The recent Ultimate Dubs show, held at the Telford International Centre, was your typical UK VAG show. That is, a gathering of the cream of the UK VW & Audi scene under one roof. Although there were plenty of cars present which caught my attention, it was these three Audis that stole my heart. An S2, A2 and a Group B inspired tube chassised S1 all presented in white, but each showcasing three different approaches with a similar end goal in mind. We’ve already taken a closer look at three cars on Speedhunters, and we’re hoping to feature the three cars in-depth over the coming months.
What I wanted to – briefly – write about here is shooting cars on a show floor. Most shows I attend are usually well attended, so getting the right shot can be difficult. Ultimate Dubs however was absolutely chock full of paying spectators, often two and three people deep at the more interesting cars. I needed to constantly re-visit certain cars during the day to capture extra details, but even so I was still missing images. As a work around I started shooting some long exposures from a tripod. An ND8 filter was too dark for the indoor venue, but a circular polarizer and a mid-range f/number was just about right giving exposures of around ten seconds. The advantage to shooting a show with long exposures is quite obvious – in that the spectators will often blur and vanish through the frame. The other, and maybe not so obvious, advantage is that by shooting with a tripod, people become more aware of your presence and make an effort to stay out of shot regardless.
Working with the awesome Ben Chandler at Ultimate Dubs, we wanted to show off the Audis in a story that was more than simple event coverage. With the shots in the bag, it was time to turn up the flair in post processing with some strong colour toning and light blooms. I was a little outside of my comfort zone, but all in all I was quite happy with the end result. Now to shoot these cars in isolation, that’s going to be a different story…
Shot exclusively for Speedhunters
