Shooting from a Car

Today’s Post by Mildred Alpern

Reckless on the road

Skirting traffic’s bustling rush

Danger’s scary high

The cycling daredevils, who weave through heavy city traffic outmaneuvering cars and trucks on New York City streets, are best photographed from the passenger seat of a car. On eye level you can track them as they skirt past you.

These agile cyclists zoom through narrow corridors of space, zig-zagging in seemingly perilous swerves. Although efforts have been made to make the city bike friendly with designated lanes, cyclists are in the street and avenue big-wheel mix as these shots testify.

Here’s where a zoom lens is essential for zeroing in on riders and tracing their movements from a car. Observing such bravado is not for the faint hearted or those nervous for their safety. Certainly other stunning shots can be made from the car passenger seat given the advantages of covering wide distances and being protected from inclement weather. However, for tracing the threading cyclists at street level, there seems to be no other way, unless you shoot from a traveling bicycle yourself, a bicycle built for two.

All Images were shot with the Olympus E-M5 and the Olympus M.Zuiko 75-300mm f/4.8-6.7. The cyclist on the high bicycle seat, at 75mm with an exposure of 1/200 sec at f/5.6 and ISO 640; the cyclist in the yellow jacket at 124mm with an exposure of 1/250 sec at f/5.6 and ISO 500, and the cyclist squeezed between two cars at 75mm with an exposure of 1/160 sec at f/5.6 and ISO 640.

Mildred’s book Haiku and Images is available on Amazon and is filled wit h beautifully reproduced color photographs along with original haiku underneath, embellishing the image and deepening its meaning. Pick up a copy to give as Holiday Gift for yourself or a friend.