2007 Kenworth T600 Light Painting
Here’s the story behind the amazing 2007 Kenworth T600 light painting project that I have just completed. This beautiful image was created under the I-535 bridge connecting Duluth, Minnesota to Superior, Wisconsin. The historic Blatnik Fishing Pier (which used to be the interstate highway bridge) is in the background.
I met Bill, the owner of the rig, at Motorhead Madness in Duluth back in March. Bill was very excited to have a light painting commissioned, and we were finally able to get it done on Sunday night. (More on that situation later.)
Just a small amount of the gear that I used to light paint Bill’s Kenworth T600.
About The Rig
This is Bill’s beautiful rig, and he is understandably very proud of it. He’s been driving over-the-road for over twenty years for Jeff Foster Trucking, Inc. out of Superior, Wisconsin. The truck has been at Jeff Foster Trucking, Inc. its entire life as a company truck and is now owned by Bill as an Independent Contractor.
The Kenworth has 1.4 million miles on it since it was new. Bill has owned it since April of 2015 when the odometer was at 835,000 miles. As mentioned, it’s a 2007 Kenworth T600 with a 72” sleeper. It’s powered by a Caterpillar C13 motor and it has an Eaton Fuller 10-speed manual transmission.
The image, as the final setup, on the iPad Pro, as captured by my CamRanger app from my Canon R5 camera.
2007 Kenworth T600 Light Painting – Take One
We originally were scheduled to create Bill’s Kenworth T600 light painting back on July 10th. Joannie and I made the trip up to Duluth (one of our favorite places in Minnesota) and had two light painting projects scheduled for the weekend.
The first, on Saturday, was a wonderful 1956 Ford Victoria, which was created at the Richard I Bong Airport in Superior, Wisconsin for Lyndon & Kalley. As you can see below, that beautiful light painting turned out amazing and we completed the classic car light painting without a hitch.
“Vicky”, a beautiful 1956 Ford Victoria.
Then, the weather went south on us.
The next day, Sunday, it was off-and-on rain, some of it heavy at times, and worse, there were pretty high winds all day long. By light painting time on Sunday evening, the rain was just about finished, but the wind was still very strong. Joannie and I went to the site to check things out and to make the call.
When light painting, both the camera and the subject cannot move in the photograph. If anything does move, even by just a pixel, none of the images (usually a couple hundred of them), will line up correctly. That’s definitely not a good thing! Because the strong winds would have opened the possibility of either the camera shaking or even, as big as it is, the Kenworth shaking, we canceled the light painting and headed for home. Bummer.
Light Painting a 2007 Kenworth T600 – Take Two
So, we found a new date that would work for both of us, Thursday, August 18th.
Rather than just making the trip to Duluth for photographing just one thing, I multitasked and scheduled Nate’s high school senior portraits on Lake Superior for earlier in the day (I’ll have a post on Nate’s cool senior images soon). Nate’s senior portraits turned out fantastic! I was also able to capture portraits of his family at a couple of locations on Lake Superior too.
As we finished up Nate’s senior photos in Two Harbors, you could look to the west and see non-forecasted rain clouds approaching. Not again!
I still had a couple of hours before I was to meet Bill to set up the light painting, so I drove back to Duluth to wait it out closer to the actual location. Of course, it was probably going to be wet again, so we canceled and went back to the drawing board for yet a third time.
Third Time’s The Charm
Bill’s Kenworth T600 is all set up and ready for its light painting.
This time, we “tentatively” set the light painting date for this past Saturday night, September 9th. We didn’t even make the call to proceed until early in the morning (I didn’t want to jinx it).
I hit the road mid-afternoon for another scenic drive to Duluth. I’m extremely happy to say that this time, we got it done! It was apparently meant to be, because Mother Nature through us another curveball. But this time it was a fantastic one, a really stunning sunset! As it got darker, the sky got even prettier. So, after three attempts, here’s Bill’s stunning 2007 Kenworth T600 light painting!
Bill’s stunning light painting of his 2007 Kenworth T600 under the I-535 Bridge in Duluth, Minnesota!
As I always do for each of my light paintings, I’ve got a short video with the images that went into creating this beautiful light painted image and the Photoshop “build” afterward. Please check it out on our YouTube Channel. Thanks for reading our blog post and have a great week! – M&J