An evening stood on a freezing hillside waiting for traffic to pass by!

over 2 years ago (Edited)

There aren't many people mad enough to stand on a freezing hillside for two hours in the Peak District of Derbyshire waiting for traffic to pass by so as to capture the motion created by the vehicle lights. @inksurgeon and I are clearly crazy enough to try!

Last night's excursion in the dark never happened so we reconvened this evening and agreed to drive over to Edale to capture the traffic trails on the twisty road. I've done this a couple of times before but never this early in the winter season.

The roads on the way were clear but the snow hadn't melted like it usually does after a day under the heat of the sun. The sun didn't turn up and the snow was frozen.

This is what I bagged tonight:

The Road to Edale

This was my favourite of the night. I tried a couple of different compositions, moving up and down the hill but this was my fave. I found it better if the cars were driving uphill rather than down because the headlights coming down blew out the exposure.

This was shot more or less at the end of last light with a hint of colour in the sky:

Fog Bound

As it got darker, the mist rolled in and eventually we couldn't actually see the road. I had the idea to capture the motion of the vehicles through thick fog as a kind of abstract lightpainting but it didn't work as planned and the earlier shots with less fog looked better:

This is also an example of how the same scene can look different if you stick around long enough.

Behind the Scenes

I tend to try to capture a behind the scenes shot with my iPhone 13 Pro and having left the settings on "Dramatic" this one turned out quite nicely:

Phone Pano

Camera phones are getting so good lately and shooting a panorama in almost darkness still amazes me with the phone only having such a small image sensor. The phone camera didn't completely get it right with a blurry foreground!

Winnat's Pass

Around the corner from Edale Road is Winnat's Pass. The Pass is a steep road with high rocky sides running through the Peak District. It's a popular place to visit and has absolutely epic scenery. It's also a great place to shoot traffic trails!

This took ages to capture, waiting for cars only going up through the pass and not down!

Hope Cement Works aka Bladerunner-esque

I must admit to feeling rather smug about this shot. This is Hope Cement Works shot with a 50 year old vintage Asahi Pentax 55mm Super Takumar lens and was a 4 shot stitch panorama image.

I oriented the camera vertically and shot 4 x 45 second images at a fairly small aperture, probably f11, I have no idea with this being a manual lens and I didn't bother to make a note!

This was also shot with a cool white balance in camera giving it a "Bladerunner-esque" feel to the image.

About me:
I usually specialise in shooting lightpainting images but occasionally dabble in urbex and artistic model photography. I'm always on the lookout for someone to collaborate with; please don't hesitate to get in touch if you'd like to create art.

Social Media
https://www.facebook.com/fastchrisuk
https://www.flickr.com/photos/fastchris/

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WHAT IS LIGHTPAINTING?
Lightpainting is a photographic technique in which exposures are made by moving a hand-held light source while taking a long exposure photograph, either to illuminate a subject or to shine a point of light directly at the camera, or by moving the camera itself during exposure. Nothing is added or removed in post processing.

Single exposure Light Art Photography - no layers - no tricks - no photoshop

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