There was a time just a few years ago I was quite taken with the BMW M3 E46. It is a hardcore sports car that can be had on the used market for the price of a regular new car, but maybe just for now as it will only start to go up in value for low-mileage examples like the one pictured here. The original owner is selling it via bringatrailer.com so I traveled up to Santa Fe, New Mexico to photograph it for him.
If you watched Magnum PI in the 1980s, like I did, and revisited it on Netflix in recent times, through all those years I thought the only thing you needed to thwart bad guys in Hawaii was your wits, and of course a Ferrari 308 GTS! So when Bring A Trailer contacted me about photographing this supercar up in Santa Fe, New Mexico, I was very excited!
At long last I got to see the Porsche 918 Spyder in person! To my great surprise Porsche of Albuquerque not only featured the 918 hypercar, but also the previous Porsche hypercar, the Carrera GT! The 918 Spyder was pretty much considered the fastest production car in existence when it came out just 3 years ago, and there really is not anything much faster around a track yet.
At the 2018 New Mexico International Auto Show, there really was only one star, and there was not even a close second -- it was the 2017 Ford GT. Placed right inside the main entrance to the entire exhibit space in the Albuquerque Convention Center, there was the Ford GT in a beautiful silver-gray color. I had not seen it in person before of course, as it is a very rare car and the limited run is still being produced. In photos I had not cared for the frog-like appearance of the front fascia on this supercar. It looks much better in person, and the 3/4 view, as pictured above, revealing the extreme aero and duct work make for a truly stunning appearance. If you dare park a Ford GT on the street, it will attract massive amounts of attention!
I woke up this morning and found out there was a car show going on just a few minutes down the road from me at the Albuquerque International Support Airport. It even had free admissions so I packed up my Nikon D750 with Tamron 15-30mm lens attached and headed down Gibson Blvd SE. This show was the Eurocars version, so of course only European cars were featured, which is fine with me! Sadly though, no Aston Martins.
My first car photography shoot in Albuquerque, New Mexico was for a new client, Rohana Wheels. I was only contacted by them just last month so I was very excited to already have a shoot for them. My excitement was doubled to get to shoot with a New Mexico background too, although the owner of the car suggested an industrial site, there were still Sandia Mountains in some shots.