Speed

I have always admired the shots people take at night of speeding cars, and, have an image in mind that I want to take, but this isn’t it.  This is a view from the passenger seat of my car on the M56 one Sunday night.  The reason that I had my Ixus out and was taking shots was that I wanted to take some night shots of some of the chemical works near the Mersey as we were coming home from visiting friends.  I think that they look stunning (although the Environmentalist side of me is shocked at the energy waste and light pollution – I am, honestly).

However, as this picture illustrates, when travelling at 60 miles an hour in a car, it is impossible to keep the camera steady and, at night, the shutter speed is unbelievably slow.  Unfortunately it is also illegal to stop on the hard shoulder to take pictures, if it wasn’t I would have taken my tripod and DSLR with me.

I still quite like this shot though, as it sums up my feelings of motorway travel (endless and desolate are words that spring to mind), and is quite minimal.

For anyone interested, the Ixus chose 5.8mm, f/2.8, 1/8 secs, I think it was ISO200, but could easily be ISO400.