About the Image

A dynamic commercial industrial lifestyle photograph of a pickup truck driving on a lonely dirt farm road after sunset in the rain.

My client's underlying theme for this project was “We are here for you.” I realized this shot would show the very embodiment my client's tale. This image shows that even at night, on weekends, after hours, if you call me, I will get to my truck, drive to the office, pull the parts you think you need and I'll drive them to you, even if it takes 3-4 hours. And they do this for their customers at no additional charge.

We were hired to shoot a series of industrial lifestyle photos for a major industrial supply company to expand their photo library. This was a scout day and I told the client that I want to shoot something “Extra” for them if conditions permitted. We were scouting locations and earlier in the day, I spotted a different road and made a mental note.

Later in the day, close to sunset we returned to the location and discovered the access was now blocked. So I told the client to turn around and about 2 miles down the road on the right was another location that would be perfect. By now we are running out of time so I left them to to go back to this location and started to set up.

When they arrived, I gave the driver in the pickup a 2 way radio and told him to drive down until I said to turn around. I also had my assistant take a small LED light and batteries and asked him to set the color temperature to 3000°. I also put some “Black Wrap” on the led light panel so it would not be seen by the camera. Black wrap is a very heavy aluminum foil that is flat black on both sides. You cut off what you need and shape it to fit the light you want to flag off.

I set the camera and a 400mm f2.8 lens on my O'Connor fluid head and told them to turn around. I had my assistant raise the LED panel's light output until I could see a change in the driver's face. I did not want to over light him, just enough so one could a driver.

This is shot during the “Blue Hour”, which is really the blue 20-30 minutes and the optimum time, what you see here, really lasts for just 5 minutes.

Between the headlights, the LED panel, the blue fog in distance, the pecan grove on the left, the green undergrowth all together, to me, makes a powerful image.

The best part for the client? It was my extra photo I shot at no charge. This was the first job with this client and every year after this project they would hire us 4 to 6 times a year, each time was a 3 day project. Everyone at this company that has seen this image remembers it and mentions it to me.

See below for a BTS (Behind The Scenes) photo.

For Photographers

The Gear: Canon digital camera set to 1/250 of a second shutter speed, 2500 ISO and a Canon 400mm f2.8 lens with a 2X converter set to f5.6. The 2X converter doubles the focal length of the lens, so we are shooting this with an 800mm effective focal length lens.

The Light: A rainy cloud filled sky with fog in the distance with a small LED panel held in place by an assistant.

See below for a BTS (Behind The Scenes) photo.

We are based in Atlanta, Georgia and Los Angeles, California, both in the USA & Milan, Italy, and serve the nation and travel worldwide for projects, both video and stills. On average we travel 175 days a year from all over the USA, to Singapore to Japan, Europe and the Middle East. We are normally in Europe 2 or 3 times a year, mostly Italy and Germany, shooting for clients there.

If you would like to use this image, or any of my images for mock or comp use, please just ask. There is never a charge for this service. Educational use is permitted without charge, unless published, but please ask first. All commercial use is available only with a limited copyright release prior to use from the copyright holder, Steve Thornton. Thanks for looking!