Never Too Early for Awesome Cars.

Man do I miss just doing simple shots of cars! I realized it has been a long time since I last took shots of cars that didn't involve darkness and long set-ups with flashes and multiple exposures, or trying to be all artsy-fartsy and artistic, so it was a joy and such a relief to walk around Cars and Coffee this morning and just point and shoot at cars that piqued my interest. Even though it was 7 in the morning (!), there were tons and tons of people at Cars and Coffee this morning as a beautiful and warm Saturday sky hovered over millions of dollars of exotics. Waiting for people to move out of your shot is always a hassle, but the people at Cars and Coffee are always patient and appreciative of photographers who go shutter-crazy over a car (especially if that car is their own!)

I took 46 pictures in total but here are just a few that I liked a lot. I do wish I could get rid of the people standing around in the shots completely, but that's just impossible in a packed venue like Cars and Coffee. One thing is for certain: it's definitely easier to take shots of cars that are ridiculously clean and look good from every angle!!!


-This was my favorite car at the show today. It was Brit Car theme this week, so a load of Jaguars, MGs, Triumphs, Minis, Aston Martins etc. made their way to the corral. This car really caught my eye though. The Jaguar E-type is always absolute sex but this car, in an extremely clean and glossy black, was just jaw dropping. The curves and the reflections and... oh my. Serious jizz-in-my-pants stuff. In most of these pictures I tried to make the car pop by bringing out the color saturation and vibrance of the car, and lowering both in the surroundings, so the surroundings would be less distracting. This picture has three bright red cars in the background pulling the eye away, so I went pretty nuts with the desaturation brush. I think it worked ok!


-From old Brit to new Brit, the Aston Martin DBS in a very curious, blue/purple/silver pearl color called "Lighting Silver." Again, really wish I could tell people to gtfo of my shots but that's just inappropriate and impossible in these settings. By the way, I'm using my SB-600 flash set to i-TTL on all of these shots, so as to add some fill-light to all the shadows that come with shooting in an outdoors setting (an idea I cribbed from the awesome shots over at the-perfect-exposure.blogspot.com, go check that site out!!!).


-My favorite shot from the morning, love how the red Ferrari 599 GTB Fiorano offsets the red curb curving away. I loved the composition of this shot so much I went ahead and photoshopped a few people out from behind the car so it would look better. I actually photoshopped my dad out of the picture (he was standing right around the right headlamp) as well as another dude (standing around the right rear view mirror). Now if I could only get those two blokes on the right out of the picture too...


-A Ferrari 275 GTB. I think this is one of the most beautiful Ferraris of all time. Love the way this car looks roaring down the aisle and splitting the sea of people apart.


-My second favorite shot from the morning by a very close margin, of the Mercedes McLaren SLR 722. If the people weren't in the shot, it would be my favorite by FAR. This car just looks sinister from the front here. Love it.


-I love this shot of a Nissan Skyline R32 GT-R. Nice, wide and fat, really love the angle I got of this car, especially since I was chasing behind it with my eye on the viewfinder as it drove away haha

Until next time, zai jian!

-Justin