Cars

A trio of Ferrari Supercars at duPont Concours d'Elegance St. Petersburg Florida Car Photography

in

Ferrari California 30 the updated version on display in St. Petersburg Florida - Nikon D300 Tamron 17-50mm @ f/11 ISO 200 7-exposure HDRFerrari of Tampa Bay brought a trio of Ferrari to the duPont Concours d'Elegance 2014 in St. Petersburg, Florida.  These three supercars show the great diversity currently in the Ferrari range from a hardtop convertible like the above Ferrari California 30 to the ultimate GT supercar in the Ferrari F12berlinetta below.  

Ferrari F12berlinetta the most powerful Ferrari to date in St. Petersburg Florida - Nikon D300 Tamron 17-50mm @ f/11 ISO 200 7-exposure HDRI was very surprised and very glad to get to see the F12berlinetta in person.  It is still a very rare car, though one Ferrari staff person said three clients had taken delivery in the Tampa Bay area.  Resting in the shade on green grass it is hard to imagine the capabilities of the F12berlinetta with its over 700hp V12 mounted up front.  Basically the car is unstoppable on the road!

Ferrari FF an amazing 4-seat supercar in St. Petersburg Florida - Nikon D300 Tamron 17-50mm @ f/11 ISO 200 7-exposure HDR

Actually, maybe the most unstoppable Ferrari is actually the Ferrari FF above.  It is the first Ferrari with an AWD system and it can also comfortably seat four people.  It has a hatchback design allowing for good road trip gear storage too.  This makes the FF to me very unique.  If I could only have one car, it would be the FF.  It is a supercar that can be driven in all weather (even snow!) and you can bring your friends and backpacks along too.

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

in ,

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

in

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

in

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

in

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

in

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

in

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??