My daughter Kelia drove on the way back from Burlington Vermont, a few weeks ago now, and I had the opportunity to enjoy the views of the Green Mountains of Vermont and the White Mountains of New Hampshire. I also, for lack of a better option, tried some “through the windshield” photography. This is as close as we got to Mt. Washington, the highest point in the Northeast. I zoomed in to avoid the top of the steering wheel on one edge of the frame and the rearview mirror on the other, shooting just one side of the windshield mounted GPS, at an angle out the little bit of windshield right in front of the driver. Sometimes you just get a better image than you have any right to expect! I even like the car on the other side of the interstate, caught in dynamic tension entering the frame.

This is, of course, one of a sequence of shots taken at 4fps. I would watch for a gap in the median vegetation and the oncoming traffic, and shoot off a burst. This image is from one of several sequences attempting to catch Mt. Washington as it passed. The picturesque Vermont dairy farm was just a happy accident…or an example of my amazing skills…whichever.

I did crop slightly at the left, bottom and top to improve composition and to eliminate a distracting power station just out of the frame on the left, and the shadow of the rearview mirror at the top.

Shooting through windshield glass required some creative color correction…and I would like to take credit, but honestly just hitting the Auto Color Temperature button in Lightroom did the trick. I did adjust shadows and blackpoint more than for a normal image.

Canon SX40HS at 153mm equivalent field of view. f4.5 @ 1/400th @ ISO 100. Program with iContrast and –1/3EV exposure compensation.

Interestingly enough, there is probably no other vantage point where you could get this particular image of the farm against the mountains. You have to be in a passing car.