Cars

duPont Concours d'Elegance St. Petersburg Florida 2014 Car Event Photography

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Dressing to match your classic car at duPont Concours d'Elegance St. Petersburg Florida 2014 - Nikon D300 Tamron 17-50mm @ f/11 ISO 200 1/125thThanks to a future car photography client, I had the opportunity to literally hitch a ride in his BMW into the duPont Concours d'Elegance in St. Petersburg, Florida.  This 2014 show was in cooperation with the Museum of Fine Arts set in North Straub Park.  Things started out very overcast, as has been the case many winter mornings this year, but after 9:30am the sun did break through and I of course had my camera with me.  I asked the couple above if I could photograph them as they had dressed up to match the era of their car.  They are in the classic car restoration business.  Visit their website for more info.

A Ferrari California 30 at duPont Concours d'Elegance St. Petersburg Florida - Nikon D300 Tamron 17-50mm @ f/11 ISO 200 7-exposure HDR tripod mounted with cable releaseFerrari of Tampa Bay brought three cars, including the F12berlinetta, which will be featured in its own post.  Above is the latest Ferrari California 30, upgraded with more horsepower and a new suspension from the original model of a few years ago.  It is for sale!

1957 Buick Caballero at duPont Concours d'Elegance St. Petersburg Florida - Nikon D300 Tamron 17-50mm @ f/11 ISO 200 7-exposure HDR tripod mounted with cable releaseI talked for a while with the interesting owner of this very interesting 1957 Buick Caballera station wagon.  He had original ads from the 50s showing that side view mirrors were only options back then!  As you can see, this car has no side mirrors.  If you can believe it, seatbelts were options too!  This car does not have that option either.  So with no seatbelts and bench seats front and back, you can have the fun of your sweetheart sliding into you around fast turns.  

Classic BMWs at duPont Concours d'Elegance St. Petersburg Florida - Nikon D300 Tamron 17-50mm @ f/11 ISO 200 7-exposure HDR tripod mounted with cable releaseI arrived in the white BMW 2002 pictured above, but only was in it for one block.  Both BMWs are owned by a future client so I am hoping to have featured shoots of both of these cars coming up soon to share.  There will be subsequent posts featuring specific cars from this car show, including my current favorite of them all, the Aston Martin Vanquish.  

Lamborghini Gallardo in white photoshoot in Ybor City Tampa Florida Car Photography

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Lamborghini Gallardo with Tampa skyline background - Nikon D300 Tamron 17-50mm @ f/11 ISO 200 7-exposure HDR tripod mounted with cable releaseMy last photo shoot of the year was a special one, a Lamborghini Gallardo LP 550-2 with custom black ADV.1 wheels.  The owner contacted me wanting some personal images made of his new Lamborghini with some stress on capturing the custom made ADV.1 wheels.  For the location of the shoot, there were some potential warehouse locations to use, but in the end we went to my tried and true Ybor City location.  I had previously shot there in the late afternoon and dusk, so this was my first bright daylight shoot there featuring Tampa Car Photography.

Lamborghini Gallardo LP 550-2 Tampa Car Photography Shoot in Ybor City - Nikon D300 Tamron 17-50mm @ f/8 ISO 200 1/320th with two speed lights behind custom ADV.1 WheelsDespite the abundance of sunshine, I knew with the white car I wanted to make a shot that had a largely black background.  The above image was made by using a fast shutter speed in the field, then adding some vignette in editing afterwards.  The lights under the car are two speedlights I placed to show detail in the custom ADV.1 wheels.  

Lamborghini Gallardo LP 550-2 in white on Ybor City Tampa Florida street - Nikon D300 Tamron 17-50mm @ f/11 ISO 200 7-exposure HDR tripod mounted with cable releaseI first found this curbside composition when doing a Porsche 911 shoot in July.  To change things up this time I shot the car from the rear to show off the quad exhaust and rear diffuser.

Custom ADV.1 Wheels in black on Lamborghini Gallardo Tampa Car Photography shoot - Nikon D300 Nikkor 105mm VR micro @ f/7.1 ISO 200 1/125thOne of my trademark shots is to feature the center of the car's wheel, the brake rotor and then a side wall detail.  In this case you can see the ADV.1 logo on the wheel, part of the Lamborghini logo on the brake caliper and the LP 550-2 badging on the side of the car.  That means 550hp and rear wheel drive.

Stylized Lamborghini Gallardo photo shoot in Ybor City Tampa Florida - Nikon D300 Nikkor 105mm VR micro @ f/4 ISO 200 1/800thMore stylizing for this shot.  When I made it I knew I would ultimately like to cut the background out, so I shot it with the background overexposed in the field, then just cut it completely out in Photoshop as well as darkening the foreground.  

Profile view of Lamborghini Gallardo warehouse background red brick wall Ybor City Tampa - Nikon D300 Tamron 17-50mm @ f/11 ISO 200 9-exposure HDR tripod mounted with cable releaseFor further variety, I composed the Lamborghini to look small in the frame and let the background compliment the supercar.  This was all just part 1 of photographing the client's Lamborghini.  There will be another shoot coming up at night that I am really excited for!

New C7 Corvette Stingray (red) at Cars & Couture 2013 Tampa Jet Center Florida

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The controversial rear of the new C7 Corvette Stingray - Nikon D300 Tamron 17-50mm @ f/11 ISO 200 0.4 secI had a chance to see the new C7 Corvette Stingray in person at the 2013 Cars & Couture event a few Fridays ago.  As is often the case with cars at events, it was not ideally placed for photography from a background standpoint and also available light.  Still, I wanted to get some shots of this brand new American sports car.

Even amongst Ferraris, the new C7 Corvette Stingray still drew a crowd - Nikon D300 Tamron 17-50mm @ f/11 ISO 200 7-exposure HDRI believe all C7 coupes come with the ability to remove the roof panel for an almost throwback T-tops style.  I thought it added a lot of visual flair.

Red Corvette becomes white in this B&W conversion - Nikon D300 Tamron 17-50mm @ f/11 ISO 200 7-exposure HDRWhen you convert a red car photograph to black & white it turns all white!

I thought the C7 Corvette looked better in person - Nikon D300 Tamron 17-50mm @ f/11 ISO 200 7-exposure HDRFor many Corvette fans, going to squared taillights is heresy from the traditional round ones.  Some even say they look too much like the Camaro's.  Still, overall the rear of the C7 looks very agressive.  If you have a new C7 and want it professionally photographed I would very much like a chance to properly photograph it in good light with a complementary background.  Contact me for details.

Ferrari F430 Spider Digital Composite Tampa Florida Car Photography

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This is actually a yellow Ferrari F430 Spider converted to black & white and put on a digital background in PhotoshopFor some reason I got it into my head yesterday afternoon to finally edit this photograph of a yellow Ferrari F430 Spider that I had lingering for almost a year.  I have posted other shots of this particular car actually, but this shot I guess I did not like as much.  My motivation to edit it now was because I envisioned cutting it out of its original background and placing it on a half black half white digital background as seen in the above image.

Original image used for the above digital manipulation of a Ferrari F430 Spider - Tampa Jet Center - Nikon D300 f/11 ISO 200 7-exposure HDRThis is the original HDR image made from a bracketed 7-exposures.  What do you prefer?  The black & white Photoshop edit or the original HDR image?

Lamborghini Aventador in black at Cars & Coffee St. Petersburg August 2013

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Lamborghini Aventador in black at Cars & Coffee St. Petersburg Florida August 2013 meetup - Nikon D300 Tamron 17-50mm @ f/5.6 ISO 200 1/60th handheldA car enthusiast acquaintance told me about a monthly car meetup called Cars & Coffee (Facebook page for the meetups).  I had no idea the size of the event so when I showed up Saturday morning at 8:25am (event schedule says 7am to 9am) I was very surprised to see hundreds of cars there, many of which were already pulling out to leave!  As I walked from my car into the main area I saw most major current model supercars pass by.  I never thought people would leave early and I thought thirty minutes would be more than enough to check everything out, but I was totally wrong.  Still, I was able to talk to a few people and perhaps even make a few new car photography contacts.

The car highlight for me was seeing a Lamborghini Aventador in person for the first time.  There were a lot of people around it naturally and the above shot was the cleanest one I could get of it.  It is so low to the ground I felt like I could jump over the car!  I look forward to the September meetup and know that I have to wake up much earlier next time!

Silver Ferrari F430 Spider Tampa Car Photography HDR Tampa Jet Center

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Ferrari F430 Spider at Tampa Jet Center - Tampa Car Photography - Nikon D300 Tamron 17-50mm @ f/11 ISO 200 7-exposure HDR tripod mounted with cable releaseThe scene in this photograph represents a certain kind of dream, one where you drive up in your Ferrari and hop onto a private jet that whisks you off to some exciting locale, no mess no fuss.  What does it make you think of? dream of?

I photographed this silver Ferrari F430 Spider at the Tampa Jet Center during an event there last year.  I wonder also what the custom license plate implies??

Custom F77 Porsche 911 in black Tampa Car Photography Ybor City

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Custom black F77 Porsche 911 Tampa Car Photography - Nikon D300 Tamron 17-50mm @ f/11 ISO 200 1/40th blended with another exposure (for the sky) tripod mounted with cable releaseBen called me up about photographing his custom Porsche 911 in Tampa Florida which I learned was done at Champion Porsche, as you can see by the 911 on the back being replaced by F77.  The Porsche 911 has long been my favorite sports car, since I was a kid, and I have not had the opportunity to photograph one for a client yet so I was very excited.  This shoot was a little different though as Ben wanted photos for selling the car!  Many of the shots I made for him were stylized, but a bit less so than I might normally making them more like the shoots I do for big auctions houses that just want the car show from all angles.  Thus, some of the shots you see here were edited just for my portfolio, and not necessarily included with the ones I sent to the client.

Custom F77 Porsche 911 photographed for sale in Ybor City Tampa - Nikon D300 Tamron 17-50mm @ f/11 ISO 200 7-exposure HDR tripod mounted with cable releaseThe above shot was my first time to photograph a car from this above and behind angle, partially to show the vents over the rear engine hood on the Porsche.  This shot also features the custom "F77" badge.  Oh, and if this location looks familiar to you, this is the fifth car shoot I have done at this Ybor City location!  Clients see my previous images from here and want to have it for their own cars also.  

Porsche F77 custom black 911 on the streets of Ybor City Tampa Car Photography - Nikon D300 Tamron 17-50mm @ f/11 ISO 200 7-exposure HDR tripod mounted with cable releaseThis shot I made black & white for myself, as I thought it made the 911 look even more agressive and menacing just waiting there in the middle of the street for any challengers.

Porsche 911 custom F77 model on brick street Ybor City Tampa - Nikon D300 Tamron 17-50mm @ f/11 ISO 200 9-exposure HDR tripod mounted with cable releaseThis was the first time at this Ybor City location that there were no cars parked on the street, which allowed for just parking the Porsche in the middle of it and getting some new shots I have not made here before in the previous shoots.  That said, some dude did just show up and park his car right by our shoot!  Now this is a desolate area, and after 5pm everything is shut down for blocks around.  So we politely asked the guy if he could move his car, which he did.  Then he proceeded to walk way off to who knows where.  Why park here then??

Lights on modified Porsche 911 with F77 options Ybor City Tampa Car Photography - Nikon D300 Nikkor 105 VR micro @ f/8 ISO 200 1/80th tripod mounted with cable releaseHDR is not always needed to shoot in mixed lighting, as seen in the above shot.  No sky is featured in the shot, so I just let the shutter speed stay open until I got the exposure I wanted.  Shooting with my Nikkor 105mm VR micro f/2.8G lens, which of course is a prime lens, resulted in the starburst look coming from the headlights.

Stylized Porsche 911 Carrera S type 997 interior with manual shifter - Nikon D300 Tamron 17-50mm @ f/5.6 ISO 200 1/60th - Strobist: SB-800 @ 1/2 power in 43" shoot through umbrella frame rightThis exact interior shot was my first attempt, and the lighting looked cool and dramatic, but not appropriate for the purpose of trying to show the interior for selling the car.  I liked the image for myself, though, and made it more stylized by converting it to black & white.  For the client, I introduced another speedlight on the driver's side to produce an evenly lit shot.

Yours truly (on left of course) with client Ben after the photo shoot of his Porsche 911 in Ybor City TampaI never remember to get a shot of me at my shoots, but this time the lights were already setup and I asked Ben if he would mind getting in a portrait with me and his Porsche.  Good luck selling it Ben!