The Tire Rule: Know It, Then Ignore It

If you've been looking around the 'Net for tips on how to photograph your car, you've probably been exposed to a rule about how to position the wheel/tire assembly. Here's how it goes: You should always face the wheel toward the camera, not the tire. That way, you never see the tread, only the shininess of the wheel. It's a decent guideline for the novice.

When on location quite some time ago, I had a person ask me; "You're not making a tire commercial, are you?" Well, no. I wasn't. But I wasn't making a wheel commercial either. My desire was to make the car as a whole look as good as it possibly could. The best way to do that varies from car to car, and also according to the type of attitude you're trying to portray in the shot. And that's why, now that you know the rule, you can ignore it, as long as you're thinking about your reasoning.

As I've moved through the rarified air of photographing the automotive high end, I am continually amazed at the parallels between it and my previous life in the music industry. It makes me believe that those parallels exist in any profession. For example, a musician who knows no music theory will have a much harder time creating a meaningful song, usually struggling to even come up with much that's listenable, and if they do, it's often pure luck. But once they know the theory, they are free to ignore those rules if they feel it better serves their vision. That knowledgeable blindness tends to work out very well when trying to create something new, unique, and interesting. One might think that the same result could come out of a musician who knew no theory, but it just doesn't happen that way.

You should feel free to have that same attitude anytime you learn a "rule" about your creative profession or hobby, and photography is no different. As soon as you learn the rule, start thinking of creative reasons to ignore it, and you'll be much better off stylistically.

Let's take a look at some examples. This first image is of Brian Nielsen's Shelby, which I was fortunate enough to shoot recently. This is the way everyone shoots the wheels, and it's entirely appropriate for this car, in this location. The impression is that of a "beauty shot." You can see the wheel detail, which is important for a restoration, and the car looks like it has been posed for your pleasure. You can see (and feel) that there's been more effort put forth than just driving the car up in front of the camera.

Now let's take a look at a Johnny Martin build, the '62 Corvette called Elegance. Note that the wheel is pointed slightly toward the camera. I did this deliberately, to invoke the same feeling that a runway model does when she strikes a pose at the end of the runway. If you know any models, you know that they're normally supposed to point their leading foot toward the camera. That keeps their foot looking small, and gives them an elegant, sophisticated look. This car has a different kind of beauty than the Shelby. Indeed, since the car's name is Elegance, it requires that the shot look refined, much like a model. That attitude is assisted by the wheel. Picture the car as a model, with her foot pointed toward the camera, and it makes the idea much easier to understand.

In fact, that's one of the tricks I use during a shoot. I pretend the car is a human model on the runway, and that quickly tells me what kind of shots to use.

The third example wasn't shot by me. It was shot by Andrew Cooper of Paramount Pictures, who happens to know a little something about photography, and has a tremendous responsibility to his employer to portray characters in exactly the right way. If you check out his work through your favorite search engine, you'll see he does a lot of people. That sensibility helped him determine how to stage this shot of one of the Bumblebee Camaros from Transformers 4. The attitude needed for this car is the same as a race car - lots and lots of attitude, heavy breath, danger, and foreboding. Imagine yourself walking through the African Savanna, when you happen across a lion laying down. He sees you. You know you're in trouble. But the real trouble begins when, still looking at you, he puts one paw in front of his body, and starts to get up! This is the moment you know some very bad, very unavoidable things are about to happen. That's the same attitude portrayed by having the wheel turned back, the tire ready to come right at you. This angle shows that this car is not to be trifled with; that it can devour your soul at the slightest provocation.

Now picture the Camaro or the Corvette being posed in the same way as the Shelby Mustang. The attitudes portrayed would be completely lost if the wheels had been turned, and both shots would be ruined. Yet it's perfect for the Shelby.

Now let's look at one last angle. This is Ted Parks's wonderful handbuilt roadster, the Varsity. This rear angle displays a very different aesthetic from shooting from the front or side. For a shot like this, I will invariably turn the steering wheel to show the wheel detail, as shown. I haven't yet come across a circumstance where I would show the tire from this angle instead of the wheel. But that doesn't mean it can't be done, it only means I haven't yet come up with a way to use it!

So keeping all that in mind, don't be afraid to deliberately break any rule - your shots will be better for it!

6 Secrets for Having Your Car Judged at an Indoor Show

There’s a lot to admire at a typical car show, and you want your entry to look at least as good as everyone else’s. And while there are many, many other tricks and tips to getting the best out of your car and the judging process, the below guidelines give you a great understanding of the basics of show judging. Some information for this section was provided by Eddie Potestio, an interior specialist for more than thirty years, and a respected judge in the Rocky Mountain Region for almost two decades.

1. Know the show rules! If you really want to place in the competition, you’ll need to know two items: First, ask the show organizer whether the judges are using the ISCA rulebook. This is the standard for most reputable competition shows other than concourse shows, which have multiple sets of rules for various classes. Those rulebooks and guidelines are too extensive to be listed here. Second, find out how the judges need your car displayed. For example, judges usually won’t open your hood if it’s closed, so if you want to show it off, open the hood, doors, and trunk.
Don’t worry about disturbing the clean lines of the car by having the hood open. That’s what the show card is for! Let Craig come up with one that is unique to your car. See some samples here

2. Leave your car open until the awards have been presented! The judges will come back to your car several times; first to decide what class it belongs in, then again to judge it, and perhaps two or three more times, to compare with other cars they’ve seen since they last peered into yours. A common mistake is to see the judges walk away from your car, assume they’re done, and close it all up. But when they come back, they can no longer see the engine work they were trying to compare to another car in your class, and that means you just lost the tie.
Let Craig help you with a show card display that lets people see the car in views they wouldn't normally see in the show itself. This can help you resist the temptation to keep changing the way your car looks during the show.

3. Clean farther than you can reach! Judges will inspect your work with a flashlight, and they’re trained to see dirt and inaccuracies that you might miss. That means you have to spend a great deal of time cleaning things that are difficult to see. Remember when you figured the lower firewall wouldn't be seen? The judges know in less than a second that you didn't clean it. Clean underneath, inside, and in between, not just the outside. Clean the entire distributor cap, all the fixtures around the engine bay, the carpeting up under the dash, all the way inside the wheelwells, the suspension, everything. If your car is driven, you’ll need to spend at least several hours cleaning it before the show. Don’t wait until show day to start this process.
Because it can take so much time to clean, Craig is happy to do the shoot for your car in-show, so you don’t have to go through the cleaning process more than necessary! Some of these examples were actually done in-show.

4. Carry a theme throughout the car! Classes are set up with very specific rules. If you put new wheels on your otherwise original AC Cobra, you’ve just lost your class. Once you make one change that will take you out of the stock categories, you may as well go all out with the mods, because you’re now competing with people who have done just that. In a restored class, having original equipment like a windshield won’t help your score if it looks less than brand new.
If you must have those wheels, put them on for a photoshoot, then put the originals back on for the show.

5. Don’t obscure the car with signs, pictures, or other memorabilia! The first thing a judge wonders when they see all the pictures laid out on the running board is “What are they hiding?” But they’re not going to remove your display to judge, either. So it will only hurt your score. Also, don’t make your display so complex, with dozens of trophies, plaques, excess machinery, or books that the judges will not want to get near the car. They don’t want to damage your car any more than you want them to, so they won’t take the chance. They’ll just stay ten feet away, and miss all the graphics you etched into the underside.
Craig can build a custom show card with a very sophisticated and polished look, and he can also give you guidance on an effective, unobtrusive display that can even include artwork based on your car.

6. Don’t make excuses – Learn something! A lot of owners and builders ask the judges later why they got the score they did. This is a necessary part of the show process, so don’t hesitate to talk to them afterwards. But… if a judge tells you about the sag in the fender paint he saw, don’t start in with the story of why you couldn’t get it just right. That simply indicates that you already knew about it, and were just hoping they wouldn’t see it. So why did you even ask, if you already knew the flaws? Instead, take that oppotrunity to realize that people will in fact see the things you hope they won’t, and you just need to work harder for the next show. It’s no big deal – every car has things wrong with it, even from the best builders in the world. Find the time to fix those things, and they’ll never be an issue again.
If your car has issues you can’t address, don’t worry. A photoshoot from Craig will address those concerns so that you won’t see those flaws in the final shots.

Competing for a trophy or other award is easy; winning is extremely difficult, and is a process that is best reserved for those who are willing to put in much more time than they originally thought would be necessary. Don’t be afraid of failure. Use that lesson to be better in the next show. Before you know it, you’ll be respected in the show community as someone who really knows what they’re doing.

All Right, Let's Do Something New

Wow, three years... where has this guy been?

Most of me has been laying low, but another part of me has been practicing with new outlets for "Art."

"Art," which from here on out will have implied quotes, is said by most to be subjective.  I think that's missing the real point, which is that an artist's popularity is not about their talent, nor about whether people enjoy their work, it's about marketing.  That's a very different tack than having their subject matter be subjective.

Take Andy Warhol for example; a person whose art is subject to more adoration and scrutiny than any other contemporary artist.  The scrutiny is well-deserved, and even he would have agreed.  He is known to have said that art is what you can get away with, and he got away with a lot.  So I'll do my best to use him as an example of what not to do in the art world:  I will not steal my work from others, I will be original.  I will not pretend that there is something deep when in fact there isn't.  Instead, I will actually make something with meaning.

After taking over 80,000 photos, and creating over three hundred works of art through that photography, it's time to rejoin the Human Race, so let's get started.  My next post will detail how to get through the judging process at a car show, and after that, some details about how I do what I do, and other posts about God knows what.

Let's get on it.