Everyone has a favorite car photo. Show us yours.
When I started dabbling in car blogging I quickly learned that If I wanted people even to consider reading my words, I first had to get their attention. This meant I had to learn—quickly—how to take decent photographs. Almost a decade later, I’ve taken thousands of photos of cars, though I’m still not what anyone would consider a professional photographer. And that’s okay, because you don’t have to be a pro to take a really nice photo, or at least one that you’re pleased with.
Without further ado, here are some of my favorite photos I’ve taken, but now you gotta show me yours.
My approach to taking car photos is simple: choose a background that compliments that car, position the car in a way that feels natural, and most importantly, look up at the sky. Why the sky? Because I’ve learned that lighting, whether it be natural or artificial, has the biggest effect on the final product.
Oh, and because I’m not even close to being a pro, I typically set my second-hand Sony A6000 camera to Auto Mode. When I’m not carrying my camera I just shoot with my iPhone 11 Pro—typically set to the 3X lens. Yeah, that’s right, I said it. I like to keep things simple.
Over the years I’ve photographed lots of cool cars, from classics to supercars, pickup trucks, Indy 500 race cars, F1 cars, rally cars, airplanes, helicopters, Lego cars, and even go-karts. As you’ll see, some of my favorite shots I’m featuring here have great backdrops. I love nature and I truly enjoy finding ways of making cars coexist with what’s around them. Another favorite of mine is when people unexpectedly look straight into the lens and you happen to freeze that moment in time, just like a young Sebastian Wheldon did below, and Daniel Ricciardo too. It’s a special feeling.
Jerry Perez
Writing this blog forced me to quickly scroll through a few hundred if not a thousand photos just to pick out a few. I purposely went to some of my oldest files to find some images that I’d forgotten about. Of course, there are still a couple thousand that I just didn’t have the time to flip through. Either way, I wasn’t disappointed.
Your turn.
Email the author at jerry@thedrive.com
