Southern Pines, NC

We as people are always in motion. Whether it’s rushing the kids to school, traveling for work, or making the commute home in the dark, we are always on the go. For this post, I wanted to document mankind’s primary mode of transportation with some long exposures. 

On the side of an overpass bridge, I decided to set up and get some shots of the cars passing by below. It was all a matter of luck to keep running my shutter () at a time until the right cars passed by. I really like the little motel in the background and I think it adds so much character and is very typical of the side of the highway in small town America.  

For my next shots I went between the highway and an onramp. It is interesting to think that for every streak of light you see is a car, and for every car you see there is a unique human being traveling in that car for a specific unique reason. They could be coming home from their kid’s ballgame, heading out for a night on the town, or some dude going to the grocery store to get hemorrhoid cream because his mother-in-law forgot to pack hers when she came to visit. 

I decided to turn my camera toward the highway and put it at an angle. I think the grass in the foreground and the sky in the background split evenly with the streaks of light to create a sci-fi-like effect. It’s almost like we’re on the side of the highway on Saturn, looking out at the rings. 

It was an interesting experience to hang out on the side of a highway for these images. Seeing a couple of hundred people, each in motion towards their own destination, fly by in minutes. 

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2 responses to “Movement”

  1. Adam Avatar

    Hi Kolby,

    This is a really cool concept! Even though this was taken next to a highway where people are going pretty fast, I think it does speak to how much of a rush we can be in even at night when we may not really have a lot going on. I agree with you too that your photos do give off a small town America vibe. I feel like with big city highways you see a lot more signs and even big chain restaurants and stores sometimes too, but with small town highways all you really see is the road and cars around you. Two things I think turned out really well in your photos are the colors and the sky. The colors of the light streaks left by the cars are very bright and colorful which make them nice to look at and you can also see the stars in some of your photos which is nice too. Your second photo kind of reminds me of the old Adult Swim closing where they would have a timelapse of Atlanta and show, among other things, the cars driving down the highway. I think you definitely do this again at least once and I also think it’d be really cool to know what your camera settings were for these photos because I’d think it’d  be cool to do long exposures too.

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  2. Paul Goodman Avatar

    Yo LTD! I really enjoy this photos. And I enjoy the point you make about us as people in eternal motion. It you hadn’t had mentioned the ring of Saturn I would have never saw what you see. I’m so glad you say that because it made me remember how much everything we see can shape into things that our minds eye sees. It happens to me all the time and whenever we used film I would try to capture those visions. Thank you, this has reminded me about the imaginative part of photography. How it’s not always about the lighting or composition, but the envision of the environment.

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