Competition winners are announced

This week saw the winners announced of the new ‘Car and Transport Photography’ competition with the Organisation ‘I SHOT IT’ who run several themed competitions through the course of the year and have professional photographers in the chosen fields to judge these with the winners collecting a large cash prize as well as a compact handy Leica camera. Ambient Life photographer Tim Wallace joined that panel of judges just under a year ago and now judges regular competitions through I SHOT IT to inspire photographers to get out and shoot work and enjoy photography.

A very well done to those winners of this current competition with the winner scooping almost $700 in cash and a Compact Leica Camera worth over $800. The new competition now officially open we invite entries and wish you the best of luck.

Join the race at I SHOT IT and become the winner of the Cars and Transport Photography Competition

All entries are welcome and it can be photography of a cars, or indeed any transport related photography, static, with dynamic movement, detail or indeed anything transport related that you feel gets a message across about what you are trying to say. Get shooting and I look forward to seeing your entries over the coming months.

Good luck everybody

New Aston Martin Limited Edition Art is made Available

This week saw Aston Art launch a series of new high quality limited edition ‘art prints’ launch from commercial car and automotive photographer Tim Wallace.
‘AstonArt’ is a concept that was born following a project to capture the essence of Aston Martin in a contemporary photographic, and modern style through the eyes of photographer Tim Wallace and over the last 4 years has gone from strength to strength with over 80 pieces of art work now being available through the Aston Art dedicated website. The ‘Art’ prints are sold quite literally all over the World to both private collectors and also to corporate business for display in boardrooms and reception area’s.

The current Art Portfolios features Aston Martin classics models from the earliest Pre-War cars through to the infamous the DB4, DB5 and DB6 and onto the more modern super-cars of the DBS, V8 Vantage, and One-77.

Visit Aston Art Limited Edition Signed Aston Martin Artwork

Kelby US interview launch – The Business Side of Tim Wallace

In the US Scott Kelby described Tim recently as one of the most influential car photographers in the World today and Tim was recently invited back to the US by Kelby following the success of our online photography and photoshop training class videos that we recorded for the Kelby Group back in 2012. Today the first of those new videos was released which is a 1h 20min in-depth interview that he recored whilst in the US with TV Host Mia McCormick. He is now a regular guest at Kelby and continues to build on the catalogue of training videos available through his dedicated area on the Kelby site where he is one of the 8 featured instructors in the World alongside some of the biggest names in the photography today such as Joe McNally and Jay Maisel.

Kelby Training – The Business Side of Tim Wallace

Check out the new interview here right now.

Working closely with their filming and production crew produced a brand new series of video tutorials have been produced that cover subjects such as the aspects of the lighting cars with limited equipment, complex multiple pro lighting setups for shooting motorbikes as well as a special class that Tim shot with Scott himself taking him through lighting a car interior using pro heads step by step, all of these classes also include the post production element in Photoshop as Tim takes you through to the final image. You can also find 2 in depth interviews lasting over 1 hour each with Tim talking about the business side of the industry from setting up and first things to think about, through to client strategies and effective quoting as well as a second 1 hour video interview where Tim talks about what inspires him today and talks through the journey that led him to where he is today.

If you would like to watch how we worked with these cars and made the best use of our lighting then please join us online at Kelby Training where you can review and enjoy all 7 video classes, each of which is around a 1 hour in duration.

Kelby Training with Tim Wallace Checkout our online classes here at Kelby Training

Q1 New Pro Book Launch

The ‘Pro Book’ represents a online copy of our automotive car photography work presented on screen as a portfolio but more in the traditional sense, a soft copy you could say of the actual Pro Book that we may use in client meetings or with agents. The book is updated four times each year and we are very pleased to announce the launch of the Q1 2013 version of the book is now live.

Tim’s Pro Book for his automotive car photography receives a vast amount of interest from clients and agencies alike and we hope that this new release of Tim’s Portfolio inspires and demonstrates his create style and approach as well as showcasing some of his recent work both in the UK and Internationally.

Commercial Pro Book
A online dedicated web page version of our Portfolio is also available for marketing, agents and clients to view here at http://www.commercialphotographerportfolio.co.uk

A young man in Nevada gets ‘Inspired’

We would like to introduce you to Jackson, a young man from Las Vegas in the 5th grade at Smalley Elementary School in Henderson, NV. Jackson had been given an assignment to do for his class for a Perception Fair Project and he is a huge car fan and decided to write to Tim at AmbientLife to ask if he could do his project work based around what Tim does photographing cars.

Jackson’s Letter to Tim

Dear Mr. Wallace,

My name is Jackson Warner. I’m in the 5th grade at Smalley Elementary School in Henderson, NV. That’s near Las Vegas. I have been given an assignment in my class to do a Perception Fair Project. One of the categories is photography. We can pick any famous photographer. I’ve picked you because I love cars too! I have high functioning autism and cars are my favorite thing to help me relax. I have thousands of Hot Wheels!

I wanted to use a couple of your pictures on your website to show how you take pictures of your cars. Is that okay? I love the black and white one of the Aston Martin in front of the paneled building with the storm clouds over head. I can hear the coming storm and feel how cold the wind must be! That’s why the picture is black and white. No color means cold! It is as cold as the air conditioning coming from the vents on a hot summer day in Las Vegas! I love the way the interior of a new car smells. All cars smell different. What do you hear and smell when you take these pictures? Do you ever start the engines for inspiration? They all sound different. It makes me smile to hear an engine start. I like the ones that start loud and hum quietly before they move! I can feel the engine in the air around me! It touches my skin like it has fingers! I hold my breath waiting for the engine to start. Then when it starts, I breathe in. Do you feel like that when the take the photo? Do you remember smells when you look at the photos you took?

Please write back!!!!

Jackson

He wrote later that never ever expected to get a reply back but Tim spoke with him over the course of a week on and off and Jackson completed a great piece of work for his project at school. This is his project and I think it’s cool and a credit to all his hard work. ‘Well done Jackson’

Jackson Project Research

We were so impressed by Jackson’s efforts and dedication to do all the work that he did on his project that a few days later Tim organised a special one off limited edition print of one of his favourite cars, the Aston Martin DBS. This is on its way out to Las Vegas and currently Jackson has no idea what he is about to receive from the mail man but we all think he really deserves it and his mum has told us that she is very sure that he will treasure that and place it on his bedroom wall. All credit to the hard work of a young man with a dream….

500px Best Automotive Car photographers

500px this week launched a news page regarding the craft of car photography and named in their view the Worlds top ten car photographers to follow. We are very pleased indeed and somewhat humbled to have been placed at the top of that list.

500Px wrote: “Inspired by the Follow Friday hashtag movement on twitter we started a new feature on our blog. With Follow Friday posts you can discover new, popular and up-and-coming photographers from 500px to follow and add to friends. Today we are focusing on Automotive photographers”

500px – The World Best Car Photographers Check out the pages live here

Why not come and join us on 500px

Dodge Challenger Shoot – US

Recently AmbientLife was over in the US recording and shooting some client work and whilst we were there we did some test work for a automotive company based in Clearwater near Tampa Florida.
Our task was to create a hard hitting image of a new the new Dodge Challenger.
The Challenger is a muscle coupe with a mix of retro style and modern performance. Designed to tie together the past and present, the Challenger competes with its classic rivals, the Ford Mustang and Chevy Camaro.

Although the Challenger was on hiatus for three decades, it was a muscle car from the start. The Challenger has remained true to its roots, its two generations spanning a three-decade hiatus yet still looking, driving and performing closely enough to recognize it at the same model. It has always been a great car to shoot photographically and we look forward to spending possibly more time with Dodge in the future to shoot this true American icon of motoring.

The Challenger started production in 1970 and has only seen two generations of production due to a 30-year hiatus from 1978 to 2008. The original offered four hardtop models: Challenger Six, V8, T/A, and R/T. A convertible was offered in 1970 and 1971 only. Engines ranged from a 225 cubic-inch six to a 230-horsepower, 318 cubic-inch V-8, a 340 cubic-inch V-8 and the 290-horsepower 383-cubic-inch V-8. All models came standard with a three-speed manual transmission except for the 383 cubic-inch V-8, which was only available with a TorqueFlite automatic.

The R/T featured a 383 cubic-inch Magnum V-8, rated for 335 horsepower initially, but later 300 horsepower. The R/T could also be upgraded to a 440 cubic-inch Magnum, a 440 cubic-inch Six-Pack and a 426 cubic-inch Hemi. The first generation of the Challenger ran from 1970 to 1978.

The current generation of the Challenger was reintroduced in 2008, with a simplified lineup and engine range: the SE, a base V-6 model with 250 horsepower; the R/T, with a 5.7-liter HEMI rated at 375 horsepower; and the SRT8, with a 6.1-liter HEMI rated at 425 horsepower. This new range was styled to look much like the classic Challenger, though it has grown considerably in size, weighing over 4,000 pounds and featuring 17 to 20-inch alloy wheels. Nevertheless, it provides classic muscle-car feel and performance, with an available five-speed automatic or pistol-grip six-speed manual (manual available on R/T and SRT8 only).

Interested in learning how to light and shoot car and automotive photography?
Why not join us here to enjoy over 4 hours of video tutorial classes on car photography Tim Wallace – Kelby Training Instructor