Keep your eye out this week for a shiny, stainless steel Delorean cruising the streets, especially on October 21, 2015.
That’s the day Marty McFly went Back to the Future, or ahead to the future, or something like that.
The press is full of stories about what Back to the Future II got right in its predictions about life in 2015. Large flat screen TVs are the norm now, as is the multichannel universe. Apple’s recent keynote even talked about its new screensavers for Apple TV that are remarkably like what was playing in the McFly home.
Biometric security is built into my new iPhone with the fingerprint scanner (which I refuse to use). While hoverboards aren’t here yet, CBC’s The National last night aired a piece about a Canadian inventor who has made one out of helicopter drone parts that he can fly on for about a minute.
But this past summer, I did go back to the future in a way most people could only dream.
A long-time client of my photography work called me up in the spring, asking me to come down to their shop.
“Can you take pictures of Dad’s DeLorean?” Logan asked.
I think the actual words were something like, “You have a DeLorean? Here? In Estevan???”
Sure enough, they had a DeLorean, taken out of storage. Dean, the car’s owner, wanted me to take some nice photos of it to list it on eBay, after having owned it for many years but not really having done much with it. It spent most of the last decade in a sea can.
Now, this is like asking a photographer to take photos of a supermodel with their cellphone and say, “Okay, good enough.” Not gonna happen. If I was going to do this, I was going to do it right. And I wanted a chance to drive the car.
It was spring time, the ground was brown, there was nothing green or nice around.
“Let’s wait until things green up,” I suggested. Very well, that’s what we would do.
I tracked down a DVD from HMV of Back to the Future, and watched it three times to psych myself up for this shoot. I also watched several hours of documentaries about the car, the company, and its founder/designer, John DeLorean.
The gull wing doors, rear-mount engine and stainless steel body make this one of the most distinctive cars of all time, and that was before the movie made it cool.
The car was made in Northern Ireland during the worst time of “The Troubles.” It was only in production for 21 months, over three model years. Total production was 8,583. Its body is made of stainless steel, long before all of our kitchen appliances were.
That number is very close to the mileage on this particular car – 8,593, the miles on the odometer when it was in my garage. (Note I said miles, not kilometres. This was built for American consumption).
Then I had to find somewhere to photograph this car. It’s been the driest spring and summer in recent memory. Where would we find some place nice and green?
Then I remembered that the clan has supported the local TS&M Woodlawn Golf Course for many years, so I called them up and they were kind enough to let us bring the car out there.
That photo shoot ended up being very abbreviated. We would have to get together another day to finish the rest. The car went back in a garage.
A little later the car was dropped off at my place, where, with the help of my wife, I had set up a 30 foot backdrop allowing for interior shots with my new massive strobe umbrellas for soft, even lighting. But first we ran out a few blocks to the newest piece of pavement I could find. During this evening shoot we had one guy on a motorbike and two guys in a pickup pull up, get out and stare in awe at this car while they took pictures with their cellphones. My patient wife and kids fed the mosquitoes and helped out, too.
The kids were thrilled to get to sit in it for a bit. It was worth the mosquito bites.
This was a full out, use every technique I could think of shoot. I’m talking five-shot brackets, high-dynamic range editing, wireless flash triggering around and inside the car, compositing flames from a flare picture I took several years ago, the works.
Back at home, I was up till 1 a.m. fussing over the detail shots in the garage.
The next morning, it was another two hours of taking the last set of photos for the eBay listing, showing all the details car auctions need. Does it go 88 miles per hour? I didn’t have the guts to find out.
All told, 1,886 photos, 13 video clips (to be edited later), three shooting locations, three days, and editing until 4 a.m. But it was worth it. This was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. As for the eBay listing, it sold, to a guy in the U.K, no less.
The time machine went back in time, to the United Kingdom from which it came.
