X5 on the rocks - MN style
 

Night out with the new 4.8is

http://www.nom3rcy.com/X5/wb4.jpg

http://www.nom3rcy.com/X5/demon-eyes.jpg

http://www.nom3rcy.com/X5/wb1.jpg

http://www.nom3rcy.com/X5/wb2.jpg

http://www.nom3rcy.com/X5/wb3.jpg

Sweet pics! Like Xmas postcards!

You've got talent and a nice camera. Did you do any digital enhancing? :D

Thanks! LOTS of enhancing lol

It was pretty much pitch black out there, it was really hard to get any sort of definition from the X5. Need a full moon :)

Wall PAPER statuss!

That GPS picture is epic. hahaha

Excellent pictures, great looking X5.

thats sexy:luv:

oh my God I had to go back and look at that GPS.. wow, your saying your on top of the sea?

Talk about awesome, beautiful pictures man, now, how did you get your angel eyes to look like that? (you seem to always get pictures with either clear euro headlights, and extra bright angel halos.. LOL!)

Right on the lake. It is about 50' deep right there too! Gotta love cold winters, they just hosted a golf tournament out there on Saturday haha

These pictures are a very long exposure, and there was very little light other than from the angel eyes/indicators, so they are glowing brighter than normal.

I guess the key is either direct sunlight or pitch darkness lol

Those pics are STUNNING. Obviously this wasn't done on your point 'n' click Kodak lol. VERY well done. As said above, this is Wallpaper material! Am I seeing stars in a few of those pics? Or is that something on the lens? I ASSume you were using a tripod since these were long exposures and they came out crystaline clear:-)

and a remote trigger...

Nice pics!

Man I need to get a better camera - those are amazing pics!!

Can you share what camera and software you are using??

Very nice!! Definitely pro quality work. Did you use a remote flash for the last shot too?

No idea what was actually used - no doubt we'll hear soon enough - but if I was doing this I'd be using the Canon EOS5D MkII (or one of the Nikon pro- DSLR if you have one of those instead) with an F2.8 50mm (or possibly wider/faster) lens (stopped down to F8 or more to get the depth of field), tripod, remote trigger, manual exposure (possibly Bulb setting) and then Photoshopping it. I would also take the image using RAW rather than JPEG because you can do so much more with a RAW image than a JPEG. I use a similar set-up and settings to shoot lightning - albeit in somewhat warmer climates!!

"Hey Prince, you got a towel? It's kinda hot in here."
"Why don't you purify yourself in the waters of Lake Minnetonka?"

Nice pics. You got a fan from the cities. I'm over on the other side - Woodbury. I haven't tried driving onto water as of yet - keep your eyes peeled on the Star Tribune and see if I make any headlines.

I know right where you were. Nice restaurants not too far away. Great shots of MN winter night sky!

An off camera flash would be ideal for this setup. or even a LED flashlight to highlight the X durring the long exposure.

Yes those are stars, and airplanes :)

Thank you very much everyone - it was cold but a lot of fun, I'm glad you guys like them I'll have to take some more!

For this shoot I used my Canon 50D and a Tamron 17-50 lens along with a Manfrotto tripod. I tried some effects with my 430exII but didn't have much luck with it. The best lighting was captured in the last pic when a Jeep was driving past on the ice road - got lucky with that one :thumbup: It would have been nice to have a flashlight of some sort to highlight the car better as this paint seemed to absorb all available light lol

For pp I used Lightroom to import and manage the pics with some light processing, and then Photoshop CS4 for any edits and touchups, with the NoiseNinja plugin to help with the noise reduction. I always shoot in RAW, especially in these low light setups as it does make a huge difference.

looks amazing. if i could make one suggestion for your X5, if you polish up those tail pipes really well, it makes a huge difference!

That's awesome. Just don't get stuck out there

The last picture is my wallpaper now =)
awesome photography skills

Nice pics. Do you have 20's? What tires do you have?

What size wallpapers are you guys using? I'll get a higher-res version of that pic up.

The wheels are the factory 20s with Toyo Proxes S/T IIs

They do surprisingly well in the winter, although nowhere near as good as the Blizzaks we have on the 4.6is. I didn't get too crazy on the lake since I didn't have any backup to pull me out if I got stuck, but they were suitable for the easy stuff I was doing.

I would love to get Pic 3 and 4 as wall papers there so pretty! My Res is 1280x800, can u make me a high res wallpaper by any chance?

Wow - so a jeep gave you that lighting affect. I was wondering how the hell you pulled that off. Really nice work btw, and glad the new ride did not end up in the bottom of the lake. "Crack" - Oops - it was thinner than we thought - aaaahhhhh..... :bustingup

Very amazing pictures.

amazing pics!

I would never ever never go on top of a frozen lake with an X :wow:
you are so brave to do that!

Nicely done! Lake Minnetonka -- my grandfather had a place on it (off Hwy 7) and also had shoreline across the street on Lake Virginia. Me? I had to settle for Lake Minnewashta as a kid...

Brings back a lot of memories -- mostly involving frostbite...

Now I just shovel sunshine.

Titz Pics! :thumbup:
Very well done...love the GPS shot.
BR,mD

Growing up in Minnesota driving on the ice is a pretty normal thing!

I never saw ice in my life, so my fear is normal i guess :D

cool pics!

Amazing photos! Thanks for sharing.

hey nom3rcy,

I live in wayzata as well, i saw the stunning photos and had to comment on this. I used to work at Sears (now twin cities bmw) and never got much face time with the is's, how does it do in the snow? I've got an '03 X5 4.4, its nice but could use a little higher redline IMO.

Here are some wallpapers, I did a little extra work on the photo as well:

1280x1024 - 1440x1024 - 1600x1200 - 1920x1200

http://www.nom3rcy.com/X5/wb3r.jpg

Thanks Pete

So far it has done really well, but I haven't done anything too wild with it yet. The 4.6is would go just about anywhere with the Blizzaks and I'm sure this will do just as well. If anything I would say the newer x-drive system gives more control when exiting a corner, not sure I could explain why though without more experience with it.

I've got a stock X5, and i did not put snow tires on it this winter, it was the plan, but honestly after putting a bunch of money in all season sports i didnt feel like putting snow tires on without finding rims for summer tires or something. I was tracking it on tonka, there was about a 1/2 mile track out there really for studded tires, and i did fairly well out there, with enough power the x5 could push itself out of any overly wide drifts.

Its a good area for the car, your gonna love that x5

if i could ever get the chance i'd love to see that track m3 in wayzata or something. Feel free to PM me.

Awesome pictures wallpaper for 3rd pic PLEASE! 1920X100

:hawt:

Here ya go:

1920x1200

I was out there snowmobiling yesterday and there was a guy in a 3.0 with bald tires blazing a trail in Gray's Bay - he got stuck after a couple hundred yards and we had to get a tow strap and a full size truck to pull him out. He had his parents, wife, and two daughters with him, and had no clue what was going on.

I on the other hand had great luck with mine out there. Didn't get stuck at all with the 2-place trailer behind me and the air suspension came in handy in the ruts going on and off the lake as well. Very happy with the X5 right now :)

Where did you see the track? We saw a very nicely kept ice track on Wayzata Bay but it was made for ice rail racing. It was so nice it looked like a zamboni was out there.

I'll have the M3 out this summer for a lot of different events around the cities - as soon as I get the motor in it I'll be driving the heck out of it again :thumbup:

Nice ! I am recent convert from MN to OR and I think it's funny that everyone here doesn't get that you can drive on lakes back there in the winter. Wonderful pics !!!

Hey nom3rcy, Do you have higher resolution copies of #3 and #4? The stars in the sky really set those apart. They came out great !

i'd take it in 1440 if you could please

Very nice pics. Are these Toyo Proxes stII?

Yes.

It was in wayzata bay, probably a half mile off the coast of teh wayzata yacht club, i havent been out there in weeks, but it might even be the same track?

Yup that would be the one. I bet it would be a LOT of fun in an X5 :)

Now I'm really tempted. :driver:

Here's a wallpaper of #3 in 1440: 1440x1024

well buy some cheap steelie winter tires, get some good strong screws, preferably ones you dont want back, and drill them into the tire, its an old dirt bike trick