car convoy during demonstration

I live in Israel, we have political unrest here, during Corona time and government tries to silent the ongoing weekly demonstrations by imposing gathering limitations.

So instead of demonstrating in crowds, as before, we arrange now car convoys to Jerusalem.

The convoy I was in, was about 2,000 cars and 50 KM long, and the ride took about 2 hours mainly on highway. Quite impressive.

So the question is how do I express, in picture, the high volume of participants and the determination in picture, assuming I am on street level . I can of course pop out of the car in one of the curves.

The attached two pics were taken from steering wheel position, just to get the feeling.

One for forward going cars and the other to the back.

Here were the cars lined up on my street on the way to one of the official eclipse viewing sites (2017-08-21, who says nothing ever happens in my town).

No success, but maybe presentation as a triptych helps?

It is probably going to be difficult to illustrate effectively from a street level vantage point. I'd suggest that you try to get inspiration from news photos of traffic jams.

I guess I agree, so I will try to emphasize determination.

I will try tomorrow (new convoy :)) to take a picture of the cars going my direction, will shoot from low level, and will focus on first car so it is more in focus (open aperture)

Will also focus on diagonal lines, either the convoy itself or the road marking

What about organizing a shot that shows a coordinated effort... a connection. Just drive head to a prearranged well chosen overpass. Have all the drivers with open windows and waving. It might be fun for the all involved fo know that you are going to be creating this photo document.

And maybe a video.

I agree that making this look like a protest and not just a traffic jam is going to be difficult.

However the traffic density can be made to look more dramatic by using a telephoto lens from a greater distance. This will compress the distance between cars and make the volume of traffic look greater.

A wide angle shot like the one you've shown, only emphasises the lead car and makes the procession behind it look tiny. Increasing the distance and magnification (zoom) will even up the size of the cars.

My concern is the excessive amount of pollution created by this activity, which in the long run will kill far more people worldwide than Covid-19.

Seriously Tony?

Have you been following the Covid-19 death toll figures worldwide?

<snip>

 

Seriously Tony?

Have you been following the Covid-19 death toll figures worldwide?

I did say in the long run, although finally governments are waking up to the fact that poisoning the entire atmosphere may not be a productive move. Illnesses of all kinds come and go (I agreee this too may take time), but pollution and the concomittant effects are far harder to eradicate.

A tele lens to compress the view and if the vantage point could be changed to an overpass - all sounds like good suggestions.

When I spend some time in USA ages ago, cheerleaders would paint high school student's cars and car windows with slogans in some sort of white paint that would easily wash off - maybe some of our US members can comment on what kind of paint that may have been? That would set the cars apart from regular traffic.

I did say in the long run, although finally governments are waking up to the fact that poisoning the entire atmosphere may not be a productive move. Illnesses of all kinds come and go (I agree this too may take time), but pollution and the concomittant effects are far harder to eradicate.

To expand a little.

I'm not condoning pollution in the slightest Tony. World Health Organisation figures estimate the number of pollution-related deaths at 7 million per annum worldwide. Not all due to air pollution though note.

However Covid deaths are now standing at 1 million in a period of about 6 months, and it ain't over yet! So the minimal increase in air pollution caused by this car-based protest is hardly likely to create a measurable difference to those pollution deaths. Not in comparison with the 4.5 million lives lost to both causes so far in the same period.

I could wander off topic to express my dismay at younger photographers' apparently increasing uptake of a more polluting technology than necessary, but I'll save that for another thread.

We are all doomed. Unless...

John: [Watching two children fight] We're not gonna make it, are we? People, I mean.

Terminator: It's in your nature to destroy yourselves.

John: Yeah. Major drag, huh?

:(

"We're not gonna make it, are we? People, I mean."

Individually, our termination is inevitable.

As a species? Who knows?

Plus the definition of "make it" is philosophically debatable.

• Evolve into a higher and more enlightened life form?
  
• Seed the universe with our emotional stupidity?
  
• Continue to procreate uncontrolled until we've stripped our planet of all resources and die out whimpering "Why, Lord, WHY?"
  

Our future possibilities are wide and varied, but I'm pretty sure that entropy will win out in the end.