Since my sons were born in 2020, I have not worked in the car for over two years, two babies require a lot of care, therefore I need to be at home for a long time. My free time hasn’t been drastically reduced, but space is confined to the home, yes, it’s not a good idea to leave my wife behind. What other pleasures could be filled?
During this period, I began to search for all the people related to 140 and interview them, among which the photographers fascinated me the most. Well, Photoreception is back as a hobby that I can pay for with my time. I started with image appreciation. I lay next to my son and hugged the laptop to review every single image in the archive, and finally decided to imitate some of them. Yes, image appreciation is an important pre-work for photography. We need to understand how photos are composed before we can make beautiful photos.
Automotive photography was my hobby from 2012-2014, I took my camera and went to the streets all over the world to shoot exotic cars on streets. Since I have the restoration shop, the hobby has been compressed and the cameras and lenses have been put into storage. Now, due to the absence of restoration, it naturally came back to me again, but I decided to stop sloppy photographing the car with stop and go, but make a plan to achieve the preset goal.
The Genre
I decided to shoot in the genre of US brochures. To me it is the genre with the highest artistic attainment, which could be called The Hollywood genre due to the addition of the Hollywood style. Unfortunately I have not been able to reach Clint Clemens who was the photographer of almost all US brochures photos. Luckily I found David Connolly, the art director of the 1992 US brochures, who gave me a lot of knowledge and inspiration.
The Hollywood genre has three main elements. Atmospherically, it includes sunset golden hour shots, which include perfect sunsets. In terms of perspective, it uses long lens to shoot at a low angle, which is called “Hero”. On the device, it used Kodak Kodachrome film and 6×7 medium format film cameras, the photos are sharp and have vibrant colours.
The Location
I live in Tianjin, which is a city in northern China. Compared with most boring Chinese cities, this century-old colonial downtown has many exotic buildings. Unfortunately, the city, like many big cities, is so congested that I can’t even park on the side of the road with ease, threatening to scratch me at any moment as the delivery bikes pass by. But in any case, as start up, I wanted to limit the initial shooting to this city to control the time investment.
A considerable part of US brochure photos were taken in the suburbs, and natural scenery is easier to replicate than complex cultural landscapes. I didn’t mean to copy everything, but those photos couldn’t look better, why not? Then my plan is to use the suburbs as the main location, supplemented by some urban scenery. It’s going to be a whole series, and I want to save a certain location from a certain season as a series.
The Cast
There are restrictions on the cars that can be involved such as MOT, insurance, etc. as I don’t keep all my cars registered all the time. The most important limitation is that the natural landscape may involve unpaved roads, which are somewhat risky for cars, and I don’t want to scratch the chassis because of the photos. Persian Kitty is a preservation example and at the conservation status of daily driver, I have higher tolerance for damage to him (such as hitting a bug on the highway). Right, sorry.
At the US brochure shooting site, a standard photography crew should have more than 10 persons. This includes photographer (1), photographer’s assistant (2), stylists (2), drivers (2). Also client, art director, agency account person and car carrier. In our case, only myself, I will be everyone above.
The Chance
In China, most areas are overdeveloped, and it is difficult to see the sunset even in the suburbs. Everywhere is full of high-rise buildings and street trees, I spent more than a year scouting potential suburban locations. Due to the different sun heights and sunset orientations in different seasons, the shooting location must be selected according to the season. I had selected a few locations, but hadn’t had a field trip for a long time. Throughout 2022, China is under a non-stop COVID lock-down by the authorities. According to regulations, once a confirmed case is found in the area, all close residents will be taken away for isolation and observation. With kids, I can’t venture anywhere for fun. In fact, even at home, we were locked down for a week when a person with COVID was found in a community 800 meters away.
The timing was a major shift in the attitude of the authorities towards COVID. China is almost the last country to defend itself doggedly against COVID, with serious consequences for the economy in 2022. When some residents in Xinjiang were burned to death in December when their homes were locked down, people in Shanghai held protest demonstrations, which was a very unusual signal in China. Authorities quickly shifted, announcing a completely opposite policy in mid-December, dropping COVID defenses altogether. After the policy was implemented, there were a large number of infected people, the roads were almost empty, and I was free and could enjoy smooth traffic. I immediately decided to go on site visits and plan the shoot.
The Tools
I have a Canon EOS 5D Mark III that I used in 2014 and added a 70-200mm F4 lens in the summer of 2022. Yes, I wanted to keep the first shoot simple instead of using a 6×7 camera and film. Wolfgang Wilhelm told me that when he took pictures for Mercedes’ press department, he used the EOS 1 and the 400mm F2.8 lens. To make sure I could shoot at a far enough distance, I also added a x2 extender, which would turn the 70-200mm F4 into a 140-400mm F8. The spare 24-70mm F2.8 used as reserve.
In addition to the camera I also need some auxiliary tools. This includes car washer fluid in trunk, plenty of clean towels, the tires are always dirty on the road, and we have to clean the vehicle when we arrive at the shoot. I also have a grass shear, which will be used to trim the weeds in the ground to make sure they don’t get in the way of the tires and body. Altough we are not going to take any interior shot at this moment, extra seat cover is used to prevent the field dirt on me during photograhp pollute the velour seats.
The Recon
On December 10, I came to a swamp in the southwest of the city to scout, takes 50 minutes to drive from home. It is the first choice for taking pictures at sunset in this season. In fact, you only need to have no buildings with more than 2 floors within 9 kM of the sunset direction, you can see the horizon. But photographing a car is not the same as photographing the sun itself. This requires drawing a plane mirror imaging map, which ultimately requires a large area of ​​plain without buildings. My approach is to continuously explore possible eligible areas on Google Maps, but satellite images cannot show the height of plants, and Street View does not include remote suburbs, so on-site visits are necessary.
The edge of the swamp is arid, but not knowing what’s inside, I first checked out in my Tesla, the car with the highest ground clearance I have. Along the way I found a pier and a tiny retro house. The pier is part of a community moat, and it looks like there’s plenty of distance for telephoto shots. The tiny house looks weird, it’s a bit abstract, you could tell it’s some kind of bad copy, but with some character. I decided to use these two locations as the background for the incidental shoot.
When I arrived the swamp, the only road here was developed by the camper’s car, the rest was cut reeds, I had to drive carefully over the edge to see if the chassis was rubbed by the reeds, luckily not. It is surprising how many people here are flying kites and taking walks when the whole country is paralyzed and a large number of elderly people are dying in the hospital. The temperature at that time was about -2℃, the wind was very bitter, and it was very cold to walk, but they must have been depressed at home for too long! In the past, this city often suffered from severe smog in winter due to industrial pollution. Now, due to the shutdown of the whole country, the AQI is very good, and we see the long-lost blue sky.
I’m not wearing gloves, it’s really cold in here. I took out the road map of the sun’s trajectory and roughly determined that this place is qualified. Although the reeds on the ground have been trimmed, there are still many weeds, and I need to trim the ground. Haystacks are a nice sight, definitely exotic in our boring city. It was 3 p.m., and I didn’t wait for the sunset because I didn’t have enough clothes, and the Tesla didn’t have enough power to supply the warm air for another 3 hours, so I took some pictures with mobile phone and set off on my way home.
I went home and re-examined what scenes were available that could be used to imitate brochure photos. My top choice is a 1994 E 300 Diesel parked in a yellow prairie with some grass obscuring the wheels. There are some vague drying racks in the front that appear to have been added later. The scene is very similar to a swamp. Surprisingly, I used the plane mirror model to calculate the reflection of the sunset on the side of the car, and I might have a good angle to capture the sunset in the blue paint.
The next day, December 11th, the weather was still fine and I borrowed my dad’s 2016 S 320 and headed out to the swamp again, bringing my camera. This is the second recon since it has similar ground clearance to Persian Kitty and I had to make sure Persian Kitty didn’t suffer any damage from the shoot. Well, my dad’s car has a lot of dents and bruises and he doesn’t care about it. I set off at the same time as yesterday and thankfully the S 320 stood the test and we made it through the off-road section unscathed. But since the 222’s side lines are messy (allow me to say this, at least you won’t see the beautiful sunset reflection on the car), it is impossible to test the reflection of the horizon. I snapped a few pictures with my camera and decided to head back right away, driving Persian Kitty back for a final inspection before sunset.
Persian Kitty is of course in a long-term state of readiness, and it was always kept in a spotless state for shooting. In daily use, I only drive for a maximum of 2 hours, and a disposable car cover is the best way to keep it clean when I return to the underground parking space. I just wiped down him with a towel and detergent again before this shoot was scheduled and it’s perfect now. Maybe we’ll just shoot this afternoon, maybe not, we still have recon to do.
When we were halfway to the swamp, the unfortunate thing happened, and the originally clear sky suddenly accumulated clouds. But I will not give up, I hope that after the sun is set, the light will be between the clouds and the horizon. After arriving at the swamp, I measured the angle at which I could capture the sunset and made several adjustments. Time was tight, but I pulled out my camera and got ready to shoot. It’s a pity that the sun in winter falls in almost free fall, and it gets dark right after sunset due to the clouds. The clouds block the afterglow that could have lasted for a while.
I couldn’t use Photoshop to fake a crippled sunset into perfection, the photo was hopeless, and I didn’t have time to mow the ground, many weeds survived. But we still harvested a precise spot, I pushed over a haystack from a distance to the background, it was a good match. In this photo, there is just a hint of the sunset, which is shown on the front of the car. If the sky is clear enough, the afterglow of the sunset will spread all over the body. When I left, I went back near the little house and took a photo. It could be described as worth saving, even though I didn’t design at all.
On the third day, the weather was as overcast as the second night, and we had no sunset to use. Also for the next few days, I just needed time to have more supplies. Cleanliness is so important that even if the car is generally clean and free of highway bugs in the winter, it will still get dirt on the tire sidewalls and a layer of dust on the body. Yes, I have to be everyone on the camera team, now I’m the stylists, buff and polish the car.
The Action
On December 15th, the sun was surprisingly clear and I decided it was the big day. This is our fourth expedition and we must succeed. I decided to show up at 3:30pm, sunset would start after 5pm. An hour and a half would allow me to clean the car and shoot elsewhere before returning to the most important spots to adjust the camera and trim the grounds. In order not to get sick, I couldn’t stay longer because the temperature was -8℃, and the clear sky always comes with the cold Siberian air.
I stopped first at the pier and changed my license plate, but the wind played a trick on me. When I drove the Tesla a few days ago, the river was very clear. Now that the wind had changed and the pollutants from the surface of the river were being blown over the edge of the pier, filling the shot, I realized I had to abandon that location and go to next.
When we arrived, I first went to a small house next to it to take pictures. It’s a pity that there are too many weeds and ugly house in background, which is not suitable for telephoto shots. Replacing the license plate would have taken extra time, since Persian Kitty is the ex-diplomatic car, I wanted him to be photographed with copy of the diplomatic license plate instead of the ugly blue Chinese plate. It is illegal to drive a car with diplomatic license plate without permission, therefore I had to change the plate every time we move, even if the two locations were only 10 meters apart.
There are many haystacks here, and haystacks are also one of the options for US brochures, such as the 600 SEC. Beautiful photos often require a special angle, either low or high, in short, it cannot be the normal angle of the human eye, so that it will surprise you. Back in the summer I prepared a 4 meters high ladder for a potential shoot, but couldn’t get to the top safely on rough ground without help, so this angle was abandoned.
It would be nice to squeeze them together with a telephoto, which was a little creation of mine when we went back to the swamp and shot the first planned shot. I chose a relatively open flat place to stop the car, then changed the license plate, put on gloves and took out the shears to cut off the obvious weeds between the car and the lens. Only tens of meters of driving distance made the tires dirty, and I cleaned the sidewalls again. The photo doesn’t have a great reflection or a memorable angle, but I think it’s real.
Time flies, I am not greedy and immediately head to the final location. I only have four shots planned today, the first pier has been skipped, the second too, the third looks fine, and the final with most critical sunset scene is on the horizon. I quickly parked the car at the corrected angle, positioned the camera, and pushed the haystack across. Next was changing the license plate, putting on the flag, cleaning the tires and trimming the ground, luckily I only had to clean one side. My camera is about 30 meters away from the car, but there seem to be thousands of conspicuous weeds in between. In the cold wind, I was sweating quickly and gasping for air. The previous-trimed reeds were so sharp that they dug into my trousers and scratched my leg.
Just after 5 o’clock, sunset came. What we need is not the sun before sunset, it is just a circular light source, what we need is the afterglow on the horizon after sunset, when the sun has completely gone, but the sky is illuminated by her. When I saw the sky red across the southwest, I said to myself, Lord is coming!
However, using a telephoto lens in rapid winds and at a distance of 30 meters isn’t easy. Even placing the camera on the ground cannot avoid shaking, so our photos are always a bit blurry. Since I wanted the “Hero” view, the camera was placed so low that I couldn’t see the viewfinder, so I immediately decided to get a monitor after today’s shoot.
I didn’t fit the hub caps, personally I don’t like putting these 80’s design caps on a 1998 car, even though they are original, why didn’t Mercedes update the S-class caps? Of course, for some this destroys the integrity of the car. But hey, if those silver covers were there, there wouldn’t be the beautiful reflections on the steel wheels, the sunset even lighting up the brake discs to make them look red hot, it’s all captured.
I took more than 20 photos from one angle, and the sky was still bright, so I switched to take side photos. Note that the Persian flag is folded and the coat of arms in the middle is just blocked, which is a bit of luck. It is neither Islamic nor Pahlavi now, as I don’t want any political elements to confuse anyone viewing these photos, but serving the Iranian ambassador Beijing was the true history of Persian Kitty.
These two photos totally exceeded my expectations, I was working late that day. Although the main inspiration for this photo was the brochure from 1994, instead of replicating the colors of the original photo, I used the new aesthetic of the brochure after 1996: higher contrast, lower color temperature. They are also angled a bit higher than the original photo, I can’t get lower angles, it looks like the original photo was taken in a low-lying location. Overall, I did the most important suburban shots well.
The next day, December 16th, the roads still empty, and I was a little worried that people would be back soon, so I decided to go to the downtown to shoot, as I already recon the entire city in October. The history of Tianjin isn’t very long. At first it was established as a coastal defense hub, after the corrupt Qing Dynasty lost its war with the West in the 1860s, Tianjin was used as a concession by several countries, mainly France and Britain, which had the largest concession area and built the most buildings. 1/2 of the city once ruled by foreign countries, and today, downtown Tianjin is considered one of the most exotic places in China.
People think so, but I don’t agree. The buildings in Tianjin did not duplicate the buildings of United Kindom or France, they were simplified. The buildings are neither really Gothic nor Renaissance, they are somewhat similar in shape, but made of domestic red brick instead of stone. Or only the first floor of is Renaissance rock, the above floors are all cheap bricks. This kind of architecture is called eclectic architecture, or colonial architecture, and India and Vietnam have almost the same streets. Yes, it looks to me a bit like a Chinese car imitating a European car, actually something I’d like to stay away from.
Architecture is not my passion, but as a resident I know the history of the city. After the founding of the People’s Republic of China, some western buildings were considered a symbol of shame and were demolished or remodeled. However, in recent years, city managers have found that exotic styles can attract more tourists, and are actually more beautiful, so some imitation Western buildings have been rebuilt one after another. Some are rebuilt on the original site of destruction, some are fabricated out of thin air, and what they have in common is that they are all simple. I settled on a few original buildings that were acceptable, but not many that were good for a long shot. In this case, you need a T-junction, on the road “I” with a distance of “I” to shoot the buildings “-” on the road.
Gordon Hall was built in 1890 and named after British military officer Charles George Gordon. It is the largest office and entertainment place in the British Concession. There was a garden in front, and the main building has some Gothic style, which is where many important Chinese people held banquets. After the establishment of the PRC in 1949, it became the city government building of Tianjin. Until the Tangshan Ms 7.8 earthquake in 1976, the structure was loosened, and the city government decided to demolish the original building in 1981 and build a new building with a different style. Notably, the firehouse on the east side of Gordon Hall was preserved.
In 2010, the city government moved out and demolished the building, the estate was sold to the Ritz-Carlton, and a new hotel was built shortly thereafter, designed by a local designer with somewhat similar proportions to Gordon Hall, but completely different. Sadly, at the same time the destroyed Gordon Hall was re-established at another location, it was a poor replica, not only of a different style and use, but even of a different orientation. But the surviving firehouse continues on its original site, integrated with the Ritz-Carlton Hotel, which has long been vacant.
This last real corner was right at the T-junction, and it became my first choice. The leftover is gray while the Ritz-Carlton is red. However, there is no parking allowed, the CCTV cameras are right above the junction, changing the license plate is a terrible idea. So I quickly ran to the opposite side of the intersection to shoot and use Photoshop to change the license plate.
I purposely picked the morning shot when the area is in shadow. And we captured moments when there wasn’t any traffic next to it (which perhaps never happen again after COVID era ends), so the side of the car looked extremely clean, which is no easy feat in chaotic city traffic. The difference is that I added hubcaps, they can emphasize the presence of the car in the dark. The area itself is just eclectic architecture and has been restored so many times over the past 130 years it doesn’t look fancy. But it’s real, like Persian Kitty. I’m really happy with the result.
The End
On the same day, I then went to another similar building, but it didn’t work out very well. I didn’t stop, after processing these photos, on December 17th, I drove the Tesla again to a very far place, where there was a salt field with a good horizon. I even found a place similar to Manhattan, the weather was also very good that day, and it was cold as usual. I had to get back to the car every 10 minutes to warm myself with hot air, which was planned as one of my future shooting locations. The entire salt pan is completely frozen in winter, and the blocks in the distance looks like a city in the middle of the Arctic.
On the night of December 17th, I felt a sore throat, maybe I was tired from several days of freezing. On the morning of December 18th, I felt pretty good, and went out with my camera to inspect two places, one is a garden and the other is a Buddhist temple. I drove a long distance in the Tesla, and suddenly I wanted to go back to Gordon Hall leftover and take a photo to compare with the old photo. After walking around Gordon Hall, I felt numb and drove home.
When I got home, I received the monitor I bought 2 days ago, but I had fever that night and was confirmed positive for COVID. I haven’t been in contact with anyone these days, maybe the virus has been dormant in me for a long time, and the continuous cold work has made me weak. On Christmas Eve, I recovered with the kids, but the 2022 shoot was finished. We were locked down at home for almost a whole year and then did great things in the last half month, I couldn’t be happier with what I got. On the New Year’s Eve of 2023, I sent the photos to David Connoly with my best greetings.
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