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!
A morning photographing a special Rolls-Royce in New Mexico
A representative from RM Sotheby’s called me up about photographing this majestic 1953 Rolls-Royce Silver Wraith in nearby Sandia Park, New Mexico. I am always excited to have the opportunity to photograph special cars like this Rolls-Royce. It even had quite a history, as it was originally in Canada and in 1957 when Prince Phillip visited the Canada for the celebration of its independence, he rode in this very car! There is a plaque on the dash to commemorate this even. I found this car very striking from the outside with its sweeping wheel well design and of course the always impressive front grill that is the hallmark of all Rolls-Royce vehicles to this day. Using the Sony 50mm f/1.2 GM lens, the magic properties of that lens along with the striking pose of theSpirit of Ecstasy combined for incredible detail shots of this storied vehicle. Thank you to the owners for the interesting conversation while shooting, and to RM Sotheby’s for the opportunity to spend time with the history of this Rolls-Royce!
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.
The BMW Car Club New Mexico Chapter got invited to a very unique car show right at the top of a mountain at Santa Fe Ski Resort! We actually drove from the Sanat Fe BMW dealership on to the foot of the ski slope itself! Yes, that means my M3 along with a host of other sports cars and classic cars actually went off road. This could not have been a more stunning setting and a fantastic day overall. It felt like a whole different world up there. We capped the day with a hike up to the summit of the mountain, some 11,000+ feet of elevation! To top it all off, they had great veggie burgers grilled right before us with green chili and homemade cookies. In a side note, from the photo below you can see that Jessica and I are living in two totally different temperature zones!
For regular readers of this photography website, I often say when I go to car shows I usually focus on detail shots of cars because getting good, full shots are nearly impossible due to lots of people around, other cars parked too closely, and often bad light. There were not so many people around this classic Cadillac Coupe deVille, but I still mostly focused on the details because they were so interesting to me. What kind of car has two hood emblems? When is the B-pillar all the was in the back and emblazoned with yet another badge? Then what I am pretty sure did not come from the factory, how often do you see a skull floating in the cabin?
Going for details with car show photography in Albuquerque
To my surprise the car show featured at Albuquerque Summerfest 2019 was much bigger than I expected. As with most car shows, get photos of entire cars is a challenge due to people walking all around the cars, so as is my usual custom, I focus on getting detail shots, this time with my trusty 50mm f/1.8 lens. In the lead photo I cleaned up the background removing a few people to leave a clean shot of the front of a powerful yellow 427 balanced by the double center white line passing through the bottom of the frame. I look for contrasting lines, with the double white and then the black stripe on the car.
