October 6-10 was Cruising Week at Ocean City, MD. Thousands of antique and classic car enthusiasts converge on the small island. It could possibly be one of the most organized informal events you will ever see. There is some competitiion and a parade during the day but the real action happens at night. The cruisers park their cars in certain shopping center parking lots and a huge tailgate party ensues.

Shooting this event requires night photography skills and for some reason the selected parking lots are very dimly lit.

When you drive by you see hundreds of people milling about in almost pitch black.

The parking lot shots were all handheld. Although I had a tripod with me, I did not want to use it in such a dark, crowded place. Some of the images were taken from a small 18" high brick pedestal supporting one of the dim parking lot lights. In those images I held the D70 over my head, butted up against the light post. This was the only way for me to take in the expanse of the happening.

This was all complicated because I had my 100 LB lab-mix with me and he was experiencing sensory overload of the highest order. It is hard enough to take these pictures hand held, but even more difficult with a 100 LB tugging on a leash in your hand!

Spectators line the one highway running up and down the barrier island. Heres the deal: You park your car (preferably classic/antique) in a convenient parking lot (any lot will do!) and either sit in your tailgate or set up your lawn chair in front of the highway and then kick back and enjoy the spectacle of hundreds of antique/classic cars cruising up and down the highway.

I graduated high school in '74 and this week end takes me back to those days when a school kid could buy a then 6 year old GTO and jack up the back and have a nice car. I have a soft spot for GTO's although I never owned one.

The highway scenes were shot with the D70, 24-120VR and SB800 on a Gitzo 1228 (VR off), some from the median strip in the 8 lane highway. I stopped shooting when I finally decided there was something illegal about standing on a median strip in the middle of the night shooting off an SB800 at motorists driving by....