In a previous blogpost, I had written about my invitation to an ALPINA drive event, that introduced me for the first time, in real world terms, to the beautiful brand that is ALPINA. Once the drive was over, and we were back at the BMW dealer, I thought to myself that I must make the most of this opportunity, and shoot these ALPINAs while I still can. The entire fleet was due to be loaded on to a truck early the following week, to continue the ALPINA “roadshow”, so I needed to act quickly. I spoke to Jackie at BMW Wien Heiligenstadt and asked if there was a chance they might let me shoot these cars, even if only in their parking lot. “Shouldn’t be a problem”, was the response. A phone call and an email later, I was told that I could shoot the cars the following Monday afternoon, before they are loaded up on Tuesday. Perfect.

On the following Monday at 15.00 I arrived at the dealership, and was handed a box of keys and told to please have them back at reception at 18.00. Oh, and the cars must please not leave the parking structure. So, with 3 hours to shoot, and the only location available being the parking lot, I set off to go make some magic happen. Or so I hoped.
I had been to the lot before, and luckily there is a bridge and a few little bits of “architecture” that ensure that this isn’t the world’s worst parking lot to shoot in. Plus, having seen the place before and having thought about the shoot somewhat, I had a little bit of an idea of what I might do with the shots.

The first few minutes of a shoot like this often catch me a little off-guard, and I feel like I need to make things happen immediately, and if the first setup doesn’t work, it often stresses me out a little and gets me into a negative mindset. The idea that because the first shot wasn’t “the greatest” often makes me then think that all subsequent shots will also suck. Luckily I know this to not be true.

So, I set about shooting. I was hoping to get at least one frame of each of the models that were available to me, but sadly I got too hung up on the B8 GranCoupe a little too long, and ended up not being able to shoot the XD4 or the D3S. This was a little unfortunate, but didn’t bum me out too much, as these images were not meant to serve any purpose other than being a series for me and my portfolio. There was no pressure from a client to make sure I “got everything”, which meant that whatever I got done, I got done, and whatever I didn’t, I didn’t. Easy.

After a fairly busy 3 hours, shooting and lighting these vehicles from all sorts of conceivable angles, I packed up my gear, handed back the box of keys, and made my way back home. All in all, it felt like it had been a good shoot. Getting back in front of the computer and loading the images into Bridge is always such a magical feeling for me. It’s not quite the same “magic” that I used to feel when images would start appearing on the paper as it soaks in developer in the darkroom, but there is a similar sense of anticipation, a sense of “was the shoot worth it”. It became clear to me fairly quickly that the shoot had been a success. There was still a lot of work ahead of me, in terms of the editing that now needed to take place, but on the whole, I felt good about the shoot.

One of the RAW images used for the first shot.

The first image I started off with was the only frame in which I had 2 vehicles, in this case the B5 and the D5S, both Tourings. This image took a fair amount of work, being the first, because this was the image where I played around with ideas and wanted to see what works and what doesn’t. After a substantial amount of playing around and testing, I decided on a direction and a look I wanted to pursue, and then started work on the rest of the images. I’d say the first shot took probably 10-12 hours of editing, and the subsequent shots probably around 5 hours (or so) a piece. Being someone, to whom most work comes in the realm of the editorial, I don’t generally spend all that much time editing images. This was a welcome change, and a bit of a throwback to the days when I did spend more time editing automotive images. It was a fantastic process, and a fantastic feeling, sitting in front of the screen, working on the images, seeing the changes happen, and being happy with the final result.

One of the frames used in the composite of the B8 rear 3/4 shot.

As a whole, I was super happy with the final images and couldn’t wait to share them. Once I did share them, they got far more traction than anything I had shared in a very long time. They were shared by BMW Wien, the odd BMW fan page, as well as the odd ALPINA related page as well. I also sent them to ALPINA directly, to show them the work. They got back to me saying that they were super impressed with the images, and they would like to buy the rights from me, so that they could run a small campaign with the images. To say I was chuffed is an understatement. The images were used for an ad campaign on www.auto-motor-und-sport.de, which is one of the biggest automotive platforms in the German-speaking market.

So, long story short, I approached someone to do a shoot of their vehicles for free, because I wanted to do it for myself as a passion project, and the end result was so good that the manufacturer wanted the images for their own use. Now, I am not saying that doing work for free is the way forward, especially not if someone approaches you to do work for free. What I am saying, though, is that on occasion doing something just for the fun of it, and because it excites you, is well worth the effort because you never know where it might lead you. Shooting these images and sharing them with ALPINA has put me on their radar, which means that I might be the guy they contact for future projects. Here’s hoping.

Below is the full set from this shoot. Enjoy.