Porsche Carrera 964 on GMR

GMR is a pretty famous mountain road out here is SoCal. It used to be a place a lot of young enthusiastic mountain drivers would go to test their driving ability at night.  

In recent times, the road has been getting a lot of attention from the media in which gives a lot of attention to the police. So police have been a bit more proactive about monitoring it for extra curricular activity. 

Last week we had a day with very heavy rain and the next morning, Phil with @handsomeandphilthy called me up to go take photos on GMR. Figuring rain photos would be cool, I agreed and met him up there.  

But the whole time, it never rained although we had very ominous rain clouds hanging right over our heads.  

For this shoot, I kept the editing styles more loose to show some variety in style. I'm happy with the way they turned out.

Hopefully next time around, I can actually get some rain photos and maybe getting someone to drift in the rain would be sweet.

Andrew Manley​
Automotive Photographer​

964 & 991 @Rusnak Porsche in Pasadena, CA

So the other night, a few Purist guys and I went out to shoot some old Euro cars. We had one guy drop out last minute and that was replaced with a newer JCW Mini Cooper Turbo. I will upload the rest of those photos another day.

We headed to Glendora originally to get a few shots at The Donut Man and as we waited for everyone, it started to rain. Then it started to rain real good... got me worried a bit since the roads were gonna be slick. Ended up stopping 30 mins into and then we proceeded to Pasadena.

While shooting around Pasadena, came across a Porsche dealership while we were waiting in the Ralph's parking lot across the street. I thought it would be cool to do a time piece showing the old vs new 911 since a red Carrera was right on the show room floor. 

I didn't know how the shot was gonna turn out since the lighting conditions were pretty lousy and on top of that, I only had a 24-70mm on me and the street was really wide. I knew that I was most likely gonna shoot in the street somewhere.

Luckily I was only 3 feet into the street to make my composition work but nevertheless it worked out fine. 

I started off by getting my ambient shots. I did a bracket shot and got the following below:

Shot on the Canon 1dx and Canon 24-70mm 2.8 Mark II with a Circular Polarizer. ISO 100, f2.8, 2.5 secs, bracketed for 3 stops + and -

Above is our first run light painting with the Westcott Ice Light. My goal was to try and light the top and and the mid part of the lines well. We ran into some issues properly highlighting the hips of the Carrera due to it popping out. So we ran a handful of trials. Got it looking decent towards the end but I had to fix it in photoshop to make it more acceptable.   

Above you can see all of the various variations I did. You can see how gradually I added color tones, got rid of lots of reflection on the glass and poster, got rid of the tree and cleaned up the car as much as I could. In addition, I had to add a darker gradient going down the car and darkening the wheels to make it feel more natural. I also cleaned up the Porsche banner above the 991. The previous one was driving into the window break so I cleaned it up and applied a new logo on there. All about the details.

Above is the final image. I am pretty happy with the outcome and I think it shows the two off really well. I still like my air cooled better but I guess I am biased lol. 

Let me know what you guys think in the comments below and be sure to click on the like and share button!

TIl the next one,
Andrew Manley
Automotive Photography

Photo of me directing Phil (@handsomeandphilthy) how to light the Carrera. BTS Coverage by Danny from Blue Soul Photography

Porsche 911 Carrera 4 (964) with the Pixelstick

So I didn't have too much lined up this week and in keeping up with the blog, I decided to do a shoot with my 964 and The PixelStick and try to create something fun and different at the same time. 

So this is what I used this time around. All items can be found at IE Photo Rentals website:
1. Sony A7RII
2. Metabones Adapter EF to E Mount
3. Pixelstick
4. Canon 24-70mm 2.8 Mark II
5. Westcott Ice Light
6. Marumi 82mm Circular Polarizer
7. Gitzo Tripod with RRS BH-55 (my personal tripod)

BTS and Assistant:
Assistant: Phil Awad @handsomeandphilthy - Website: http://www.handsomeandphilthy.com
BTS Photo: Zach Patino @zack_p14 - Website: http://www.imaginationvisions.net
BTS Video: @parchen_iv - Website: http://www.imaginationvisions.net

So above is the final shot that I picked and edited. I am pretty happy with the outcome but here is everything else that happened that night.

Storytime:
Earlier in the day, I spoke with Zack about doing the BTS for the shoot tonight. He also brought along Matt who does a lot of video work. They both do quite a bit of drone work at major music festivals so make sure to check out their work. 

About 90 mins before meet up time, I call Phil and invite him over to shoot tonight... since he has gotten back from Lebanon, he's need a good 'pick me up' so I told him to grab his gear and shot over. Of course, this guy comes late as he usually does. 

Zach and Matt show up on time (thank you guys for doing that) and since he had some time to kill, I asked them if they knew how to drive stick. Sadly they both answered 'no' and that didn't sit right with me. So I ordered them into the driver seat and taught another two people how to work the art of driving manual transmissions. lol

The location I picked was perfect for the Pixelstick because it is extremely dark and would of been perfect for light painting... only thing was, the moon was out and it was oh so dark but no worries, we got it covered.

I'm pretty sure we probably had over $40,000 worth of gear out there that night. This game is too expensive not to make some money, you feel me?

Even with the moon out, it was pretty dark. I know it is hard to tell from the finished photo cause it looks like it was taken late afternoon but trust us, hard to see what was in front of you... and to give you an example, Phil tripped over his own tripod and broke his Rokinon 85mm with a BW 77mm Circular Polarizer worth $200... that's how dark lol
 

On my out from the pad, I saw my trusty old aluminium ladder and brought her with us. I set my tripod on it's highest setting and shot down on the Carrera but this angle was not ideal. I ended up scrapping it. 

Finally brought the tripod down to a knee level. I think the Carrera looks best at this level. Easy does it.

Started to edit on the spot but was not happy with it so we changed it up.

So we tried a few different lines to get the light paint right but it ended up being a waste of time cause the ambient light with the moon is ultimately what I stuck with. I should have light painted my final composition but I guess I was delirious from being hungry. Phil just kept talking about McDonald's... lol jk Phil, I love you.

Finally pulled out the Pixelstick once we got the angle that worked for us. 

Below you can see all the various designs we tried out.

We also did a roller video but at the time of this blog's release, it wasn't done yet so keep an eye out for that.

Thanks to Phil, Zack and Matt for coming out. It was fun.
Below are some shots from the 3 of them as well.
 

Check out The Pixelstick's website for more information on their product and you can check out IE Photo Rental's website to rent the pixelstick

A trip to Cal Poly Pomona

When I was back in college, I remember being the most productive 1am to 4am as I had little distraction from the world around me. In recent months, I have been interested in shooting cars late at night as it adds a new dimension to the landscape when trying to shoot at typically busy areas. 

Safety should always be a priority when shooting at night. Never know when some bustas will try to drive up and cause a ruckus. Safety in numbers is a good starting point so make sure that you call up some buddies to go shooting with you. In this event, I called up Alec (@alecnguyenvisuals) and Phil (http://www.handsomeandphilthy.com) to join me in photographing my 1990 Porsche Carrera 911 C4 964 and 2002 Acura NSX. Alec ended up dropping out as he needed to wake up at 6am for work but Phil was still down. 

Phil eventually came... these young bucks have a hard time committing to a schedule so there is constant badgering I have to do on my end to make sure the shoot moves forward. As I cannot drive two of my cars at the same time, I hesitantly handed Phil the keys to my 964 but I knew deep down he would treat her right. You guys should have seen how his face lit up when he started her. Like a kid in a candy shop.

 

We made a quick pit stop at the Chevron before heading to Cal Poly Pomona. There we were greeted by a car enthusiast who was eager to check out the NSX. His truck did a great job adding a distracting element to the scene lol. 

We found a overflow parking lot with solar panel roofing. Had the campus police check us out and took off. I guess we didnt look threatening. I wish I had more photos to post and show you guys but the problem is, Phil forgot to bring his own tripod to a night shoot (facepalm). So being the nice guy that I am, I handed him mine to shoot. I shot for a total of 5 mins on two locations. 

 

Shots done for Instagram Accounts: ns2kx and 911na2

My goal on the second location was to shoot the cars like they were spotted in the "wild". In the end, i was mildly happy with the shot but it was getting late as it was around 3am so I left it at that and we headed back. 

If you guys have one thing to learn from this is, prepare your gear for your shoots! Being a professional is all about being prepared. You think Phil would have learned his lesson right? Stay tuned. 

Shots done for Instagram Accounts: ns2kx and 911na2