Type R Déjà Vu
Although I’ve been shooting for quite a while, and I’ve certainly lost track of the amount of cars that I’ve been fortunate enough to shoot, I can’t remember shooting the same car twice. There’s a whole heap of situations where this could have occurred. For example if multiple publications wanted images or if the owner decided to tear apart a perfectly good car and rebuild it into something even better. Neil Thompson’s Civic Type R is a case of the latter. It was actually only back in May when I found myself meeting Neil at a services on the M1 motorway, north of Dublin. With summer having belatedly arrived in Ireland, it was still too bright after 6PM to shoot the dark colour Honda in the harsh sunlight. I tried a couple of frames and positions at the back of traditional Irish pub, before we scouted around for a couple of different locations. With the sun starting to turn the countryside a nice shade of gold, we returned to the same pub’s car park and got to work. When shooting editorial, you not only need to ensure that you grab everything required, but also to try and vary compositions as much as possible. This allows the designer more freedom when laying out the spreads. A happy designer, means a better feature and the potential for more work in the future. Since turning freelance, I’ve personally felt that a lot of pressure to perform has lifted from my shoulders. I feel more comfortable and have begun to produce much better work than I have done previously. In my opinion at least. I’ve been fortunate enough to work with some great editors, who all have encouraged me to shoot how I want. That is, in as much of a LoFi style as […]
Honda Civic Type R
One of my favourite parts of my job is the unpredictable nature of it. It’s a very rare occurrence for any two days to involve the same thing. It also means that you generally need to be prepared for anything and be able to adapt to any given situation. I had been previously in touch with Tonto about shooting his car but for whatever reason, it never happened. That was until we bumped into each other at a drift practice day last May. I had attended the event with the intentions of shooting the on-track action but with the day that was in it, I knew we had to make the most of it. I usually like to prepare for feature shoots or any sort of an in-depth look at a car for a couple of days beforehand. I also like to use external flashes and light modifiers but this was one of those occasions where I needed to channel my inner-Linhbergh and shoot au naturale. A back-to-basics shoot is always a much more enjoyable experience. You have less to worry about and can concentrate on composition and other ideas. A fast shoot with a fast and light processing session. If only they could all be like this …
