You can see my work here ; https://rmsphoto.mystrikingly.com/
Hi, I’m a Car Photographer, and I’ve done quite a few shoots in the past, some free some paid, with some amazing cars, for example I shot a lamborghini tour in the Yorkshire dales and an M5 & X7 for a car dealership. I’ve probably made about £300 in total from photography. I’ve emailed about 10-15 Companies around me asking if they would be interested in my photography, social media management & developing videography skills, with quite professional sounding emails. I’ve not told any of the company’s the price or the fact I’m 14, but haven’t got any responses at all even though I genuinely think I could help companies- I’m stuck on what to do. Any advice is appreciated or critique on my photos. I have a free photoshoot this Sunday of a Porsche 356, as I know the owner quite well (who also has a 992 GT3) but nothing after. Thanks so much
Just keep shooting for fun!
At 14 you will struggle to find an insurance company willing to insure you for any sort of business insurance, without it a lot of work will be unavailable to you.
For example you can’t take a car out and shoot it somewhere for a restoration company, car sales company etc as your not old enough to drive and you wouldnt have the business insurance to cover you if you damaged it.
You can’t shoot motorsports as you need to be 18 to be trackside and you need £5 or £10 million PLI at most tracks now.
Just enjoy shooting everything, work towards being better all the time and once things will start to fall into place as you get old enough to be able to do these things.
A photographer shooting expensive (or otherwise) would very much need to carry a general liability policy. What if photog bumps camera into the side of a $250k Porsche and does $10k in damage? Or more.
I shoot cars on occasion, mostly for Turo.com. The demand for vehicle photography is quite low compared to other work (real estate and sporting events, I kinda stopped with portraiture).
You have potential, but it seems like you haven’t mastered your settings. Some photos have distracting foregrounds/backgrounds that could be solved with narrower depth of field (or shooting at a longer focal length, I like somewhere between 100-200mm). Some of the action shots aren’t shot at a high enough shutter speed to freeze the subject.
You should add some more interior shots. I’m a fan of this shot where you sit in the backseat and shoot the front dash.
You have some nice examples and a good eye, just consider that when you’re shooting a car, you want it to be the centerpiece. Nothing should be in the way or steer a viewer’s eye to something else. For instance the photo of the car coming out of the garage with lettering on the left, it’s distracting, crop the photo to make the car the focus. The lamborghini framed by leaves, right idea but it’s zoomed in too much. The leaves are blocking the driver’s door. Take out some books to understand the law of thirds.
Making the car the emphasis of the photo cannot be emphasized enough. I upvoted the comment but I upvoted several comments so I had to reply to do extra to show that I wanted this comment to stand out. You need to strike a balance with providing context for the car and avoiding unintended distractions. Just takes practice. Don’t be in a rush to be a standout at an early age and miss out on the opportunity to develop your skills and talents.
Most of your stuff is really really good. And you being 14 should actually help a lot with promotion and all that, not a lot of people have these skills at this age. I myself am a 16 year old photographer and haven’t reached that level yet, I’m currently working on a website, so if you got any tips there that would be helpful.
Hi Reuben,
I’m a fulltime automotive photographer based in Australia, so I’m probably qualified to give you some feedback!
I’m going to start with the positives, your panning and car-car tracking stuff is good. You clearly are working on it and trying to get slow shutter speeds to really convey that motion. Your edits are nice and simple (and realistic) but still have your own style to them.
I’d say the biggest thing you need to work on is intent. You want to work with the big automotive brands? You need to show their product without other cars or distractions in the shot. There are plenty of shots in your portfolio that I see other photographers, other cars, other stuff in the shot.
When a company hires a photographer it’s because they are looking for someone who can promote their product and make it look special. So in my mind this means that the car is the hero, but remember it’s the brand too. For example - the tracking shot of the orange 911. It’s a nice shot, the shutter speed is nice and low, the wheels are blurred, and the car is sharp. BUT what brand is it? You’re a little broadside with your composition, you have to make sure that you can see that badge on the front.
Now into the short sharp nitty gritty of your portfolio.
-Ditch any photos that look like they are at a car meet
-Ditch any double ups (i.e the interior shot of the 911, I’d keep the vertical as the horizontal has too much external body in it.
-If the pan isn’t sharp get rid of it - mostly looking at the Lotus Emira and yellow 911
-Ditch the shot outside the dealership or swap it for one that has the words Porsche not cut off
-The red Lambo with the doors up should be your opening shot. Easily the best of them. I really like the idea of the one shot through the tree but I’d have gone lower to bring the foreground closer to the car and less of the top of the tree branches so they don’t overlay the car.
-The two shots of the Lambos by the castle(?) are more or less identical, ditch one and level the horizon in it. Try to get all the lines straight (horizon, castle wall etc etc)
In your portfolio though, I’d want to see more of a mix of images. I want to see action shots (tracking, panning), shots of the car in various angles (front, back, side profile), as well as smaller things like details of badges, wheels, engine shots. A car isn’t just what’s on the outside as well, show me that you can take photos of the interior, the screens, the seats, the details that the designers spent time on perfecting. Remember your are helping to sell a product and that includes all the bits that people use on the inside!
You’re doing good stuff, I used to run a small team of photographers doing automotive and your stuff is on par with them in some regards - but you still have a way to go including the points I mentioned above.
If you want to chase the commercial photography dream then look to what the brands actually use, follow commercial automotive photographers on instagram, use Behance and search “automotive photography”. Check out the magazine shooters (Aston Parrot, Mark Riccioni, Mark Fagleson, Olgan Kurdal). Even from Australia check out Alastair Brook, Teddy Airey, Cristian Brunelli, Chris Benny.
Look at the work they do, try to figure out what makes it good, then try to replicate it. Nothing wrong with finding your style through copying others.