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Had a chance to do another photoshoot with Jimmy on the weekend but this time it was inside VEX and his new winter wheels for his wagon. Originally, we were supposed to get together to do a Fall shoot on his TE37’s when the leaves were all orange/yellow but Mother Nature decided to skip Fall altogether and just get straight to winter. It never fails around here…

There was a bunch of snow on the ground and while the leaves were indeed yellow – it wouldn’t be much of a Fall shoot with snow on the ground too. Instead, I asked Jimmy if he had space inside the shop to shoot and well… There was more than enough space in there… I took some separate shots around the shop that I’ll share later, but we’ll stick to keeping this post to be Jimmy’s car only.

This shoot was a little different for me as I haven’t really shot inside a shop before – I was excited for this because it allowed my creative juices to start flowing. The thing about shooting inside a shop is that you’ve got limited angles and a lot of distractions that are not easily avoidable. You’ll see that once you start scrolling, you’ll notice a lot of other cars in the pictures and things laying around. When I photograph cars, I really like to use my surroundings as part of the picture rather than trying to avoid it altogether. I find that if you can manipulate the things around you properly, it creates a sense of separation rather than it just being “in the way”. You’ll find that in my pictures here – I used a lot of vignetting – which I don’t normally do – but I think it helped create a nice sense of isolation for Jimmy’s car in the shop and by colour-grading it to be a little more cool and crisp – your eyes always look at the car before everything else. As I previously said, I’m not trying to make you guys ignore everything else in the shop because they’re there as part of the picture – However, I do want the first and last thing you look at in the picture to be Jimmy’s car. The windows and the shop lights helped create spot lights and illumination for me to play with which was really fun to do… Let me know what you guys thought of this set.

Jimmy sitting really low on the BBS’s

One of my favourite shots of the day was this one. The rear garage door windows and the white lights paired with the white paint was perfect.

A shot here used a lot of shadows and miscellaneous parts sitting around the shop but Jimmy’s car still stands out perfectly well.

Jimmy’s TE37’s sitting on the bottom left corner of this pic… We’ll get pics of these on someday…

A close up Jimmy’s new BBS RGR’s and studded Hakkapelitas. Ready to dominate winter.

It’s hard to not love this front end – it’s so aggressive and clean.

The iconic BMW headlights

Is this Need for Speed or what?

VEX had A LOT of room for activities and lots of spaces I could go and walk around to get multiple angles. This was another good example of that.

Wallpaper?

Can anyone recognize the JDM Icon on the left there? Or was Jimmy’s wagon too distracting to even notice?

Hint: it’s red. lol

The sun was perfect that day as it shined through the windows. I always get lucky with the light when shooting with Jimmy.

A rear shot of the RGR’s

Up close and personal

I really need this wagon in my life. That rear is just so good. But I’m also an ass man… So I could be biased.

And a quick shot outside in the yard to show you I wasn’t kidding about the snow in the middle of Fall. Orange/yellow leaves and snow on the ground. Brutal.

End. You likely haven’t seen the last of Jimmy’s wagon – I’ve still got a date with him and the TE37’s so whenever the weather cooperates with us is when we’ll shoot – whether that be this year or next…

Adios! Stay tuned for some side shots of VEX in a separate post…

Ah how great it feels to be back behind the camera shooting some sick cars!! If you follow me on Instagram, you would’ve seen my proposal on getting my poop in a group. If you haven’t, well basically since I’ve moved over to #TeamSony, I’ve lost the ability to use my Canon lenses which were an integral part of my arsenal over the last decade. I need an adapter to use them on Sony and thankfully, I have the amazing support of guys like Jimmy to help me reach my goal sooner. I’ll maybe dedicate the “thank you’s” to a separate post, but I did want to say that this was the first of many photoshoots coming in the next few months. I know the blog has been stagnant over the last year and a half, and I hope to bring some life back to it now that I have a little more time.

After my post on Saturday morning, Jimmy messaged me literally minutes after and said he was in. We went out to shoot later that afternoon hoping to dodge the rain and we quite literally beat it by a few seconds. On our last location, it started pouring and by then, I had an ample amount of photos already. JC helped me tag team this one and although he usually helps me with rolling shots – we couldn’t do that this time due to my lack of a wide angle. I could’ve done it with the 35mm but it just wouldn’t be the same.

Jimmy’s wagon is an excellent example of a perfect family mobile with the room and power to boot. This would be his first shoot with me as he’s awaiting tires to mount on his new wheels before we go out again. Hopefully by then, I’ll have my new gear to get some different perspectives on it. Saturday’s weather provided perfect overcast for the white/block combo and a dark and moody scene to add to the look.

As Jimmy dries off his car (it’s still drizzling at this point), I took some candid set up shots…

Over the years, my “style” has evolved and I went from trying to shoot in open spaces and getting complicated with angles to now using the existing environment to add a more natural feel to my photos. I always feel like if you spend more time looking for the best backdrop/surroundings, you spend less time post processing things that you don’t like or need.

From the side, Jimmy’s wagon sits aggressively on KW V3’s and Weds Sports with the M-performance brakes in blue popping behind the black.

A lot of the angles I tried to get of Jimmy’s car includes at least the rear portion of it to show how different the wagon can look compared to the sedan. It’s the same, but so different at the same time.

Head on, you can’t even tell the difference obviously but it’s the head on shot that usually works almost every time with BMW…

This was one of my favourite shots of the day and shows the length of the wagon and how aggressive wagons nowadays can look if you do it right.

From the rear quarter, you can see the aggressive stance and fitment of the Weds Sports – although his new set is a little more aggressive than this…

No finger gap. That’s the way.

It’s almost like Jimmy’s car was right at home here…

An upclose of the brakes and the Weds

One of the things I was initially worried about was the lack of creativity I could have with cars with my single 35mm lens but as you can see – it turns out there are thousands of ways to be creative with the one lens alone. I was getting used to using it on people and it was fantastic for that, but trying it out on Jimmy’s cars using different perspectives and angles almost makes it look like I had more than one lens.

That, or his wagon just shines in front of the camera and I didn’t even have to try. 🙂

Beauty

Another upclose…

And finally one of the most interesting shots that came out from that day was this rear quarter shot. I’d say it was on purpose, but I think it was all just coincidence. The sun peaked at just the right moment to cast almost the perfect shadow below the car while highlighting all the perfect body lines that BMW had planned for it. My polarizer was turned just the right amount to capture an almost oil-slick look to the windows.

It’s almost like I had a whole lighting crew with me there at that moment, but it was just good timing. I love this shot.

We’ll be back again soon with Jimmy’s cars with new wheels hopefully by the next time you see it, along with other new cars to add to the mix that I’m excited to share over the course of the summer. Glad to back and it’s good to have you here 🙂