REACH-A-Child Ambulance Composite  

Final Image & Behind The Scenes

Creating composite imagery is one of my favorite things as a commercial photographer. There's just so much you can do, the creativity is endless. This particular composite image was created for a non-profit in Madison, WI called REACH-A-Child. Their mission is to provide First Responders with “REACH BAGs” filled with books and drawstring backpacks to help comfort children-in-crisis. When First Responders encounter a child-in-crisis, they offer the child a drawstring backpack containing a book, which the child gets to keep. From generous donations by supporting individuals and businesses, they are now able to offer “REACH BAGs” to almost 70 police, EMS, and fire departments around Wisconsin!

They had this decommissioned ambulance donated to them by Ryan Brothers and had it wrapped at Alphagraphics Middleton (also donated). When I saw the finished product, I knew we had to do something fun and creative to show off this new vehicle dubbed “The REACHmobile”. I brought this concept of a moving action shot to them and they thought it was great.

For automotive photography such as this, I use a technique called “light-painting”. This involves lighting portions of the vehicle separately with an external flash while keeping the camera in a fixed position. Those photos are then stacked and layered in Photoshop to achieve the surreal and high-quality effect you see below. We photographed the vehicle in-studio and then shot the background separately, bringing all elements together in post to create the final image you see here. Check out the behind-the-scenes video of production and the screen capture of the editing process.

If you find REACH-A-Child’s cause worthy and appreciate the efforts they’re making to help children and improve our communities, visit their website and make a donation. Every contribution makes a big difference.

https://reachachild.org/donate/

Creating The Image - Behind the scenes video of the composite photo and post-production