Light Painting a CATERPILLAR 329 EL and a Bobcat T590
Here’s a cool light painting of a CATERPILLAR 329 EL and a Bobcat T590. I did this light painting project back in 2020, I just never wrote about it, until now. Here’s a little bit of the story about this light painting project.
I Saw Her Standing There
In the words of that famous song by The Beatles, I did it because “I Saw Her Standing There”! Back in 2020, they tore down an old Walgreens by our home in Mounds View, Minnesota. They did so so that a Tommy’s Express Car Wash could be built in its place. For several weeks, I kept seeing these two machines as I drove by the construction site by our home. So, finally, I simply couldn’t pass up the opportunity to light paint them.
Construction equipment makes for great light painting subjects because they, and their surroundings, are basically made up of nothing but details. Those details make for incredible light paintings! The added bonus is that, unlike with light paintings of classic cars and aircraft, there’s absolutely no cleanup required once it’s done! The dirtier, the better!
Just the Facts Please
I poked around on the internet to see what I could find out about these two construction workhorses, and here’s what I found:
- Operating Weight. 67236.6lb.
- Fuel Capacity. 137.4gal.
- Cooling System Fluid Capacity. 11.7gal.
- Hydraulic System Fluid Capacity. 81.9gal.
- Engine Oil Capacity. 6gal.
- Swing Drive Fluid Capacity. 2.7gal.
- Hydraulic System Relief Valve Pressure. 5076psi.
- Hydraulic Pump Flow Capacity. 74gal/min.
- Rated Operating Capacity (ISO) 2,101 lb.
- Operating Capacity (50% of Tip) 3000 lb.
- Tipping Load. 6000 lb.
- Operating Weight. 7745 lb.
- Travel Speed. 7.1 mph.
- Travel Speed (2-speed option) 10.4 mph.
- Ground Pressure (Rubber) 4.35 psi.
Adding Kids to Construction Vehicle Light Paintings
Wouldn’t it be nice to photograph your cute kids with construction equipment? Well, of course, it would! The huge drawback is the safety of the child. It’s a construction site after all! So here’s the beauty of creating these light painted photographs of construction vehicles, you can add kids (safely) into the photographs in post-production! And that’s exactly what I’ve done here with our oldest grandson, Ryder! It’s safe for me too because it’s nighttime and the construction site is nice and quiet!
We would never dream of taking our Ryder into a construction area for a light painting. It is not very safe for a child, and besides, it was late at night when I light painted this scene and Ryder was fast asleep! Grandpa does, however, have a portrait studio! So, days after I created this light painting, we brought Ryder into the studio and photographed him on greenscreen so that I could add him (safely) to the final image. Easy-peasy!
Here’s one that I created with Ryder and a Komatsu WA270-8 at the same location!
More Light Painted Construction Equipment
Since that time, I’ve light painted quite a few construction vehicles, and you can take a look at them on our dedicated Light Painting Website at this link: https://michaelandersonlightpainting.com/light-painted-construction-equipment. Please free to take a peek around that website to see these, and lots of other vehicles, and other goodies, all beautifully light-painted.
The Movie
Here’s the short “build video” that I created. There are a lot of light paintings, pretty much all of them, featured on our YouTube Channel. Please feel free to check them out. Please like and subscribe to our channel if you like them as there will be more to come! Thank you! M&J