This is my third year leading the photography team and being a part of the Digital Agency which handles all of the technical aspects of the Motorcar Cavalcade.
I don’t have to say much about what a wonderful opportunity and experience this has been but, wow every year it settles in more and more.
You can learn more about our work on the Motorcar Cavalcade here, but for now, I want to talk about the event from a photography perspective.
As usual, we always arrive early, it’s truly our calling card, and while you would think it’s standard the morning crowd is always pretty thin. Granted, this event is a business transaction but we treat our standard show coverage with the same attention to detail.
As you can see our staff is covering the field and we can grab beautiful lighting around cars like this Nissan Skyline R34 Which was brought by Kuruma Imports for the tuner class, followed up by their beautiful Toyota Century with a chauffeur white-gloved and all.
Covering a show is easy, you don’t have to get everything you simply have to tell your story, However in our case it’s a wonderful challenge that has made me a better photographer and businessman.
All of the shots have to be taken with digital, print, website, marketing, and social media in mind.
The photography team consisted of 6 official team members.
- (2) For lifestyle, Sponsors and fashion
- (2) For Automotive
- Full car shots
- Detail shots for classes
- Winners, etc
- (2) For all-around event coverage ( including myself)
Outside of the official team we had friends come out and help and we always make sure to compensate them accordingly for their effort, and they also do incredible work posting content on their personal social media channels which really helps the organic growth of content.
Lifestyle
The lifestyle role focuses on People and fashion. One of the main things I always tell my team when focusing on lifestyle is don’t be afraid to overshoot, multi burst and really think about the story being told.
Asking people to Pose in front of vehicles, and large crowds is key and making sure you grab the trifecta.
Individuals, Couples and groups.
This tip also goes for the Automotive photographers while shooting cars if they happen to see people taking selfies, or a group laughing or simply having a beautiful moment just turn aruond and capture the candid photo, those really do an incredible job of making the end user feel like they were a part of the event, and making those who did attend feel special.
As you can see for these types of shots it doesn’t always have to be head-on, don’t be afraid to play with different angles, chase lighting, and so on. It never has to be perfect, it just has to tell a story.
Something I always try to do is make all of my photos look like a still from a movie. It doesn’t always work but I try to visualize my photography the same way I do video and see my videographer friends approach their craft and I found it helps separate my shots from the rest.
Automotive
With the modern world of social media I personally belive that its never been easier to capture great automotive photography.
When the subject it self has such a demanding presence in many cases I think there so much room for error that you can get away with a lot and still get an amazing outcome and positive response when posted.
In our case ill keep it pretty simple this time around, chase the lighting and stay low.
I did most of my work this year with the latest Canon 100-300 F2.8 on my Canon R3 and It was an incredible experience.
When I wasn’t on that I used the 28-70 2.0 ( Which I primarily used to capture the winners as they pulled for their awards.
The 100-300 really let me move around at such an incredible pace that my other go to 70-200 F2.8 Just cannot do.
I was able to stand in one place, relatively crowded and just do a 360 motion and shoot everything from 3/4 car shots to people and crowds, signage, and just about everything you can image.
So i found my self just bouncing around around every class of vehicle and using that approach to end up with several thousand photos and capture a majority of the event in a very promising manner.
As you can see, in a Concours event there is no lack of amazing vehicles which does make it rather easy in my opinion. The vehicles do so much of the work, but you still need to put in the effort.
More than the technical skill I beilieve it comes down to knowing what you want to look for and being quick enough to capture the moment and be aware of your surroundings.
Knowing when to duck, when to stand up, when to move a little to the left to avoid seeing your self in a relfection or avoiding a trash can.
I always aim to do as little post-editing as possible when it comes to removing objects or “generative fill” If I can simply crop or ideally not crop at all, that’s when I’m most happy.
Our style is realism and I enjoy it that way.
Of course when it comes to production work for certain prints you want to be mindful of objects in the background, as you can see in this instane there is a water bottle on the left hand side, so for this version of the photo its not a big deal but if this gets used on a higher level then we will go in and do the required clean up.
The event generally ends around 4 pm so by the time sunset comes around a majority if not all of the vehicles are gone, but in this case these Two (2) beautiful lamborghins were off in the distance and I was able to snatch this pic which made me very happy!
This was on the 70-200 at 200mm so i was quite a bit away but the lighting and cars made it for one of my favorite and last shot of the day which was fitting.