Camaro: Shooting A Moving Car

I was looking at this product a while back. It is a mount that attaches to the underside of a car and or truck with a 9' metal pole that comes out. The pole is where you mount the camera and shoot remotely while the car is moving. For $900.00 that was out of the question. There is NO need to pay that much for a mount, unless you have a Hollywood Budget or a client that will bank roll the cost of that in addition to the shoot. I love shooting cars. In this area there are far to many Honda Civics and Acura Integras and not nearly enough cars that can be classified as a well built machine that commands the attention of a camera. After posting a photo of a friends Camaro to discuss an up coming shoot, I attracted the attention of a Camaro owner with just that very classification of a car. His Camaro is impressive. There is a full list of mods below. But what I will say from the photographers perspective, this car has sharp lines that create an incredibly edgy appeal. This car is well engineered and is a piece of vehicular architecture that commands the attention of anyone in an ear shots distance. In a flash, the red is a blur and you're left seeing the tail lights and a sticker in a simple font that says 600 HP.

It took me a while to get acclimated to staring at this car. Once we were comfortable together, she opened up and posed just perfectly for me. I made a few shots here, a few shots there, and produced exactly what I wanted, exactly what I knew the owner would be most happy with.

The Motion Shot: Trending now are the shots while the car is moving, creating that blur in the background. The kind of softness, where the car being in focus, just jumps out at you with its sharpness. I was asked to produce a few shots like that. Sure. No problem. Well, it did become a problem when I didnt have an assistant that day to drive while I made the shots. If you are moving and the car is moving, open the shutter up and drag it. You'll get the shot you need. But, you have to know what you are doing, have the right lens, and be able to make great photos to do that. Dont even think of trying this with you iPhone, youll just embarrass yourself.

So, what does one do with no assistant and you need to make a photo while moving? Well, you mount the camera naturally. Below is how I mounted the camera. Underneath that is the shot that resulted.

This photo was shot on 93 Southbound heading through Boston.

I also had a GoPro Hero 3 mounted to the rear of my truck.

The list of Mods that this Camaro has can be found here:

Saturday the 22nd I will be back in Boston to photograph another Camaro. A bit different than the last shoot. Keep your eyes open for more photos of cars, cars with girls, girls with cars, you know, that sort of thing..