Dalton and Rachel's Mustangs- Rolling Shots

It's funny how life works sometimes. I've seen Dalton and Rachel's Mustangs at car shows aplenty in the past, but they were like most of the other cars in the show: amazing machines, but faceless and without an owner. I could admire and tag photos on Instagram, but I wouldn't have a face-to-face conversation with the owner. 

Fast forward to the spring 2016 semester at ASU. One of my friends posts on her Snap story that she's riding in a Mustang; "Oh, ok" I thought and was about to quickly go through the story, until something caught my eye: what looked like an air tank in where the backseat should have been. Sure enough, the next photo was a red Mustang GT, the same Mustang GT I kept seeing at car shows. And that is how I met Dalton and got to know about the man behind the machine. Being a photographer himself as well and seeing my work, both Dalton and I vowed to set up a photoshoot. One day, at least, since we were both engineering students, meaning time was not abundant.

 Fast forward again to last weekend, and after enduring our classes, Dalton and I finally got a plan together to take photos. With a date made and a location and time set, it was going to finally happen. Then, Dalton let me know that his friend, Rachel, would also like photos. Turns out she's the owner of the now-Nardo Grey (or as she calls it, Nardo Gay) bagged Mustang that I would also see at car shows. And, I had also gotten to talk to her before at a Pavilions Meet, shortly before the police came to kick us out.  My friend volunteered to drive my car so I could take rollers, and we were all set.

We took the rolling shots on the way to the static photoshoot location. In hindsight, we realized we should have dedicated the entire evening to either rolling shots or static shots due to lighting, but alas, it is what it is. The rolling shots were at the perfect time of day, with the perfect amount of reflections and sun for tasteful lens flares and golden highlights. The trip though was short, only around half a dozen miles, and the opportunities to take photos were further reduced by the need to merge behind them to get into exit lanes. Our route was down the State Route 51 from Bethany Home Rd, down to the I-10 West until we exited at 7th Ave. Looking at a map, you can see that it's not the longest of trips. Still though, 3/4ths of my body was out the window of my car, much to probably the shock and confusion of the evening traffic behind us (which, funny enough, didn't dare try to pass any of us), and I got these shots. 

Stay tuned for the static shots, as well as more information and detail about the cars!

Transparent Hood Experiment

As a kid, one of the coolest illustrations of cars for me were cutaway diagrams which showed off the internals of the car- the engine, the suspension, etc. Perhaps there already was an engineer in my brain at that time that drew me to those types of images, but it's always interesting to look at everyday objects from a completely different perspective. There's so much more to a car than just its external appearance, hidden away under all that metal and plastic, a whole different world.

Reaching the level of being able to draw those cutaways will probably not happen for me, but with the magic of today's digital photography and editing software, it's possible to achieve similar effects. I've seen plenty of transparent hoods from photographer friends, and I decided that this summer, I was going to try it for myself. Well, summer is basically over, and I hadn't tried out this photography technique yet. So, I put aside the moving-in-and-getting-ready-for-class stress and activities for one evening to take these pictures of my dad's Mustang.

I knew that the procedure is actually pretty simple: take two pictures of the car from the same position, one with the hood down and one with the hood up, adjust each picture accordingly, and then blend the two images together in Photoshop. Luckily, I have an awesome photographer friend who also gave me tips on making the picture look much, much better than my original result (I wanted to focus on the engine only but made the transparency too tight on the engine itself, he told me to make it a more gentle fade/transition). Thanks Alex Schreer for your help! I will definitely be taking more shots like these in the future. Seeing the metal vanish to reveal the engineering below both makes my inner-engineer and inner-child smile in delight.

My favorite from my experiment, and also the picture that helped me get into the hang of making transparent hoods with the help of my friend. There's something magical about seeing beneath the metal to see the heart of the car beneath.

A closeup of the heart that lies hidden beneath the hood, glowing orange from the sunset.

Trying to be more creative with the angles so it's not just a straight-on shot or a close-up shot.

Wild West

While I may be out shooting multi-million dollar cars at car shows and listening to the rumbles of high-performance V12s, I can't forget the cars that I actually have access to. While I may be able to see LaFerraris and 918s, these are not my cars. I have no claim or right to them. Instead, my bonds lie with the cars I can drive and that I do have claims to. My personal car, a 2008 Honda Accord sedan (V6 5AT), will get a spot here soon, but in the mean time, here are some photos of my father's 2014 Ford Mustang GT that I took way back in the beginning of March.  

When my father said he was interested in the Mustang, I thought he was joking. He never liked American cars, and I knew that when it came to "retirement" cars, a muscle car was never on the list. But sure enough, my family and I went to the Ford dealership one day and test drove a Mustang GT. I have to say, on the test drive, even though it was a base model Mustang, I was impressed. So was my father and mother. All of my experiences with US cars have been rental cars, which meant the best I sampled was a 4 cylinder Malibu, which I was not impressed with at all compared to my Accord, to the echoes of why GM and Chrysler went into bankruptcy, a la PT Cruiser and Dodge Caliber- the less said about those cars, the better. However, the Mustang showed me that US cars had improved greatly. The quality of materials in the cabin were very good, comparable to Japanese cars, and the ride and seats were comfortable. The driving feel was great, and, of course, a huge V8 meant power, which the salesman encouraged us to use by flooring it on the freeway on-ramp.

I also got to test drive a Focus ST, which was also a very fun car. The salesman, who was also a manager, knew I have only had around 40 minutes of manual experience and was teaching me about it. But, we did not purchase the Focus as well, which the salesman was expecting anyways. So, talks returned to the Mustang.

After some paperwork and other discussions (I was not paying attention as I was messing around with the other display cars), my mother and I went home in the afternoon after all of the test drives, leaving my father at the dealership. Would he actually buy it?

Sure enough, that evening, he came home with one: a white 2014 Mustang GT Premium coupe. And I have to say, I love how it looks. The white color, which can look plain on some cars, looks great on the Mustang. I especially love how the white contrasts with the black on the back, and how in turn the black contrasts with the taillights. For some reason, it kind of reminds me of a raccoon, since it looks like a black mask over a pair of eyes.

I also love the overall design of the Mustang. The previous generation went with the "modern retro" look, but it never appealed to me. However, stretching around the dimensions and shapes on that design resulted in this one, and all of the minute details, from shortening but elongating the headlights and adding HIDs and DRLs, to rounding out the back, to making the car appear to be shorter and squatter, all make the car look fantastic to me.

And boy, it drives well. The V8 is super responsive and can either act tame and quiet when cruising, or can absolutely yell when floored. Plus, with the added Shelby exhaust and engine remapping (and cold-air intake, not that it's the +50hp contributor, we all know that comes from red paint), this Mustang sounds superb. The only drawback is that my father hates manual transmissions, so there are only two pedals. Still, that does not draw too much back from driving this car, since I can only tear it around the local freeways and streets. I hope to take it to the track one day and let it loose.

When I get the chance to take more photos of this car with a feature as the end goal, I will upload a better post about this car. Until then, enjoy the photos of this stallion roaming around the Wild West.