Sunshine in October – The 2014 Volkswagen Golf SV
Ireland is a funny place to live and work. Especially, if you work outside and depend on the weather. Generally, no weather forecast is ever accurate. I generally try to take a car for as long as possible for this very reason. I can usually get the shots I need inside a day, but with unpredictable weather, I’ve often had to wait a few days before I can even get outside to shoot. Luckily my time with the new Volkswagen Golf SV, although brief, was constant sunshine. Born lucky? The Golf SV is obviously aimed at a market where practicality is at the top of the list of requirements for potential buyers. In typical Volkswagen style, the SV does everything it needs to do and does it very well. It’s comfortable, frugal and well equipped. The 1.6 TDI engine provides more kick than you would expect whilst easily returning impressive fuel economy figures. There’s also storage for days, and even as I was returning the car, I continued to find new storage areas which have been cleverly integrated into the cabin. From a photography viewpoint, I wanted to continue to develop my in-camera skills on this shoot. That is, I don’t want to depend on Photoshop or Lightroom afterwards. I want to try to get as close as possible to the final image in-camera as I can. This generally requires a lot of patience and improvisation when out and about, paying a lot more attention to small things like reflections, debris etc. Although it means more time shooting, it means less time in post production. I’ll take shooting in the sun any day over sitting in a dark room… Photographed for Volkswagen Ireland www.volkswagen.ie
Pure – The 2014 Toyota Yaris
Making a living as a car photographer is honestly not even half as glamorous as some would believe. Yes, there are amazing perks and if you happen to love cars, it never really feels like work. You get to drive a vast range of cars from complete opposite ends of the spectrum. On the other hand, there are the early mornings, the cold nights and the wet days when you have no other choice but to get things done. Shooting the Yaris was a perfect example of my little hypothesis… There’s something quite pure about the new Yaris that I like. Whilst it retains most of the features you would expect in a new car (air conditioning, bluetooth, iPod integration etc.) and some that you wouldn’t (reversing camera for instance), it presents everything in quite a simple and direct way. All of your multimedia needs are taken care of via a touchscreen head unit, there are the usual heater controls beneath this and in front of you, you have your speed-and-tach-ometers. And that’s pretty much it. There’s nothing complicated, all the controls can be learned at a glance and you never find yourself reaching around blindly looking for something. The particular model I photographed was the Sol version, which adds some nice features for not much more over base RRP. The one litre engine was perfect around town and even proved its worth on the motorway whilst remaining frugal. A refill with unleaded cost me less than €50. I though the pump was broke such was my surprise. With a light foot, your €50 should see you easily past 600KMs and probably past 700KMs. It’s hard to argue with that. Toyota afforded me quite a lot of time, almost two weeks, to shoot the Yaris. It was a good thing […]
Two Weeks, Two Skodas.
As I alluded to in my recent 2013 round up, I’ve become determined to carry out more personal work in the coming months. When you’re working week in and week out photographing all sorts, you can easily go into autopilot mode, doing whatever it takes to get things done. This can lead to staleness in the workflow, as you go through the motions to make sure deadlines are met. These situations can become a sort of vicious cycle, which can drain you of creativity and motivation. A dangerous combination. This thought has been nagging away at me for quite some time. Last month, I got in touch with the very nice people at Skoda Ireland who rather kindly donated two cars for me to photograph at my leisure. With no deadlines, no brief and most importantly, no pressure, I set about shooting each car over the course of two weeks during whatever spare time I could free up. With Ireland in the winter being Ireland in the winter, it was a challenge in shooting outdoors at the best of times. One second it would be wet, overcast and windy whilst the next the sun would be parting the clouds casting some much deserved sunshine on our little green island. My aim for both shoots was to create something a little more polished than I usually would. Maybe not quite commercial quality, but something approaching it. Quality over quantity as the saying goes. First up was the Octavia Combi Elegance 4×4 TDI. Skoda’s reputation of old is long since gone. However, it’s one thing to acknowledge this fact and quite another to experience it. The vehicle’s specification was overflowing with more than enough gadgets to keep me entertained during my week of ownership. In particular what I liked (and was fitted to both […]
Toyota GT86
Early last month I picked up Toyota Ireland’s GT86 for a week of ownership. The two litre naturally aspirated FR coupe has been gathering a lot of attention since its release earlier this year, along with being lauded by the motoring press. I was lucky enough to shoot the GT86 earlier this year for CAR Magazine but I was still very excited to spend a week on my own with the car. My experience was nearly all positive. I liked the balance, driving position, gearbox and even the engine which most seem to have deemed as being underpowered. For a standard factory car with a warranty, I thought the two litre flat four 4U-GSE was more than capable. Although lacking in torque, its responsiveness more than made up for it. I couldn’t help myself by blipping the throttle on each and every shift, both up and down the gearbox. The only downsides for me were the tyres which I found to be a little bit too hard and the fact that the car was probably a little bit too hardcore to be a daily driver. As a second car for weekend and trackday duties, I can’t think of anything else currently on the market that would get my money. You can read my full report on Speedhunters, be sure to leave a comment letting me know what you think.
Koenigsegg Agera
Whilst shooting at Gatebil earlier this year, I had the pleasure of photographing the freshly unveiled Swedish built hypercar, the Koenigsegg Agera. I managed to capture a couple of decent-ish snaps of the car as it lapped the Rudskogen course, one of which is my favourite shot of 2011. I never for a moment thought that a couple of months later that Koenigsegg Automotive would be in touch to acquire the images for their own promotional use. To say I’m ecstatic would be the understatement of the year. I’ve included the images submitted to Koenigsegg below, I can’t wait to see where they show up!
Team Japspeed
When we visited Japspeed for a shop visit and a couple of interviews, Paul aka Mr. Japspeed asked if we could get a killer group shot of the four team cars. The team’s workshop turned out to be a pretty good location and a much better alternative to venturing outside into the hostile weather conditions. It took us some time to arrange the cars and with a tight schedule, we managed to grab a couple of exposures which gave this image after some intensive post processing. Each car was lit and processed individually before being re-placed onto the background plate. It was my first time shooting this many cars together and it was definitely a challenge. Nothing ventured, nothing gained …
Supercharged E46
I posted a sneak preview of this a couple of months back. Well the feature just hit the shelves in issue #157 of Redline Magazine so you can check it out there. There’s also a brief behind the scenes feature on Speedhunters about the shoot. The rest of the shoot can be found after the jump.
Kitchen Design Award Nomination by Anne Ellard
In an unusual turn of pace, I swapped the racetrack for the warmth of this fabulous kitchen, designed by young Waterford designer Anne Ellard. The design has been nominated for a Kitchen Design Award and I wish Anne the very best of luck with the contest. Some more shots after the jump …
Team Nexen
Just finished quickly working over this shot of the two Team Nexen Ireland cars of Christy Carpenter and James Deane. It’s a simple enough composite, containing around five images. We only had time for one angle as the guy’s had to head to practice so I don’t think it came out too bad. I know it’s not the greatest image in the world but it’s good practice !
HKS Evolution IX in Autosalon
Received these awesome spreads from the guys at Autosalon Magazine in Australia featuring a shoot I done last year on the WKD Imports HKS Evolution IX. More spreads after the jump !
BMW E46 M3 CSL
Sorry about the delay in getting this post together, has been busy here the last while at PMCG Studios. Earlier this month, Junior from Irish motoring site Driver.ie approached me about shooting a rare E46 CSL that was located down the country. With an upcoming BMW theme on Speedhunters, it was an offer I couldn’t refuse. More after the jump …
Prodrift Monster Academy Cars
Just finished a series of six images to promote the Prodrift Academy, a school where anyone over the age of 13 can learn how to drift in a safe environment with the instructions of top level driver.For 2009, the two academy cars have received a revamp in matching Monster Energy Drink colours. More shots and some originals after the jump …
The Ladies of Prodrift
New issue of Modified Motors was released today featuring I shoot I did with Georgie & Elaine from Prodrift. Check out the magazine for the full write up. More images and a walkthorugh of the setup after the jump.
PMCGPHOTOS.com unveils Wexican Motorsport SX-20
PMCGPHOTOS.com is proud to unveil the 2009 Wexican Motorsport SX-20, a two-litre, turbocharged, Nissan powered, Toyota Altezza for road and promotional purposes. PMCGPHOTOS.com has worked very closely with Wexican Motorsport to design a custom livery to help show off this astounding custom built car.
A Day with Saving J …
2009 has been a year of change for me. I’ve been trying to get away a little bit from the motoring side of things, so as to try and develop my portraiture skills. Here are some images from a recent shoot with Kilkenny based band Saving J. The images are to be used as promotional material for their new album This City Street, due to be released this Autumn. More after the jump …