Drive-by photos of LA street life

I shoot a lot of photos while holding a camera inside a vehicle. While it's convenient for me, the quality definitely suffers. Los Angeles photographer Johnny Tergo does it better. He has rigged up his Chevy Silverado's passenger window with a camera and strobe lights, and he catches some interesting sidewalk scenes. Check out Wired.com for a gallery and backstory.

Excerpt:

Inside the truck on the passenger side, Tergo bolted a platform that holds a Canon 1D Mark IV with a 16-35 mm lens, a computer, an iPad mini and a studio light. Outside near the tailgate he’s attached a second studio light and reflector to a boom that extends 10 feet above the ground. Two gas generators in the bed of the truck pump out 4,000 watts for the lights, including a third that’s rigged under the bumper (photos of his setup are included at the end of the gallery).

As Tergo drives in neighborhoods with high foot traffic, he sets his exposure using an app called Capture Pilot on the iPad mini. He also adjusts the strobes for the ambient light using the strobe controls positioned in the cab. When he spots a subject, he drives around the block while he frames up the shot.

He’s learned a few tricks to get the best results. He leads moving subjects by pulling forward slightly, waiting for them to enter the frame. He’s also not above honking the horn and pretending to be angry with another driver to get people to look toward the camera....

Some people are not so stoked to get their photo taken without consent. Tergo says there’s been a lot of yelling.

“A lot of people think I’m up to something nefarious,” he says. “But there have also been a couple times where someone has been really cool and I’ve pulled over and explained what I was doing.”