Porsche North Scottsdale

Last weekend was the final weekend for the Barrett Jackson auto auction, which, if you don't know what it is, is one of the largest automotive auctions in the world. While I'm not sure about the rest of the week, that weekend, all of the North Scottsdale car dealerships had some of the most enticing cars on display to draw people in. One of the dealerships, Porsche North Scottsdale, had an especially attractive lineup. 

One of the cars they had, although not on public display, was a Porsche 918 Spyder painted in Acid Green. I was told that the green is even more vibrant, with a shimmering effect, when clean (the car had a layer of dust on it from being stored), however, the color was still extremely intense. It's a unique color for a unique car, and I hope to see it again. The garage setting, I think, really suits it well for photos.

Back outside the dealership, a Porsche 911 GT3RS (991) painted in Ultraviolet was parked next to another Porsche 918. The position the two cars were parked in made for some great shots of them together. The sales manager of the dealership, Marcus, told me that for every one Ultraviolet GT3RS sold, there are 10 Lava Orange models sold. So, not only is Ultraviolet striking, it's also one of the rarer colors. It truly is an in-your-face color, and in my opinion, with a car like the GT3RS, you should have a color that loudly declares your presence.

This 918 (the 911 picture thrown in this gallery is present because I had nowhere else appropriate to put it; I didn't want to make a new gallery for it) is special. The 918 is already an endeavor in performance, technology, and hearts, but this car takes it to the extreme. The matte color you see here is not paint. Instead, it's a wrap, straight from the factory. Why a wrap? By wrapping the car instead of painting it, 13 pounds (5.9 kilograms) was shaved from the total weight. While that may not seem like a lot, when you're trying to create the ultimate performance car, every milligram counts. This philosophy is transferred to the wheels, which are a $50,000 magnesium alloy option (although Road and Track is saying it's $32,500, but hey, what's that compared to a million dollar car?), which saves 4 pounds (1.8 kilograms) per wheel over the standard wheels. Hence, while the 918 is a special car, this car is even more special, being one-of-one with the equipped options. 

Having spent way more time at all of the dealerships, I told myself that I was done and I would go home like I said I would two hours ago. Except, this Lava Orange GT3RS caught my eye due to its positioning on the sidewalk. So, I snapped some more quick photos of it, overlooking the dealership. 

To be honest, I was never a fan of Porsche as a child, most likely because my father isn't a fan and Porsche was only in EA racing games like Need for Speed, not any others like Gran Turismo (which I played a lot of). However, after seeing the duo of 918s and 991s, you can say they've grown on me. Here's to one day seeing the other three 918s in the Valley that I have not yet seen!

Adventures in Scottsdale During Barrett Jackson- Preview

With Barrett Jackson in town, the dealerships in North Scottsdale (specifically, Scottsdale Ferrari/Maserati, Lamborghini/Bentley/Aston Martin North Scottsdale, Rolls Royce Scottsdale, Porsche North Scottsdale, and Schumacher Mercedes are the ones I visited and took photos at), had all the stops put out for the auction crowds to come in and look at. Since I'm a college student, and Barrett Jackson costs money, I did not go to it this year, but I still had plenty of fun looking at these amazing cars at the dealerships. Here's a preview of the pictures I took. How many cars can you spot? All the photos will be up soon!

Tempe Town Lake Night Portraits

I decided to edit these pictures first before the qipao photos (which would be the Part 2 of the Chinese Cultural Center Portrait shoot) because a) I've never done a night portrait shoot before and I was anxious to see the results and share them, and b) I really liked these because I thought they looked badass. So here we are. After the daylight left and we messed around some more, my friend and I decided to brave the cold (more her than me since she was still wearing her dress) and try some night portraits. Tempe Town Lake is pretty at night, as long as you don't look at the water, and I thought the bridge lights, artificial lighting, and her jacket would all match very well together in photos. Leaning against a pole looking badass was the first round of shots here. I used my speedlight on a low light setting and a very high angle (like 60 or 70 degrees) with a bounce card to shoot these in addition to a low shutter speed (from 1/40-1/20 seconds), with the camera of course mounted on a tripod. 

Of course, all these shots were far away, and my friend wanted to try some ones that were closer. I have to say, these are my favorites, they really make her look badass, in my opinon (not that she isn't already). 

Moving on from the light pole, we decided to just do standing shots. Also, since all the other ones were serious, we threw in some smiling pics into the mix. For these, I didn't use a flash, instead I used a much lower shutter speed (1/15-1/10 sec or so), which I didn't think would work but the results speak for themselves. I'm not sure if I like them better or not though. Trial and error will tell me what to do in the future.

Oh, and because I also had a leather jacket, she wanted me to pose with her in our leather jackets so we can be badass together. These used the same flash settings as the first pictures, with me using the camera's timer to take the photos. We're about to drop our newest mixtape, yo.

Of course, I couldn't just let the images go without some artistic editing. Here's my artistic license applied to the pics.

Here's to hanging out and taking more pictures in the future. Thanks for your help, my friend!

Chinese Cultural Center Portrait Shoot Pt. 1

It seems like this is going to be a tradition now, as my good friend and I hung out and had a portrait shoot this Winter Break while she was back home from U of A (ew). Because she brought her qipao while she was in Taiwan, we decided to go take pictures in the Chinese Cultural Center since the Chinese theme would carry over into the environment. Of course, we had to take pictures of her in her dress though, so that came first. Lighting wasn't ideal in the garden because neither of us realized that the buildings nearby blocked a lot of the sun out, and we only had around an hour before sunset to shoot. Since there was still some pretty strong sunlight towards the walkway to the lake in the garden, I decided to try to take some shots where the sunlight would naturally create a lens flare and kind of wash out the image. It.... kinda worked, some instances better than others.

With all of the imitation architecture nearby though,we shifted taking photos to here. The windows allowed for those classic window poses, including looking out the window and sitting in the window frame. I had a few more shots, but they were too overexposed for me to save without the colors looking horrendously unnatural. As you can see, we had a lot of fun.

We couldn't ignore the pond with the koi though, so we took the first picture here. However, the sunset and reflection off the water made the sunlit parts in the original picture way overexposed and everything else way underexposed; I tried my best to correct for it. And, since I had my friend sitting on the railing and the sun was still up, I tried to get those dramatic pictures where the subject's head is right in front of the light source. I think it worked well.

Going back to the bridge and pondside, I thought a "attitude" shot was in order since she was wearing boots. But also, since she was also wearing a dress and I thought it would suit the environment we were shooting in, I thought that getting shots without any footwear on would be appropriate, too, as if one is kicking off their shoes to relax in a nice place like this. 

There are still some photos left from this shoot I need to edit, so stick around for them soon!

McLaren Scottsdale

Being on Winter Break has given me much-needed time to decompress from school, in addition to catch up on photography. This Winter Break I wanted to try to expand my photography a little more, and I decided that Scottsdale is full of cool people and nice car dealerships, so I wonder if I could go anywhere there. Thus, this is how I ended up at the McLaren Auto Gallery in Scottsdale, due to hearing that they had McLaren 675LTs. With a big, appreciative thank you to the General Manager, Gina, and technician Krystian, I was able to take pictures of the brand new McLaren 570S and the limited production McLaren 675LT, as well as see the other four 675LTs present. 

I'll admit that at first, when I saw pictures of the 570S online, I wasn't a fan of the design. It just looked odd to me. However, seeing one in person changed that completely. I find it interesting how there are a lot of design cues reminiscent of the McLaren P1, like the swooping, multi-edged sides, the mirrors, the round greenhouse, and the rounded, LED strip taillights, with diffuser underneath.  Sharing the same heart, albeit detuned, as its older brothers the 650S and P1, its 3.8L twin turbo V8 still makes a healthy 562hp@7400rpm and 443lb-ft@5000rpm. This could be heard as the engine turns on, since I heard it start up several times when cars in the garage had to be moved around for the various work tasks that had to be accomplished that day. And of course, it has plenty of genes from Formula One, such as the carbon fiber tub that forms the basis of the car, the 7 speed gearbox, and all of its other go-fast software and hardware.

As special as the 570S is, however, it was not the star in my eyes of my visit. After all, McLaren hopes to produce 5000 of these per year, making it the "volume supercar" for them, like the Gallardo/Huracan is to Lamborghini. No, instead, the "star" of my visit is the McLaren 675LT. Only 500 were produced, and McLaren Scottsdale had a whopping five LTs at their dealership, including one with a special paintjob that looks like Mexico Blue. However, the one in the garage that I could take pictures of (well, there was a blue one in the showroom as well, but the positions I could take photos of that were a bit restricted) was this beautiful grey example with orange seats and brake calipers. Pictures don't give its aggressiveness proper justice. The diffuser is massive, as well as the splitter and spoiler. The exhausts, once nicely integrated into the body work on the 650S, now jut out in an "in-your-face" manner to remind you that this is no 650S with a bodykit on it. 

The 675LT gets its name from two sources. The LT, LongTail, designation comes from McLaren's 1997 F1 GTR "LongTail", approriately named as it was McLaren's FIA Homolgation model that featured a very long tail with its direct-from-racing aerodynamics. The 675 comes from its increased power output of 675PS, which, interestingly (and I find appropriate), is 666hp.  Meanwhile, to fit into that new, aggressive aero package, the 675LT lost 220lbs/100kg compared to the 650S, with 40% more downforce helping glue the car to the road. With a 0-60mph time of 2.9s, 0-100mph time of 7.9s, and a top speed of 205mph, the car performs as amazingly as it looks. 

I have to say, originally I did not have much of an opinion on the 675LT. But, after seeing it and hearing it in person, as well as talking to Krystian about it, I love it. It really is an amazing synthesis of performance and engineering.

And again, thank you Gina and Krystian for letting me take pictures at your dealership!