exotic car

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!

Nissan GT-R 360 Forged Wheels Ybor City Tampa Florida Car Photography - part 2 strobist night shots

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Nikon GT-R with custom wheels in Ybor City Tampa Florida black & white - Nikon D300 Nikkor 80-200mm @ f/5.6 ISO 200 1/60th tripod mounted with cable release - strobist: SB-800 in shoot through umbrella to frame right & SB-600 same setup to frame leftIn part 1 of the Nissan GT-R in Ybor City shoot I did for 360|Forged wheels, I featured daylight images.  Here in part 2 are late evening to night car photographs made using strobist techniques.  Thanks to help from the owner of the GT-R and his friend, I was able to make these bonus shots during the shoot with very specific light placement.  Basically, instead of my speedlights just being on light stands, the lights were able to be used upside down pointed at the wheels or areas of the car I thought best highlighted the GT-R. 

Nissan GT-R front quarter panel view Ybor City Tampa Florida Car Photography - Nikon D300 Nikkor 80-200mm @ f/5.6 ISO 200 1/60th - strobist: SB-800 in shoot through umbrella to frame right & SB-600 same setup to frame leftFor the above shot I achieved the black background by first aiming the two speedlights only at the car to manage background light spill, and then using Photoshop to turn any visible spill to pure black.  In reality, this shot was made in the same spot as the first photograph in this post.

Nissan GT-R Tampa skyline street strobist image Tampa Car Photography - Nikon D300 Tamron 17-50mm @ f/8 ISO 200 1/8th - strobist: SB-800 in shoot through umbrella to frame right & SB-600 same setup to frame leftWhere in the first two photographs the lights were both pointed low toward the Nissan GT-R, in this shot one light was held high above the hood of the car (see setup shot below).  Another light was used along the rear quarter panel and driver's side to let shadows be created for showing the different lines of the car's design.  The slow 1/8th shutter speed was used to pull some light out of the Tampa skyline for the background.

Nissan GT-R Ybor City photo shoot strobist setup, not seen is another strobe to frame right

Nissan GT-R in white with 360 Forged Wheels Ybor City Tampa Florida Car Photography - part 1

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Nissan GT-R with custom 360 Forged wheels in Ybor City Tampa Car Photography - Nikon D300 Tamron 17-50mm @ f/11 ISO 200 1/15th tripod mounted with cable releaseI received a phone call last week from 360|Forged about photographing a Nissan GT-R in Tampa owned by one of their clients.  They make custom wheels and wanted a shoot of the GT-R focused on showing the wheels.  They saw my Lexus IS F shoot and liked that Ybor City location so the whole GT-R shoot came together quickly. (view Part 2 night strobist images)

A white Nissan GT-R custom photographed for 360 Forged wheels in Ybor City Tampa Car Photography - Nikon D300 Tamron 17-50mm @ f/11 ISO 200 1/3 tripod mounted with cable releaseI had done three previous car shoots at this particular Ybor City location that I found on my own during a scouting trip a few years ago for the IS F client.  I never like to repeat myself when I go out shooting, but having already made close to three dozen car photographs in this spot, I had to really look to find some fresh angles and backgrounds.  Luckily, there were still plenty of new setups to mine from that Ybor City location as the above shot I had never done before.  I utilized the ONE WAY sign in the shot, pointing in the opposite direction of course to create a more rebellious nature to the look of the image.  

White Nissan GT-R supercar photographed in Ybor City Tampa Car Photography - Nikon D300 Nikkor 80-200mm @ f/4 ISO 200 1/20th tripod mounted with cable releaseI knew for the photo above I wanted to make just a front quarter panel composition of the Nissan GT-R in a long shot using an 80-200mm lens.  I shot from downhill to further exaggerate the angle.  Quite a bit of distraction was cleaned up from the backround leaving just the white Nissan GT-R on red brick framed by white clouds.

Nissan GT-R (white) with custom 360 Forged Wheels in Ybor City Tampa Florida Car Photography - Nikon D300 Tamron 17-50mm @ f/11 ISO 200 1/13th tripod mounted with cable releaseI often shoot with a lot of extra space around the intended subject.  This was the case in the above photograph.  In the uncropped version the sky was visible as well as the intersection down the street.  I liked that shot as it was, but I decided to crop in and put more of the focus on the car and the red brick background.

Thank you to the GT-R's owner and his friend for assisting in lining up the car for these shots.  This collection of Nissan GT-R photos is just part one, all in daylight.  Part two will feature strobist twilight images.

Ferrari 458 Spider in yellow on white background St. Petersburg Florida Car Photography

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Selected crop & edit of a Ferrari 458 Spider photographed in St. Petersburg FloridaGoing through my unedited car photography archives, I found this straight on view of a yellow Ferrari 458 Spider.  It was originally photographed at the Grand Prix Gala inside a office building's lobby (see below).  The background was of course busy and full of people.  To put the focus on the car itself I decided to cut it out of its original background and place it on a digital white background.  Below is the digital photo editing process for making the final image.

I cropped the Ferrari above its bumper to give it a kind of peaking up at the viewer look.  

McLaren MP4-12C stylized HDR profile view Tampa Car Photography

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McLaren MP4-12C photographed in Tampa Florida on digital background - Nikon D300 Tamron 17-50mm @ f/8 ISO 200 9-exposure HDR

Back in October I received a media pass to the Cars & Couture event in Tampa where I had the opportunity to photograph the event as a whole, and some supercars in particular like the above McLaren MP4-12C.  As is usually the case at car shows, all of them were parked pretty close to each other and there were people and other objects around in the background.  To focus just on the car I try to compose a view minimizing the background, and in this case, just remove the background altogether.  

The actual background of the McLaren MP4-12C shot from Cars & Couture event in TampaCoincidentally, I think I saw this McLaren parked in a neighbor's driveway just this past weekend!