Light Painting a Trans Am and a Chevy C10
This story is all about light painting a Trans Am and a Chevy C10. These are a pair of 79’s, and are both classics as far as I’m concerned! I made the trek to Danbury, Wisconsin for this one. Turns out that this project was a long time coming, and it finally happened. It was well worth the wait!
I met Ray & Anne, the owners of these cool vehicles, at Motorhead Madness in Duluth, Minnesota back in March of 2023. They commissioned me at the show to create a three-vehicle light painting project for them. However, one of their cars, a 1964 Chevelle, wasn’t finished yet. So we put the project on hold, thinking that it wouldn’t be long, and then all three cars could be in the image.
I kept in touch with them every so often, and the answer was the same each time: “The Chevelle’s not ready yet”. I told them to let me know when it was, and then we would get it done. Then, just a few weeks ago, out of the blue, I got this text from Ray:
“Good afternoon
I still haven’t gotten third car back
But I think I want to move ahead with the 2 that I have
Let me know
Thanks, Ray ”
Here’s the entire scene in the daylight. Once it got dark out, the light painting magic began!
“All Good Things Come To Those Who Wait”
By the very next morning, we had it scheduled for October 1st (weather permitting). Late September and early October was a crazy stretch, with 5 big light painting projects in just 8 days! This light painting of Ray and Anne’s Trans Am and a Chevy was the 4th of those projects.
To do a light painting well, the post-production isn’t exactly quick on these guys. Add in senior photos and other projects with fall colors during that same time frame, and let’s just say, I’m playing a bit of catch-up. The important thing is all these projects were “In the can” before the cold weather arrives.
Time For A Quick Commercial Break
If you would like to check out the first 3 of those amazing light painting projects, here are the links to check them out:
Pratt & Whitney R-2800 Double Wasp
An Eight-Vehicle Light Painting
We also have a dedicated light painting website that can be found at www.MichaelAndersonLightPainting.com. It’s full of lots of amazing cars, trucks, aircraft, fire trucks, police cars, restaurants, and much more!
Now, it’s back to light painting a ’79 Trans Am and a ’79 Chevy C10!
Decisions, Decisions!
Upon my arrival, I got to meet the two stars of the show. Then we set out to decide where we would create this cool project. Many times, it’s not a difficult decision as to where to set up everything. Usually, there aren’t too many options. Well, that’s not the case here!
Ray and Anne have about a zillion great locations to place something cool to light paint. Including, get this, both the local fire station, (which is right there on their property), and a church! Yes, they bought the “retired” church that sits about 1/4 mile from their home. That way, they can go to church anytime they want to, I guess? And, their home is log cabin style, which also would make for a great background for a light painting!
Once we decided on where to place the vehicles, I got my gear all set up, the Trans Am and Chevy C10 were placed just how we wanted them in the scene. Then we waited for it to get dark enough to light paint everything. During that time, about 45 minutes before sunset, I began taking sky exposures every minute or so. You never know which one might be the image that puts the icing on that light painting’s cake.
Here you can see my setup photo of the whole set up! My Canon R5, which is wirelessly weathered to my iPad Pro via a CamRanger 2, my ProMediaGear TR344L Carbon Fiber Tripod with the BH1 Ball Head. And, of course, the cool pair of 79’s ready to be light painted!
The Birthday Girl!
Ray and Anne have two daughters, Kaitlyn and Brianna. Well, it just so happened that it was Kaitlyn’s birthday, and they were having tacos for dinner. They asked me if I would like to join them. Being a guy who loves Mexican food (just ask Joannie), I of course said yes! However, I asked them if I could enjoy mine outside by the vehicles so I could keep taking sky photographs until it was dark. I didn’t want to be rude, but I also didn’t want to miss out on capturing a potentially cool sky for their light painting, so I really needed to take sky photographs every couple of minutes until dark.
So, low-and-behold, there I was, enjoying tasty tacos (that Ray hand-delivered) while taking pictures of the changing sky. All the while, waiting for it to get dark enough for light painting their Trans Am & Chevy C10.
Three Nights In-A-Row!
I don’t recall ever eating during a light painting project, until the project very night before this one.
I was with Dave, taking photos of a very rapidly changing sky for his eight-vehicle light painting project (see the link above). His wife, Debbie, was making a hot dish that he loved, and he asked me if I would like to come in and enjoy some. It was the same deal for me, I had to keep taking sky photos, so I asked if I could enjoy mine outside. So I did, and it was delicious (Dave also hand-delivered that meal to me out in his driveway). And, as you can see in the story that I wrote about it, the sky turned out to be pretty stunning for their one-of-a-kind artwork!
So, eating during a light painting, so far, has been very good luck! The best part about this evening was that I was enjoying tacos at a light painting project!
Ironically, I light-painted another cool project for a high school senior, Eddie, and his dad, Rudy, the very next night at the Crystal Airport (that one will be coming next). And we enjoyed take-out Mexican food that his mom, Nikole, picked up, right there on the tarmac! And, once again, I enjoyed mine while taking sky photographs before light painting two cool vehicles with both father and son actually in the light painting. (Note that I’m not tipping my hat on what the vehicles are, but we were at an airport, so that might be a tiny clue).
Light Painting the Background Scene
Even after the tasty taco dinner, it still wasn’t dark enough for long exposures yet. But it was dark enough to use strobe lights. So Kaitlyn and I began light painting the building and areas around and behind the 1979 Trans Am and the 1979 Chevy C10.
Here you see my trusty assistant, Kaitlyn (The Birthday Girl), as she fires the camera remotely with my iPad Pro. Off in the distance, you can see me aiming my Godox MoLight AD360II-C strobe towards the background trees. Either Anne (Mom) or Brianna (Kaitlyn’s sister) timed their phone photo perfectly, capturing all the action just as the strobe illuminated the trees!
My trusty assistant that night was none other than The Birthday Girl herself, Miss Kaitlyn! She wasn’t just thrust into this position by her parents, nope, she wanted to be a part of it! She’s into graphic design and other cool stuff like that, so she got the hang of what I was trying to accomplish quickly. I’m pretty sure that she enjoyed it too!
The whole family was out there with me all evening long. Kaitlyn was firing the camera with my iPad Pro. Dad was watching intently, assisting with moving stuff, and turning lights on and off inside and out as needed. Mom and Brianna sat in the family golf cart, taking it all in while all wrapped up nice and cozy in blankets. The whole time, Kaitlyn would share what was happening on the iPad screen, and so they all got to see my light painting process up close.
Light Painting the 1979 Trans Am
Once the building and background were light-painted, we got started with the ’79 Trans Am first. That was just in case we came close to hitting the dew point. It was a cool evening, and we were not supposed to come close to the dew point, I would much rather be safe than sorry. I speak from experience when talking about light painting, dew, and vehicles.
Being black, dew would have shown way too easily on the ’79 Trans Am, and it would have been a real pain in the butt! Thankfully, everything went very smoothly with the “Smokey and the Bandit Special”. It was really fun to light paint. I made quite a few “extra” passes with my lights. I kept doing that because it was so cool to see the images pop up on the iPad a few seconds after each pass! That, and I never know when I might get a small detail that I didn’t get on a previous pass.
And, since we’re talking about it, here’s some of the backstory about this car. Ray & Anne have owned this 1979 Trans Am since 2017. It is actually a ’79 with the front nose of a ’78. Because, as Ray recently told me “I never liked the 79 front”. It’s a “Smokey and the Bandit” clone with a 403 Oldsmobile Motor. This baby has 535 horsepower with 600 lb-ft of torque and has a 200-4R Transmission. This is just a cool car!
Here’s a nice close up view of that sweet “Smokey and the Bandit” ’79 Trans Am! This particular car has the front nose of a “78 because Ray wasn’t very fond the 79’s nose.
Light Painting the 1979 Chevy C10 Truck
The 1979 Chevy Truck is a C10. It originated out of New Mexico and was owned there by a family for 34 years! It features a 598 Big Block Motor with 750 horsepower with 750 lb-ft of torque and it also has the same 200-4R Transmission. Its “finishing touch” is that the seats came from out of a 2009 Chevy Truck. Nice!
This guy also didn’t give me any problems and was also very fun to light paint. I also made several “extra” passes on this bad boy too, just because!
Here’s the zoomed-in look at the ’79 Chevy C10.
Light Painting a ’79 Trans Am and a ’79 Chevy C10 Truck – The Movie
Here is the final one-of-a-kind artwork of Ray and Anne’s pair of awesome ’79’s! A big thank you The Birthday Girl, Kaitlyn, for her help in making this one happen!
As always, I’ve created a “Build Video” that shows the whole process, from light painting to completion, one image and one layer at a time. It can be found at the link below on our YouTube channel. In all, we took 383 images that night, and I used just over 100 of those to create Ray and Anne’s one-of-a-kind light-painted artwork.
Thank you so much for reading our story, and have a great day! – M&J