Trailing Lights of Boredom…

During a weekend, I drove my wife in a grocery store for her to buy a couple of things. Since she will only buy a few items, I opted to wait for her in the parking space with engine running right in front of the store thinking that she will be inside the grocery store for a few minutes.

Half an hour passed by and she was still inside the store… With nothing to do, I took my gear and made several shots of the traffic to kill the time. And an inspiration came… Why not take a photo of the passing cars with a slow shutter speed instead?

With no tripod and while inside the car with the windows closed, I positioned firmly my left elbow on the door’s armrest with my other elbow anchored on the dashboard. I set my shutter speed to 5 seconds with a shot delay of 3 seconds. With my arms forming a “T” shape, I took the shot and waited for the shutter to close.

As expected, I got an image of trailing tail lights of the vehicles zooming on the road. While reviewing the shot, I noticed some reflections on the windows since I made the shot inside my car with the windows closed. So I prepared to take another shot conscious of any reflections that may appear.

Alas! My wife appeared and knocked on the car’s door… It’s time to go home. As I drive on our way home, I silently promised myself that I will take another shot like this… not because of “nothing to do while waiting” but because I intend to take a more inspiring photo of trailing tail lights!