Watching the cars go by
Laval, QC, August 2009
[Click photo to embiggen]
I'm cheating a little here. I posted a similar picture - taken just four minutes after this one - last year (see entry here). Before you report me to the blog-repeat-police, hear me out: I often wrestle with the fact that new folks drop by every day and may never see some of my favorite moments buried deeply in the archives. Yet some shoots and subjects almost beg for an occasional revisit. So forgive me if I indulge in another look at a moment that meant something to me.
That, and this is another parallel view. Score!
What gets me about this series is three things, actually:
- I got to experience it with my son. He's been bitten by the photo bug and happily grabs the camera on occasion for some exploration of his own. I started shooting at the age he's at now (15) and creatively he's already light years ahead of where I was when I started. It's scary, in a good way, to think where he'll end up if he follows his passion.
- We were able to see in photos what we could not see in real life. Long exposure opens a window into ethereal views - ghostly light trails and all - that simply don't exist when you take them in with the naked eye. Photography isn't always about reality, and few shots drive this home more forcefully than nighttime long exposures.
- We recorded an ordinary bridge - plain deck, no superstructure, no unique identifying features of any kind - in a way that made it memorable to us. This unassuming hunk of concrete, asphalt and steel, mindlessly crossed by thousands of people every day, is now special to us. I like that he remembers it that way.
