4th Dec 2019
Last Saturday (30th November) I did a photoshoot, taking pictures featuring light trails from traffic on the Naas Dual Carriageway, the main arterial route out of Dublin serving the counties of Limerick, Cork and Waterford, and everywhere in between. It is the second busiest road in Ireland, second only to the M50, the Dublin Ring Road.
I had done photoshoots of this road before, but this is the first one where I also made a video.
I actually went up there twice, the first time being three weeks earlier. After reviewing some of the A-roll video clips, i.e., the ones in which I would be talking into the camera, for a few different reasons, I felt reluctant to present these clips. It is probably down to me not being used to listening to my own voice. Also, I often feel the need to use a teleprompter app on my smartphone to help me with prepared dialogue when talking to the camera, otherwise I would find myself getting stuck with what to say, even with take after take.
Recording the B-roll shots, i.e., shots that don’t incorporate dialogue, is relatively more straightforward. However, these have their own set of challenges, for example the need to pan the camera while keeping shake and jerky motion to an absolute minimum when I plan to speed up playback in the editing. And because the camcorders I use are certainly not professional standard, they only cost about €150 each, when it comes to filming at night, there is a significant fall-off in quality, a lot of noise is apparent in the picture.
Fortunately, when it comes to the still shots, I generally don’t experience any major difficulties with the camera settings, what I normally do when doing long exposure photography of traffic on roads, I take several pictures at a certain point, trying different shutter speeds and apertures, which is all I can do. What I can’t control is what the motorists do, for example, occupy all available lanes, and if someone drives in the entry and exit ramps, etc.
Even though I was reasonably happy with the still images I took during the first outing, I decided to take more images, during the second outing. I felt there was always the possibility that these images could “better” the ones I took in the first outing. However, having compared the images I took on the second outing with those I put into the edit from the first outing, I decided to leave the latter in the edit.
And then of course, it is necessary to consider safety. I always carry a hi-viz vest in the car. I brought it with me when filming and photographing. While I didn’t see the need to put it on while I was on the bridge over the dual carriageway, because I was on a footpath. However, when I was going down to the dual carriageway, I did put it on because there was no footpath.
When down there, I managed to keep off the roadway, and stay on the grass verge to the side. Once I did all that, it was a matter of hoping / trusting that the motorists just ignore me, get on with their driving, stay off their phones and watch where they are going!