Festivals of Speed Luxury Lifestyle Jet Port Reception 2013

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McLaren MP4-12C Spider at the Tampa Jet Center - event photography - Nikon D300 Tamron 17-50mm @ f/8 ISO 200 9-exposure HDR imageI received a media pass to the Festivals of Speed Luxury Lifestyle Jet Port Reception 2013 to go in and make all the photographs of supercars I wanted.  This was my second time shooting at the Tampa International Jet Center, which is an outstanding location for Tampa car photography, although since it is an event for people, most cars were rather surrounded and close to each other.  Therefore, I looked for the best partial angles most of the time in composing my car shots.  One benefit of the formal event going on was that there were numerous colorful lights flashing across the space creating vivid backgrounds.  It seems everyone is getting a McLaren MP4-12C Spider nowadays as the white one above was the second one I saw in as many weeks.

Aston Martin DBS painted like a kaleidoscope at the Tampa International Jet Center - Tampa event photography - Nikon D300 Tamron 17-50mm @ f/8 ISO 200 9-exposure HDRAn Aston Martin DBS is normally an understated supercar that looks both fierce and classy at the same time.  I would not want to try to describe how this kaleidoscope painted DBS looks, so that's why there is a photo of it for you to form your own thoughts.  

Fisker Karma parked beside a private jet at Festivals of Speed Luxury Lifestyle event 2013 - Nikon D300 Tamron 17-50mm @ f/8 ISO 200 9-exposure HDRThe supercars at this event were parked along a variety of luxury lifestyle items, even private jets.  The photo above suggests one could step out of their private jet (huge environmental impact) into their Fisker Karma electric vehicle and perhaps offset using so much jet fuel to transport so few people.  

Classic motorcycles at dusk - Tampa International Jet Center - event photography - Nikon D300 Tamron 17-50mm @ f/8 ISO 200 13 sec single exposureA line of classic motorcycles fanned out onto the tarmac at the Tampa International Jet Center.  That is not the sunset in the background, just a large flood light, but I chose to overexpose the shot to look like it was.

Lamborghini Gallardo Spyder with engine cove open at Festivals of Speed Luxury Lifestyle 2013 event - Nikon D300 Tamron 17-50mm @ f/8 ISO 200 9-exposure HDRI spent an hour looking for shots at this event, trying to find suitable backgrounds and to use the existing flood and strobe lights to compliment the mostly HDR techniques I was using to make images that evening.

St. Petersburg Grand Prix Gala 2013 featuring Ferrari Lotus & Lexus LFA

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This pink Lotus Elise attracted a crowd at the 2013 St. Petersburg Grand Prix Gala - Nikon D300 Tamron 17-50mm @ f/8 ISO 200 2.5 sec tripod mounted with cable releaseThe Friday evening before the actual 2013 St. Petersburg Grand Prix race was the Grand Prix Gala featuring numerous supercars and other things, but for me of course, all my attention was on the cars.  The Lotus Elise above was painted a shockingly bright pink.  Though this car looks rather exotic, it is relatively not that expensive and can be had for around $55,000.  

Ford GT in the foreground at St. Petersburg Grand Prix Gala 2013 - Nikon D300 Tamron 17-50mm @ f/8 ISO 200 9-exposure HDRWelcoming you to the Grand Prix Gala was a Ford GT (in foreground doors open) followed by a line of Ferraris, Porsches and a Maserati.  There was a sudden rain shower as I arrived limiting the shots I could get outside, but it did add a nice sheen to the look of the above shot overall.

Ferrari 458 Spider in yellow at St. Petersburg Grand Prix Gala 2013 - Nikon D300 Tamron 17-50mm @ f/8 ISO 200 7-exposure HDRThis was my first time to see a Ferrari 458 Spider in person.  I had seen the 458 Italia many times before, so I was glad someone brought this Spider to show what an open top adds to what most consider the best current supercar in existence.   

Lexus LFA #406 at the St. Petersburg Florida Grand Prix Gala 2013 - Nikon D300 Tamron 17-50mm @ f/8 ISO 200 7-exposure HDRFeatured prominently also was this, famous to me, Lexus LFA #406.  I have now seen it on at least four different occasions.  The comments I hear most as people walk by it is their surprise that the car is a Lexus.  I guess not everyone is subscribed to the Lexus Enthusiast then!  

Canon T3i 1-on-1 DSLR Photography Lesson in St. Petersburg Dali Museum with Jeannie

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Jeannie in reflection during our photography lesson at the Dali Museum St. Petersburg FloridaAnother location change for our 1-on-1 DSLR Photography Lesson as Jeannie finished up her 4-pack of lessons at the new Dali Museum in St. Petersburg, Florida.  The museum itself makes for many architecture photography opportunities, and the grounds feature a melting clock bench, tree with ribbon messages blowing in the wind among other interesting features.  

Jeannie did get a Canon 430 EX II Speedlite since our last lesson which we used to practice candid portraits in shade, direct sunlight and diffused light.  We also went deeper into composition style and tips for framing a more flattering shot.  

Over the course of her 8-hours of 1-on-1 instruction time I showed Jeannie many of the tools necessary to make successful photographs in any given shooting conditions, be they outdoors or indoors.  I look forward to seeing Jeannie again in the future for more advanced photography lessons.

Photography Tip - make your own bokeh using Photoshop Gaussian Blur

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If you have a photograph that you wish had a bokeh (out of focus) background, you can still add one in Photoshop using the Gaussian Blur filter.  This can be an easy way to add a whole new look to a photo.  In the above example of mother and daughter sunset beach portrait, I chose to have the background in detail by using a small aperture and wide focal length.  I like the shot as it is, but I was curious to see how it would look with the background out of focus (bokeh).  The following describes my digital workflow:

  • Use the Quick Select tool to select just the mother and daughter (foreground subject)
  • Choose the Inverse of the selection
  • Apply the Gaussian Blur filter 

In this case, it was a pretty simple process.  I chose to select the people rather than the sky, then do the inverse because I felt that was a simpler selection to make.  For other photographs, you may want to select the background itself if that is easier.  Then you also do not have to select the Inverse of the selection.  

Let me know in the comments below how this bokeh photography tip worked for you.

Lexus LFA #406 in St. Petersburg Florida Grand Prix Gala

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Lexus LFA #406 in St. Petersburg Florida - Nikon D300 Tamron 17-50mm @ f/8 ISO 200 7-exposure HDR - see editing workflow for this shot belowI first saw this white Lexus LFA #406 at the Cars & Couture Tampa event last year, but it was roped off making it impossible to get any kind of usuable shot at that event.  Lucky for me it was shown again at the 2013 St. Petersburg Grand Prix Gala this time with no ropes.  Still, it was in the middle of a building lobby surrounded by people so to get usable shots I liked I had to be pretty creative with editing.  

Lexus LFA #406 St. Petersburg Florida car photography with added motion blur HDR image - Nikon D300 Tamron 17-50mm @ f/8 ISO 200 7-exposure HDRUsually I have an idea of where I want to end up before I start editing a shot, or even before I push the shutter out in the field making the photograph in the first place.  This time I did not anticipate liking B&W better, nor adding digital blur (both Guassian and motion) to the shots.

Lexus LFA #406 at the St. Petersburg Florida Grand Prix Gala 2013 - Nikon D300 Tamron 17-50mm @ f/8 ISO 200 7-exposure HDREvery shot was made from a 7-exposure HDR image and required a lot of color correction.  Shooting in RAW and auto white balance normally produces a very color accurate shot once in Aperture 3.  Not so this time as even after Aperture did its thinking on processing the RAW image it remained very yellow.  I heard people with point and shoot cameras complaining how yellow their shots were coming out too.  Standing in the space I did not notice that much warm lighting so I was surprised the RAW shot needed as much work as it did.  Below I show in four abbreviated steps my digital editing workflow starting with a single RAW file and ending with the final look I chose for the shot.  In all this initial workflow took about 45-minutes to finalize.  It was then faster to apply it to the other two images in this post since I knew what I wanted. 

Treasure Island Sunset Beach Family Portraits with Elizabeth

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Elizabeth & her family on Sunset Beach Treasure Island, it was actually freezing! - Nikon D300 Tamron 17-50mm @ f/8 ISO 200 1/250th - Strobist: SB-800 to frame left & SB-600 to frame rightOn perhaps the coldest evening of the year, I met Elizabeth and her family on Sunset Beach on Treasure Island for a family beach portrait session.  Not only was it cold, but it was also very windy with clouds of sand at times sweeping down the shoreline.  However, her family was great and braved the cold.  As for me, I was fine . . . inside my windproof Mountain Hard Wear jacket!

Teen romance on Sunset Beach Treasure Island portrait photography - Nikon D300 Nikkor 80-200mm @ f/5.6 ISO 200 1/250th - Strobist: SB-800 to frame right & SB-600 to frame leftYou can see the sand at their feet blowing in the wind.  I never experienced that before on Sunset Beach or any other Pinellas County beach.  I thought though it made for a cool photo effect shooting with a long focal length.

Watching the sunset on Treasure Island Florida family beach portraits - Nikon D300 Tamron 17-50mm @ f/5.6 ISO 200 1/160th - Strobist: SB-800 frame left & SB-600 frame rightThough it was frigid and windy, at least Mother Nature also provided a great sunset as a backdrop to our family beach portrait session.

Unique Pet Photography - Kiki sitting upon her chair

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Kiki fits snugly but somehow comfortably in her own chair in front of the window - Nikon D300 Nikkor 80-200mm @ f/7.1 ISO 200 1/125th - Strobist: SB-600 @ 1/1 power to frame left in shoot through umbrella and SB-800 @ 1/4 power to frame right in 43" brollyAfter making a headshot for a client in my home photography studio, while I had all the lights setup, I tried to coerce Kiki into letting me make a photograph of her.  She is very, very reluctant to do so for some reason being very resistant to the whole idea.  So this time I put her favorite chair in frotn of a white background (though later digitally edited for a pure white background) and had her curl up into it in her usual manner.  She spends a lot of time lying down like this staring out the sliding glass door beside my work desk.  

She was actually facing into the living room and not out the window, her distant look is just her trying to avoid looking at me and into the lens!