It was a humbling experience being one of only a handful of people to spend some alone time photographing the only McLaren F1 in Australia for the front cover and feature of Issue 4 of Benzina Magazine . Being trusted around this 20 million dollar car with only a short time to produce these images was certainly stressful however i’m really pleased with the outcome for the client. Thanks again Jack and Barry for the opportunity to photograph this automotive icon.
Little BTS
This 1954 FIAT 1900A GRANLUCE SALOON was photographed for Collecting Cars, an online listing platform that has just entered the Australian market.
This beautiful Italian sex machine was photographed for its owner Jordan Roddy of Bespoke Motorcars here in Melbourne back in June. The day after this photoshoot the car was loaded into a container and shipped across the seas to its new owner in the UK. Jordan purchased this stunning rare Ferrari 458 GT3 Race Car from its previous owner who raced it in the Australian GT championship, Jordan began to give the race car a freshen up both aesthetically and mechanically. You may remember Jordans previous race car this Lamborghini Murcielago R-GT GT1 Le-Mans Race Car i photographed last year. There were many factors to consider when capturing race cars as they are a whole lot more difficult than registered road cars. For one they have no registration so cannot be ‘legally’ driven on the streets, they must be trailered everywhere, they are very very low so struggle to be placed into locations or even up ramps/driveways, most of the time they cannot be moved under their own power because of the noise and also the wear on the sequential gearboxes (they hate slow speed manoeuvring)…..
For all of the above reasons it makes it very difficult to get a variety of different locations or any panning/ tracking shots of race cars in motion unless you are shooting at a racetrack. Lucky for us it didn’t really matter in this case as the car is the star of the show and everything else would detract from this beautifully designed machine. Jordan chose this beautiful location in a small country town named Kyneton, about a 2hrs drive from Melbourne. Although it was a long way out it did give us the benefit of not being bothered by rubber necks or having to move the car for traffic. Most important of all this small town lent us this gorgeous orange and yellow backdrop created by the autumn leaves and let me capture a real country feel.
It’s always a pleasure shooting the amazing machines that Jordan makes his living in collecting and restoring, i’m very much looking forward to his next race car project of his and getting that in front of the camera.
“Lovely job, just stunning you killed it as always mate thanks again. Can’t wait for this printed in wideboy format on my garage wall ”
As we lost the warm afternoon sunset over the horizon we moved onto a new location nearby to capture some more dramatic images. The issue with race cars is they cannot be driven anywhere, the loading and unloading component took around 45 mins as this car is so wide it fits on the trailer with only a few cms to spare. We settled on this stunning old homestead and pushed the car into position for the various static shots. The theme for these photos both during the shoot and during post processing was a dark and menacing look, highlighting the red with the blue cold tones of the night sky.
Nicks Ford Falcon XW GS may look like an unassuming restored old Falcon however under the hood it packs a mildly worked Windsor V8 pushing between 450-500hp. The power plant is mated to a Manual gearbox which refreshing to see in a world of automatics. Nicks sister contacted me a few weeks before this shoot as she thought it would be the perfect birthday gift for him. The love and pride Nick has for his car shows with the condition and passion he has put into this build over the years along with a few cheeky burnouts in between shoot locations. Deciding on an inner city location and for the conditions to be just right we organised a day and spent a few hours in the late afternoon at a few inner city locations catching the golden rays of light and continued shooting into dusk.
If you find yourself searching for the perfect gift for that car obsessed special someone in your life Get in touch and lets organise a shoot with their pride and joy.
Early this year Victoria, Australia suffered some devastating bushfires, after a few weeks the smoke and haze from the bushfires hundreds of kilometers away reached the city of Melbourne and swept across the suburbs. This situation created some very soft and diffused lighting as a weird orange glow lit everything. This hazey lighting ended up being perfect for shooting the timeless curves of this classic Mercedes Benz 230SL Pagoda and creating some unique images for its owner. No introduction is needed for this classic two-seat roadster/coupe as its reputation precedes it.
If you’d like to organise a shoot with your classic car Get in touch here .
Recently I had the chance to shoot this Lamborghini, and not just any regular old run of the mill raging bull, this is the Lamborghini Murcielago R-GT GT1 ( Chassis # 5 of only 9 ever made). A purpose built race car built by Reiter Engineering in conjunction with Lamborghini to compere at LeMans. There are only a handful of parts that are shared with the road going supercar. Somehow this example found its way over here to Melbourne, Australia and somehow i had the good fortune to shoot it. This particular example was restored to its former 2004 American Le Mans Series glory by Jordan Roddy from Bespoke Motorcars in record time ( think serval weeks, not several months) and shipped over to the US just in time for its unveiling at the Monterey Car week back in August. Unfortunately this car will live the rest of its life in another country as 2 days after these photos were taken the car was sitting inside a shipping container bound for the US. Many thanks to Jordan and Vito from Polo Bodyworks for the opportunity to shoot this spectacular vehicle.
Shooting this scene was quite a challenge, although it's a beautifully presented machine the messy background and dull light/ shadow was not doing any favours in making the car stand out.
Unfortunately being a race car with no ground clearance it could not be moved more than a few meters. The location was the small industrial estate carpark where this Le Mans race-car was restored by @bespokemotorcars. To make the images a little more interesting i wanted to try something different. I took multiple exposures of the car with the Godox AD600 studio flash making sure to highlight certain areas.
The fog and fire looking smoke were produced by a modified insect fogger filled with diesel which created this haze. For the fire look i placed a Godox AD200 flash with a red gel behind the smoke to illuminate the plumes of fog/haze moving slowly from the front to the back of the car. Although it took a long time in post processing to layer all of these exposures to create the following images i'm very happy with the end result. I could not of achieved these images on the day without the help and expert advice from Ben Galli who i cant thank enough.
Interested in getting some timeless photos of your pride and joy or just want to know more about my photo packages? Hit the link below to get in touch
