Last month I met the Statesman’s Pam LeBlanc at the office for a car shoot.
She and her car counterpart Pete review cars every now and then and these photos were to accompany that story.
The assignment sheet I got said something about a Cooper Mini that was dark green with a racing stripe, very sporty. Also, it said that I should arrive with a location in mind.
Well, I’ll be honest, I have never had to find a location to shoot a car. Most of the time I just shoot whatever it is I’m shooting in the place that it stands. Even when I do choose the location, it’s for a person or a small product, not a car!
I got the assignment the afternoon before the shoot, which meant there wasn’t enough time to arrange to block off streets or call in a favor to get the car inside some really cool looking building. (Not that I have that kind of pull, but still.)
Pam said she didn’t have any idea where to go, and the one and only location I could think of was a place in the parking lot of Barton Creek Mall. Every time I drive past, I think, “That’d be a great place to shoot something.” Greenery frames the Austin skyline in the distance. It’s one of the few places you can see the whole skyline without standing in the middle of a highway.
We drove over to Barton Creek Mall and found the spot I was thinking of, and Pam situated the car so I could see the skyline behind it.
(Side note – if you’re a photographer planning on getting a Cooper Mini, you might want to reconsider, unless you want to drive with your camera bag in your lap. Not a lot of room for camera gear.)
Anyway, my 28-70mm lens was on my D700, so I started with that. The problem with using a wide angle lens for this shoot is that it tends to make things in the distance look even smaller than they look in real life.
This image will explain what I mean:
See that tiny skyline in the background? That wouldn’t do, so I got out my 80-200mm lens, zoomed to 200mm, and backed up about 40 yards.
The image at the top of the post shows Pam and the car at 200mm. In an effort not to show the same photo twice in one post, here’s a shot of just the car to compare.
See how much bigger the skyline is? Much better!
The next step was to move in closer and get some detail shots. In hindsight, we probably should’ve taken the car to a car wash right before the shoot, but you live and you learn.
Here are some of the details of the interior and exterior.
And, just in case they didn’t like the skyline, I took a shot of Pam with the car from a different angle.
That’s actually the shot they ended up using, so all of the skyline business was for naught. At least you get to see it here on my blog!
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