Profoto is a major driving force in the manufacturer of professional lighting systems aimed at the professional photographer and today they released a set of 3 of their ‘Masters’ interview’s that they recently recorded with Ambient Life photographer Tim Wallace where he discusses his work, lighting and his feelings towards what makes a successful commercial image in todays market. The interviews are part of the ‘Master Series’ of films that Profoto produce featuring renowned professional photographers from around the World.

The Tim Wallace Interviews Launched By Profoto Today
These interviews can be viewed on our news page here or at the main Profoto websites globally

Profoto was founded in 1968, in Stockholm, by photographer and engineer Eckhard Heine and photo equipment retailer Conny Dufgran, both Swedish. Their relationship started out with mr Dufgran selling mr Heine a new flash unit – that didn’t work. Annoyed with the failing unit, mr Heine went home and invented a new type of flash, with the focus on durability. Simply by walking around in Stockholm for two weeks, he immediately sold 25 units. Profoto was born – with a bang – and a few months later Eckhard Heine and Conny Dufgran launched the new Pro-1 generator internationally at the Photokina trade show in Cologne.

Behind the scenes photography – Jessica Gremaud

Aston Martin over the years have created and crafted some of the Worlds most recognisable and iconic cars and this year the company celebrate 100 years in the industry. As part of this celebration commercial car photographer Tim Wallace has been commissioned by our client Aston to produce a major book looking through the 100 years to celebrate all the models in the Aston range from the very first model that David Brown created to the latest super cars from the Aston stable such as the DBS and new Vanquish. This month Tim and the AmbientLife team have been spending time working through different models and photography as we approach the stage in the project with 550 pages of the completed and at the 80% stage in the project.

The luxury brand marked the official anniversary of its founding 100 years ago with a ceremony in Chelsea’s Henniker Mews – the original home of the company that went on to become Aston Martin, founded on 15 January 1913. Aston Martin CEO, Dr Ulrich Bez – “I am proud to be celebrating 100 years of heritage and the best of British craftsmanship.”
“Aston Martin is known around the world for our leading design combined with advanced technology. Ours is the coolest luxury car brand on the planet and I am looking forward to our second century of building the world’s most desirable sports cars.”

Tim – “Being asked to create all the photography for the 100 years Aston centenary book is indeed a great honour and its a project that we have been working on for just over 7 months now. The book will primarily be a ‘coffee table’ style book of great photography looking at each of the models through the history of Aston Martin design and endeavour to create cars that instil both passion and soul. Its a massive project and currently we are approximately 80% of the way through the project and now concentrating on the lesser known cars that are quite rare to find these days in the same condition as the day that they drove out of the factory gates. For me personally it’s a joy to shoot these cars and we have been working with Aston in the UK and Europe for just over 5 years now so I am very familiar with both the company and the vehicles themselves which is a major benefit to the project for me personally. We are having monthly design meetings for the project and we anticipate that the book will launch in quarter 3 of this year globally, I can’t wait to see all that hard work come together in what I hope will be a book that young and old will enjoy a like.”

If you would like to learn more about lighting and how Tim works to achieve his photography then please join us online at Kelby Training where you can review and enjoy all of our online 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

Maserati Merak was born back in the late 60′s and was designed alongside the Bora, this week AmbientLife car photographer Tim Wallace had the opportunity to spend a little time with the modified SS version that first was produced in 1975 as the 220bhp option. This particular car had been in a full restoration programme for over 12 months to bring it back to life for a client in Hong Kong where the model is still very popular today with car enthusiasts and collectors alike.

The Merak was introduced as a low cost alternative to Maserati’s supercar, the Bora. Maserati’s goal was to basque on the limelight of the Bora by sharing some of the sheet metal. The French company Citroen was a majority stakeholder at this time and another goal was to utilize the V6 engine that had been developed for use on the Citroen SM.

From the doors forward, the Merak and Bora are virtually identical. The rest of the car is an entirely different story. The first iteration of the Merak can be distinguished by the Citroen style interior. Although not what you would typically find in an Italian car, this rather awkward interior is rather cool. The minor gauges (temp, oil) are very hard to read and rather useless,s and there is an over abundance of warning (idiot) lights. Around 1975 the interior dash was redesigned but still used way too much plastic. Finally in 1977 when the Bora went out of the production, the Merak all of the sudden became Maserati’s only sportscar and it received a significant interior upgrade. Also the car was rebadged as Merak SS. These cars shared
many of the interior components of the Bora, but not the seats nor the hydraulically operated pedals. The SS engine was first introduced during 1975, although the cars did not have the SS designation.

If you would like to learn more about lighting and how Tim works to achieve his photography then please join us online at Kelby Training where you can review and enjoy all of our online 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

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

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

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

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

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 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

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