I have taken thousands of pictures through the windshield of my car, of my wife driving, of cars as they pass by. Why? The first part of my answer is simple. When I wanted to take pictures of things in motion, cars were a good starting place and readily available in a variety of locations and situations. But these images go much further. I love the open road and from an early age spend much time traveling. I think (hope) that my slow motion digital photos (above) convey more than just movement but also some of my love of the highway. The following is a history of how I have been affected by the open road. Decades before the interstates, a long road trip meant going through town after town, and city after city. The scenery seen was often of people's backyards and train yards. Such a journey was an adventure and a visual feast. When I was six years old in 1950, I took a trip from Florida to New England that lasted five days. I saw numerous pictures sitting in the backseat looking out the rear and side windows, images that remained in my memory for years to come, pictures that included a sense of motion. This trip made such an impression on me, I wrote a short story about it forty years later. When I was in my late teens around 1960, I read Kerouac's On The Road and began to thumb rides. For the next two years I hitchhiked from New York to Cape Cod and fell in love with the rhythm of the road, the cars rushing past, the light changing -- the highway like a river with its various moods. Later in Europe I hitchhiked through the south of France and also Italy and then, in another trip, hitchhiked in England and in Spain. At last, like a grand finale, I hitchhiked from Boston to Chapel Hill, NC in a marathon voyage that I will never forget. Also in my teens, I discovered a unique pastime. Late at night I sat in the divider of the mid-cape highway on Cape Cod Massachusetts -- just a short walk from where I lived -- and watched cars cresting the hill in the pitch black (there were no area lights back then). Their lights would illuminate the sky long before the car hit the top of the hill. Then at the crest their lights would shine with full power as the cars rushed past to leave me in the dark again. Many of my early digital photography animations were based on this experience.

Automobile In Motion

Automobile In Motion

Automobile In Motion

Traffic In Motion

Traffic In Motion

The Highway Through My Windshield

The Highway Through My Windshield

Driving In Traffic

Car On The Road With Brake Lights

Car Headlights Approaching

The Highway At Night

The Highway At Night