I met Mitzi Jo Gordon in 2011 when she launched the Blue Bird Book Bus . This traveling literary project answered her life-long dream of owning a bookstore and furthered her quest to share book culture with the public. Along with other writers, she drove around the Bay Area, stopping at events and, composing on-the-spot poems and inviting guests onboard to experience her curated book collection.

She launched her most notable project, Carmada, in 2014 in partnership with the Gasparilla Festival of Arts. It is a semi-annual exhibit where Gordon invites artists to paint cars in vibrant colors while the public watches at art shows and festivals in what she calls an art on wheels project. https://www.artcarmada.com/

In making her portrait, I wanted to capture the essence of her life. She always seems busy, moving from place to place while working on different projects. So, this concept was to capture her fantastic look in her fantastic Carmada car in her then home of St Petersburg. We shot this at night on Central Ave. downtown.

Tech info: Gear: Canon EOS 5D MK IV, Canon EF 11-27 f/4L USM

Exposure: 1/20s @ f/4.0 ISO 3200

The camera was secured to the hood of her car with a flash trigger on top. I am bent down in the passenger seat, holding the flash while controlling the camera and viewing the preview via Wi-Fi. The shutter speed had to be slower to capture the motion as she drove down Central. I did my best not to blind her by using a high ISO and low flash power.