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Commercial, Stock, Food and Advertising Photography for Austin, Houston, Dallas, San Antonio, Texas

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virtual rig

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.

1932 Chevy Roadster 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.”

Chevy Roadster Hot Rod Photography at sunset in Troy Texas.

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 - Custom Dash - Automotive Details

Chevy Roadster Hot Rod Photography at sunset in Troy Texas.

Classic Chevy Street-rod - Automotive Photography - Engine headers and spark plugs - Automotive Details - Hot Rod Photography
Classic Chevy Street-rod - Automotive Photography - Rear bed - Chevy Thunder Logo - 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?

Chevy Roadster Hot Rod at sunset in Troy Texas.

Filed Under: automotive Tagged With: automotive, chevrolet, chevy, coup, rat rod, roadster, sunset, virtual rig, yellow

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?

Dodge Challenger screaming through an ally - Virtual Rig Automotive Photorgaphy - Home town hero - Temple Texas automotive photography

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.

Dodge Challenger in front of a central Texas sunset in Temple Texas - Automotive Photography

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.

Automotive Photography of a Dodge Challenger in front of the grain silos in downtown Temple, Texas.

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.

Dodge Challenger rear badge and racing strip detail. Red on white automotive photography in temple, Texas.

Dodge challenger front name bade and grill during a Temple Car Shoot.

Hurst style shifter on the new Dodge Challenger during a Temple automotive photography session.

 

 

 

Filed Under: automotive Tagged With: automotive, car, challenger, dodge, fast, home town hero, muscle car, sunset, temple, virtual rig, white

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AzulOx Commercial Photography

We are commercial photographers specializing in problem solving! We offer Professional Headshots, Editorial Business Portraits, Lifestyle Stock and Ad Campaign Photography, Automotive Photography, Athletic  and Sports Photography, Product Photography as well as Event Photography.

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AzulOx is based in Pflugerville, Tx in the Austin Metro area. We regularly work in Austin, San Antonio, Houston, Dallas, Fort Worth, Georgetown, Round Rock, Kyle and other Texas locations. We travel nationally as required and have recently completed projects in Portland, Oregon; New Orleans, Louisiana; New York, New York; Los Angeles, California; and Washington, DC.

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