A Work of Art
Mind you the title does not reflect the pictures I took of this car, but the car itself. The Ferrari 360 that replaced the Ferrari F355 and featured a entirely new all-aluminum space-frame chassis a new Pininfarina body styling that broke ranks with the Ferrari models of last decade’s sharp angles and flip-up headlights, replacing them with a rounded appearance that harkened to the 1960s can only be described as just that. A work of art. Now, I’ve never had much of a relationship with Ferrari’s, as the are rarely seen here in Norway, but I guess I have to admit that they’ve been subject to more than one automotive fantasy of mine.
So, when my friend Bernhard over at Brynildsen Autospa got this 360 Modena in for a thorough detailing I just had to stop by. Now, as I said, the pictures I took of this car can’t be described as anywhere near work of art, but then again I don’t think any pictures really does this Ferrari justice. The precence it gives, from the delicate lines and from it’s sheer size isn’t easy to capture on camera. Neither is the incredible sound of the 3.6 litre V8 displayed under a glass the glass hood. It doesn’t even have to pass halfway through its 10 000 rpm range before it gives you goosebumps. Absolutely amazing!
Now, I promised you guys a full shoot on the car some time ago, but unfortunately I had to do another last minute shoot with a Jaguar that day, and by the time I got to the Ferrari it was all most midnight and we were loosing light rapidly. In addition to the fact that shooting a black car at night isn’t easy I had to go home and pack for my vacation to Spain. So you’ll have to to with these three images… sorry…
Oh yeah, while you are at it. Check out Bernhards thread on the detailing over at Detailers Club Norway to see another work of art. The text there is in norwegian, but the pictures he put up shows that work he did on the car can be described as a work of art in itself.
Audi Urquattro – Feature
Earlier this year I had the chance to shoot this beautiful Audi Urquattro just outside of Oslo. Having production number 296 out of 898 produced in total the car is rare it self, but what’s rarer is the condition it is in.
Fully rebuilt with OEM parts, most parts under the car powder coated and the exterior paint wet sanded twice the car is absolutely immaculate. Sitting on H&R springs and Bilsteins shocks and rolling on 16X9 Schmidt Revolutions the car has maintained it’s rally heritage. Also, the 1994 Audi RS2 engine swap doesn’t hurt neither the heritage or perfomance. Beeing a most trustfull guy the owner gave us the keys, told us to have fun and left us with the car for hours. I won’t tell you how fast we went in it, but let’s just say it wasn’t the car that chickened out and let of.
This set was shot for Treffpunkt magazine and got both the cover (with the most cheesy composite sky ever) and a 4 page spread. All exterior pictures are shot with natural light and the Canon 70-200 2.8 IS and the interior and engine ones are lit with 2-3 Canon flashes. I hope you enjoy. And do browse to the bottom, there’s a bonus picture for you guys there ;)
There are some more pictures on flickr, you get there by clicking either image. Larger ones can also be viewed there. Hope you enjoy them
Back in the Days
I really need to add another element to my work-flow, I need to delete more pictures. You see, usually when I return home from a shoot I go through the pictures and delete the ones that really suck. Then I go through them again and flag the ones I want to put through whatever post processing necessary. That usually leaves me with enough pictures for a full set to send of to the client and post to the blog. Over the course of a year it also leaves me with several thousand pictures that never gets to serve any other purpose than take up space on my hard drive and make me spend countless hours purging my archives.
Now, going back to look at old shoots can be useful though. I can see how I’ve progressed as a photographer and how my pp-skills have evolved. And I might find an image that really should have been put to better use than just being buried deep down in the archives, like yesterday when I browsed through the images of Bjørn’s extremely clean ’55 Chevy 210.
Originally this shot wasn’t included in the batch I sent to the client, but with some minor editing I feel it came out pretty nice. Also, seeing how many hits I get from the searches on ’55 Chevy’s I want to share.
Gatebil at Rudskogen
Just a couple of pics from this weekends coverage of the infamous Gatebil event held at Rudskogen in Norway. I was there shooting for Performance Ford, and what a weekend it was!
Between breaking my 70-200 L 2.8 IS lens, buying a 25$umbrella, catching a cold and getting caught and fined 500$ by the police for speeding on my way home I managed to take some 1200 pictures. Stay tuned for more pictures.
Mediterranean Wind
Sirocco is a Mediterranean wind that comes from the Sahara and reaches hurricane speeds in North Africa and Southern Europe. Scirocco is also the model Marius chose when he decided he wanted an newer Volkswagen than his old trusty Mk2 VR6. I’ve shot this cars before, but it wasn’t until recently I got to do a full feature shoot with it for Treffpunkt Magazine, and I’ll give you a quick writeup on the modifications as well.
Marius bought the car brand and it was one of the first to be delivered in Norway. Marius wasted no time and started modifying his Candy White 1.4TFSI the moment he got it from the dealer. Coilovers were fitted and a set of snow tires were sourced in order to try the car out. When the snow melted 19×8,5 Porsche 997 Turbo rims replaced the snow tires and it didn’t go long before he also got hold og some massive 6pot Porsche Cayenne Turbo brakes to match the rims.
Stopping power was now adequate for Marius’ frequent visits to local tracks with the Scirocco, but he wasn’t content with the handling even though the car already sat on H&R Monotube coilovers. A set og H&R Sway bars took care of that, and the 1.4 160 bhp car surprised a lot of high power cars with its superior handling at the tracks.
Clicking on either one of the pictures will bring you to the set on flickr where you can view the pictures even bigger.
Oh yeah, also worth mentioning is that the car is up for sale. Check out the listing and hurry if you want to buy it. I’ve heard there are several others that want the car!
Static Awesomeness
As I told you in my previous post I have some trouble taking decent show pictures. I’m way more comfortable with a proper photo shoot where you can control the surroundings to a greater extent. Fortunately I got the chance to do some of those when in Worthersee. I met up with Russel from KlutchOnline and was lucky to tag along to shoot this insane Audi RS6. I had seen it driving around around the lake an couldn’t help being blown away by it’s presence. But seeing it up close and realizing the drop over those huge 21″ AMG wheels was static made the car even more insane.
The French owner and his friends were great guys, but the task of producing images that would do the car justice seemed quite impossible. So impossible I’ve even put of processing the pictures for a long time. I just didn’t know how to do them. But watching a movie the other day I knew how they had to look. The RS6 is just like the main character in the movie Book of Eli featuring Denzel Washington- Understated, yet immensely powerful! I knew I had to do more post work to them than I usually do and If you’ve seen them movie you can tell me if you think i succeded in recreating some of the mood from the film.
More pictures in the KlutchOnline Feature and on my Flickr and clicking the pictures will make you able to view them larger.
Overdue…
I’ve finally been able to go through some of my Wörthersee pictures. One of the reasons for putting of going through them, apart from being really busy lately, is that I really suck at this kind of photography. Usually I do recognize a good photo opportunity when I see it, but when I’m at at show I enjoy being there to much so I forget about taking pictures… So with that being said, here they are, more holiday snapshots than award winning pictures.
But take them for what they are and I hope you enjoy them.
Cabriolicious
Still behind on my shots from Wörthersee, I’ve managed to edit some pictures I took of this nice Dutch Mk1 Cabriolet at Pyramidenkogel. Pyramidenkogel is a mountain located to the south of the Wörthersee, near the town of Maria Wörth and has one of the most beautiful views I’ve ever seen. We were up there sightseeing one day and I took some panorama shots I’ll make sure you guys get to see on another occasion. Anyways, Russel from KLUTCH had contacted Twan Niemeijer to shoot his 92 Cabrio and we all went at it on this picturesque spot near the observation and broadcasting tower at the top of the mountain.
Click on either of the pictures to see some more shots Jordan from Klutch and I did of the car, or visit this link to read more about the car and see Russel’s pictures from the shoot.
Top Of The World
Yesterday may not have made me feel quite on top of the world, but I was close, and I felt it made a good title for the first picture in this post.
See, yesterday I did several things I rarely do. First of all I gave my car a thorough clean and a fresh coat of some quality Swissvax products which made it really nice and shiny. Furthermore, the weather was nice, I’d almost gotten the stance dialed in to match my new ROTIFORM BLQ’s and the camera was in the back of the car. So I decided to shoot some quick pictures of my own car. I did them just outside the my friends garage where we did the detailing of the car so the location could have been more exciting. But I like the pictures nevertheless, they’re sort of like my car, clean and simple :p
There are some more pictures up on KLUTCH, so head on over there to see them if you are curious. Also, don’t be shy to stop over by ROTIFORM’S site to see some more of their awesome wheels.
Norwegian Wood
This weekend I attended what must be Norway’s biggest Vw & Audi meet at Vålerbanen in the middle of the Norwegian woods. Not as big as the infamous Gatebil events, but still a great turnout with more than 100 cars doing their thing at the track, even more attending the show and shine on Sunday and lots of great people just hanging out and enjoying themselves.
I was really more occupied catching up with old friends, working on my tan ( which resulted in a massive sunburn) and generally having a good time. I still need to work on my panning skills, but I managed to squeeze of some hundred decent shots.
I have a huge backlog of pictures from Austria so I don’t know when I’ll be able to go through the frames from this weekend, but I’ve managed to upload some shots to this album. More will be added later. but not sure when.
Either way, no post without images so here they are.
Hello Mini
Pewh! I’ve gotta tell ya, since returning from Austria I’ve been swamped in work. But between editing shots for several editorials, writing articles, doing “real” work and having a fire at my apartment I found time to shoot this nice little Mini Cooper S.
The car belongs to Nina Marie, which you might remember from this post and is, although not dressed in a very masculine color, a really nice piece of machinery. Equipped with a supercharged 1,6 litre engine the car is quite fast, and you just gotta love the sound of the supercharger when you accelerate. And even with stock suspension and those powder coated stock 17″ rims the car handles surprisingly well also!
I’m really pleased with these shots. I’ve been wanting to to the high key thing for some time now and think I pulled it of nicely. The car was consequently lit with 3 canon flashes triggered with the Elinchrome Skyports.
Unfortunately I had no time to do any interior shots, which is a shame, because the interior is just as good looking as the exterior. But I shot these pictures all the for the guys out there which might not like the Hello Kitty inspired exterior color ;)
I don’t really feel the last two pictures suit the set, and would have loved to shoot them on the first location to tie them closer to the others. But I hope you enjoy them anyway.
A couple of extra shots can be found in this set over at flickr. You can also access the full size shots directly by clicking on them and choosing “all sizes” .
The New Audi A1
One of the real treats when going to the Wörthersee event is to visit Volkswagen and Audi’s big official displays. Built from scratch in the middle of Reifnitz each year they just seem to get bigger and more exclusive each year.
This year the Audi display focused on their new compact, the A1 showing of 9 modified and personalized A1′s. As I had seen the cars a couple of days prior when Audi brought them to a small meet in Schiefling, I was already impressed by the new model, but seeing the show they put on on their display made me more exited. Check out the pictures below to see why ;)
Check out the full gallery from the show over at www.klutchonline.com by clicking here or either one of the pictures.
Home from Wörthersee
Ahh, just got back from one of the best trips I’ve ever been on. Got tons of pictures to go through before they’ll be posted here or on www.klutchonline.com.
Just wanted to chime in and share this picture I shot of this brand new Norwegian MkIV Golf R that had driven a breathtaking 2500 kilometers just to be at Wörthersee! Talk about dedication!
Make sure you stop by the blog over the next week or so for more pictures from Wörthersee!!!
At the See
Just another quick post from Wörthersee to tell you guys we’re having a blast. Posting a couple of pictures and writing a few words here doesn’t really do this thing justice. But I’ll give it a try anyway… Just imagine everything you guys like, then put it all in a beautiful surroundings, multiply the amount of fun you think you can have by 10 and you’re close.
Shell Velden, probably the most “famous” meeting point here gathers thousand of people from early morning to late night and is just crazy. Words can’t even describe the feel you get when you pull into there long with insane cars from all over Europe.
We’ve also been to Schiefling a couple of times which is almost as crazy as the Shell in Velden. Modified cars litter the streets and parking lots there and everyone is just enjoying themselves.
Audi even stopped by the other day showing of 7 of their new A1′s, each on modified by the factory. Imagine that…
Yesterday we met up with the guys from www.klutchonline.com and shot some amazing Dutch cars. The Mk1 Cabrio is one of the cleanest one I’ve ever seen, And the Mk3 with the R32 swap was just insane. Check out www.klutchonline.com for more pictures soon.
Location: Wolfsburg
Just a quick post from the hotel in Wolfsburg, Germany. Left Oslo, Norway at 05:30 this morning and arrived here sometime around 19:00. Had to stop by the Volkswagen HQ and snap a quick pic of the car we’re driving.
A quick beer now before we hit the bunks and get up early tomorrow to go to Wörthersee. Stay tuned.
Audi A4 Allroad – Road Test for Treffpunkt Magazine
I know I should have put these pictures up earlier, but I’ve been swamped lately and haven’t gotten around to it before now.
Anyways, in addition to taking pictures, I sometimes write articles as well. Earlier this year I had the pleassure of having the Audi A4 Allroad for a week or so to do a road test for Norwegian VW- Audi Magazine Treffpunkt. As always, I had planned the location for the pictures in advance and everything was looking to go down smoothly. But again, the weather managed to put sticks in my wheels and the day of the shoot clouds rolled in and made everything into one dull gray mass. Shooting in the snow is hard as it is, add the boring clouds and the way they make everything really flat and dull looking and you’ve got yourself a real challenge. Still I feel I pulled the pictures off nicely.
Most of the pictures were lit with 2-3 Canon flashes placed of camera and triggered with my skyports.
The article ran as a 4 page spread which I’m pleased with. Even made washing the car 5 times in a weekend worthwhile :p
There are a couple of more shots in this set on flickr
More Trackday Pictures
I’ve finally found time to process the pictures from the trackday in the previous post, Felt I had to post them as soon as possible, so the colors are a bit inconsistent, but I guess they’ll do.
Please link back to the www.naess.net if you post the pictures on forums or other websites
Location, Location, Location
Whenever I browse the web for inspiration I notice all the great locations people seem to find. Underpasses, bridges, parking garages with rooftop access, epic industrial areas, graffiti walls, deserted roads, cityscapes or whatever, for me the location can make or break a great automotive shot. It doesn’t matter how great you are with the camera as long as the location is unexciting.
Whenever I’m out driving I’m on the lookout for good locations, but Oslo where I do most of my work isn’t a big city and locations like that are scarce. especially locations with a cityscape for background. I’ve found some with a great view of the city, but most aren’t accessible with a car. However, just down the road from where I live there’s a small parking that could do the trick, so on my way home tonight I decided to take a look.
I did some quick shots with my own car to test the location and can’t really say I’m to pleased with it. Lighting was rushed, is uneven and the car was no longer as clean as I thought. But with the right car, a slightly higher vantage point and some proper lighting, it might just work.
Audi A5 featured in Treffpunkt
You’ve seen this car on my blog before, but I’m finally able, and pretty proud, to post the full set from the shoot last September. I was sitting on these until they were published in Treffpunkt Magazine this week. (Ok, so I might have posted them at a photography site last year to get some feedback on them, but don’t tell anyone… ) As before, the car is a Caractere kitted Audi A5 3.0 Tdi S-line. I think the owner checked all the options on the list and then some. With the Caractere kit and rolling on a set of staggered 20″ Petrol Traviata rims the result is awesome!
Treffpunkt is a quarterly magazine published by VW-Audi Club Norwegen and distributed to around 6000 members of the club. Treffpunkt has recently received a big change layout-wise, and I’m actually stoked about getting these images in the first issue with the new layout. Mag looks really professional now! Even made the cover, yay! Make sure to visit Red Rabbits, the design company behind the new layout to see some of their other awesome stuff!
But I digress, back to the shoot…
I’m usually not to happy about my own work, but these I like. Sure, there is a ton of stuff that can be improved, but I really feel they work well together as a set, and the location suits the car. Seeing them on print in the 4 page article in Treffpunkt made me like them even more, even though they had to be cropped a bit to suit the layout. I might even go as far as to say they are my best work to date…
Also, I’ve gotta give a huge thanks to Andreas, the owner who was extremely patient and put up with all my directions and swearing during the shoot. Here’s a bonus shot just for you!
Hope you all liked the pictures, check them out on flickr to view them larger by clicking on them.
Ice Racing in Sweden
Sorry for the lack of updates lately. I’ve been super busy editing photos for 4 upcoming features that had deadline this past week and just finished the pictures below.
I went to Sweden last weekend for some pretty nifty ice racing action. The place was Funäsdalen, a quiet valley which got invaded by Volkswagen Audi Club Norwegen members as their annual winter meet was held. Varying from old Volkswagen Golfs to brand new Audi RS4′s the cars gave it a go at a 3,6 km long track on a frozen lake.
Shooting conditions varied as well, from blue skies to completely overcast, which made taking pictures challenging but I managed to take some 1500-2000 exposures during Saturday. The best ones are to be printed in Treffpunkt, Volkswagen Audi Club Norwegen’s own magazine, but I’ve uploaded some of the outtakes that can be viewed here.
Here are some of the shots as well, hope you enjoy them.
Jeg har hatt enorm pågang fra deltagere på treffet som vil ha bilder. Jeg kan dessverre ikke sende bilder til alle da det rett og slett blir for mye jobb. Men, er du virkelig interessert kan bildene kjøpes i full størrelse og bedre kvalitet for 300 kr pr stk. Du får da bildet tilsendt på mail. Ønsker du plakat eller annen utskrift ordner jeg det også. Ta kontakt på mail joachim@naess.net for bestilling eller priser på print.
Swiss Alps
…is where this picture was taken…
Digging through the archives today to make myself a portfolio book I found this shot from when we we headed down to the Worthersee Show in Austria last year. I must have missed it when I reviewed the shots from the trip, because I really feel this needs to be shared :)
I’ll try to do some photos of the portfolio book and post up some day as well.
Blown Out of Proportions…
This summer I was approached by the good guys behind Australian magazine AutoSalon and asked if I could do some shoots for them. The first car up is this white Subaru Impreza Wrx built and owned by A nice chap named Bjørnar here in Norway. Being an ex-Petter Solberg company car Bjørnar sure didn’t put the cars racing pedigree to shame as he took it from a nice weekend track car to the full out race car you see here.
I met up with Bjørnar at his buddy Auduns workplace where we were to shoot the car early in September. The location was really awesome and even had an indoor train…
The car was consequently lit with three canon flashes triggered by Skyports and fired through either umbrellas or diffusers. For the most part I used two of the flashes to light the side of the car and one on either the front or rear depending on what angle I shot from. On this shot though, One was placed inside the car and the two others on either side of the car.
Never tried to shoot this car without modifiers on the flashes, but I may have avoided some of the umbrella reflections you see here had I tried.
As I said before, this car has evolved to a full blown race car over a short periode of time. This might not be all that obvious from the outside, but this picture with the rear door out of the way shows what I’m talking about…
I’m really pleased on how the pictures came out, and it looks like AutoSalon was to, as they ran several of them in a 8 page article in their December issue.
The pictures ran with little or none postprocessing in the magazine, but I gave them a quick edit each before I uploaded them to flickr today. You can check out the pictures on flickr by clicking them, and I you do happen to live in Australia you can probably pick up a copy of the magazine at your local newsagents.
I’ll try to get a link to the cars project thread from the owner and post it here later, so be sure to check back in here if you’re a Scooby fan.
Playing an old tune
With the snow falling outside I can’t help myself longing for the summer. seeing as it’s only december and the snow won’t disappear until say March/April this might just be a long winter…
Anyway. I keep going back to the photos I took of the silver A5 that I’ve posted several shots from here already. This was my first time shooting into the sun and some of the shots came out really good. And some not so good of course. This one I initially rejected, but I’ve developed a taste for shots like this lately and sat down with it today. There isn’t much editing done to it really. I just bumped the contrast on the car a bit, the rest is the result of pointing Canon’s 70-200 2.8L lens into the sun. Not to sure about how I like it so I’d be happy if you guys left a comment on what you think.
Check out the photo in 1280X853 on flickr by clicking the picture.
Red Rabbit
More snow here today so I went through some more shots from when I did Cato’s incredible VW Mk1 Golf, or Rabbit as it is called stateside. The car started out as a 1,5 LS in 1978 but now has a carbed 16v engine in it. So the little thing both moves and looks great!
All these shots are taken with Canon’s 24-70 L lens on my Canon 50D and are lit by three flashes. More info on that on flickr. You can get there by clicking the photos.
I have several other decent shots from this shoot, but I feel they don’t really work together as a set because of the difference in ambient lighting. Just take a look at the picture below. It’s taken just 30 minutes before the two shots above and no more than 20 meters away. Despite being lit the exact same way with flashes it really has a lot harsher lighting to it. I did exaggerate it a bit in the post processing, but still…
I might post up some of the other shots later, until then these are available on flickr in higher resolution if you want to take a closer look.