Some photo jobs develop an unexpected dynamic… This time I was asked to photograph a beautiful old Mercedes W111 with its owner. Sounds simple, but then it turns out that no editor would be present. The presence of an editor is always helpful, because one more helping hand on set makes a huge difference. “OK…”, I thought, “…portraits, details of the car, photo of both…. No problem at all. I can also lug around the light on my own.” Since I didn’t just want static shots, we did a few more pull-along shots. This was easy to do in the flat countryside near Grevenbroich. But I did want a few car-to-car motifs, after all, 3 double pages had to be illustrated. I was there with my Altbenz (a point of honor) and just had to find a driver who would keep me at a constant distance from the Mercedes to be photographed.
Car-to-Car?
Luckily Sandra, the distinctive girlfriend of Ralf, the owner, was there. She, who was used to driving even older cars than mine, hesitated: “Can I drive it?” Of course she could, very well in fact. My trunk was piled high with all sorts of useful photographer’s equipment, so I decided to go for the James Bond option instead of opening the tailgate: Leaning out of the open rear window. The tiny patch of sun in the sky, which would be hidden again in a few minutes, proved me right with my quick decision. We drove off. I photographed beautiful driving shots of a great car and leaned out a little further. My driver steered the car perfectly on track and at the right speed. I leaned out a little further. The window, which was still sticking out a little, gave me support on my stomach and the camera was running hot. “A little closer!” I shouted to the driver. She pulled over a little and the sun refracted perfectly on the Mercedes’ paintwork. Before I could capture the moment, there was a loud crack! My upper body plummeted ten centimetres, there was a rattle, the window slid back through the safety pin in the car door and slid through to the bottom. “Too bad,” I thought, holding the camera steady and taking pictures. I could feel sorry for my intestines later, photos always come first.
Fortune favors the brave…
After the photos, we stopped and I had time to inspect the damage. Shaking my head, I went through all the phone calls I would have to make to get the window back where it belonged. I calculated how much it would cost me. All in all, I didn’t make a very happy impression, I guess. Ralf, the owner of the photographed Mercedes, who had looked after his Benz himself for over 20 years, said laconically: “We’ll have it in a minute”. 20 minutes later, my window went up and down electrically again. Double thanks to Ralf and Sandra!
Lesson learned? Go easy on Altbenz and only hire cars in future. Or like this.
