I’ve been asked quite a few times why I got into taking road shots of passing trucks and how I got started. So I’ll try and summarize the process as best I can. I’ll also go over what equipment I use and how I actually get these shots.
It all started sometime around 2019 when I found a page called “Point & Pray Roadshots” on Instagram. I took quite an interest in the pictures that this person was taking, and noticed how the scenery was always different in every shot, and also noticed that the photos always seemed to be taken from the opposing lanes of travel. The photos were always very high quality, and the subjects always top notch tractor trailers (and even sometimes other very interesting vehicles).
It wasn’t long after that when I started taking my own “road shots” with my iPhone 10. Of course, the photos I was taking were nowhere near as high quality as the ones I was attempting to imitate, but I was learning and having fun while doing so. If it isn’t obvious by now, I’m a major truck enthusiast and love a beautiful truck when I see one. So for me, I was simply documenting the ones I would see in my travels.
Over time, I finally decided to upgrade my gear as I was getting more into general photography as well. I went shopping around and even asked a few friends who were photographers what would be the best “entry level” professional camera I could buy without breaking the bank while still maintaining quality. It was then that I decided to buy my first Canon T7 Rebel with 3 lenses.
It was definitely a learning curve trying to manage taking these photos with a large camera rather than just a smartphone, but I learned how best to do so in a short amount of time. And the results were fantastic! If anyone goes thru my photo history on my Instagram page, they can definitely tell when I started to use my T7 versus the photos taken with just my phone, which by then I had upgraded to the iPhone 12 Pro Max.
Somewhere around 2020 or 2021, I finally was able to meet the man behind the lens at Point & Pray, and we ended up becoming great friends and still are today. We share tips and tricks back and forth, and chat almost daily while doing our jobs on these many roads of America. Photography has definitely given me something to keep occupied on those long days, and also gives me something to be proud of on a daily basis.