It doesn’t matter where you are, people always claim that if you don’t like the weather … ‘wait a minute.’ This turned out to be true last August when Dorothy accompanied me on an assignment to Albuquerque, New Mexico to shoot a new fire engine.
The area is gorgeous. Mountains and valleys highlight the scenic options with indigenous trees and rock clusters. The problem though when I need to please a client with photos of a truck, is that I need to work with Mother Nature to highlight both the truck and the environment. This entails having the truck well lit by the sun while incorporating the beautiful surroundings. I never have the luxury of unlimited time to find a spot in the sun with the perfect backdrop.
On this particular trip, the areas where we had sufficient space for the truck with unobstructed views of the mountains were extremely limited. And, to add an additional element of difficulty to the equation, there was a storm heading our way.
With the help of firefighters, we found two spots with great views of the mountains including incredible clouds in the sky.
But, they understood that as good as these locations were, I still felt that we could do better. They had another place in mind, but it was a bit of a drive … and the weather was moving in! Nonetheless, we got there, jumped out of the engine on a busy road, spotted the rig in the center median, and grabbed enough images between moving traffic, to be able to create a great shot. All the while we kept our eyes on the horizon where we could see the storm approaching.
I had to grab a few shots of the oncoming storm and then ask a firefighter to grab a few photos of Dorothy and me showing us in the sun with the looming storm only minutes away.
It stormed all the way back to the fire station.