Aston Martin – 100 Years

Today the prestigious UK based car manufacturer Aston Martin celebrated 100 years since it birth in 1913. UK commercial car photographer Tim Wallace is probably best known for his work shooting Aston Martin and is currently working on a book for our client Aston that we anticipate will be available and released for sale during 2013 the celebratory year.

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.”

In the UK, a week-long Aston Martin festival will take place from 15 July to 21 July. Designed to appeal to owners and enthusiasts of the brand, the Centenary Week will include ‘open house’ activities at Aston Martin’s exclusive Gaydon headquarters, including factory-based events and driving tours and will culminate in a 1,000-guest ‘birthday party’ on Saturday 20 July and a spectacular Centenary gathering in central London on Sunday 21 July.

This highlight of the centenary celebrations will be held in partnership with the Aston Martin Heritage Trust and the Aston Martin Owners Club will feature 100 of the brand’s most iconic cars in a multi-million pound timeline display. The event will also see one of the largest gatherings of Aston Martins in the 100-year history of the great British marque.

In addition, appearances at iconic events throughout 2013 including Nürburgring 24-Hours, Silverstone Classic, Villa D’Este, Le Mans 24-Hours and Pebble Beach will ensure that the celebration is truly global.

Dr Bez explained: “Aston Martin remains one of the most exclusive and sought-after brands in the world, so it’s right that our centenary celebrations take place around the globe this year.

“It’s appropriate that we mark the first 100 years of the company in this way and, with exceptional new cars like our ultimate GT – the Vanquish – timeless new DB9 and super-exclusive V12 Zagato, we clearly have a vibrant and exciting future ahead.”

The London event recalls the day 100 years ago when founders Lionel Martin and Robert Bamford saw their new automotive venture incorporated as ‘Bamford and Martin Ltd’. Production of the very first Aston Martin car, known as ‘Coal Scuttle’ commenced soon after. The ‘Aston’ element was inspired by Lionel Martin’s passion for hill climb competitions, in particular the Aston Clinton hill climb in Buckinghamshire.

10 things you may not know about Aston Martin:

1. There have been 10 different versions of the iconic Aston Martin badge. The current version was introduced in 2003
2. The Aston Martin wings badge has its origins in ancient Egypt – derived from the open wings of the scarab beetle
3. In 100 years Aston Martin has produced just over 60,000 sports cars
4. It is accurately estimated that more than 90% of all Aston Martins built are still in existence
5. Aston Martin has manufactured cars from seven locations in the past 100 years
6. Aston Martin’s global HQ at Gaydon, the company’s first purpose-built home, celebrates its tenth anniversary in 2013
7. The Aston Martin Owners Club was founded in 1935 at The Grafton Hotel, London
8. The now sold-out One-77 hypercar is Aston Martin’s most exclusive, powerful and expensive production model to date
9. It took 2,700 man hours to produce each One-77
10. The painting process for the current Aston Martin range takes between 50 and 70 hours per car

Hasselblad 2014 Masters Awards

The Hasselblad Masters Award is one of the most prestigious awards in the industry, each year celebrating the best photographic talent. Masters Awards are given in recognition of a photographer’s contribution to the art of photography and are judged on overall photographic ability, encompassing creativity, composition, conceptual strength, and technical skill. Past Masters include both renowned artists of international standing as well as promising newcomers in a wide range of fields and disciplines. Ambient Life photographer Tim Wallace has been invited this year to enter these awards with a body of his automotive car photography and here at Ambient Life we join to wish ever success in this prestigious competition and will keep you advised of his progress for the 2014 awards.

Tim has been shooting on high end Hasselblad’s for many years now as well as working closely with Hasselblad on his live shoot seminars and events.

Recently Tim shot the infamous One-77 Aston Martin for a series of new global advertisements by Hasselblad featuring this exclusive £1.2m Aston Martin

This new prestigious car from the Aston stable derives its name from its high price tag of £1.2m and the exclusivity of their only being 77 examples built. It’s not hard to imagine the remarkable attention to detail that the designers from the Aston Martin Centre at Gaydon in England have lavished on its conception and it was very much in keeping with this tradition that photographer Tim Wallace was chosen to shoot a series of work to be used by Hasselblad and Aston Martin.

Tim- “The One-77 is a truly remarkable car and although I spend a great deal of my time around this type of vehicle, and very often Aston Martin’s, I was still impressed over by both its beauty and design, the famous Aston saying of ‘power, beauty, soul’ certainly applies here. The shoot was commissioned by Hasselblad in Denmark and was to show both the car overall and some of the close detail captured using my Hasselblad H3 DII camera for the advertisements that would run a strap line of ‘Getting Down to Details’. The actual shoot came at very short notice with only 2 days to prepare as Aston had only one model available and built to work with and as you can imagine the car was very much in high demand around the world for events and shows as it was just at the stage of being officially unveiled and launched by Aston. All the work I did was shot at Aston’s Design Centre in Gaydon and I managed to get a few hours with the car so that we could complete a range of photographs that hopefully do the car and the camera justice.”

2013 Aston Martin Book – Work Begins

Exciting news this week as work has now officially started on a proposed Aston Martin book. This has been a long term personal for car photographer Tim Wallace and has been under discussion for over 2 years now. It is hoped that the book will be completed and available by the end of 2012 for launch in early 2013 and it will be a hard back book with the aim to bring together the very best collection of Aston Martin photography very before made available to the public. Featuring all the Aston Martin models through the ages from the very early DB1 right through the the current range and the infamous One77 super Aston’s.

Tim “Its a great honour to be asked to do this book based around the range of Aston Martins through the years. Over the last few years I have become quite well known for my automotive car work and most of all probably for my Aston Martin work, for me photographing cars has never been about just showing the viewer what a model looks like but more about trying to capture and represent its form and character, cars to me have a personality, each one slightly different to the other, its having the ability to capture this passion and drama in a single image that is for me the gift of great car photography. We started work on the book earlier this week and as the chief designer said, ‘this is going to be a little like eating an elephant, one mouth full at a time…’
Over the last 5 years I have shot a huge amount of Aston’s and at last count that is near the 200 mark however as with any commercial work the photography and its style is dictated by the final requirement for its output so not ever piece of work has been shot in a dramatic style, for instance people very rarely think that all the parts and engineering side of the work has also to be covered, not to mention the ‘clinical’ work as I call it for marketing and brochures, so it is quite a massive task to ensure that I produce enough high quality work to fill a 300 page book. Also we are seeking to shoot all through the range and some models such as the infamous DBR2 are rare to say the least with only two in existence and with a price tag of £8m we have our work cut out for us but we are very lucky that as this is a joint venture with our client we have amazing access to some of the Worlds most beautiful and best kept Aston Martin secrets.
An amazing project and one that will I feel prove to be both demanding and ultimately very rewarding all at the same time.”

43 Inspired Seconds…

A new media presentation of the work of automotive commercial car photographer Tim Wallace was made live today. The ‘burst’ media presentation shows just some of the work that we have produced in recent months and demonstrates a cross section of skills within the field of professional commercial photography.

Aston 2012 Calendar Project Completed

This week commercial car photographer Tim Wallace completed the final work on the Aston 2012 calendar. Tim has been producing and shooting the calendar for Aston for some 4 years now and over that time the calendar has become somewhat of a collectors item with tens of thousands of copies being sold worldwide and many people reporting that they would like multiple copies as they have one saved from each year.

Tim – “The Aston calendar is really special to me and each year a huge effort goes in to making sure that we have something different, this year I was lucky enough to spend some time in Switzerland and after falling in love with the sweeping mountains and snow covered peaks it was an obvious place to shoot Aston Martin’s. These cars represent different things to different people, some have fond memories of their boy hood dreams after watching the latest James Bond film hankering after that elusive silver birch DB5 classic, while others enjoy more recent memories with the DB9 and are drawn to the styling and engineering of some of Aston’s more recent triumphs such as the One77. Whatever the reason it is safe to say that Aston’s just never die, they stay in our hearts and in our imagination always. It was a pure pleasure to create the images for this years calendar and I hope that many people all over the World will get much enjoyment from it.”

New Aston Martin Media of the work of UK Car Photographer Tim Wallace

A year in the work of car photographer Tim Wallace with this exciting new update showcasing just some of the automotive car photography that Tim Wallace produces of Aston Martins both classic and modern.

43 Seconds – The Year that was 2010

2010 has been quite a year for us at Ambient Life and has seen photographer Tim Wallace work with some amazing clients and some amazing people, this presentation that we call 43 seconds is a short burst of just some of the work shot by Tim during 2010.

Why 43 Seconds?
The average time that a client or designer takes to decide if they like your style of work is 43 seconds, many photographers argue that it’s simply not possible to get across your message in this short amount of time. Creativity is the fundamental key to any successful commercial photography when mixed with a strongly defined shooting style. Commercially it is very important for client to choose a photographer based not only on their obvious technical ability but most importantly on their ‘style’ of work, this has been the main driving force behind all successful photographers for over 100 years and one that is just as important to day as it ever was with the age of digital technology. True creativity still exists in the capture and control of light with your subject mixed with a strong creative vision of the world.

Bristol ‘Inspired 2010′ Photography Business Seminar

We visited Bristol this week as we pass the half way point in this years ‘Inspired 2010′ series of business seminars across the UK being given by UK commercial advertising and car photographer Tim Wallace. These special events that Tim has being giving across the UK since the tour started back in central London 2 months ago have been our most successful yet and are very much focused on the business aspect of commercial photography and how to approach the market and clients in this very competitive and aggressive field of the industry.

The Tour this year takes on eight major cities throughout the UK from London to Edinburgh.

Tim -”I always love coming down to Bristol I have very fond memories of the city from my my early twenties when I trained for the Royal Marines not far from here in Lympstone, North Devon. Bristol has grown quite a lot since then as a city and along side this growth in exciting businesses and retail outlets comes the inevitable growth in young commercial photographers trying to get a foot hold on the ladder in their careers.”

“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 publicly pushes forward in these difficult commercial times. The event went very well indeed and and had a good mix of both established professional photographers and assistants wanting to take those first steps themselves. Next stop is Birmingham next week and I’m looking forward to the meeting more great people and hopefully offering not only some sound advice but also some inspiration.”

Feedback from Mr Marc Atkin -”I absolutely loved you’re seminar today, it was extremely inspiring and cracking up at you’re jokes… but you have a fantastically droll wit, I described you to my Wife as “like Noel Gallagher, only without the 60′s hair do and a bit further North”.!

I’ve spent over 20 years in music touring and theatre and the best bit is the late night wise cracking on the bus, and you would have fit right in. I really want now to do one of you’re hands on ‘Live shoot’ days like the one you talked about that others have attended.

God luck with you’re future work, I really admire the ” I will do it and nothing will stop me attitude” and I will always see trying to get through the receptionist front line to potential new clients as a “tactical assault”…genius!

I hope our paths cross again soon. You’re seminar convinced me to do my own thing so maybe I’ll just keep the Ridley Scott fixation and make it part of my style….”

Tour Dates
Central London – Sat 4th September
Glasgow – Wed 8th September
Manchester – Sat 2nd October
Nottingham – Fri 8th Oct
Bristol – Fri 22nd Oct
Birmingham – Fri 5th Nov
Edinburgh – Sat 13th Nov
Liverpool – Wed 17th Nov

The 2010 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;

*Building an efficient Workflow
*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.

If you wish to book a place on any of the events mentioned on this page please contact the marketing department of Calumet UK who organise our placements on these seminars or visit the dedicated Calumet Events pages.

43 seconds…

The average time that a client or designer takes to decide if they like your style of work is 43 seconds, many photographers argue that it’s simply not possible to get across your message in this short amount of time. Today we launch ‘Made in England’ our creative burst that highlights some of the work of UK car photographer Tim Wallace over the last 12 months.

Creativity is the fundamental key to any successful commercial photography when mixed with a strongly defined shooting style. Commercially it is very important for client to choose a photographer based not only on their obvious technical ability but most importantly on their ‘style’ of work, this has been the main driving force behind all successful photographers for over 100 years and one that is just as important to day as it ever was with the age of digital technology. True creativity still exists in the capture and control of light with your subject mixed with a strong creative vision of the world.

Aston Martin DB9 Shoot

This week we were out on location as well as working hard in the studio to shoot some marketing material featuring the infamous Aston Martin DB9. Photographer Tim Wallace has been working with Aston for over 3 years now and talks a little about his approach to this World renowned brand.

Tim- “Aston Martin has to be one of the most well known prestige car brands anywhere in the World today. Arguably being in the forefront of this market sector since the 60′s with iconic exposure in films such as James Bond. I have been shooting with Aston’s a for a number of years now and a great deal of work has been centred on the classic range however from time to time we do work with the more modern vehicles such as the shoot with the One-77 that we undertook at Gaydon recently. This week however our work was centred on the Aston Martin DB9. Our client required a broad cross section of material which meant that some of the shoot was performed in a studio and some out on location. With one main model to work with the first part of the shoot was to look at the detail lit work in the studio, its always the best approach as the cars cleanliness will start to suffer as soon as its exposed to the elements.”

“Following the completion of the detail work we then moved the car to the separate locations for the static work. For me personally I always feel that shooting a car is very much the same as shooting a portrait of somebody in as much as you really need to capture the character of the car, the mood, the passion. Prestige cars are an emotional purchase in my view and the drive to promote a car or model is often a case of giving the viewer / customer a glimpse into the world through your eyes, setting the scene and making them want to be standing where you are. The shoot was completed in one day and I’m very pleased with the results as the client is also, which is always a good thing!”

The DB9 is the first model to be built at Aston Martin’s Gaydon facility in Warwickshire, England. The moniker “DB” stems from the initials of David Brown, the owner of Aston Martin for a significant part of its history. The DB9, which was designed by Ian Callum and finished by his successor, Henrik Fisker, superseded the now-discontinued Aston Martin DB7 (also by Callum) which started production in 1994.

On the British automotive show Top Gear it is thought of highly, notably on the show’s “Cool Wall” segment, where the presenters considered it to be “too cool” for the wall and it received its own category, dubbed the “DB9 Sub Zero Fridge” which was in fact a mini-refrigerator with the car’s card within it.