Filming in the US with Tim Wallace and Kelby Training

This week Tim and the crew started shooting a series of new training video’s in the US for Kelby Training. The crew are out in Washington and Florida for just over two weeks and its an exciting programme schedule with 3 brand new classes being completed to compliment the 4 that AmbientLife and Tim already have available with Kelby Training as well as two new in-depth face to face interviews with Tim talking through his life and what inspires him as well as a separate master class on business and how to redefine your view of your industry and your position within it.

Tim - “It’s been a really manic first week out here in the US and currently we are shooting down in Florida with pretty long days to make sure we try to stay on our production schedule, that said its been absolutely fantastic and it’s always a real pleasure to work with the crews from Kelby with some days on set and location where we do really enjoy ourselves and have a damn good laugh even though we are working flat out, true professionalism and a great team I think. I have been working with Kelby for abut 2 years now and this new series of classes were pretty much born from the successes of the first 4 that we recored. The CEO of Kelby Training, Scott Kelby, asked me a few months back to come up with a series of additional classes that would complement what we already had out there with Kelby. During this visit into the US we are recording 3 classes, Lighting a Car with just one light!, squarely aimed at those who may only have 1 speed light. We also have done a class on shooting Motorbikes, this was a really big shoot with lots of Pro lighting gear not to mention a one off customised Harley Davidson from New York and a whole heap of scaffolding! Lastly we looked at shooting Car Interiors, and this was a personal class with Scott himself, again using Pro lighting equipment and looking at just what you can achieve in camera. We have also been filming some interviews, business and personal which have had a great reception so far from those that were on set and in the control room on the days of filming so I personally am hoping that these really inspire people.
It’s been a great first week and I guess we are well on our way to completing the filming on time so thats good news indeed and even before we are ‘all set’, we have already had talking with Kelby and another series of additional classes has already been planned for 2014.”

While Tim is in the US he is also filming several interviews and appearances from Kelby’s ‘The Grid’ to other spots that will appear over the next few months. Below is a recording of his recent appearance on ‘The Grid’ earlier this week in the US were he talks in general about his work but also discusses the benefits to finding your ‘niche’ within your photography commercially.

London Inspired Seminars start the 2013 Tour

The place was London and it marked the start of the AmbientLife 2013 ‘Inspired’ Photography and Business Seminars given by UK Car and Commercial Photographer Tim Wallace.
The Tour this year takes on eight major cities throughout the UK from London to Edinburgh.

Tim -“It’s always great to kick off a tour in London, for me it’s one of those places that I spend a lot of time in working and having meetings and I guess you could say that I have a love hate relationship with, love the diversity, hate the traffic!.”

“This year the discussion is very much centered on business, what it actually takes in my view to become a professional and business viable commercial photographer and also those ‘little details’ that in my view make all the difference when you are trying to get your business off the ground and make those first tentative steps. My business model so to speak my well not be what people expect but as a working professional myself these days the only main concern I have is trying to ensure I allow myself some time off now and again as my own business AmbientLife publically pushes forward in these difficult commercial times. The event in London went very well indeed and and had a good mix of both established professional photographers and assistants wanting to take those first steps themselves. I am also delighted that for the first time since I started giving these seminar talks almost 5 years ago now, we have this year introduced a second separate day dedicated to looking purely at photography, this is aimed squarely at those that may not work within the industry as such but are still keen to learn about techniques, lighting and talk through what makes a truly ‘inspirational’ image. We had a great few days and I was as delighted as always to meet new people and make some great new friends. I look forward to the other venues around the country as we continue these talks over the coming months.”

The 2013 UK Tour will be discussing the important issues in regard to making your first moves towards starting out in Commercial Photography and this year Tim is covering such topics as;

*Photographer or Data Capture?
*Buying equipment
*Making a business plan
*Tax and VAT
*Building a portfolio
*What it ‘really’ takes to be a commercial photographer
*Marketing yourself
*Presenting work
*Pricing work and quotes

The Inspired Tour

Each year Tim delivers a UK tour of venues around the UK from London to Scotland and talks in depth about subjects such as workflow, commercial photography, business development, and how to improve your technique. The tour events are very soundly based on commercial photography in general and also take an in depth look at many aspects of the photography business. These tours are very popular and please note that availability is to restricted numbers.

These talks take a rare insight into the world of commercial photography through the eyes of a professional working in this environment both nationally and internationally, and offer people the chance to gain further knowledge in what it takes to become a success in a career that is notorious for its high failure rate.

Tim discusses many aspects of photography including work-flow and how he approaches it for maximum efficiency, equipment in respect of DSLR Vs Medium format as well as lighting and just how he feels that shooting styles have changed over the last 10 years. He also openly speaks about the industry and personally talks through some of his own work, explaining his thought process and how he approaches a shoot and well as his own experiences of how to first approached the commercial market as a new comer. Finally we look at digital as a whole, some techniques Tim uses in Photoshop that he designed as well as looking at the importance of a fluid professional work-flow, discussing if it is still a ‘pure’ medium and how to regain that ‘shooting on film’ feeling that many professionals feel has been lost.

2013 Seminar Events with photographer Tim Wallace
Check out our events booking page and our main seminar page here at AmbientLife

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

Land Rover Pro Live Shoot Event – England

The location was the Land Rover ‘proving ground and test track within the massive Land Rover factory complex in Solihull England. The weather was very British…, and the event was the 2013 Land Rover Pro Live Shoot Seminar Event with Commercial Car Photographer Tim Wallace.
The event itself brought photographers in from far and wide including Denmark, the Netherlands and even one dedicated chap who flew all the way from Melbourne Australia just to attend this one day event with Tim. The event was designed by Tim to give the audience a real feel for what is involved on a professional commercial car shoot, and followed the entire shooting process through from car placement and light positioning to finished photography with full support from Profoto UK and also Nikon UK. The day was spent looking at 2 very different setups using multiple Pro lights working together and also looking at problems that car photographers face whilst on location and how to work to find solutions to these using position and lighting. The vehicles donated kindly by our client Land Rover for the event were the new Range Rover Evoque and the legendary Land Rover G4.

Tim- “Many photographers find ‘live shoots’ in front of a large audience a little daunting for obvious reasons but in my view its really the best way to help people understand not only whats involved technically but also creatively. To try and do this in a class room would be a little I think like trying to explain how to drive to somebody who has never even seen a car…
I’m very fortunate that I have wonderful support on hand from people such as Profoto who are happy to supply both equipment and support staff on the day so that the photographers attending also get an opportunity to try out some of the latest equipment and gain further user based knowledge. I really enjoyed the Land Rover event and it was a resounding success given the very positive feedback that it received.”

Following huge demand since previous years ‘industry first’ live shoot car photography seminars by photographer Tim Wallace the event was sold out quite early on this year however we are now in talks with Calumet and Land Rover to hold additional events to continue to cope with the demand.

All of our UK based seminar talks and Pro live shoot events in the UK can be booked through the main Calumet Seminar central website here where you will see all of Tim’s events and venues clearly laid out with additional details and feedback from previous attendees.

Royal Photographic Society Lecture

We are very happy to announce that AmbientLife photographer Tim Wallace has been requested by the Royal Photographic Society to give a professional Lecture in June this year to take place at the RPS headquarters in Bath, England.
Aimed at those who not only love great car photography but also those seeking to learn more about commercial photography. Participants will gain a better understanding of light and other elements along with aspects of business and commercial work in general.
Tim talks through his life in car photography and photography as a business, working within the industry today and how he approaches the market.

2013 RPS Lecture with Tim Wallace reserve tickets here

Kelby Training Special Offer

Over the last few years we have recorded a series of online video training classes in the US featuring commercial car photographer Tim Wallace for Kelby Training. These online classes have proven to be a huge success and are accessed through a annual subscription system to Kelby Training where not only Tim’s work and classes can be accessed but also that of group of respected photographers from around the World such as Joe McNally.
For a limited time Kelby Training are offering 72 hour access to individuals who may wish to rent a series of training courses.

This offer is only available for a limited time at a cost of $6.99

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year

As 2012 grows to a near and Christmas approaches we would like to take the opportunity to wish all our clients and our colleagues a very merry Christmas and a peaceful and fruitful New Year.
2012 has been a very eventful year for Ambientlife and has seen our company complete projects and commercial shoots around the globe as well as Tim continuing his work in delivering seminars in the UK, Europe and the US. We have seen great success from the training video’s that Tim recorded in the US earlier this year as a guest of Scott Kelby and Kelby Training and there are plans to return to the US in early 2013 to record some further classes to add to the catalogue of work available online for people to view. 2012 also saw Tim continue his work with some of our long established clients such as Aston and Jaguar as we strove forward to support these clients with their media requirements such as the exciting new ‘Aston Legend’ book that Tim is currently working on and is expected to be published world wide in 2013, and work for Jaguar to support their needs at international trade shows and motor events.

Tim - “Its been an amazing year that all started off really in the US with the launch of the video work we recored for Kelby, never one to be completely comfortable in front of a camera and more at home behind it I think, but this work has received great reviews across the globe and I am very touched and pleased that so many people have written to me since their release in February to say that these classes have really helped them understand light and look at photography in a different and new way, very well worth while and satisfying.
Its been a busy year with our automotive car work as always and we have had the addition of some pretty big projects that have stretched us at times but its all been a great learning curve in life and one that has lead us to meet some amazing people and visit some remarkable locations and places around the globe. Probably one of my biggest challenges this year has been to start work on the ‘Aston Legends’ book. I remember the first production meeting for this at Aston and at the time it was described to me as like ‘eating an elephant’ one mouth full at a time…lol
There is a huge amount of work to do as you simply don’t realise just what goes into filling a 400 page book until you actually sit down and start to plan it out but I am glad to say that we estimate that we are over 50% of the way through now and its very exciting indeed and I look forward greatly to see the completed book available and on the book store shelves, personally this is a life time goal for me and one thats been very satisfying indeed.
The year ended commercially for us in California shooting various work throughout the area and visiting some truly amazing locations such as Death Valley, LA, and Yosemite National Park. Throughout all our work it would not be possible to achieve the work that I do without the support of those that we work with and most of all my life and business partner Jess who simply is the most supportive and amazing person in her own right with her brilliant behind the scenes work on logistics and locations as well as bring the glue behind the scenes that helps keep everything together and me on the straight and narrow.
The year end is almost here and myself and Jess have taken some time out to be at our home in Switzerland to enjoy this festive period with friends and family not to mention catch up some skiing in the Alps where I hope to survive another year…!
I would like to personally wish all the people that we have met this year a very merry Christmas and a very peaceful and happy New Year as we look forward to many more adventures and challenges ahead of us.”

2013 Seminar Tour Dates Announced

We are very pleased to announce the dates and venues for the 2013 ‘Be Inspired’ tour of seminars and live shoot Pro events to be held by Photographer Tim Wallace of AmbientLife.
Each year Tim delivers a UK tour of venues around the UK from London to Scotland and talks in depth about subjects such as work flow, commercial photography, business development, and how to improve your technique. The tour events are very soundly based on commercial photography in general and also take an in depth look at many aspects of the photography business. These tours normally take place each year and have always proved very popular.
We look forward to enjoying the tour is 2013 that will start with a ‘Pro live shoot’ event that we have organised with our client Land Rover to be given on the Land Rover proving ground at their plant in Solihull in the UK on the 8th February 2013. The talks this year that Tim has designed and written himself will be delivered throughout the UK starting in February in Edinburgh, Scotland and will cover the major cites including London, Birmingham, Manchester, Bristol, Glasgow, with some additional events to be announced soon in the US as well as Holland and Germany.

Tim’s Background
Photographer Tim Wallace is the driving force and creative thinking behind Ambient Life.
An award winning photographer his work is often described as both conceptual and dramatic.
Tim works internationally with many high end brands and clients such as Aston, Land Rover Jaguar and Morgan in the UK to Kenwood and Audi in the US.
His work has been published globally and has been showcased in the infamous’Victor’ Magazine, a industry Worldwide and highly acclaimed industry leading magazine. He was recently named by as one of the UK’s most creative photographers whilst in the US Scott Kelby described Tim recently as one of the Ten most influential photographers in the World today, Tim’s view is a little more straight forward, a man who’s known for his down to earth attitude, his feet are firmly on the ground and his desire to produce creative work is one that he has been driven to from a very young age when he first picked up a camera, “Photography is for me simply a creative passion, the ability to use light and form to capture in a single image what I see in my own imagination…”

He is the humble recipient of many awards including International Advertising Photographer of the Year 2010, UK Motor Industry Photographer of the Year 2010, Hasselblad Photographer of the month Oct 2010, Professional Photographer of the Year 2009 as well as receiving Distinction Awards for his work from such professional boards as the RPS. Tim’s company Ambientlife was recently honored in the Best New Business awards and won the ‘Best new Creative Business Award’ for 2011, something that we are very proud of and a testament to his dedication and drive towards our clients and his work in the field of commercial photography.

“My work is often regarded as conceptual and dramatic and to me photography is a process, you’ll never hear me mutter ‘it’ll be fine’ as that’s simply not enough for me. Life is short and I aim to make mine worth while and interesting with work that I hope reflects this.
My goal in life is to be myself always, be creative, be true and most of all improve just a little part of peoples lives with images that both entertain and sometimes invoke the feelings that I had when I shot them. I’ve won awards and I’m always of the thought that maybe they got the wrong Tim Wallace, hey I’m grateful always but never take myself or any achievements too seriously, life’s too short and people will forget you quickly.
I jumped off a cliff in Norway a few years ago in a BASE jump, why?, well because it felt right for me to do that for myself at that time, I truly believe that anything in life is possible, work hard, be an honest person, tell the people that you love just what they mean to you as often as you can, and most of all be out there shooting because sometimes that’s where amazing things can happen.”

“the journey from A to B and the chance of arriving at C”

2013 Events Schedule

The 2013 seminars are split into two separate types of event that we hope offer something for everybody, from non professional photographers looking to improve their understanding of light and photography through to the Pro talks aimed at professional and established photographers discussing such items as business, marketing, client approach and pricing within the industry

Pro Seminar Talks - ‘Be Inspired and Inspire you clients’

Amateur Seminar Talks - ‘Be Inspired and understand light’

Event Dates

Birmingham Land Rover Pro Shoot
8th February (Friday)
Land Rover Solihull Site – Land Rover Live shoot event

Edinburgh
22nd February (Friday) Pro Seminar Talk
23rd February (Saturday) Amateur Seminar Talk

London
8th March (Friday) Pro Seminar Talk
9th March (Saturday) Amateur Seminar Talk

Birmingham
22nd March (Friday) Pro Seminar Talk
23rd March (Saturday) Amateur Seminar Talk

United States
*5th – 19th April – Dates and Venues to be announced

Manchester
3rd May (Friday) Pro Seminar Talk
4th May (Saturday) Amateur Seminar Talk

Bristol
24th May (Friday) Pro Seminar Talk
25th May (Saturday) Amateur Seminar Talk

Glasgow
7th June (Friday) Pro Seminar Talk
8th June (Saturday) Amateur Seminar Talk

Holland
June – Dates and Venues to be announced Pro Seminar Talk

Germany
June – Dates and Venues to be announced Pro Seminar Talk

How to register and book a place on an event or seminar

All of our UK based seminar talks and Pro live shoot events in the UK can be booked through the main Calumet Seminar central website here where you will see all of Tim’s events and venues clearly laid out with additional details and feedback from previous attendees.

Pro Talk Ingredients

Aimed at business’s already established and possibly struggling for direction or looking to increase workload and focus more.
This seminar is NOT about car photography is about business in the Commercial World of Photography and how to give yourself the best chance of success, the business aspects and the mental state of mind required.
The class is also very much aimed at people thinking about starting as a Professional Photographer and are looking for a better idea of things they need to focus their efforts and planning on to succeed in this difficult market.
If you would like to know how Tim has managed to build his business from scratch in just 6 years to where he is now then this is the seminar for you to attend where Tim discusses business openly and frankly and how his approach to market has helped to give him the success he enjoys today as well respected name known Internationally for his work as well as the recipient of many awards including Commercial Photographer of the Year.

*Planning your business to give it the best chance to succeed in the future…
*Focus your business and understand why we need to do this and how to do this
*Tax Basics and things to consider
*Building a portfolio
*What it ‘really’ takes to be a commercial photographer in 2013
*Marketing yourself and presenting your work to the Clients
*Understanding the minefield of commercial quotes and pricing for work effectively

Amateur Talk Ingredients

Aimed squarely at those that are seeking to learn more about photography and gain a better understanding of light and other elements that turn good pictures into great pictures.
These talks are not based on just understanding digital camera equipment but more looking at the whole discipline of photograhy and more importantly setting the right frame of mind to have a
better approach to talking pictures and in turn enjoying the whole process to allow more creative ideas and work to evolve through a better understanding of light, choosing equipment and
getting rid of some old miss perceptions about photography and what can and can’t be done.

*Camera owner or Photographer?
*Equipment, a look at what you need and what you don’t
*Approaching photography with an open mind
*Light and how to understand it better to improve look and feel of your work
*Lighting basics on minimal equipment
*Processing your files
*Presenting your work
*How to create new inspired work yourself

“Being out there is where things happen,
so do something worth remembering”

Scott Kelby gets Inspired…

Scott Kelby is the founder of Kelby Training based in the US and is well respected throughout the photographic industry for his training and seminars as well as his work within the Adobe and Photoshop communities. Tim recently spent some time in the US recording 4 training videos with the Kelby Training team and these have been very popular both in the US and internationally. Recently Scott himself even felt inspired to go and try to do his first car shoot and tried out some of Tim’s techniques that he demonstrated on his video’s.

You can read all about Scotts shoot and see his results on the

Scott Kelby Blog online here

The Wallace Classes Available on Kelby

The four classes that are online with Kelby Training from AmbientLife are;

1. How to light a car using multiple lights
2. Lighting a car and shooting detail with just one light
3. Shooting cars with only available light
4. Photoshop techniques for Car Photographers.

All of the filming took place in Ybor near Tampa Florida at a location known as ‘The Trolley Barn’, a location made famous in its use during the filming of ‘The Punisher’ a few years ago. October in Florida is still pretty hot and during our first week the weather was indeed very humid with the whole team really feeling that heat inside the barn. Our choice of cars over the term of the shooting was a Ford Mustang V6, a Dodge Challenger, and a Cadillac CTS.

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 4 video classes, each of which is around 45 minutes to 1 hour in duration.

Kelby Training – Inspired Light with Tim Wallace Checkout our four exciting classes online here

Exclusive talk announced with Royal Photographic Society

The Royal Photographic Society announced this week some of their 2012 social events and we are pleased to announce that on the 18th August there will be a special one off event with Tim Wallace where he will be talking about his work and through some of the issues surrounding working in the field of commercial photography today.

Tim’s talks take a rare insight into the world of commercial photography through the eyes of a professional working in this environment both nationally and internationally, and offer people the chance to gain further knowledge in what it takes to become a success in a career that is notorious for its high failure rate.

Tim will be discussing many aspects of photography including work-flow and how he approaches it for maximum efficiency, equipment in respect of DSLR Vs Medium format as well as lighting and just how he feels that shooting styles have changed over the last 10 years. He also openly speaks about the industry and personally talks through some of his own work, explaining his thought process and how he approaches a shoot and well as his own experiences of how to first approached the commercial market as a new comer. Finally we look at digital as a whole, some techniques Tim uses in Photoshop that he designed as well as looking at the importance of a fluid professional work-flow, discussing if it is still a ‘pure’ medium and how to regain that ‘shooting on film’ feeling that many professionals feel has been lost.

US Blog Borrowlenses.com

This week Commercial Automotive Car Photographer Tim Wallace was interviewed by the famous US equipment company ‘Borrowlenses’ where they did a feature looking at some of Tim’s work as well as the recent success of his 4 video classes in the US with Kelby Training. They also gave some of their own thoughts on what sets aside Tim’s automotive car work from many others in the same field.

You can check out the full article here