Hosting the BMW M3 Fall Meet and Cruise

I am, as you may be aware, a bit of a BMW guy. Though I’ve sold my E92 M3, I am still very active in the BMW M3 community, and since 2015, have hosted a fall cruise from Edgewater, NJ to Bear Mountain in New York. This 30 mile drive starts with a view of sunrise over Manhattan and ends with beautiful fall foliage.

Another Bimmerpost forum member started this novel idea in 2015, and we had about 15 M3s of various vintage show up and cruise from Weehawken, NJ up to Bear Mountain. After a hiatus in 2016, I decided to organize the meet in 2017 since it was such a good idea. 2018 had over 50 BMWs show up and cruise down the Palisades Parkway, and this year about 25 show. Why the difference? No Instagram post this year, as I wanted to keep is manageable (plus it’s a down cycle year for the M3, with the G80 coming out for 2020).

Below are some shots from this year’s event, with a tip on how to shoot fall foliage.

Adding some pumpkin spice

If you have a shoot in the fall, and the client asks you if you can get some nice fall colors in the shot, it might seem like an easy request. But sometimes nature just doesn’t agree.

If you get to your spot and find the surrounding area mostly green and very much summer-like, don’t worry, it’s very easy to adjust this in post. We’ll use this image:

In Camera Raw, you’ll have a tab called HSL adjustments. Open that tab and you’ll see color bars.

Select the HUE tab, and using the GREEN slider, pull it over to the yellow side. You’ll see all green in your image change to a yellow hue. You can also pull back on your orange tab. Then select the SATURATION tab, and enhance your yellows and oranges. It’s just a matter of playing with the sliders. Once happy with your fall colors, you can close Camera Raw. As long as your car isn’t green, you don’t even really need to mask it. Just watch your colors on the car and you should be fine. Very easy overall.

If you’re local to the area, and you own a BMW, come on down next year for the 2020 meet!

Feel free to email me at mike@machineswithsouls.com with any questions.

Follow along on Instagram @machineswithsouls

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