IN THE FIELD: It’s A Bit Windy Out There
Weather forecasters have been tracking Hurricane Sandy in the Atlantic ocean. She is scheduled to blow through our region this weekend. High winds and huge amounts of rain are predicted, even as far inland where I live.
In this part of Pennsylvania, we still have a good amount of colorful autumn leaves on the trees. But more than likely, the trees will be stripped bare from Sandy’s wrath.
A few days ago, I attempted to illustrate what it will look like around here with the wind and rain blowing through the trees. I figured by driving along our back-country roads, holding the camera out the window and capturing motion shots of the autumn leaves, just may give me a pretty good idea.
Since I was driving, I wasn’t be able to check exposure settings, so I set the camera to aperture priority. I chose an aperture setting of 2.8 and let the camera do the rest. I also set the shooting mode to continuous.
When I came upon an area I felt had potential, I held the camera out the window and pressed the shutter. And this is what I got.
David Heilman 
Beautiful action and colours… Thanks and Love, nia
Thanks Nia, glad I did this the other day. I don’t think there will be many leaves left on the trees after this weekend!
Very creative, David. It made a beautiful abstract. One thing, though, it would be wise to make sure your lens is not facing too much toward the front. There might be a danger of getting the glass sand-blasted from the wind.
Thanks Bob and good advice too! I was pointing the camera sideways partly to avoid the rear view mirror and partly because it was easier to hold that way! 30+ mph wind and lenses don’t play well together!
Fun photo! Love the motion.
Thanks Tricia, it was fun to do and the effect varied from shot to shot. Some worked and some didn’t, although the ones that did turned out to be really cool abstracts!
This is excellent, David! It’s as if I am in the same car, looking out the window. You captured the motion really well.
Thanks Gracie, I told you to bring your camera that day! The other day I tried it with a good bit of success driving through town. Easier to do when you are a passenger though LOL.
Well done, David.
Thanks Jane, it was a fun experiment that will lead to other subjects for sure!
That is pretty creative! Love the colours. Hope that Sandy loses her strength before landfall – stay safe!
Thanks Jo, It was something I thought of driving home the other day. Sandy has been upgraded to hurricane status again. Hopefully we just get wind and rain!
You weren’t driving while doing this were you? Great colors.
Uhhhhhh yup, back country road, (that’s all we have around here) no other cars, and 30 mph or so. It’s much easier…and safer to do as a passenger though!
What an interesting idea! It works very well; I’d like to give it a go.
Thanks Meanderer, it’s super easy to do as long as you can achieve slow shutter speeds of around 1/30 or slower. Yesterday I was using the same method driving past buildings. Worked pretty well !
Beautiful shot, David. Fabulous colors. 🙂
Thanks Nandini, the colors were a bit muted this year and then there would be patches of brilliant reds, oranges, and yellows among mostly brown. I suppose it had something to do with the amount of rainfall during the summer.
I hope you don’t have too bad of a time with the upcoming storm. Interesting photo…thanks for explaining how you did it.
It’s getting really really windy now. I would say gusts are at 30 mph maybe more. Raining sideways too! The experiment was fun to do and the effect is always different. Some work and some don’t. I even tried some with the flash and played with front and read curtain sync to see the effect.
Great action shot! I’ve taken a few photos of trees using the moving car method also. Hope you are safe through the storm.
I love playing around and trying unusual methods…you never know what to expect! So far we are safe…it’s really raining…no pouring sideways and very windy!
This was clever! I thought it was wind at first, until I looked more closely and read your description. A creative idea!
Thanks Lee, the idea came to me driving the back roads through the woods…the colors were amazing and I knew they wouldn’t last for long with the storm heading our way. There is no safe place to put a vehicle because the roads are very curvy, hilly and have no shoulder. The best thing to do would be to get dropped off somewhere and walk the area…the second best was to do what I did LOL.
‘drive by shooting’ results in a killer shot David ! 🙂
Thanks Abu, It was fun experimenting…I even tried some after sunset with the on camera flash but it’s not powerful enough. I should have pulled over (if there was a place to pull over) and mounted a speedlight for more light. Ya know…maybe I will just do that tonight on the way home! There aren’t many leaves on the trees but the effect might be pretty cool.
great shot, I really like your idea of imitating the hurricane before it happened 🙂 Hope you are didn’t get damaged too much!
Thanks Kristina, no damage here. Just a bunch of branches and leaves all over the yard. We did lose power for 24 hrs., but we have a generator so it was cozy inside.
Glad all went well at your end so you can keep taking pictures of the beautiful surroundings 🙂