Cars

St. Petersburg Grand Prix 2013 Classic Racers

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Porsche 911 Series 993 racing on the track at the St. Petersburg Grand Prix 2013 - Nikon D300 Nikkor 80-200mm @ f/5.6 ISO 200 1/1250thI entered the 2013 St. Petersburg Grand Prix raceway area around noon not know what type of cars I may see on the track at that time.  To my delight the classic racers were out and I got to see my favorite car, the Porsche 911 in several forms roaring around the course.  It took me awhile to find a suitable spot to photograph the cars because the double fence around most of the course just could not be shot through with any success.  

A Mustang takes the corner ahead of a Jaguar at the St. Petersburg Grand Prix 2013 - Nikon D300 Nikkor 80-200mm @ f/5.6 ISO 200 1/1250th

I ended up using a spot where a TV camera guy was.  There was a hole cut out of the fence that his huge camera was pointing through so I then only had one fence to shoot through and I could put my lens right up against essentially making it invisible to my camera's sensor.  This spot is where most of these shots are from.

Another classic Porsche 911 with huge rear wing taking a turn at the 2013 St. Petersburg Grand Prix - Nikon D300 Nikkor 80-200mm @ f/5.6 ISO 200 1/1000thI had some idea it would be very loud because as I sit here at home now with the windows open some 4 miles away I can hear the faint sound of engines even.  I actually liked the intense sound and did not use the promotional air plugs handed to me by some social media guy.  I was there less than an hour, so perhaps longer exposure to the engine sounds would have been headache inducing, but for me it was a rush to shoot and feel the subject so viscerally.  

Going down a long straightaway at the St. Petersburg Grand Prix 2013 - Nikon D300 Nikkor 80-200mm @ f/4 ISO 200 1/1000thI always wonder what the people do who live in the condos right on the race course.  Do they eventually block it out, love it, or just spend the weekend out of town?

Custom Classic Van HDR at Madeira Beach Car Show St. Petersburg Florida 2013

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Classic Custom Van Photography at Madeira Beach Car Show 2013 - Nikon D300 Tamron 17-50mm @ f/11 ISO 200 9-exposure HDR digital background

I went to the Maderia Beach Classic Car Show this past Sunday on a cold and blustery afternoon.  Apparently custom car owners do not much like that type of weather as there were only 8 cars there total!  Of those only one really caught my eye, a custom van that with the hood open, looked like the roaring mouth of a dragon or vulture or similar creature.  I wanted to make a shot to accentuate that feature of the car.  As is often the case at car shows, the background was not great and there was only a tight space to shoot in.  So even as I was making the shot that cold afternoon I was already thinking I about how I wanted to edit the shot and I knew I would just remove the background.

The graphic below shows what a single exposure would have looked like, a 9-exposure HDR, then the final image with all edits and digital background added.

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!

Red 2004 Corvette Z06 Tampa Car Photography in Ybor City

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Corvette Z06 in Ybor City near train tracks Tampa Car Photography - Nikon D300 Tamron 17-50mm @ f/8 ISO 200 1/30th +1 ev tripod mounted single exposureDustin contacted me about photographing his 2004 Corvette Z06 in the same Ybor City Tampa location he has seen my photographs of a Mustang and a Lexus IS F.  He was open to me shooting however I liked, not wanting any replicated photos and I really wanted to try and produce some different shots after having already shot at this exact spot twice before.  Thanks to our well timed shoot and Mother Nature cooperating with a very well positioned sunset, I was able to produce some new shots for this Corvette shoot.

Red Chevy Corvette Z06 sunset view in Ybor City Tampa Car Photography - Nikon D300 Tamron 17-50mm @ f/8 ISO 200 1/40th +2 ev tripod mounted single exposureOne of the big differences with the shots from this car photography shoot was I did not rely on HDR for most of the shots.  I still shot a majority of bracketed shots, but I ended up using one of those exposures, as in the shot above, to produce the final image.  I feel this improves my car photography shooting style offering future clients even more variety in final images.  What motivated me to shoot like this?  Looking at lots of photographs of cars on Autoblog.com.  Looking at photographs is a great way to improve your own photography, no matter what you are shooting or what experience level you are.

Corvette Z06 vs train in Ybor City Tampa Car Photography - Nikon D300 Nikkor 50mm @ f/4 ISO 200 1/400th with antique filter in Silver Efex ProOne of the original reasons I scouted this Ybor City shooting location was that the client wanted to have his car near train tracks.  Well these tracks are very active as you can see above allowing me to make a "Corvette vs. Train" shot.  I wonder what the train engineer was thinking?

Z06 Corvette train track sunset in Ybor City Tampa Car Photography - Nikon D300 Tamron 17-50mm @ f/8 ISO 200 9-exposure HDR tripod mounted with cable releaseI still did make some 9-exposure HDR final images though, like the one above allowing me to show the full details of the red Corvette and full detail in the bright sky background.  As you can see in the shots above, with a single exposure that much detail in the sky cannot be preserved unless you make an HDR image.

Corvette Z06 in Ybor City at sunset Tampa Car Photography - Nikon D300 Tamron 17-50mm @ f/8 ISO 200 9-exposure HDR tripod mounted with cable releaseMost car shots are usually from a low angle, but I wanted to show more of the shape of the hood of this Corvette so I maxed out the leg height of my tripod to get this upper view of the car and used another 9 exposures to make this HDR image.

Stylized Corvette Z06 view in Ybor City Tampa Car Photography - Nikon D300 Tamron 17-50mm @ f/8 ISO 200 1/100th +2 ev tripod mounted single exposureA tight rear quarter panel and rear wheel composition is one of my favorite views to photograph a car from, as seen in the photo above.  I think it creates a somewhat exaggerated and therefore interesting view of a car, especially if it has nice wheels!

Corvette Z06 on bricks in Ybor City Tampa Car Photography - Nikon D300 Tamron 17-50mm @ f/8 ISO 200 9-exposure HDR tripod mounted with cable releaseFor the last shots of the afternoon we went to the other side of the warehouse out of direct sunlight.  Even though there was no bright sky to contend with, I chose to shoot in brackets and ended up using all 9-exposures to make the HDR image above.  In doing so details in the shadows of the car and gate above were revealed.  

Ferrari F430 Spider in Yellow Tampa Florida Car Photography

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Ferrari F430 Spider in yellow photographed at Tampa International Jet Center - Nikon D300 Tamron 17-50mm @ f/5.6 ISO 200 1/125thAt the 2012 Cars & Couture event in Tampa, Florida I had the opportunity to photograph this stunning Ferrari F430 Spider in Modena Yellow.  It was parked next to four other Ferraris fortunately at the end of the line so I could make some clean photographs of it.  As you can see it also happend to be sunset time making for an ideal backdrop.

Rear diffuser of a Ferrari F430 Spider - Tampa Car Photography - Nikon D300 Tamron 17-50mm @ f/11 ISO 200 7-exposure HDRI liked how the yellow line on this airport runway added a detail to the rear view of this Ferrari F430 Spider, and it was doubly nice that it was also yellow!  I cropped in tightly to accentuate the presence of the line.

Jets waiting behind a Ferrari F430 Spider - Tampa Car Photography - Nikon D300 Tamron 17-50mm @ f/11 ISO 200 7-exposure HDRIt was a very pleasant 20-minutes I spent all alone with this Ferrari far away from the busy event taking place in a hanger a few hundred yards away.

1996 Ford Mustang Cobra Mystic color Tampa Car Photography in Ybor City

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1996 Ford Mustang Cobra mystic color (green purple) in Ybor City Tampa Florida - Nikon D300 Tamron 17-50mm @ f/8 ISO 200 1/125th complex composite of 7 strobist shotsI returned to an Ybor City location I used some time ago to photograph a Lexus IS F.  This time I met a client with a 1996 Ford Mustang Cobra in the rare mystic color that can look green or purple depending on the light.  The above shot used a new technique that I tried for the first time involving taking many shots as I walk around the car with a speedlight in a brolly.  Then all those shots are blended together into a composite showing the best list portions of each one.

Afternoon clouds over a Mustang Cobra in Ybor City car photography shoot - Nikon D300 Tamron 17-50mm @ f/11 ISO 200 9-exposure HDRFor this shoot the surrounding environment was really included as-is, which meant the dumpster with graffiti was composed in the frame to contrast with the car, the ominous sky and the distant city skyline.  Using a 9-exposure HDR composite allows for shooting into the sun like this.

Ford Mustang Cobra car photography shoot in Ybor City Tampa Florida - Nikon D300 Tamron 17-50mm @ f/11 ISO 200 7-exposure HDRMore subjects of varying contrast in this shot starting at the top with the American flag waving coming down to an American icon in the Ford Mustang.  The flag was waving but appears without blur in this HDR image because the final step I took in editing was to mask in a single frame of the flag.

Highly stylized HDR image of a Ford Mustang Cobra - Nikon D300 Tamron 17-50mm @ f/11 ISO 200 7-exposure HDRIn the above shot you can see some interesting "hearts" graffiti on the brick wall.  I wondered who would make such an expression in such a place and thus definitely wanted to feature it in the background of some of the shots.  

Profile view of a Ford Mustang Cobra - Nikon D300 Tamron 17-50mm @ f/11 ISO 200 7-exposure HDRNo hearts in this rectangle of red graffiti.  Maybe a yet to be finished work?

Five Ferrari at Tampa International Jet Center - Florida Car Photography

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Five Ferrari parked on a runway at Tampa International Jet Center - Nikon D300 Tamron 17-50mm @ f/11 ISO 200 7-exposure HDR tripod mounted with cable releaseI believe the purpose of supercars like Ferrari existing is multifold.  First and foremost of course, they provide a driving experience like no other.  Of course due to the cost of owning (and maintaining!) a Ferrari this is a very exclusive experience.  I believe there is another, even greater experience, for the existence of Ferrari, however.  That is the joy of seeing (and hearing) one drive by and to give one something to daydream about.  In short, the existence of Ferrari is about inspiration.  

Which Ferrari would you pick from the five above?  Having seen them in person, I would go with the yellow F430 Spider.