Today’s Post by Joe Farace
Eastbound and down, loaded up and truckin’ / We’re gonna do what they say can’t be done / We’ve got a long way to go and a short time to get there / I’m eastbound, just watch ol’ Bandit run!—Jerry Reed
While the quintessential Smokey and the Bandit Pontiac Trans Am was a 1977 model, I am inexorably drawn to any Trans Am wearing the iconic black and gold trim and that has a “screaming chicken” on the hood.
For short time, I was working on a series of images I called “Hidden Albuquerque,” but it’s been a while since Ive been able to get down to New Mexico, so my the work on this project has been, OK, nonexistant. And I miss dining at the Frontier, a must-visit eatery. Maybe some day…
How I made this photo: The above image was shot with a Panasonic Lumix GH4 with Olympus 17mm f/2.8 lens and an exposure of 1/640 sec at f/7.1 and ISO 200. The final image was processed in Vivenza.
My concept for the series was based on visiting and photographing the least touristy places I could find and that ended up with me shooting photographs in industrial parks and places where local people built things. This location, for example, was a series of buildings that were owned by a millwork company that made high-end windows and doors. And I think that’s an old Pontiac Trans Am—again thinking Smokey & The Bandit—that’s sitting there all covered up.
Shooting on Private Property
As I have mentioned before, when shooting on private property I always ask permission from the owner or someone who appears to be an owner or in charge. In this case, I walked around this property a long time (making pictures as I went) and I spotted that car covered up on the property of a builder of custom wood doors. There were a few workers hanging around and I said “Hi” and waved at them and they waved back. At one point, somebody came up and asked me the inevitable “what are you doing.” I told him “taking pictures” and showed him some of them on the GH4’s preview screen. He said “cool” and let me continue to make pictures. If he had said “leave,” I would have left; If he asked me to erase the photos I would have done that too but he didn’t because I was friendly and showed him how I saw his storage yard in a completely different way than maybe he did. Over the years, I have found that if you ask politely and act nicely as well, it’s been my experience that people are nice back to you.
Joe Farace is co-author along with Pulitzer Prize-winning photographer Barry Staver of “Better Available Light Digital Photography” that includes more information on how some of these images were created. New copies are available from Amazon from $8.83 – $100 with used copies are starting around five bucks, as I write this.