automotive

A Lamborghini Urus – Exotic Car Photography

June 6, 2019 by Josh Baker

Selling exotic cars is a little different than listing an old minivan on Craigslist. Cell phone photos won’t cut it, and neither will merely decent photos taken by a “pro”. You need real automotive photography to showcase exotic vehicles. Silicon Autogroup, in Spicewood, Texas, specializes in exotic cars, trucks and SUVs. Really, they love anything that is over the top, and so do we. One of their recent acquisitions is a 2019 Lamborghini Urus. It’s one of an ongoing set of cars we are photographing for them as their inventory shifts and changes.

For me, Lamborghini is always associated with the ridiculous (and I mean that in the best possible way) and insanely dangerous Diablo. SUVs aren’t even on the first page of the list of things that come to mind. But, the Urus isn’t the first Lamborghini SUV. They built the LM200 as a true off-road vehicle in the 1980s and they also (still) make tractors. They should be pretty good at building off-road vehicles. With access to Audi’s inventory of parts, they also gain a huge bump in reliability.

We didn’t get to take this Lambo out and thrash it for any fun photos on the open road or off it (it’s for sale after all). Instead we worked inside Silicon’s building. Our goal was to capture the Urus’s “best side”. In a way, this is just like doing portraits. You help show the world the best (or most interesting) side of your subject.

Rear lights and bumper detail of Lamborghini Urus in Austin, Tx

Front brake caliper and wheel detail automotive photo from a 2019 Lamborghini Uras for sale at Silicon Auto Group in Austin Texas.

Side vent detail photo of a Lamborghini Urus in Spicewood, Tx at Silicon Auto Group.

Front side vent detail photo of a 2019 Lamborghini Uras for sale at Silicon Auto Group in Austin Texas.

As noted by Jeremy Clarkson, the Urus is a bit calm for a Lambo, if very fast. This particular Urus was a beautiful and sedate metallic silver.

Interior

Of course, that is offset by the cherry red interior. The space feels special with the stitched leather, futuristic controls and other details.

I particularly like the airliner throttle inspired center console.

Many of the elements of this car, such as the center console, are great visually from numerous angles. Their form is interesting to look at even if you aren’t driving the Urus.

Of course we took a lot more photos of this beautiful SUV. I’m just sharing a few of my favorites here. Check them out over at Silicon Autogroup’s listing for the car.

Troy’s Roadster

May 14, 2019 by Andrew Fritz

We’ve photographed a few other cars from this collection, but this roadster might be my favorite. It’s nominally a Chevy, and is Chevy powered. It’s based on a 1930s Chevrolet coup… Sorry, I don’t even know the exact year. Does it matter that much? Nope. We love the outrageous flame on yellow point job, the open engine bay and beautiful headers and especially the crazy wide rear tires. On to some hot rod photography.

Virtual rig shots are not something I get to do that often, and frankly, they are a lot of work. This one is a bit of whimsy. We asked about doing an actual burn out. Turns out with those rear tires, even a big V-8 can’t spin them very easily. Still fun to play with the idea.

Classic Chevy Street-rod - Automotive Photography - Streetrod Badge - Automotive Details

Classic Chevy Street-rod - Automotive Photography - Shifter - Automotive Details

This is one of those projects that is all about presence. The owner admitted that it isn’t that fast despite the noise and tires, nor would you want it to be given the total lack of safety gear. There is no roll bar or even a b-pillar to mount a real 3-point seat belt from. Safety in this thing is basically “don’t hit anything.”

Inside it’s basic with analog gauges and chunky toggle switches, both of which fit the streetrod perfectly. A MoTeC electronic dash would be about as out of place as a coil overs on a battleship.

Classic Chevy Street-rod - Automotive Photography - Engine headers and spark plugs - Automotive Details - Hot Rod Photography

Regardless of the “basic” safety gear, this hot rod is definitely not a garage queen. It’s collected it’s share of rock chips, fossilized bugs and road dirt. What’s the point of building something this cool if it just sits in a garage?

1977 Mach 1 Ford Mustang

January 17, 2019 by Josh Baker

Today, we think of the Ford Mustang as a sports car, one that perhaps lost it’s way for a while (looking at you 80s, 90s and early 2000s). Ironically, the Mustang started it’s life more like a modern econo-hatchback than as a muscle car. It targeted young people as an affordable car with a “sporty image”. It looked fast, but wasn’t particularly. Of course, lots of people jumped onto tuning the Mustang using the ecosystem of Ford parts. Ford got into the game with the Mach 1 (among other) variants.

Ford Mustang Automotive Photography

1977 was near the end of the original Mach 1 era. The name was discontinued in 1978 to be revived in 2003 and 2004. The Mach 1 wasn’t that exotic in it’s day. There we certainly higher performance options available. But, like the Mustang in general, it was accessible. Andrew‘s parents even had a lime green Mach 1 while he was growing up as their grocery getter.

A lot of the changes in the Mach 1 over the base Mustang were styling related: the decal pack, gas cap, hood scoop (not functional by 1977) but did include more powerful engine options, as well as improved suspension. Some of the details on this restored car are quite fun, including the flip up style gas cap and trunk mounted spoiler.

The NASA style hood scoops were one of the main styling queues from the Mach 1 along with the matte black hood coloration.

While we have worked to keep the location out of many of the photos, it shows through in this photo. Metal buildings and a gravel driveway feel oddly appropriate for a car that was a working class hero car. Far from being exclusive, the Mach 1 Mustangs were sold to every-man.

Blue Skies, Orange Car

The black on orange is a striking color combination, especially with the big blue skies in Texas.

A Dodge Challenger in Temple

December 13, 2018 by Andrew Fritz

We are motor heads and we love cars. The rebirth of the American muscle car means it is a great time to be alive as car guys. Dodge is at the forefront of that revival with the Challenger. We recently had the opportunity to photograph one in Temple, Texas. Temple is medium sized Texas town located on the edge of the hill country. It’s a place that is all about cotton and corn. The rural texture was perfect for this working class hero of a car.

Virtual Rig Automotive Photography

We love using the variety techniques that automotive photography requires. Virtual rig automotive photography is one of the more labor intense, but it solves a very specific problem. How do you get well lit, well composed photos of cars driving in interesting locations?

Once upon a time, the way photographers created advertising photos of cars blasting down open roads or around tracks was to bolt a boom to the car with a camera on the end. The car would then be pushed very slowly during a long exposure. The background would blur and the car would *hopefully* be sharp. The boom was then digitally removed from the photo.

That approach has it’s limitations though. Most of us in the automotive photography industry have moved to virtual rigs. Instead of a literal rig (the boom bolted to the car), we now shoot separate photos of the car and the background and then composite them together with a little wizardry to create the background motion blur.

How it Works

Virtual rig automotive photography is much more flexible than traditional rig photography. It allows us to employ more advanced lighting setups and to work in spaces we might not otherwise be able to. We can create motion blurs that are more complex and interesting than a traditional rig creates. It also allows photographers to put a car from one location into a scene from another.

In this case, the Dodge Challenger was really in this ally. All the elements of this photo were from a single thirty minute span with the camera in one fixed spot. We painted the car with light in a couple of shots to get the look we wanted. To get the blowing leaves, we shot several photos of “blowing” leaves in front of the car (tossed up by our crew), and finally moved the car out and shot the background image.

To get an image like this to come together, it takes several hours of advanced post processing. We think the results are well worth the effort.

Fast While Sitting Still

For much of my childhood, American cars just were not that nice to look at. That has all changed. The Challenger, and it’s brother the Charger, both look spectacular. The Challenger has such a menacing look, like it is just waiting to burst into motion.

The old (and somewhat derelict) buildings of downtown Temple gave a nice backdrop for this sunset photo of the car. We moved on to the grain silos at the rail terminal after the sun set.

Showing the Details

For this shoot, details were not our main focus. Still, there were a couple of small vignettes we couldn’t help but photograph.

1956 Chevy Bel Air – Classic Automotive Photography

November 29, 2018 by Josh Baker

We had the pleasure of photographing this beautifully restored 1956 Chevrolet Bel Air. Central Texas automotive photography means lots of small downs with lots of texture. The white, silver and chrome color scheme on the outside was super clean. We paired it with a old brick wall in downtown Troy, Tx. The red background matched the red interior.

Fins & Jets

This is a car from the fins and jet engines era of American car design and is one of the most iconic examples. The cold war was spinning up after WWII and the space race was just getting started. Air Force test pilots like Chuck Yeager were national stars. American scientists were racing the Russians to build rockets capable of putting satellites and men in orbit.

The national fervor for the space race showed in the cars from the era with huge fins and lots of details designed to invoke jet engines and rockets. Even the chrome on the car had wing edge like shapes. This was a car designed to look like the fastest machines man had ever built: jets and rockets.

The space theme continues to the inside of the car with the wheel-in-wheel steering wheel the deep set gauges in round pods and curving dash. The cherry red of the interior is the perfect complement to the ultra-clean white and chrome exterior.

This is a restored car, but it is not a trailer queen. It is driven. Items like the chrome have some scratches and pitting. When we photograph a classic car like this the question is always “how much retouching should we do?” Like portraits, there is a fine line between the right amount and way to much. In this case, we left the car as is in the photos. The patina tell part of the car’s story.

This car is 62 years old and it is still on the road. In fact, it is one of the most eye catching cars you are likely see. It dates from an age when exuberance was the norm.

1970 Yenko Chevy Nova

October 25, 2018 by Josh Baker

Yenko Chevy was was one of those local dealerships that took off the shelf cars, souped them up and sold them ready to drive. This 1970 Yenko Nova was one of only 175, with a big block 427 and beefed up suspension, it has a mean looking stance. We have been waiting for the right weather to photograph this muscle car for a while. Some late afternoon August thunderstorms provided the perfect backdrop and setting.

Making Use of the Rain

The thunderstorms left the hard concrete surfaces covered in a thin layer of water. This posed some problems but also created a great opportunity for reflections along with sunset photos of the Chevy Yenko Nova. Care had to be taken moving the car since getting into the area with the water required passing through an opening less than a foot wider than the car.

We also had to be careful not to splash the car. Once positioned, we needed to wait for the water to settle and not disturb it again adjusting lights. All of this was against the ticking clock of a rapidly changing and fleeting sunset.

Changing Historic Hutto

Downtown Hutto is in flux like most of the area around Austin. It was a tiny farm town between “the big city” of Taylor and Austin itself. There are (or were) still a few surviving artifacts of it’s agricultural past including the grain silos in downtown. They don’t have long to live.

Part of the complex has already been turned into a nice event venue and as of the writing of this post, the silos themselves have been rearranged to become accidents for a modern “town center” development. These photos were taken just before that development started. Being in the Austin area, with all its growth, is exciting most of the time. Its nice to still have local access to historic and rustic structures. Its also nice to see the area grow.

Historic Yenko Nova

As with any historic car, we capture the details that make it unique. This car had special badging. The black stripes on yellow make it look killer.

1962 Restomod LS3 Powered Chevy Corvette

September 13, 2018 by Josh Baker

The Chevy Corvette has always been the home town hero in America, competing with European sport and super cars. The original C1 Corvette is no less a classic than any Ferrari from the same erra, but unlike those cars, it is one you can actually own, drive and love. That’s why we love that Corvette Corrections is from Josh and Andrew’s own home town of Seguin. They are building modern chassis for the beautiful classic C1 bodies that bring them up to modern power, handling and braking performance levels while keeping the insanely beautiful lines of the original body. It’s pure pleasure to provide some classic automotive photography for them.

This is one of their prototype cars. It is a 1962 C1 Vette packing a modern LS3 crate engine and painted in OSU Orange. The color is outrageous and we love it. It along with all the beautiful classic details and chrome just screams speed.

Interior Details

One of the fun things about a restomod car, beyond having a great looking classic car with modern power and handling, is the ability to mix and match the classic details with modern trim and comforts. The interior is upgraded and restored with lots of brushed aluminum trim and dials giving it a modern classic look. It’s a great blending of the past and present.

Exterior Details

What would a classic car be without chrome?

The side vents on the C1 are some of the most iconic details of any car anywhere.

More chrome is found on the front, all beautifully restored. We love the double round head lights and all the curving shapes in the front fenders and hood.

The C1 had the start of the fins so many American cars had later on in the 60s and 70s. It’s a little more reserved and looks great as a result.

1984 Landrover 110 Truck

August 30, 2018 by Andrew Fritz

One of the fun things about being an automotive photographer is getting called out to see fun and funky vehicles like this 1984 Land Rover 110 Truck. They needed some classic truck photography for it as it went to auction. I can imagine this thing driving across the African savanna with the side of the back cover rolled up. Photographers would be hanging their lenses out the sides to photograph cheetahs chasing antelope or a herd of elephants at a watering hole.

The truck version is something I haven’t seen up close before. The basic straight forward design would make this a great vehicle to own as a ranch drive about, whether as a restored classic truck or as an upgraded modern version of the 1984 truck. The light green is even a great color for it.

I love the canvas bed cover and the very basic fittings. It’s from the 80s so the design seems surprising. It date back much further. Land Rover maintained continuity with their early vehicles pretty well still. It reminds me of very early jeeps (they have also maintained a pretty consistent design/build aesthetic). That isn’t surprising since it’s inception dates to just after the birth of the Willys jeep in the US and it is designed to tackle the same sort of problems.

Funky Classic Truck Details

One of my favorite things about this truck are all the simple details, and the patina the truck has. This truck isn’t a frame off restore. It’s more of a “make it nice again” restore leaving all the stories the patina tells in place while replacing worn out parts.

Classic Truck Photography Challenges

The window to photograph this classic truck small. The auction start date was fixed. Like many projects, it was being finished up just before the deadline. A couple days of heavy rain right in the middle of the window didn’t help. We ended up having to shoot just after noon when the available light wasn’t great. Luckily, we have big lights and adding a couple of fill lights allowed us to soften the shadows and make this classic truck pop in the photos.

automotive