Maserati Merak SS shoot

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

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.

Morgan – Gotham City…

The Morgan Motor Company is quite possibly England’s last great independent Motor Manufacturer.

We were approached several years ago by Morgan to shoot several of their superb models for new brochure designs, including the Aero 8, SuperSport and the prototype EvaGT.

Ambient Life photographer Tim Wallace spent time working with Morgan to produce the work for mainly for use within their brochures and web presence however some of the work is planned to be used in the main Morgan area at the various international Motor Shows such as the recent Geneva show. It is at this time that manufacturers traditionally launch new models and demonstrate their prototypes for the future.

Aston Martin 2 Litre Sports for the Aston 100 Year Book Project

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 week Tim spent time shooting with the iconic 2 Litre Sports created way back in the 40s for the book that is anticipated for release later this year Worldwide.

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 70% 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.”

FOCUS on Imaging UK with AmbientLife

FOCUS ON IMAGING is Europe’s biggest annual imaging show, covering all aspects of photography from image capture through to output and beyond. Aimed mainly at the professional image maker and processor, as well as buyers of image making equipment and materials, the top manufacturers from around the World display their latest equipment and developments and this year UK commercial car photographer Tim Wallace has work on display from 3 of the very best, Nikon UK, Profoto Sweden and Epson UK at the show.

Tim -”It’s always great to have our work displayed at an event of this scale and notoriety, over recent years we have seen an increased interest in the work and photography that we create for our European and US based clients from the manufacturers and suppliers themselves which I personally feel is a real credit to the AmbientLife and the people that we work with each year that help us do what we do best, ‘inspire’ through quality photography. In the first few months of 2013 we have been working with Profoto in Sweden to record 4 distinct videos that talk about our work and our approach and are due to be launched globally on April 1st this year. We have also been working with Nikon UK to supply inspirational car photography that they have used across differing marketing campaigns such as the recent Nikon FX brochures released early 2013 and work that is due to be launched in the coming month through the Nikon PRO magazine. We have also had a long standing relationship with Epson UK and as we have done previously at UK and International events with them, we are once again supplying work that they are displaying in their event area as well as using this for large format test print samples to demonstrate their excellence within the professional printing industry. Its a great honour to work with these companies and not only support their drive within the industry but also the industry as a whole.”

Some of our work at the 2013 Epson event within Focus

Nikon FX publication work

Profoto Sweden

Aston Martin DB1 – A legend is Discovered…

A few weeks ago commercial car photographer Tim Wallace spent some time with a very rare Aston Martin DB1 that had been discovered and brought back home to our client ‘Aston’
This week saw media interest explode both within the UK and Internationally when the cars existence was made known.

It may look like a rusty wreck, but this ultra-rare Aston Martin will still set you back a pretty penny – and will cost a further £250,000 to restore to its former glory.
For the 1949 Aston Martin Two-Litre Sports was just the fourth car built by the iconic British car company after it was bought by David Brown.
The much-coveted car, which retrospectively became known as the DB1, is one of just 15 ever made and nine still in existence. But it is in need of some tender loving care from a car enthusiast with plenty of spare cash to spend after three decades of decay.
Aston has the motor on the market for £99,950 in the hope that someone will snap it up with the intention of restoring it. Whoever takes on the project could end up making a tidy profit in the end however, with mint condition DB1s usually shifting for more than £400,000, with prices of classic Aston Martins rising in the current market.

Clive Dickinson, general manager for Aston, said: ‘The chassis is good and it is a complete car but it is need of a serious restoration.
‘The body looks quite bad but we don’t think it will need to be replaced and it still has its original chassis and engine which is important.
‘Any rare Aston Martin such as this model is desirable and values are really going up at the moment.’About 90 per cent of all Aston Martins ever built still exist but we think there are just eight or nine of the 15 Two-Litres left and only two others we know about in the UK.

‘The past ten years has seen some prices appreciate by more than 600 per cent. The Aston is a really pretty car and it will look fantastic when restored.

‘The car will probably cost around £250,000 to restore and take between a year and 18 months.’
David Brown took over the Aston Martin in 1947 with the Two-Litre Sports model the first car built under his management.
It later became known as the DB1 with Brown’s DB initials continuing to live on in the current Aston Martin range, with the firm currently building the DB9.
As the original name suggests, the car is powered by a 2-litre engine which developed a modest 90bhp when it was new – giving the Aston a top speed of a mere 93mph.
This is less than half the top speed a current Aston Martin is capable of but its impressive 24mpg makes it greener than all of the current range barring the Toyota-based Cygnet.
The car’s brochure states: ‘The discriminating motorist will find every virtue he is likely to look for – beauty of styling, superb comfort, speed with safety and power to spare.’
It adds: ‘You will certainly be proud to own one; you could even be excused for boasting about it.’
David Brown is understood to have opted against larger scale production of the car because he was underwhelmed by its performance, focusing the firm’s resources onto the more powerful DB2.
This particular model was the fourth ‘DB1′ to leave the firm’s factory in Feltham, Middlesex and was delivered to Cyril Williams (Motors) Ltd in 1949 in its original livery of Alpine Blue with Grey Hide.
The car was then chosen to represent Aston Martin at the Motor Show of that year where it was sold to another dealer, Brooklands Motors.

A ‘continuation’ log book from 1963 shows it was moved to Scotland that year where it remained until Aston Workshop recently bought it.
For the past 41 years it has had just one owner and has been kept off the road since 1983.
Aston Workshop is calling the classic sports car one of the world’s most exciting Aston Martin restoration projects.
Mr Dickinson added: ‘The DB1 was the last Aston Martin to have a four-cylinder engine with David Brown fitting the DB2 with a more powerful six-cylinder.
‘It was capable of nearly 100mph when it was new so it was quite respectable at the time but this wasn’t fast enough for David Brown.’

Daily Mail
Read the article in full from this publication featuring the DB1 here

The Times
Read the article in full from this publication featuring the DB1 here

The Scotsman
Read the article in full from this publication featuring the DB1 here

Location scouting in Switzerland

This week saw the team in the beautiful mountains and valleys of Switzerland as we worked too seek out fresh new locations within this dramatic landscape. Unlike some car photographers who find themselves based largely in studios for their shoots AmbientLife photographer Tim Wallace has always worked hard to try and stay in the ‘environment’ believing that this is truly where a car belongs rather than in a clinical white box.

Tim – “A lot of commercial work these days can find itself heavily in debt to CGI and composite work and techniques. With a ever changing industry and client demands to seek out ever more inspirational imagery for their campaigns its a tough role these days at times however I do still strongly believe that nothing can quite match the ‘real world’ and as such we invest time on a regular basis to seek out new locations, wether that be for a stills shoot itself or to capture an area for later ‘composite’ work where logistically its not possible to get a client vehicle in that chosen scene. I think its important to shoot as close as possible to the actual scene and get the very best from it that you can, I read recently that all car photographers are basically frustrated landscape photographers…lol, not sure about that but I guess I do both in many ways as I shoot some of the Worlds most intoxicating landscapes from San Francisco to The Alps of Switzerland, the only difference is that I will include a car in that scene and use it to build what I hope will be a image that sell the emotion of the car I am working with and the dream so to speak of its ownership, its really a case of creating an image that the viewer looks at and says, ‘wow I want to be in that car right there’, that’s what a good emotional commercial image has the power to do. The Alps and valleys of Switzerland are among one of my favourite places to shoot not least simply due to the sheer scale of the landscapes there, truly breath taking on many occasions and this week we have been looking at different new area’s to work in from Les Diablerets to Montreux in the south. I look forward to returning there in a few months again when the whole landscape will change again as we see spring make an appearance.”

Photography Week Pro Interview with Tim Wallace

The ‘Pro’ interview that commercial car photographer Tim Wallace gave to Photography week (Issue 21) is now available through iTunes and is now available to download on your iPad!

Download this issue of Photography Week HERE

Who:
Tim Wallace is a commercial automotive advertising photographer. He’s picked up a string of awards for his work, including International Advertising Photographer of the Year and UK Motor Industry Photographer of the Year. And he’s only been a full-time pro for six years…

What: 
To provide high-quality car imagery for corporate, media and commercial clients. Tim also delivers training seminars and provides training videos on behalf of Scott Kelby

Where:
Tim has bases in the UK and Switzerland, but travels the world shooting cars for advertising and promotional work.

Kit list:
Tim uses DSLRs (Nikon) and medium format (Hasselblad).

The Interview

How did you get into commercial car photography?
“Shooting cars was purely a business decision. I’m not really a petrol head, but I’d always quite liked cars from a sculptural point of view. However, I’m very into ‘products’ and how things are sold.”

You shoot promo pictures for the likes of Aston Martin, Jaguar and Audi – how did you land those plum clients?
“A lot of photographers start out believing that they need to shoot everything so they have a chance of getting some work in. It was something that I thought of as well in the first few months, but you’re not going to build a reputation for doing everything – you need to find a niche. And my niche was going to be expensive, prestige cars. I also wanted to centre on the classic side of things. Because you’re going to pay, what, £160,000 for a DBS, but a DB5 can set you back up to £600,000. So from the product point of view, to sell a DB5 is harder and it needs powerful imagery.”

What’s the toughest aspect of the job?
“The lighting. A lot of people will say if you’re shooting an Aston Martin DBS with a Hasselblad, you can’t really fail to get a good picture. But trust me, you can. If you shoot on a Hasselblad it doesn’t guarantee you a good picture. If you don’t put the effort in, all you’re going to end up with is extremely high resolution sh*t. Also, cars are basically multi-angled reflective surfaces and they are very difficult to light. Every car is different – some can be quite easy from a lighting point of view, while others are very difficult.”

So, you’ve got the cars, how do you find the right locations to shoot them in?
“That’s the bane of my life, to be honest, although Google Earth is the most fantastic tool for people like me as you can literally drop yourself into a place and have a look around. My partner, Jess is an absolute star when it comes to trying to find locations and the logistics of getting there, as it can be a nightmare for us with our equipment. Most of the time I’m trying to dissipate gear over several people and pretend that the incredibly heavy Peli cases we’re using as hand luggage don’t weight anything.”

How do you pull off the dramatic low-angled pictures of cars in motion?
“One of the places I use quite a lot is the high-speed test track at Gaydon, as it’s not something I would attempt on a public road. I know that there are a lot of kids out there who hang out the back of their mate’s car while someone hangs onto their belt, and they try and take these dramatic pictures. But I have harnesses that I bought from companies that supply safety equipment to oil rig workers. I don’t even fix myself into one point, I fix myself into three different points in the car, just in case. I had to shoot some stuff for Jaguar where we were doing about 80mph, and I’m basically sat backwards on the tailgate, roped in with a harness on, trying to shoot this car at about 1/15sec. The pictures looked really dramatic, but safety always comes first.”

Getting started
“I left the Royal Marines, went into media network management and got made redundant. Twice. Everyone said that I should go into photography, so in November 2006, I spent five days doing a business plan.”

Staying safe
“I don’t use camera straps. People find it a bit weird, but if you shoot a lot out of cars that are moving, you would understand why no-one ever wears a camera strap in my game – it can potentially rip your hand off.”

Lighting
“Different paint types affect your lighting set-up. BMW does a silver paint which disperses the light – you can go right into the bodywork with the light at 90 degrees and it’ll disperse it, scatter it, and it’s gorgeous. But you can get the same silver in other make and you just get a burnt highlight that looks bloody awful.”

Retouching
“If it’s the standard day-to-day stuff, such as brochure work, then I wouldn’t spend longer than about 10 minutes retouching an image. I tend to try and achieve everything in-camera that I can using lighting, rather than thinking I’ll put it right later on in Photoshop.”

Inspiration
“People don’t really develop their own photographic style as much these days. They tend to spend a lot of time analysing and trying to reverse-engineer people’s work that they see online. I don’t look at other car photographers’ work, because I’m going to be influenced by it – you can’t help it.”

Gear
“I use DSLRs and I use medium format, but ultimately they’re just tools. I do get people occasionally commenting on my Hasselblad, saying that it looks expensive and must take amazing pictures. And I always think, it’s interesting that. If you went into Gordon Ramsay’s restaurant and had a fantastic meal, you wouldn’t turn round to him and say ‘you must have a fantastic oven, mate.’”

The Mercedes 600

The Mercedes 600 is a true icon from the 60′s and apart from the Pope and governments, famous owners of the 600, and in the case of this model, have included celebrities such as Coco Chanel with Jamiroquai’s Jay Kay buying Coco Chanel’s old car. Hugh Hefner, Aristotle Onassis, Jack Nicholson, and Elvis Presley were also all owners of the 600 with notable dictators that have also had a love affair with this car including Fidel Castro, Pol Pot, Leonid Brezhnev, and Kim Jong-Il, former Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos had four 600s including a Landaulet, a 1981 bulletproof and a six-door version. The Mercedes 600 has also featured in the James Bond films, most notably as transport of the villain Ernst Stavro Blofeld in On Her Majesty’s Secret Service and Diamonds are Forever. This week car photographer Tim Wallace shot such a noted example of the 600 for one of our International clients.

Mercedes-Benz introduced the 600 at the International Auto Show in Frankfurt in 1964. Powered by a 250 horsepower alloy 6.3-liter V8 engine, the 600 accelerates more like a sports car than a traditional limousine. A comprehensive hydraulic and pneumatic system powers an adjustable self-leveling suspension, assists the four-wheel disc brakes, powers the windows, maneuvers the seats, and aids in the opening of the doors and the trunk lid.

The 600 was available in a number of possible coachwork choices, and numerous options, resulting in each being essentially a custom built car. There were two wheelbase options, a four-door and six-door variant and numerous seating arrangements to select from.

In September of 1965, a four-door Pullman landaulet (partial convertible) was built for Pope Paul VI. It has an individual seat on a raised platform allowing for a flat floor, a raised roof, and extended rear doors. This vehicle was used by the Vatican for two decades and served three popes, returning home to the Mercedes-Benz Museum in 1985.

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.”