I was invited to the private, invite only, DB11 sneak peek reveal at a top secret location here in MN today. This new DB11 is one of four making the rounds to different private showings around the world. DB11 production doesn’t start until June. It was a great pleasure to get to see this pre-production model in the metal this far before it goes into production. Shout out to Morries Luxury Auto and Scott for the invite. Thank you!
One company I have the pleasure of working closely with is the Auto Vault in Eagan Minnesota. The Auto Vault is unique in that they bring some very cool opportunities to both the car community and to anyone who has an interest in luxury/exotic cars. Mischa, the owner of AV, makes a point to always have some of the greatest cars available to experience in a variety of ways through his company. From one day rentals to track experiences to ‘Fantasy Drive’ which let you experience all five of the cars over the span of a weekend on some great roads!
Having formed a trustworthy relationship with AV, Mischa was gracious enough to lend me my personal favorite car of the bunch, the Porsche Cayman GT4, for a weekend! I decided to take it up to my hometown of Ely Minnesota and hit every great road between here and there. Results:
At this year’s Chicago Auto Show there were many cars and MANY people. No, I was not there on press day. However, the brand that totally brought their A-game was BMW. They had a flurry of new technology on display as well has a couple long awaited M models including the BMW M2 and M4 GTS. No matter what, its always exciting to get out and see some new cars during the cold winters here in the upper midwest.
Dynamic Photowerk – Josh Hway
When the chance to photograph a brand new Porsche 918 Spyder, Porsche GT3 RS, and Singer 911 on an airstrip comes around, you say yes. Absolutely, definitely, unequivocally yes!
This shoot took place here in Minnesota on a quite airstrip with two very noisy cars and one electric car. Consider yourself lucky if you ever see one of these cars, to see all three together is really impossible.
The first few months of each year, while shadowed in the cold-darkness of winter, have one redeeming feature: auto shows. Yes, nothing gets the blood pumping more than looking at the next hot ride for the upcoming summer months. This time it was the IMS (International Motorcycle Show) that got me in out of the cold and into our very own Minneapolis. Thanks to Twisted Throttle, I was able to get in to grab some snaps of the current and next gen motorcycles. I try not to be biased, but I did start with Ducati. 🙂
My favorite shot this year is one of a Lamborghini Aventador racing into downtown Minneapolis. This shot really just ended up being an experiment, one that allowed me to do a full composite for the very first time. However, I didn’t plan it that way.
I first scouted my location weeks in advance plotting a direction, angle, and desired time of day to shoot the photo. Knowing that the location is a major highway, I contacted MN DOT to work out road closure to protect me, my team, and my equipment, but immediately got told to ‘get lost’ by the director of the MN DOT.
Crap! My plans are falling apart by this point to try out one of the coolest locations in Minneapolis and its all the DOT’s fault! Plans quickly changed and I decided to make this my first real attempt at composite editing. Just a number of days before shooting the car, I headed out to photograph the location without a Lamborghini anywhere close.
I was at the location, I had my camera set up where I wanted, and then I just waited for the right light. Little did I know that I was going to be picky, I waited 45 minutes before the right light and reflections on the buildings came around by which time, the 5-0 inevitably came rolling through. Johnny Law stopped, ran my ID, and kindly asked me to ‘get lost’. I had no issue leaving because I knew I had gotten what I came for. Job done! No wait… I forgot to add a car into my car photograph.
A few days after shooting the location I ran up to IMOLA Motorsports to get the car photographed. It took some careful math along with some trial and error, but I eventually matched the angle I needed (give or take) and got the lighting I wanted.
After about two hours of said trial and error, Kevin of IMOLA eventually also told me to ‘get lost.’ The time was nearly midnight when I finished shooting.
So after all of that, it was off to the editing room. Pretty much guessing around every corner, I put together the image not really knowing how it would turn out. However, after about 6-8 hours of photoshop time, I got the picture where I had envisioned it originally.
What do you think?
What an incredibly cool and rare car! Singer specializes in the 964-chassis 911, built from 1989 to 1994. The 964 was the first street 911 with coil-sprung suspension, replacing the traditional torsion bars. The 964 chassis also retains Porsche’s classic rear trailing arms, which disappeared in 1995. Along with a rear weight bias, trailing arms help these 911s do wonderful things in corners when you snap your foot off the throttle, and that’s all you really need to know about that. I wanted to share some quick shots!