2013 5.0 Mustang

It's ours and it's awesome.

A Weekend With The Driver's Edge

Have you ever had a dream of driving your car on an open track? You really don’t know how close you are to being able to participate in the greatest sport of all. Performance Driving!

Rolling like a BOSS

A before and after answering the famous question - How'd you do that?

Oh Ladies!

You've gotta see these fun shirts for the female auto enthusiast!

SouthSide Airport Shoot

I guess it has been about a month now that our SouthSide Mustang group took a cruise had some lunch and ended up at a private Airport. We had quite a few cars that day and we just all took turns going through and taking pics. I've been working on a lighter side of processing and I think these show the direction I'm heading in.

(click to view best quality)



All of these pictures where taken with a 70-200 2.8 IS, on a tripod. They were also all shot with natural/available light. Enjoy!

-Justin Davis
www.autocaptures.com

Space City Cruisers Car Show

So this weekend I participated the Space City Cruisers Car Show with my Local Mustang Group (Southside Mustang Car Club). It was a really great weekend. Rebecca and I spent Thursday night and ALL DAY Saturday cleaning both of our cars. Now normally I'm not a show type person...I usually just show up and and visit. I have to say though...it was a lot of fun participating with a group...Plus the cars really needed it :-)!

Check out the host clubs photos here!



We had three of our members win 1st in their class which I think was GREAT considering there were over 200+ cars there. At the end of the day we ended up beating out the SpaceCity LX for group participation! We were all pretty excited to get that award for our first official group show!


Be sure to join us for the Fall Extravaganza, October 20th, 2012!



After the show was over most of us made our way to the weekly show at Chic-fil-A in Kemah. It was a pretty nice evening and the cars were already polished up! Finished the evening off with a bite to eat a Chili's. 530am-1145pm...what.a.day! -Justin

Something New


Something New by Justin Davis
http://www.autocaptures.com/

So I’m beginning to find out that lighting in photography is more or less like riding a bike. Once you can see it, see what you want to be accomplished, the easier it becomes. I started figuring out lighting when I started with automotive interior shots….I’m not going to say I’ve done a Ton of them but I do have a few good ones that I like to show off from time to time. Rebecca and I practiced in the garage for hours one night, with reflectors, flashes, sheets, white poster board and more. We eventually were able to get the light to fall how we wanted. That said…most of my recent lighting attempts have actually been through post processing. 99% of it being created with dodging and burning, creating from multiple layer masks etc. While this is fantastic to do with pictures you have taken on the fly, at car shows or other events, using lighting with natural light has really started to intrigue me. Moving Forward.


For now I honestly don’t have a particular style, I feel I’m just honing my skills “In camera” and “Post processing” wise. I’ve bounced around a lot, most of my work being on the dark side.(I’ve always seemed to lean towards the darker type images for some reason). Looking at images and other photographers blogs on the web I ran across SEAN KLINGELHOEFER. He did an article or blog about High Key processing.This really grabbed my attention. As much as I love the dark images this really made me want to dig in and give this a try! Rebecca(Wife) helped me get the shot set up and worked the camera, helping me get the exposure the way I wanted it. The setup was as follows: Canon 5d Mk2, 17-40L, 580 II, and softbox. Nothing crazy, just simple. The shot was composed of 3 pictures, one very over exposed, one for the flash lighting and the last was an exposure I wanted to use to remove a large glare on the hood. The glare exposure was taken by blocking the glare with a reflector. The shot turned out exactly like I imagined it and it looks like I am leaning more towards this style than any other so far. There are of course tweaks and such that I do for my personal liking. I do still like have a slight gritty feel to it.

A few rough pics of the setup.


It really is amazing what you can create by getting out there and just trying new things, experimenting, just shooting! I’m hoping to have some new things to shoot this week and if not, I just might have a few more garage pics, who knows.  Thanks for the Read! –Justin Davis; www.autocaptures.com

Photo Locations by Chasing Asphalt


Tips on Photo Locations by Chasing Asphalt
www.chasingasphalt.com

When taking photos of cars a thing to keep in mind is the location for your photoshoot. Finding the right location is key to a successful photoshoot. The right location has the perfect background and it matches the character of the car. A convertible might look very nice when shot with a marina in the background for example.

Also try to find a location that will have enough space to move the car around so that you can shoot the car from different angles with the best possible light. And giving you the possibility to use different lenses.

Avoid things like telephone poles, traffic signs, powerlines, trash cans or other stuff that might distort your photo. Sometimes this means moving the car to take a away the unwanted elements and sometimes you can move the unwanted elements. And when shooting an oldtimer try to find a location that matches the age of the car or one that is older than the car.



Read More Here!

First photo: Justin/Rebecca Davis
Second Photo: Dale Martin