JPG: Stories: Photo Essay: Night Swimming: Capturing the spirit of Hwy. 401 South

Night Swimming: Capturing the spirit of Hwy. 401 South

By Cassandra Bould

28 Jun 2008

I've never been a fan of driving the 401 (in any direction) and in particular I will do anything not to be driving on it at night. Aside from my personal feelings that it is an ugly scar tearing through our beautiful country's rural areas and a threat to wild life; it is also a threat to motorists traveling it on a daily basis. Too many people are in a hurry to get nowhere much too fast these days and speed in excess sometimes of 140 and 160 km/hr...even at night. It is quite literally a death trap.

So when I found myself in a position of staying out past dark and then having to make the three hour drive home at night, I gratefully accepted my husband's offer that he take over the driving responsibility. This gave me an opportunity to sit back and truly SEE this long ugly slab of asphalt. It is quite different at night and I began to notice that the eerie ugly glow of surrounding towns and cities was actually interesting when coupled with the light of surrounding motorists and the occasional service station (and of course the hundreds of semi trucks streaking past us.) So I took this opportunity and released my camera from the confines of it's cozy little protective gadget bag and slowed the shutter right down while pushing the ISO waaaaaaaay up. It was quite a bit of trial and error at first to find the right combination of shutter speed and ISO, but I finally found a setting that was helping me to create the "swimming" images you see here. Not only was I trying out new things with the shutter and the ISO, but I was trying out some crazy new things with my camera too! Twisting it here, and twirling it there...spinning the lens and just generally having a blast! I was so happy with the images I was capturing it took much discipline NOT to bother my driving husband and show off the crazy tendrils of light I was capturing!

I still don't really enjoy driving on the 401 (in any direction, in daylight or after dark) but I am grateful for this experience and time I had to experiment with something that instantly creates fear and loathing in me. While I will always see the 401 as an ugly (yet necessary) scar on our landscape, I was finally able to see that when you look at it creatively, it can still produce something beautiful.