Boot Camp 2, Assignment #4: What Moves You

Summer may have unofficially ended yesterday (no more white belts or manscaping for me) but we still have one more assignment to get through for Boot Camp 2.

Being strong believers in delayed gratification, I think I can safely speak for the entire staff here at Strobist International HQ when I say we tried to save the best assignment for last.
__________


Your Assignment, Should You Decide to Accept It...

This one, as you might have gathered from the post header, is about transportation -- literally, what moves you.

It's been a popular theme in the Strobist Flickr Pool for the last three years. So I thought it fitting to give some of you a chance to show off a little.

I'd like to point out that the photo above is of my own car in my own garage.

I'd like to point that out. But, sadly, I cannot. I wish those were my wheels. (Click through on that or any other pic in this post to get to the rightful Strobist group photog.)

Three vehicles comprise the actual real-life Strobist corporate fleet. The human-powered division is a 2004 Trek 430 hard-tail mountain bike. It was purchased used in a stunning stroke of good luck, given my ridiculously short frame size.

The internal combustion division of the fleet consists of a pair of 2006 vehicles -- a Scion XA and a used Yamaha Vino 49.5cc scooter. The combined mileage for the above is slightly over 69 MPG, I might add.

The point being that any of these types of vehicles would eligible for this assignment. Stretch it a little.


Use this as an excuse to get a little creative, as this assignment will not be nearly as constrained as the previous three. But try to keep the subject matter to an object which could reasonably be classified as transportation.

And, red sports car photo notwithstanding, try to remember that the assignment will not be judged on the hotness of the vehicle. In fact, if you do scrounge up a killer car, the onus will be on you to make an extra hot picture.


How You Can Help

If you are looking for the charitable component, this one is kinda no-brainer. Not only could you help someone sell a hot ride, but you could pretty much pick out exactly the vehicle you might like to photograph, sans any modeling fees.

In the US, I would suggest checking out the "used searches" in cars.com. If you don't have your own car to shoot, you might make a seller very happy with a cool photo (or group of photos) of their car. Plus, it'd make a nice keepsake after the car is gone. Just an idea.


Prizes, We Gots Prizes

Midwest Photo Exchange went a little nuts on this one, so we're pretty much throwing in everything but the kitchen sync.

For starters, how 'bout an LP120-based starving student light kit, a Speedlight Prokit 6 Reflector, and a new special Strobist Gel / LumiQuest FXtra combo kit.

And, as with the other prize packs, a set of Strobist DVDs and a set of Trade Secret Strobist lighting cards round out the package.

Remember, this is the last assignment and thus the last chance to shoot yourself into a pretty cool swag bag.

And, as the person coughing up for all of this international postage lately, I would like to point out that after the first three assignments the score is now:


Shifty-Eyed Foreigners: 3
U.S. Photogs: El Zippo.


(Kinda like watching World Cup Football qualifiers, no?)

Just sayin'.


The Fine Print

Because someone asks in the comments every single time, please refer back to the first assignment post for the basic info on how to enter your photo and where to go if you have Flickr problems questions.

But PLEASE NOTE that the tag is different for this assignment. It is:


SBC2ASSIGN4


So don't screw up and repeat the tag from the first assignment. The photo must also be in the Strobist pool (so remember to add that lighting info) to be entered. If you are successful, your photos should appear in this search within a few minutes. Please, only submit one entry.

If you want to ask questions, or otherwise discuss this assignment, you can do so in this thread.

And you can check out some of the other bloggers following along, here.

The due date for this assignment is end of day, local time, September 21st, 2009. Don't be late.

And for the verification shot (which will be required of the winner to prove he or she took it after the assignment date) reach around that camera and make a second version of the same shot with your hand showing four fingers in the foreground.

You know, just to keep it legal.