I took a bit of time to think about what to do about this blog post. Should I separate it into its separate pieces: on photography, on the shoot itself, and on being a lover of cars? Should I keep it all together and run the risk of lacking cohesiveness or an overall theme? Should I even make a post about creative block?

Then I decided to just write whatever I wanted because regardless of organization, as long as it makes some sense and is grammatically correct I am happy. This will be an exercise in self-reflection and going past the photos into what goes on in the mind. We’re going to be introspective.

Part 1: Creative Block
Creative block is new to me as I’ve only been doing photography for about 3 years. Sure, you can experience block earlier, but I never really had issues previously. Every artist at some point experiences a creative block where they can’t create new content. Is it good enough to post? Am I actually improving? Is my content actually good? Do people actually care? I’m sure many who pursue a creative outlet have asked themselves this question.

For me personally, it hit earlier this year when I dusted off the camera and went to a few events to shoot. I particularly remember the Edmonton Motorshow and Driven Calgary as somewhat difficult to enjoy and photograph. One of the reasons was that I wasn’t sure if my content was going to be any “better” (heavily subjective) or of decent quality for people to care. Looking back at the photos, I’d describe them as generally quite vanilla. Same angles, same overall editing procedure/presets, same cars. Imagine doing that for 3 years and you’ll start to wonder why this problem hasn’t cropped up earlier.

With any problem, there’s a variety of factors involved. Is the car scene just stale and seeing the same thing over and over again disrupting creative flow and imagination? Am I becoming jaded? At this point I’m asking more questions than providing answers so I’ll say that it’s a combination of the above.

Focusing on how I’m jaded, a lot has to do with the process. I do think that having a streamlined process is essential to success, especially if you’re being paid (fun fact: I have never made money doing photography…yet). However, there is also the issue of following the same steps, using the same angles, doing the same things. Same camera settings, same locations, same shots. A lot of it can’t be helped. Driven shows are at the same locations every year and no one has enough money to buy a new car and modify it to show every year. But that’s where you have to look outside the box. Are shows the only place you can stretch your creative muscles and shoot?

Part 2: On being a “Car Enthusiast”

Being an enthusiast means different things to different people. In the same way that there are many different niches and many different budgets builds, there are many ways to enjoy car culture. But regardless if you enjoy stance, drift, track/racing, form>function or function>form, there is a community aspect that many people want to become part of and contribute to.

Every car enthusiast eventually finds a group of people that share the same values, enjoy the same things, and care enough about each other to spend time together. Thankfully I’ve found this through the TT Auto extended family, but one thing I’ve realized is like a good relationship, it’s a give and take. I tend to run with the flow and follow, but sometimes you’ve got to take matter in your own hand. Ergo, arrange a photo session yourself and find people to show up and have fun.

Part 3: On Flexibility

The great part about setting your own rules and just parking some cars somewhere and shooting them is flexibility. You aren’t restricted by environment, or the number of people walking into your frame. Go early in the morning or later in the evening and your blessed with soft lighting and less traffic. The world is your oyster. The biggest thing I forgot is about being a photographer and car enthusiast is exploring. Different environments, different camera settings, different angles. You can become so set in your ways that you forget the joy of learning how to take pictures.

Part 4: The photo day

Enter June 30, 2019. The past few days were plagued with rain, the next few days would be as well. However, the forecast for the day would be sunny with mixed clouds. Perfect. Cavie (who owns Terence’s old LS400) and I got together at 8am for a morning shoot at Emily Murphy Park. I chose this location for 2 reasons: I’ve never shot here minus some very old fall photos, and the abundant foliage filters the light nicely. The area we parked was near deserted too, giving me plenty of time to play with the camera settings.

There was more than enough light so I decided to use a mix of low and high apertures with the 55mm F/1.8 Zeiss. There’s no point using F/1.8 for a shallow depth of field if you’re shooting a whole car (or two). The F-stop in these photos ranged from 2.8-8.

Shooting with friends or just fewer cars in general is that you can stage them however you like. Parking the cars in different ways can open up more angles as well as more photos overall to shoot and pick from.

The next stop was a parkade that took forever for me to find. Without disclosing the location (although the more astute among you probably already know where it is), it’s the parkade with the big spiralling ramps that look incredible in photos. I’m talking about this one:

A quick drive over the river in the warm morning light and we were there. I managed to also snag a few photos on the way (don’t shoot and drive, folks!)

Upon arriving at the parkade, the entrance was blocked due to construction. Cavie suggested we circle the parking structure for an alternate entrance. Luckily on the other side, the entrance was open. Win! We then decided to take a few photos in the parkade before reaching the top. After some driving around, I decided on a spot in the corner with some light spilling in from outside.

Once we reached the top, we were shocked how nice it was! newly finished pavement, white walls, fresh lines, and a great view.

After this series of photos, I looked around the parkade and found a nice spot to park near a small puddle. I know that many photographer have really cool shots of cars being reflected in the water so I wanted to try my hand at the same type of shot. I would also be able to get high up above the cars for an overhead view as well!

The next 2 shots are likely my favorite 2 photos of the entire day. The shallow puddle reflecting the wheels on the car with the perfect lighting and focus. I switched to the 24-70mm Zeiss for flexibility in framing. It was a tight fit to get the reflection and wheel in the shot.

The one on the right is going to be my phone wallpaper for the next little while!

We then parked our cars on the spiral ramp and took some more photos. These honestly didn’t come out exactly as I had imagined. The angles are hard to work with when they’re parked on such a steep decline. Still very different from my usual shots though, so it’s another victory for trying something new.

Our parkade shoot finished with us driving down the aforementioned spiral only to find that it was blocked off. We then spent the next 5 minutes painstakingly reversing up the spiral ramp to find an alternate exit. It turns out, there are actually 2 spiral ramps. The one from the top is blocked off, but the one that exits in the middle is open. Needless to say, we managed to get out safely and without curbing any rims.

I then headed home to switch cars. Rarely do we get many 911s at the shop and with a friend’s recent 997 acquisition, Terence’s old 997, and the recently completed RWB Edmonton #2 build, I decided this was a good a chance as any to get as many Porsches together for a photoshoot.

I then hung out with Terence and Theresa a bit before heading home and hammering out the edits.

Part 5: Conclusion

I feel that with any hobby or creative activity there’s a point where you either lose interest completely or fall in love with again. So many of the things we are interested are labors of love and like any relationship, they come with ups and downs. Photography has been an outlet for creativity and now a space for self-reflection. I feel that I’ve learned that you don’t have control over everything in photography (lighting, weather, other people) but there are enough factors that you do have control over that if you really want to take a good photo, you make it happen. Having the flexibility to do what you need to do to get the shot and enjoying the process start to finish is what makes photography so enjoyable.

If I were to leave any aspiring photographers with any advice (which is a bit ironic since I very much consider myself amateur), it would be to take as many opportunities to shoot and don’t be afraid to take new approaches and angles to photography you’re familiar with. There’s no better way to learn than to do!

Cheers,
Gary