a small pond, and a stream that trails off into the rocks you walked up. The lush greenery and vivd colours is something I will always appreciate. I dunked my hat, set up my tripod, and began getting to work on some images. A few people passed in and out in the hour or so I spent in the shade cooling off with my camera in hand; but for the most part I had this quiet little area to myself. It wasn’t until I drove home and began editing that I was able to truly appreciate the photo I had captured. I’m not sure why it spoke to me; and I can’t really explain why it made it so obvious that I had to leave the Okanagan and move to the Island. But in my head it screamed adventure, opportunity, and excitement.