GTR - Heaven

Well a few months back I heard word that a good friend of mine had bought a brand new Nissan GTR. Being a bit or a car fanatic I instantly got on the the phone and started to arrange a shoot of said automobile!

I teamed up with another friend of mine Nick to location scout and plan the day.

He drives a Subaru Impreza so we decided that before Shaun and the star of the day showed up we would practice some lighting layouts to see what we can get and how well they work.

So first shot of the day was this one below! I thought the stacked coal would be a great dynamic background for the Subaru. The day was only just starting and already the weather was conspiring against us, the rain had set in and the wind was picking up!

Ignoring the fact that it was now officially full on rain Nick and I proceeded to plan the lighting setup by putting out the light stands where we wanted the various heads. For this shot we had 2 x 750w and 2 x 500w Bowens Gemini's, plus 4 or 5 hot shoes if required.

Excuse the crude lighting plan but you get the idea....

 In this actual shot we gave up on the rim light at the rear as we kept getting really bad glare that no matter where we position the light we couldn't get rid of. Taken on my canon 1ds MkIII f8 at 125th. Triggered with pocket wizard mini and flex's.



I'm pretty pleased with this. Not bad for my first ever real attempt at properly lighting a car on location. Ideally we needed more juice. 1000w upwards would have made the easier and given greater flexibility. Compromises had to be made with regard aperture and exposure due to light output.

So moving on and the star of the show arrived the brand new Nissan GT-R in gun bolt grey.

We attempted a few shots in a slightly more sheltered area of the location as the wind had really picked up and the 2m softbox was literally blowing itself and the the poor person holding it away.

Unfortunately before we had had a real chance to setup disaster struck, I very stupidly left the boom and 2m soft box unattended for a few minutes, the wind picked up and whisked the boom, soft box and light away smashing the flash tube.

So there isnt really anything to show from this part of the shoot unfortuantley. We took a few but they weren't really coming out how we had hoped now that we were a main light down.

We tried to re-light using what we had left and hot shoes but the light just wasn't strong enough.
so here are a couple post traumatic accident! 

All was not lost however we decided to try some boom shots, so we packed down and re-setup for some tracking shots.

Again my first attempt at these. For these shots we used Nicks D300 as he has a remote timer which proved essential to avoid against camera wobble!

The setup is a all homemade from various suction clamps and G-clamps bought online for about £150 all bolted onto a decorators pole!!

 

And here are the final shots from the day, lots of trial and error but really pleased with the outcome!!

My Old Girl....

Well although technically this didn't start out as an exercise for work purposes I have managed to pass on the images and they are now going into to print as advertising shots for Bromsgrove Auto Trimmers where the old girl has recently been re-trimmed.

For those that don't know a great deal about me i'm passionate about old Volkswagen's. The love affair started when I was really little, my older cousin passed his test and his first car was a 70's beetle. Having been taken for a spin in it I was hooked. Lots of drooling and fantasising over old Volkswagen's later, I am now the proud owner of the bus you see below. She is a 1961 23 window samba imported from New York approx 9 years ago as a complete wreck. Rust on top of rust, holes everywhere and in need of some serious TLC. Roll on a few years and Matt at Smiths of Cornwall http://www.smiths-vw-repair-cornwall.co.uk/  waved his magic restoration wand and Jemima as we affectionately call her was re-born.

The sun was shining just before Christmas and having just had the trim finished I couldn't resist jumping in her and going to take some shots. All taken on my trusty 1ds MkIII with natural light.

There are a few more on flickr if you wish to see more.