By Jeremy Sale, Shutterstock Footage submitter

I have always enjoyed time-lapse photography, and have great respect for both the pioneers in film and the digital artisans of today. There is so much affordable technology now available to the amateur that it is almost impossible to resist the call, if you are so inspired. I don’t know how many dilettantes were messing with time-lapse rigs before digital, but I’m guessing it was a pretty small club. Cinematic operas like Baraka and Koyaaniskatsi were the product of top-notch professionals—gorgeous visual poetry that would make the rest of us drool, while we contented ourselves with stills.

However, things have changed. Some of today’s DSLRs have intervalometers for programming a series of time-lapse shots, or one can be hooked up to your camera as an accessory. Big LCDs give you instant feedback on your exposure, and affordable software has made it easy to translate JPEGs into high quality HD1080 (and beyond). But you can’t just aim your camera at the clouds and read a magazine for an hour. Sellable time-lapse requires new ideas, novel techniques and a constantly evolving look at what clients are buying.

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This video was certainly one of my most fun to compose. I love neon colors and the high-contrast look of city streets at night. You get fewer strange looks at night, too. Driving in daylight, you’ve got people wondering if you work for Google Maps or if you’re just some voyeuristic psycho. At night, you’re just another wacky artist, probably a film student.

In this case, I used my old Nikon D70s with a 20mm f/2.8, mounted on a panning telescope tripod, which in turn is bolted to a “cheeseplate” (grip lingo for “piece of aluminum with holes in it”). The cheeseplate has been ratcheted down within an inch of its life on the roof of my Hyundai, with sandbags underneath. There are so many ways this can go wrong that it’s best not to think about it. To add to the stress, there is no redundant restraint. Since the whole rig rotates every 10 minutes or so, there’s no easy way to secure it to another part of the car in case of catastrophic failure. (Hey, there’s a reason I don’t use my Nikon D700.) You definitely want a filter on your lens, too.

But don’t forget the math. Once you have eyeballed a good combination of aperture, shutter speed, ISO and white balance (I keep all settings on manual), you have to figure out how long you want the final product to be. Then, how many rotations of the panning rig you want to fill that time span, and what length of shutter will give you the perfect balance between “streaky headlights” and “unacceptable panning blur.” The good news is, with a big memory card and plenty of batteries, it doesn’t cost much to experiment. You can blow off 2000 frames and just see what you get.

Not good enough? No problem. Turn on the radio and start driving again. Sometimes your mistakes result in great ideas.