It was sunny Monday but I knew it was going to rain Friday. This is for Motor Trend. 2 fast cars, what to do? Knew I had to find a place indoors, that meant it had to be pretty big. Now we have a very limited budget for locations these days and I knew the warehouse was pricey, but it never hurts to ask. Oh yeah, we got lucky. And yes on Friday it was raining. This was such a good call. The warehouse had lights, but it wasn’t that bright. This was a perfect time to test the new Canon 7d. With it’s high ASA and “sports focus”, lets see how it does. I like to start the day with static beauty masters, the group shot, singles etc. The first thing I noticed was the 1.6 crop factor. I am so used to working full frame, I can usually block the shot with my eye and then place camera where I stand, HA! not so with this camera, start stepping back, and back, and back…. now I’m so far away the auto focus doesn’t work that great and the pocket wizards start becoming sporadic. I had lights up top on the balcony rear 3/4 and on the floor with the cars to light up the noses, strobes in the car, and even a strobe on the rear wall at times to help with separation. I really like the static masters, I think we nailed it. Every shot, every detail needed to be lit. The clock started moving faster, while we were shooting 2 other film companies came and scouted the location, I even knew one of the crews. The car to car shot has got to be the coolest, in the warehouse, coming right at you, great energy. So how did the 7d stand up, the high asa helps when you’re shooting details in the car, if you can get the details handheld it makes thing go much faster, setting the tripod in the front seat of a car is always rather cumbersome, so I cranked the asa up to 800-1200 asa. Did the high asa hold up? well its hard to say, I think we are redefining what an image looks like, grain, sharpness, texture and color. I would say it has a “look”, I believe we should embrace this and just go with the flow, the process is constantly emerging and morphing. Would I buy one? As a back up camera yes. I am waiting for the 1D MK4, got money down and just waiting now. I will keep everyone updated with the progress. I would consider this shoot a success, not only was new gear pushed, we got great shots, the action stuff was fun and engaging. Riding in the car with Art, slaloming thru the columns, pan blurs with the Mercedes, nice stuff. You can see more on the Motor Trend website and in the February issue, and a SHORT FILM too.

A beautiful machine, and a beautiful day at the Muckenthaller facility. The Cadillac was the original car of the year car, and it still wears it’s original paint, pretty impressive. Your first impression is how big these cars were. I could only imagine a city full of these, you look at all the SUV’s bumping into everything in sight, how did they do it in 49? We got to the location, I was seeing for the first time, and found that there were only a few places to stage the car, and these few places were to very soon loose the open shade. I had to hurry!!! Master shots first, front and rear, a bit of reflected light here and there, I didn’t want to over light the car, I believe when working with classics not to make the car look like a toy but yet to try and retain the original designers intentions, so people like you and I won’t get distracted by a bunch of flash. And Cad’s have enough flash already, just look at that grill!! We slammed through the statics, did our details, got some nice ones, and even had time for a rig shot. The motor was fun too, due to the big hood not much light fell into the engine compartment, and putting on camera flash just looks horrible, so I bounced the ambient light into the hood and let it fall back onto the motor with a bit of help from my assistants. It opened all the shadows and gave enough clarity. The driving shots were done out front, drive this way, now this way, okay one more time, and car to car we did by driving around the block several times. I’m really looking forward to the new Canon cameras, when shooting objects that move it would seem simple enough but these digital cameras really fight at giving you tack sharp images and letting the background blur, it sure did seem our old film cameras were much better, but who has a budget for film these days? Anyways our majestic king ran flawlessly all day long, and quiet too, a seamless piece of American Machinery, I hate to say but like a giant Lazy Boy on wheels, Archie Bunker would of loved it!!