Pebble Beach Car Auction Photography for Bonhams with a Mercury Woody
There were several challenges with this car auction photography shoot for Bonhams Auctions. One was the weather, which at this time of year in the Monterey peninsula area, and here in Pebble Beach to be exact, is fog and the marine layer basically being omnipresent for days and days at a time. There was a deadline to make for this shoot making it into the guidebook for Qual, so even though there was no blue sky or sunshine, I had to make the best of the weather conditions. Then the second big challenge was that the car does not start, so it could not be moved once rolled out of the garage! I thought the helpers were going to stay and push it around for me while I shoot from the spot with both the best light and best background, as I always have for car auction photography, but this time instead of the car rotating for me, I had to rotate around the car! Despite these two big challenges, I was still pleased with the photos I was able to produce for Bonhams, and more importantly, so was my contact from Bonhams. Thank you Eric for understanding!
Car Auction Photography for Monterey Pebble Beach Pacific Grove Carmel
Have your car photographed in the Monterey, California area for auction by a professional photographer who is also a car enthusiast (E46 M3 owner) and an experienced car auction photographer that has worked for all major car auctions houses, like Bonhams, Mecum, Bring-A-Trailer, and more.
Car Auction Photography starts at $550 and includes:
50 edited photos of the exterior and interior following car auction house guidelines
off camera lighting used for the best interior photo results
Andrea contacted me over the summer inquiring about having a 1950s theme photo shoot including a classic Chevy Bel-Air car they were going to rent when the visited the area in October. I thought this sounded great and over the next few months we exchanged ideas for locations and the style of the shoot. She wanted it to be a free flowing and candid photo shoot, so no off camera lighting used, just my trusty Sony 50mm f/1.2 GM lens and the sunny skies of Big Sur. They were a very fun couple to photograph, making my job easy! Thank you Andrea for choosing me as your photographer and for sharing all your great ideas (that I will use for future clients) for candid portraits!
Classic convertible Mercedes photographed in ABQ for Bring A Trailer
If I could only photograph one thing the rest of my career, cars would be fine with me! The opportunities to professionally photograph cars in Albuquerque, New Mexico are not that often, so I am always glad to get to make professional car auctions photos for Bring A Trailer, this time of a 1966 Mercedes 230SL. This classic car had both a hard top and a soft top, meaning I had to get three different series of photos of the exterior, including the top down. This is the most time consuming part of a car shoot, especially a convertible car. Joanna and her family had the car ready to go from all angles, and chose a very nice location with minimal interference from traffic and passersby. Thank you Joanna for choosing me as your car photographer and good luck with it on Bring A Trailer!
Summerfest returns to Albuquerque with music, cars, and food
Summerfest 2022 Albuquerque returned for the first time in three years (last was in 2019, see car photos). Summerfest is a combination of multi-stage concerts, a car show, and street food. It was extremely hot this year, even after 7pm, but I managed to get a few photos before melting. I chose low angle composition for all these shots to show the viewer something you could not already just see when walking by at typical eye level. Plus using low angle with an empty foreground draws the eye of the viewer into the photo, as seen in both photos featuring cars. Add to that using leading lines, and the photos have two composition styles to show a different look at Summerfest.
I am a big fan of going to car shows, but they are always a challenge to photograph due to how close cars are parked together, and of course people walking all around them. For that reason, I usually bring a 50mm lens and focus on getting detail shots. This time, I decided to bring my new Sony 24mm f/1.4 G Master lens so I could still get wide shots, but also shallow depth of field to make the busy car show background start to disappear. Like everything I have used this lens for, I really liked the results. The Park in the Park Car Show in Rio Rancho was celebrating its 20th anniversary with over 300 cars, all of which had to be 35 years or older, which is just fine with me as anything newer than that is not classic in mind.
In my car photography career, I have had the opportunity to photograph a lot of expensive cars, including a Rolls-Royce Wraith over $350k (and even drive it too!). However, the Duesenberg Model X photographed in Albuquerque, New Mexico is above and beyond any other car in terms of both value and rarity. This Duesenberg model is just one of five still in existence in the world! Who owns one of those other examples? No less than Jay Leno! The owner of this Model X is selling to to replace it with a Duesenberg Model J. He hired me to make photographs to help sell it for the highest price possible, as well as make drone video of the car in motion on Tramway Blvd.
