45th Annual Show & Shine - Merrimack, NH

I went to the 45th Annual Show & Shine car show this weekend.  I had missed the last couple years but did go in 2015.  I didn’t do a blog post in 2015 but made the collage above from some of the pictures I took. 
 

I thought I would take pictures at this event.  Since there would be many taking pictures I started thinking about how to take my pictures from a different perspective.   

The night before I decided to use my tripod and take pictures from high-up.  The thought of taking pictures from an elevated height isn't new but I thought it would be fun to experiment.  Unless there were others thinking the same thing my pictures would be different.  

My idea was to put my camera on the tripod, pivot the screen viewer down so I could see what I was taking a picture of, set the timer for 10 seconds, raise the camera above my head, and take a picture.

My weather ideal was cool temperatures with blue sky and some clouds but the morning was sunny, hot, and humid.  As it got later the humidity seemed to drop but the temperature was going up.  Not my ideal for taking pictures.

I ended up focusing my camera and pressed the button at ground level.  While the timer counted down I raised the tripod and camera up over my head and aimed using the screen viewer until the picture was taken.  Being 6 feet tall, arms extended, with a 5 ½ foot tripod I was taking pictures 12 to 13 feet up.

I must have looked as unusual as some of the cars at the show.  Based on the reaction of people all around I heard comments like great idea, interesting, resourceful, good idea for short people, etc.  Many came up and asked to see the pictures I had taken. 

I must admit I couldn’t resist taking pictures of a few of the cars at normal height but this blog post is about my pictures being different.

I also reversed my approach from high-up-looking-down to low-down-looking-up with the same set up.  I held my tripod and camera upside down to take pictures from an inch or 2 above the grass.  I was more interested in high-up so only took a few of these.

The height gave me a good picture of the car I focused on as well as other cars and people in the area.  I didn’t see anyone else using a ladder or a tripod so my quest to take pictures from a different perspective was successful.

I saw some great cars and had fun.  Now I have to think about what I might try next year ...