Subaru Anniversary Event at Prodrive
Who would have thought that Subaru would take their family saloon and turn it into a fire breathing monster…?
That’s what they did with the Impreza back in the late 80’s / early 90’s. Bung in a turbo and revise the chassis and handling and off it goes like a rocket.
Subaru were so good at this that they won several WRC events, and along with those they often released ‘special edition’ cars.
One such car was the legendary ‘P1‘ so-called due to the affiliation with the racing/tuning company Prodrive.Same idea as Ford and Cosworth, or Mercedes and AMG, or Porsche and RUF.
The reason I’m writing this entry is because the P1 was released in 2000 and this year marks it’s decade in action.
So a bunch of guys got together and arranged a meet up with as many P1’s as they could get together (as well as other cars). Prodrive were kind enough to host the event at at their UK HQ in Banbury, Oxford and the date was set – 9th March 2010I popped up and took the camera with me and …. if you’re reading this then that’s what you’re waiting for, so below is a selection of images from the couple of hours I was there meandering around 🙂
To view the images, click the car below
To view the slideshow, click play on the screen below
Why you should hire a photographer for your marketing material
I’ve seen a run of articles recently which re-enforce the value of working with a photographer to create an image and marketing material that’s right for you, rather than purchasing stock images, regardless of them being Rights Free (RF) or Rights Managed (RM).
What’s the difference between RF and RM?
Simply put, Rights Free means anyone can buy and use the same image concurrently. You could be sharing the same image for your Children’s Nursery service as another company selling Bondage Gear. You have zero control over it’s use.Rights Managed usually means that you license the image for a specific use + time so that the same image may not be used in the same arena or publications during your purchased license term (the more it costs, the more exclusivity you have).
This gives you some control of who else uses that particular image, but there’s nothing stopping an almost identical image from the same set being used elsewhere as you only licensed one shot.So … here are some examples of what happens when people try to save a few bucks on their overheads.
An example image of a call center person on a stock website
The same girl on the website of "a global business and IT consulting firm"
The same girl on a major UK Brand website:
And … oh dear! The same girl on an adult toy website
(clicking in this image reveals a clear image):
The above are examples of website use only, but it also extends to print too.
The next example was found and shared on the blog of BobballsBillboard Poster from The Democratic Unionist Party (DUP)
"The larger of the two main unionist political parties in Northern Ireland" (Wikipedia)
Within hours, someone from a rival party found the stock image source and used another image from the same set to completely discredit the DUP – and there’s nothing they could do about it …
(except work with a photographer in the first place)
While we may laugh at the above, the actual implications of these "shortcuts" for these companies, designers (and political parties) are extremely severe and embarrassing, not to mention potentially costing them revenue or credibility should both marketing campaigns be effective in the public eye.
The reality is that if you work with a photographer to make one picture, then yes this is going to cost more than a generic stock image.
But if you work with the photographer to make a series of images for you then it works out cheaper than stock pictures.So the question is .. is your public image only worth £2?
Silverstone Racer
Following my passion for all things automotive …. I was asked to do a portrait session by Julian Barter, a racing driver who won his championship last year.
Julian is a professional driver and works as one of Silverstone’s instructors when he’s not racing the HSCC ’70s Roadsports series in his 1979 TVR.
I was hired to take pictures of his racing green and gold TVR as well as Peter Shaw’s lime green TVR Tuscan. Here are a few images from the shoot:
Building a Car Rig
Been testing some new gear including a new lighting boom.
I had a mini brainwave (surfs up) and I wanted to test it on my car to see how it performed as part of my automotive rig.The reults are ok, but the boom was a bit too unstable and not quite long enough.
But it worked well as a compromise though and doesn’t take up too much room. All in all a useful test 🙂Here’s a couple of regular shots+ some with the boom in motion:
