A Farewell Photoshoot: Tony’s Mercedes E350

October 19, 2015 / jasonhoang / Leave a comment

Whoops – I completely forgot about this post this weekend so I apologize for the delay. I was in total lazy mode all weekend and didn’t really want to do anything. Anyway, here are the rest of Tony’s photos from last week. I think they turned out great!

As I said in the previous post, the lighting, colours and the car itself all worked out to blend in perfectly that evening. We’ll get to it!

This was the teaser shot I posted below.

The front end of the E-class is my favourite of all the line up during this generation.

Sunset, blue skies, clean black car… What more could a photographer ask for?!

Couldn’t miss the interior…

Peaking.

The body lines of the E-class coupe are very striking, aggressive and minimal at the same time. I’ve always had a soft spot for them but could never see myself in one.

Front end.

I think I know where I’m going to shoot my car next year… 🙂

White leather seats on an all black car – *thumbs up*

I particularly liked how this shot came out. I’m a huge fan of sun flare shots when done properly. I’m not a huge fan of fake sun flare shots though and this one happens to be real. Don’t you just love when things turn out how you want them to?

I got a couple shots of JC’s car too since the lighting was too perfect not to.

The team off to the side helping out. It was pretty chilly that night so I’m sure you can appreciate the fact that Diana has a scarf, a peacoat and is still obviously cold lol.

One more of JC’s car off to the side.

We can’t forget the rollers!

And one last one overlooking the NW part of the city…

A Farewell Photoshoot: Tony’s Mercedes E350 (Teaser)

October 16, 2015 / jasonhoang / Leave a comment

Earlier this week, I was contacted by Tony to do a last-minute, farewell photoshoot of his baby – a 2011 Mercedes E350. He had a few too many cars and not enough space, so this one had to go. It’s always a sad day when you have to get rid of one of your cars, but if you’re replacing it with something better, sometimes that’s enough to ease the pain a little bit. As a side note, it’s kind of sad how many cars I’ve shot and have been sold or replaced shortly after. I feel like my camera is the camera of car deaths or something LOL.

I know for most of you, this will not likely be up your alley of the types of cars you are used to seeing. It’s not lowered, it doesn’t have a big exhaust, no bucket seats, no LS swap… And the list goes on. It’s an elegant and simple car and I think this is a good illustration of a perfect combination of car, scenery, colour, and light. I’ve been loving shooting at sunset at this time of year because it pairs with the fall colours perfectly and almost every car shot in this setting looks amazing. I’m trying to shoot as much as I can around my own schedule, but sometimes time doesn’t permit. I know I have a few more lined up and trust me – I haven’t forgotten about you!

I got around to editing some of the pictures for Tony last night after getting home and having some dinner. Commissioned shoots for me are always a lot more exciting than shoots I just do for fun. The reason I say that is because I know that the people that are willing to pay for good quality work, deserve the best that I can deliver. Often times, when I’m just shooting my own car or random shots, I’ll shoot just to capture a good photo, I’ll edit just to edit enough. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not a half-assed kind of guy and I like to finish things all the way through, but the time and effort spent editing a photo of my car getting washed in my garage will not likely get the same time and effort as a shoot such as this.

I wanted to post a teaser for the shoot – here’s the one I got to last night. There is a huge difference in working in Photoshop while zoomed in at 200% or more versus just 100%. Editing a photo of a car is much like editing a photo of a model – blemishes are fixed, nicks are gone, small little details that can otherwise stand out like a sore thumb are more or less gone. I wish I had the before photo with me right now but it’ll have to wait until I get home. It would be a good example of what a before and after photo looks like and ultimately a “you get what you pay for” deal.

I mainly wanted to use this post as a “thank you” to those that reach out to me and ask me to shoot photos for them. What I do for fun for my own personal enjoyment over the last 8 years has turned into something better than I ever would have even guessed. Good work isn’t always free, and free work isn’t always good. 🙂

I should have the full set up this weekend!

Flashback: Almond’s Mercedes G500 & BMW 335

January 13, 2014 / jasonhoang / Leave a comment

Time for another little throwback… Again I apologize for the lack of any relevant content lately. I haven’t had the time to pick up my camera to shoot anything, not that there is anything much to shoot… I think I also feel a little uninspired lately. There’s a lot of exciting things going on that the last thing I really think about is picking up my camera and shooting. In a few days, it’ll be exactly 2 months until we move into the new crib and then another 7 months until the wedding. So you can imagine that there’s a lot of things going on in my mind and the last thing I’m really thinking about is my car. Although, I do want to start driving it again.

This throwback is back to Almond’s two cars – his daily, winter beating Mercedes G500 – which you really don’t see much of, and his summer fun car – BMW 335 full of Dinan goodies the last I remember. The reason I decided to do a post on Almond’s cars is mainly because we’ve been talking lately about shoes and whatnot, so that naturally reminded me of the shot I took of his wife in her Louboutins – a popular shot that I took and one of my personal favourites. I believe Almond also ended up printing it in high res and put it up in his house!

Almond really is one of the most down to earth guys and is a very humble guy that I am happy to have met. I met him when I got a job at Apple – little did I know that we’d soon have lots in common – the love of cars, fashion, photography… The usual. When I found out that he had the G-wagon and the 335, I was excited and happy – not because he owned those particular cars, but because it’s hard to find someone that “loves” cars and shares the same passion as you do. I’ve met lots of people that love cars, but their love might have meant an upgraded shift knob or some altezza lights. Same kind of love, but different type of passion. The moment Almond said “BBS”, I said “Stop, you need not say more”. #NoHomo

Anyways, I decided to also try a different style of editing on Almond’s pictures. I’m not gonna lie, I’m becoming a huge fan of VSCO and their edits (thanks to Alex Mack for telling me about it after I told him I spent $1.00 on camera+ lol). It’s also becoming quite a popular edit among photographers and you see it lots for people/object edits, but I haven’t quite seen it flow into the automotive photography side just yet. We’re still in the “sun flare” and slight HDR look – which is still a great look, but I wanted to try something a little different. It seems to work for some shots, but not all even though I applied it to all. I’ll see how I feel about it as I try it out more…

Let’s start off with that infamous shot of his wife and her Louboutins and his G-wagon in the back…

The edit works well here. The depth of field and the red sole… drool.

I almost cried as I was editing this picture. I feel my eyes watering as I write this… I’ll just keep scrolling before I start tearing up again.

His G500

Massive wheels that look dwarfed by the size of the G500

Also brought along his 335…

Almond also let me take his fisheye for a spin as well.

And boy, did I have fun with that…

JC’s Corolla!

Downtown Calgary and of course – cranes.

Great profile. Perfect for a summer fun car.

Two of them together.

Oh God, here come the tears… Keep scrolling, keep scrolling….

Rolling shots for days

I never ended up editing this shot but with the new edit, it works well. One of my pet peeves are blurry pictures, but sometimes (just sometimes) it works…

And an end with part of the Calgary tower in the back…

Happy Monday!

DTP 2011 Favourites… Part II

April 4, 2013April 4, 2013 / jasonhoang / 5 Comments

Since I saw that one of my top posts was DTP favourites from 2011, I thought I’d revisit it and share some other shots. I catered the original post to be around the cars mainly with GT wings because of my obsession with them. Trust me – if in some weird world, VIP cars existed with GT wings – I would be the first one to have it. However that is not the case, and I don’t foresee it ever being the case, so I have to admire other cars that have them now.

But as I was going through this – 2 years later – I am still at the same conclusion that I came to when I posted part 1 last year. It is that the automotive scene – only a province away – is much more evolved than ours today. Even 2 years after I’ve shot these cars, they were still ahead of the curve that we see here. There’s no cutting corners, everything is done right. You might even find that I’m writing a similar paragraph to the one in part 1, but I swear I didn’t read it again before writing this.

Truthfully, when we attended this show – you could see the differences in our group compared to the rest of the show. Subtle, minor modifications vs. aggressive and all out – which is something that is just catching on locally here IMO. There is a certain aesthetic value in creating a car with great parts in combination with each other and that just doesn’t happen all too often.

Anyway – I think I sound bitter because I’m jealous, not because I hate. Enjoy.

Here’s the first part I posted WAYYY back in April 2012.
DTP 2011 Favourites

CL63 AMG – one of my favourite from Mercedes. I saw one in the lot when we were looking for a GS for Punit and I wanted one so bad. The Ti exhaust on this was bad ass.

I also don’t usually dig the black on black, but this was pulled off nicely.

NSX

Rear scoop

STI Hatch of Wedsports SA-60M’s.

Honda CRZ on Spoon CR93’s. These were pretty new 2 years ago and I was pretty close to buying a set because they were quite affordable but they were too bland for my tastes.

370Z. I still love this.

370Z and 350Z together in the AJ-R booth.

GT G35. Love the look.

Matte black M3 on black Volk G2 wheels. I remember way back when they were rumored to be replacing the original TE37 with these… I was devastated cause I didn’t like them at all lol. Thank god they didn’t.

Speed Syndicate AE86. Love the color

VIP Merc. Now that I have a greater appreciation for VIP style – I can totally dig this. Not that I didn’t back then, but I love this even more now.

Speed Syndicate Matte Red 350Z.

Nice green 350Z

Gangster GS on Bazreia’s. Love these wheels.

Super clean S14 on Meisters

Matt’s yellow Initial D-inspired FD. The white TE’s will look deadly on this.

The internet sensation bagged VIP-style Fit was also there.

M3. I forget the name of the company, but they did a lot of accent styling and cues which was different. Doesn’t work on many cars, but on all the BMW’s they brought out – they were nicely done.

EDIT: The company is MW Designs. Thanks Brad!