first car photoshoot, restricted areas, and tricky lighting

I am now driving a different car. A Honda Civic Hatchback. I was bored the other night and decided to go out to the unactive naval base in Alameda and take some shots. Usually the parking lots with fences are closed but for some reason one of the gates was open when I was over there. Nobody was around and knew it was the best location to shoot at that night.

I couldn’t use my white lightnings because I don’t own a power pack, so I ended up using my Sunkpak 555’s. How many lights did I use? Where did I put them? I only used one light. I did this by using a long exposure and flashing the car from multiple angles to create the effect that there were multiple lights. I also got the inside of the car to glow red by gelling one of my flashes and firing it multiple times inside the car.

I was there for about 20-30 minutes until I was done. When I had finally packed everything up and was getting into my car a security patrol car came blazing through the gates and was headed straight towards me. I was immediately kick out for being in a “restricted area”, luckily after I was all finished.

Hopefully I’ll be doing some more car shoots in the future. I’m also looking into building a rig if I can afford it.

Nikon D3, 14-24mm @ 18mm, 200iso, f/24, 30 sec

Nikon D3, 14-24mm @ 24mm, 200iso, f/18, 29 sec

Nikon D3, 14-24mm @ 18mm, 200iso, f/18, 30 sec