Went along to my first hill climb at Doune today. Weather held up for some good times on the track. There’s not much room for error for the drivers as it is very narrow. The Cobra in the photos is the real deal. See more in the flickr set.
Have camera will travel. This summer I plan to take in the best of UK Hot Rodding in just over a week. Starting with the journey south from Scotland to the Hot Rod Hayride, crusing with Allan Kirkland and anyone else who wants to tag along, then a week of visiting Hot Rod Shops, Ace Cafe, and local meets that are on, catching up with friends, maybe David Williams will take me on one of his big nights out. Then onto the NSRA Supernats the following weekend followed by a cruise back up to Scotland with Steve Wilson who I’m sure will have his 55 together ready in time. I plan, as always, to document the whole thing with my camera. So let me know of what’s going on, got a cool car you want me to shoot? Got a meet going on? Got a gig going on? Rod shop that needs a visit? The plan starts here.
A few people ask me how much post processing is done on my shots. As an example here is the centre spread poster in Custom Car of Steve Brown’s T’n'A Hot Rods. This shot was taken from up a six foot ladder, there was one off camera flash to fill in the rear quater of the back car as it came out really dark in the shot. As you can see the post processing is just a tidy up of background distractions really such as buildings as telegraph wires, some dodging, burning and sharpening. It all helps to keep your focus on the subject matter.
Before
After
When Mike Pye rang me about this shoot I knew from the get go it was going to be cool. I had seen pictures of both cars via Buckland Automotives Facebook page and was so chuffed to land the gig. Steve who owns the cars sorted out a location and on a very rare (for 2012) sunny day I headed off to Essex to do the shoot. Thankfully Custom Car loved the shots as much as I did and ran with the feature on the cover, centre spread and a big feature. This gave me a big smile! See more in the flickr set here.
It was great to be able to do a shoot for Volksworld Magazine as I’ve been a big fan of the magazine since pretty much issue one back in the 80s. When asked to shoot with a model I contacted Malwina Lasota who I’d done a couple of shoots with before and she always produces good work. Brickfield Autos do some fantastic work and when you add Neil Melliard’s painting skills to the mox this bay came out really well. We had some location issues on the day so things didn’t quite come out as planned but overall it came out pretty well. See more in the flickr set here.
Apologies for not updating the blog for a while. I have upped sticks from London and moved to Scotland. We have been completley renovating our house and that has taken up any time that would normally be spent on photography. Anyhoo over the winter a few shoots have appeared in Custom Car so let’s get you up to date. Here is Paul Carson’s 57 Chevy. Paul built this to tie in with a photo he saw of a SoCal Speed Shot ’57 from the 70s but gave it a 21st Centuary twist with the wheels. See more in the flickr set here.
It’s always nice to be asked to shoot a car that has been built by Burnham Autos, the quality of their work is top notch. This Model A belonging to Harvey Clarke has been designed by Mark Brazier-Jones who mostly focuses on bespoke furniture but has provided some great design cues for this gothic sedan delivery. I chose to shoot it against the classic architecture of London, early enough in the morning that the streets were empty. The Sherlock Homes seemed appropriate, I could see him behind the wheel of this Hot Rod.
Here’s a few shots froaround did the Edinburgh Fringe this year. It was my first time there, looking forward to next year already.
Here’s a shoot that I did that recently appeared in Custom Car Magazine. We got up at the crack of dawn one Sunday morning to shoot in a deserted Greenwich.
Back in August I went along to the Comic Strip at the Assembly George Square as part of the Edinburgh Fringe Festival. The line up included the awesome Gipsy Wood and Kitty Bang Bang but I was there to catch up with the fantastic Missy Malone, regular at the Rhythm Riot and Hot Rod Hayride.
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