BMW M1: A legend of the 80’s

Over the past few years I’ve had the pleasure to shoot for prestigious automotive auctioneers such as RM Auctions, and Bonhams (thanks to my talented motorsport photographer friend Jamey Price). They specialize in fine automobiles, with cars rarely dropping below the $100,000 mark. At that point, it’s a bit insulting to call them just cars. Rather, I prefer the term “art.” Yes, I’m adding some cheese to this blog post.

BMW Performance Center 3-day shoot

Right across the street from BMW’s largest plant in the world, is a little slice of paradise dubbed the BMW Performance Center. From setting the longest drift record (51.278 miles) in an M5, riding a motorcycle over 30′ tall gravel hills, to leaning an X5 43° on an off-road obstacle course, this 134-acre facility is any car enthusiasts dream come true.

BMW M6 shot with a Phase One IQ160

“Do you shoot Canon or Nikon” is usually the first question I get after I tell someone I’m a photographer. I’ve been holding a Canon since I was 14. The main reason is because my dad had some old Canon lenses that (I thought) looked expensive, that’s it. Canon, Nikon, Sony, Pentex, whatever the camera, if you rely on the camera to do all your work you’re gonna have a bad day. They are all very nice and capable cameras. Granted I’d rather work with a camera made in 2013 compared to 2003, but still when images are compared side by side it’s arguably tough to tell what image was taken with a Canon, Nikon, etc. This is why the phrase “Wow! Your camera takes nice photos” makes photographers cringe. Case in point, here’s a video of Douglas Sonders rocking a cheap camera.

GMP Performance BMW M3 & X6

Next out of my camera is a super fresh and clean BMW M3 (E92) and X6 tuned by the guys at GMP Performance from Charlotte, NC. We got up in the wee hours of the morning to capture a nice rig shot smack in the middle of downtown Charlotte for the M3 (or uptown, as the locals call it). The 5am wake-up call was worth it, especially to see the looks we got from taking up 2 lanes of traffic with a long pole attached to a beautiful car… at 3mph… in the middle of downtown. From there we moved a few blocks down to take some static shots. I used a few new techniques on this set, enjoy!

Hamann BMW X6

Introducing one of the most confused cars on the planet. Car?… or is it a truck? No, an SUV for sure… but it can hardly go off-road (especially with those sweet ADV.1 wheels). Whatever the DMV calls it, I wouldn’t mind wheelin’ this one around on the weekend. This is a BMW X6 tuned by the fine performance shop GMP in Charlotte, NC. The same fellas that got a hold of the Bentley in the previous blog post. Again a real treat to shoot one of the cars from their stable.