Last week was freezing! What a way to start the new year. I’ve been a little bit of an automotive photographer lately. I had photographed a number of Land Cruisers and even a few replica Shelby Cobras! This was the first time to photograph a vehicle in the snow. It was about 17º when we were photographing.
Toyota Land Cruiser from the 1980s
I’ll confess something… something went wrong with this photo shoot. I didn’t have the batter for my big studio light. However, I believe in backups! I had my portable lighting kit and I was able to create these photographs. I also had extra batteries because the extreme cold does run down the battery power. In the future I will have to make sure everything on the checklist makes it to the trunk of the car. Occasionally mistakes are made it is how we deal with it that defines us. Same rule applies to so much in photography… you have back up cameras, memory cards, lights, and backup locations.
A view of the engine
To create these photographs I use one light and the timer on my camera. I will create multiple photographs while the camera is on the tripod. I then combine them into Photoshop so the illuminated parts of the vehicle are highlighted. I can then pick the best reflections and angles. I may end up with 5 final photographs of the vehicle but I may have created 80 photographs to be combined into the handful you see here.
Restored Toyota Land Cruiser J60
This is Luis and his son, Alexander. I had photographed Alexander about a year ago. He will often join his dad on these photo shoots for a father and son photo. Luis works as a Toyota service technician so he knows all about Toyota vehicles and in is free time he buys, restores, and sells these classic Toyota Land Cruisers.
Luis poses with his son on the restored Land Cruiser
Engine for the Toyota Land Cruiser
Toyota Land Cruiser J60 in the snow
Internal view of the Toyota Land Cruiser
These shots were created with my Canon Speedlights
View of the headlights and fog lights
