Old Crow Speed Shoot in Los Angeles

The Old Speed Shop in Los Angeles exists for one reason, because of the passion of its owner to preserve and maintain the interest and art of building speed machines for land speed racing.
Commercial car photographer Tim Wallace hooked up with Bobby Green to do some commercial shooting at the workshop in Los Angeles. We look forward to working with Bobby again in the future and we are currently organising a trip out to shoot work at the infamous ‘Speed Week’ that takes place each year on the Utah Salt Flats.

Profoto Master Series Interview with Tim Wallace

This week saw commercial car photographer Tim Wallace being interviewed by Profoto Sweden. Tim recorded a set of 3 filmed interviews discussing 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 ‘Master’ series interviews with Tim will be launched on the Profoto main site and global channels in early March 2013 were he will follow of in the foot steps of other renowned and accomplished photographers such as George Holz, US based celebrity photographer who featured in the ‘Master’ series recently.

Tims work was recently featured on the Profoto best of 2012 showreel that was first launched at Photokina.

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

Aston Martin Heritage – DB7 V12 Vantage Shoot

The DB7 has often been referred to as one of the ‘prettiest’ of the more modern Aston classics and the Vantage V12 is a prime example of this train of thought. This week commercial car photographer Tim Wallace was commissioned to shoot the DB7 V12 Vantage for our client Aston as part of a heritage project.

Introduced in 1994, the Ian Callum designed coupe looked sensational then, and the quality of its design is still apparent today. The Volante, a term adopted by Aston Martin for its convertibles, was introduced two years later, in 1996. Those early cars were powered by a 3.2-litre V6, the 6.0-litre V12 ‘Vantage’ version joining the range in 1999. And despite a hefty price hike, such was the interest in the V12 Vantage version that the V6-powered DB7 was soon redundant, Aston Martin subsequently only offering the DB7 with V12 power, in ‘Vantage’ (high performance) specification. Overall the DB7 has been an extraordinary success and to put that into perspective, over its 87-year history, Aston Martin has only ever made 16,000 cars – of which more than 5000 have been DB7s….

The DB7 Vantage Volante nestles in an exclusive club of £100,000+ open topped cars designed for those who enjoy, and can afford, the finer things in life. Price-wise, there’s very little direct; the majority of its rivals tend to be priced around the £60-80,000 mark – and that encompasses cars like Porsche’s 911 Cabriolet, Jaguar’s XKR Cabriolet, the Maserati Spyder and the Mercedes SL55 AMG. If you go to the other side of the £103,000 that you’d pay for the DB7 Volante, there’s always the £112,000 Ferrari 360 Modena Spider too. And once you’re into the realms of paying £100,000 and more for a car, you’re likely to be working to a different set of principles from the typical car buyer – so the £30-40,000 difference between the Aston and its on-paper rivals is less likely to be a decisive purchase factor.

It seems that this is the Aston Martin for the masses. With more than 5,000 examples having been built since it was introduced in 1994, it’s easily the most popular Aston Martin ever. It’s not difficult to see why. It’s rare to meet anyone who isn’t impressed by the DB7′s lithe yet discrete, and even with the roof lopped off in the Volante version it makes many other cars look clumsy. It also has the right image. Rivals like the Jaguar XKR convertible may offer similar performance (even, given that Ford owns both Jaguar and Aston Martin, some common parts), but Aston Martin has far more cachet than its rival marque from Coventry. Even Ferrari struggles to match the prestige and exclusivity associated with Aston. The company may now be under the ultimate control of Ford, but Aston Martin remains a quintessentially English marque and is proud of its heritage. So if you crave exclusivity, style and class (and have the necessary funds) the DB7 is likely to appeal – but if you’re after a real driver’s car then you might want to look at the Italian alternative.

It turns heads for the right reasons. Unlike brasher supercars or more showy sports cars, the DB7 oozes class, its unmistakable style marking you out as someone with exquisite taste. The big 6.0-litre V12, when mated to the smooth five-speed automatic transmission, makes the DB7 a relaxed cruiser, with the potential to turn into a very fast cross country machine should you chance upon a clear country road. Being an Aston Martin, the specification is infinitely variable to your exact requirements. If you want the paint colour to match your favourite jumper you can have it, and interior trim and specification can also be tailored to suit your preferences – the only limiting factors being your imagination and the health of your bank balance.

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

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

Welcome 2013 with our new AmbientLife website content

As 2013 rapidly approaches we have just today launched the new AmbientLife main site with lots of new great new changes, new galleries including ‘US Automotive’ and ‘Personal Projects’, with over 150 additions to our automotive catalogue of syndication and client work.

http://www.ambientlife.co.uk/

We would like to wish all the great people that we have met and worked with over the last 12 months a very happy New Year and we look forward to a truly inspired 2013!

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.”

Firestone California

During our recent work in California we did some work shooting the famous American ‘Firestone’ brand. The Firestone Tire and Rubber Company is an American tire company founded by Harvey Firestone in 1900 to supply pneumatic tires for wagons and other forms of wheeled transportation common in the era. Firestone soon saw the huge potential for marketing tires for automobiles. The company was a pioneer in the mass production of tires. Harvey Firestone had a friendship with Henry Ford. Firestone used this relationship to become the original equipment supplier of Ford Motor Company automobiles and the rest as they say ‘is history’ with a turnover today of over $2 billion dollars annually.

This photograph is one of a set of work produced by car photographer Tim Wallace and was shot on location in San Francisco, California.

Tim – “Firestone is a great American brand and famous throughout the World today and producing one image that bring together both some of the companies heritage and roots was a challenge to some degree but we found this original Firestone neon signage just outside San Francisco that for me really encapsulated the brand and with the use also of the all american classic Chevrolet it brought things together for a dramatic image”

California Camaro Shoot

This month car photographer Tim Wallace and Jessica Gremaud have been shooting out in California in the US. We based ourselves in the wonderful city of San Francisco for a few very busy weeks and during our time there we shot a varied amount of work moving through from San Francisco to shoot in some truly amazing locations such as Yosmite National Park, Death Valley, Los Angeles and even on the infamous Alcatraz Island.
Over the coming weeks we will be unveiling some of the personal and client work that we created throughout these locations and this week we have chosen to show just some of the initial work that we produced shooting with the Chevrolet Camaro in Death Valley.

2013 Aston Martin Calendar

For the past 5 years UK Commercial Car Photographer Tim Wallace has been commissioned to shoot the Aston Calendar, this has grown over the last 5 years and is now purchased by Aston Martin Owners and enthusiasts quite literally Worldwide with print runs in both Europe and now this year for the first time in China also to manage the demand for the calendar in that region also. In November last year Aston launched the new 2012 collection and this has been so well received and favoured by Aston’s customers and and followers that it has been put in reprint as orders still flood in, a great accolade to the work and the enthusiasm of our followers with it now having a cult following around the world from the US to Russia and Japan.
The 2013 edition of the calendar has virtually sold out already and represents ` cross section of the Aston models through the years photographed through out the World in locations from the US to the Alpine passes of Switzerland.