Towards the end of April my father and I went for a day trip in Virginia. We’d visited a hamfest in the morning, then drove along Skyline Drive in Shenandoah National Park and found some white trillium flowers closer to noon. Just after photographing the trillium it began raining and it continued for some time as we drove out of Shenandoah National Park and along Route 211 west towards Luray. I was the passenger on this trip and had kept my camera out as we drove so I decided to create some “from the road” photographs to capture some of our trip and show what the roadside scenery looks like in a storm.
Route 211 From the Blue Ridge to the Massanutten
Route 211 between the Blue Ridge and Massanutten mountain ranges can be a beautiful scenic drive. These two photos were created past Luray as we approached the Massanutten. You can see the same house and barns in them both. As beautiful as this area is, I felt it was even more beautiful on this rainy day, and I even enjoy the spots of rain on the windshield, something I most often try to avoid by clicking the camera shutter just after the wipers clear the windshield.
Route 211 west towards Massanutten
Raindrops on the windshield while riding towards Massanutten on Route 211
Route 11 from New Market to Mount Jackson
From Route 211 we turned right and headed north on Route 11, leaving New Market and heading towards Mount Jackson. This is another beautiful stretch of road that parallels the Massanutten mountain range. I found several scenes I thought were worthy of photographing, with various buildings set off against both the Massanutten in the background and the clouds in the sky.
A farm house, clouds, and Massanutten
A church and the Massanutten range along Route 11
Farm land and the Massanutten range
Tips
So often on these trips I see what I believe would make wonderful compositions while in the car, but seeing them and capturing them while the car is moving are two entirely different things. Everything is in motion, the car, me within the car, the camera within my hand, and other cars on the road. I’ve shared some techniques in the past to help with photographing from a moving car, such as raising the ISO and shutter speed and turning on vibration reduction, and to add to those suggestions, keep your arms and body slightly flexible so they move with the movement of the car. This might help reduce the harder vibrations of the vehicle moving along the road, similar to how moving video cameras are sometimes mounted on stabilizers to smooth the motion.
Photographing from the road is a lot of fun and something I highly recommend if you’ve never tried it yourself. It gives you the chance to realize some photos you might not otherwise be able to create. Just be sure you’re a passenger if the vehicle is moving.
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