Using a Glidetrack for photography

I was called recently by professional photographer Mike Harrington runs a specialty packshot company called “The Packshot People“. As well as specialising in product photography Mike also shoots a lot of images for the stock image giant Getty Images. With the London olympics big in the news this year Mike was in the process of putting together a series of stills based on sporting activities that feature in the games. One of the images mike had in mind was of a cyclist on a rolling road with a London cityscape in the background.

Mike shot the cyclist in his studio and grabbed the skyline in London but he needed to create the rolling road part of the image and ideally wanted vehicle light streaks in the shot. At this point many people may have turned to photoshop but Mike’s one of those guys that’s not happy settling for second best when you can capture a real image.

When Mike asked if I had a device that would allow a camera to be tracked whilst keeping it stable I knew straight away that he was talking about a problem that we had already solved as filmmakers, he needed the Glidetrack Hybrid HD.

Mike borrowed my Glidetrack HD Hybrid and mounted his Hassleblad medium format camera to it. He then found a suitable spot beside the road and did a long exposure whilst sliding the camera along the track. The results were perfect providing a perfectly smooth blur of the road with the passing cars creating spectacular light streaks.

Here’s the composited image containing all three parts.

So many DSLR users have purchased Glidetracks and other sliders to enhance the video aspects of their shooting but I wonder how many have thought about switching those cameras into stills mode and getting creative with long exposure stills too.

If you want to find out more about the Glidetrack Hybrid that Mike used then see my Glidetrack Hybrid review.

For more information about all of the Glidetrack models visit www.glidetrack.com