Jaguar E Type – Quintessentially British

The Jaguar E-type is quintessentially the British classic sports coupe and needs no introduction. Wickedly fast, seductively beautiful, and technically advanced for it’s time, the E-type is acknowledged as probably the Greatest Classic British sports car. Born out of Jaguar’s highly successful factory racing campaigns of the 1950′s, the E-Type was an instant classic and quickly gained a reputation of being a blindingly fast sports car wrapped in a deliciously sexy body. With a 3.8 liter double overhead cam race engine matched to a very advanced lightweight monocoque and tube-frame body and a sophisticated independent rear suspension, the E-type is known to many and loved by all. This week commercial car photographer Tim Wallace spent some time shooting and driving this British Classic and recording his thoughts on this icon photographically.

The E-type ancestry represents the convergence of three highly successful development lines. On one side, the XK120, XK140 and XK150 sports cars had been delivering cheap, high performance driving to the common man for the previous decade. On the other, the Jaguar C and D-type’s were world class race cars competing and winning at the highest levels. Finally, the success of the Jaguar MkII saloons provided Jaguar with the financial stability to make a gamble and launch such a risky project. It is testimony to the brilliant marketeering of William Lyons that he was able to combine the best of the D-types racing design and performance with the XK’s simplicity and accessibility to successfully mass-market a high performance sports car of the caliber of the E-type.
Back in 1950, Jaguar engineers combined the drivetrain from an XK120 with a space frame chassis and a beautiful aluminium aircraft inspired aerodynamic body. With some aggressive tuning, the resulting car won the 24 hour of Le Man race in it’s first year, linking Jaguar with the legendary Bently racecars of the decades before. Within the next year, the XK120C had been fitted with the first disk brakes and the C-type was the dominant car on the race circuits of 1953. However, the sun was soon to set on the C-type as the more advanced Ferrari and Mercedes 300 SLs appeared on the scene.

1954 saw the arrival of the D-type, Jaguar’s first all-out racecar. The D-type chassis was a lightweight alloy monocoque with a low profile dry-sump high-compression XK engine. It was again victorious at Le Mans in 1955, after which the factory Jaguar race efforts were scaled back and finally closed down after the 1956 season. However, private race teams such as the Scottish Ecurie Ecosse, continued to successfully campaign the D-type for several more years. The peak of the D-type’s career came in 1957 when it took the first four places at Le Mans. During this brief beautiful period, the Jaguar D-type was the dominant sports car for it’s time.

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.”

DPC South Africa this month featured the work of Ambientlife photographer Tim Wallace.

“This exceptional Commercial Photographer’s work will have you drooling… Tim Wallace is an unbelievably talented Photographer, his shooting style is very pure and his attention to detail explains why he has received so many awards, including, International Advertising Photographer of the Year. Follow the images below, it will most assuredly inspire you…”

Danie Bester, founder and editor of DPC, has been lecturing extensively on photography throughout South Africa for some years. Danie’s love for fine art photography is evident in both his work, as well as his basic and advanced training courses.

DPC was birthed from Danie’s passion to help others with a desire to learn photography skills and techniques. It is the mission and vision of DPC to help novice photographers understand and effectively use their digital cameras, and take creative photographs, which they can be proud of. Danie realized at the outset that, as students of basic photography acquired basic skills, they would want, and need to be trained in more advanced photographic techniques. In partnership with other professional photographers DPC developed advanced courses and practical workshops to align with these goals.

DPC Feature
Read it online live here

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

Jaguar at the NEC Classic Car Show

This week saw one of our clients, Jaguar Classic Parts, unveil their stand at the Classic Car Show held at the NEC in Birmingham. The show is a prestigious affair with many of the top names in the industry attending. This year Jaguar JCP’s area was designed around the photographic work that Ambient Life photographer Tim Wallace captured recently for our client Jaguar at the Gaydon Test track in England. The work received very positive feedback at the show from both the attending public and other companies displaying there and marks the first phase of the work being used to help promote the JCP brand further within the UK and Europe. A magazine advertising campaign is set to launch in early 2014.

Jaguar Car Photography at the Gaydon High Speed Proving Ground

This week we have been shooting some commercial work for our client at the high speed proving ground at Jaguar Gaydon. The work featured 15 classic Jaguar Heritage models that will make up a 5 ad campaign to be launched in early 2013 as well as material for Jaguar to be used at the Classic Car Show at the NEC later this November.
Tim - “Gaydon test track is one of my favourite places to shoot and its a facility that is shared by both Jaguar Land Rover and Aston Martin so in many ways its a home from home for me with us shooting work their for both Land Rover and Aston on the tracks there. Its a great facility and offers the manufacturers the chance to test their modifications and prototype cars as well as allowing engineers to record valuable data for improving current builds and developing new strategies for cars that we have yet to see on the roads. Safety is always in the forefront at the facility due to the high speeds that are reached on the main test circuit and the area has several tracks that vary from high speed testing area’s to mock dual carriage way runs and a off road circuit to help test and challenge even the toughest 4×4 off road vehicle. Our shooting there lasted all day and we were tasked with shooting these beautiful classic cars with a dynamic approach for the advertising campaign that will launch in early 2013.”

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 to new client Spellbound

This week we would like to welcome Spellbound as a new client to Ambient Life. The company based just outside London that are passionate about cars and provide a specialised business for the restoration and race preparation of models such as Ferrari and Jaguar. Spellbound Cars is a union of individuals all passionate about iconic cars and the pursuit of excellence. Experience, passion and a great drive to deliver the highest level of service is at the heart of a very unique workshop. The workshop is equipped with high-tech machinery and facilities, enabling restoration or repairs of all levels to be completed in-house. The Spellbound Cars team has wealth of experience in both the building of cars, and from behind the wheel, both on road and track.
They understand what is required to prepare a car to withstand the specific demands of every discipline whether fast touring on Alpine passes, or competing in hillclimbs, sprints, track days, historic championship racing, or even challenges such as the Nordshleife Marathon and the Spa Six Hours and of course Goodwood.

2012 Jaguar Classic Parts Campaign

Commercial car photographer Tim Wallace has been working with Jaguar Classic Parts for a number of years to reafirm the brand as a market leader. The 2012 campaign of adverts which have now been launched look at the heritage of the classic brand and deliver the message firmly that Jaguar Parts are very much still the leading brand for Jaguar classic and genuine parts.

Jaguar Inspired Pro Live Shoot Event with Photographer Tim Wallace

The Jaguar Heritage Centre in Coventry was the location this week for the 2011 Jaguar Pro Live Shoot Master Class with photographer Tim Wallace. The event was aimed at Professional photographers and gave them an opportunity to watch Tim at work shooting these classic Jaguars using lighting as well as demonstrating some techniques and talking through the path from creative idea to capture.

The work that Tim produces within the car industry is often seen at inspirational and unique in its style and this led to Tim being the proud recipient this year of two major awards, Professional Commercial Photographer of the Year and most significantly also UK Car Manufacturer Photographer of the Year. Many people assume or believe that a great deal of the work that Tim presents has had a great deal of post production work done after capture however Tim is a very firm believer that photography is very much a skill and that a huge amount of creativity can be achieved with the right skill level in camera, something that Tim talks a lot about in interviews and also in his classroom based seminars. The photographers attending this Pro Live Shoot were able to witness the capture first approach that Tim takes to his work and then Tim performed various lighting setups to demonstrate the very high level of work that can be completed ‘in camera’ before post edit is required.

Tim - “It’s always great to do these live shoot seminars and in truth I get a huge amount of satisfaction from being able to demonstrate that photography is indeed very much still a skill and in my view one that we are allowing to die slightly as we increasingly become reliant on photoshop and post edit techniques to actually ‘create’ our work for us or rescue us from a bad shoot or technique. We had quite a few ‘eureka’ moments from the photographers attending and that’s always great to see and I look forward to keeping in touch with the friends that we made that day and seeing how they progress.
I would also like to thank Jaguar for allowing me the use of the facility for the event and most especially Karam Ram from Jaguar for all his support and assistance in arranging this event and making sure that all the pieces were in place. Peter Hodgson from Calumet for his unwavering support through the various seminars and talks that we have each year with Calumet and also the excellent background support and assistance on the day from the vendors such as Epson and Profoto who fully support each event that we undertake, a big thanks guys, it was very definitely a great seminar”

Jaguar 2011 Campaign shoot

This week we would like to welcome ‘Jaguar Classic Parts’ and Chase Marketing to the Ambient Life client family. Photographer Tim Wallace was approached a few months ago by Chase Marketing to develop and shoot a series of images at the Coventry Jaguar Plant that would make up the lead in a set of 5 campaign advertisements to launch early in 2011.

The initial process started back in March this year after Jaguar had contacted Chase Marketing to discuss their 2011 campaign requirements, it was at this stage that Ambient Life were brought on board by the Marketing company to assist in producing the initial visuals and talk through the concept.
Once the main backbone of the five separate ads had been completed a site meeting was arranged at the Jaguar Plant to look at the locations for shooting that would be available as well as to choose the correct cars and colours to be shot so that these would fit into the campaign and give the desired impact. As well as shooting the work for the 2011 advertising campaign photographer Tim Wallace was also tasked with shooting additional material for the Jaguar Classic Parts main business website and for additional promotional and marketing material for future use.

Tim- “Jaguar is a company that we have worked with previously at their main Castle Bromwich site and it was good to get involved with the ‘Classic’ element to this commission and indeed see some familiar faces within the industry from our work at Castle Bromwich. The main focus of the shoot was to produce a selection of images that would fit into the visuals we had signed off from the client for the 2011 campaign, these would need to be shot in a very particular style and the cars position, shooting angle and lighting were very much key in this process. With a shoot such as this its very common for us to organise a site visit prior to the day of the shoot and in this case it was very much a necessity as all the work was to be shot within the confines of the Plant itself so selecting the right area to work in and indeed the right models was very important.”

Tim- “I’m really pleased with the work that we produced at Jaguar and whilst we are unable to show here the advertising work completed due to the protection of a commercial embargo we have received very positive feedback from the Jaguar client and I feel very positive that the 2011 campaign will do very well and really get across the message that the client wants to promote within Europe and indeed Worldwide.”

Philip Williams
Global Classic Sales & Marketing Manager

“These pictures are fantastic Tim. Thank you for all your work. I though we had a really good day and the resulting images make the day very worthwhile indeed. I can’t wait to get these together for out website and 2011 ad campaign.”

Tim- “Thanks to all the hard work of Jill Bayliss at Chase, and indeed the support staff from Jaguar Coventry for all their assistance with making sure that the cars weer as clean as humanly possible as well as the endless supply of tea and coffee!”