Road & Track Mag + 14 Million in Exotic Cars = A great Birthday

"You had me at McLaren", was my email reply to a shoot request from an editor at Road & Track Magazine. What a cool project, photographing 3 of the 51 coolest cars of the last 50 yearsA McLaren F1, #001…An Alfa Romeo Tipo 33 Stradale, one of only 18 in the world…and a Lancia Stratos…and the shoot date was on my Birthday.
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The challenges with this shoot was we had one day with the cars, had to shoot all three in the studio and had to make something unique and different for each one. I've shot cars in the past in the studio…a lot way back when, actually. The pleasure was getting back on the bike of automotive studio lighting. We pulled off the shoot within normal working hours. The Alfa instantly reminded me of a photo a friend and mentor who had passed earlier in the year, Steve Grubman, had on the walls of his studio…I think of a Ferrari. One of the variation we did was in honor of steve…I shot it just like I remember that shot looking like. Felt good to do that, as he was not only a great guy, photographer and generally inspiring fellow, he was the first person I showed my barely out of school "car photography" portfolio to…the whole collection of mounted 4x5 transparencies. My pal Pete, who's been my hot rod compadre at Bonneville was along to help drive my car for the car to car shots, and help sculpt the light over all those sexy curves.