“Okay ah, when he drive past, aim for a rolling shot of his car! That angle very nice!”
Snap snap! Ah the life of an automotive photographer! Spending time with cars all day. Figuring out the best angles for a particular car. Chance to drive awesome cars. Perhaps a great job for a car siao!
What does it take to be a good car photographer? Why is squatting down at a carpark to take photos of your car so different from what they do? Ever wonder how much work goes into that one great shot?
Meet Moses, an avid photographer from Black Market Pictures who has worked both locally and overseas, making great cars look even better! Let’s hear from the man himself!
Q: Tell us more about BlackMarket Pictures! Who, what where, when, why?
We are a group of people from different walks of life that came together after some events from the past year… We decided that if we got together we could do something different from other companies out there in the market, as we all have very different strengths that are wide apart.
Q: On your Facebook page there’s a mixture of amazing cars/event photos, we’re really just more curious on the cars, so! So how did this car photography all started?
The car photography came from me (Moses) as that was my passion from young… I always liked cars but I am pretty bad with mechanic stuffs so I guess photography was as close as I could get to working with cars.
Q: Do you/guys have a must have lens for your car photography? A favourite lens? Why?
Hmmm funny, that’s a hard one! I only use two lenses a 50mm and a 17-40mm. But they have two main different uses, I keep the 50mm for the still shots while the 17-40 for those rolling shots. hahaha! Perhaps that’s why you found my shots very different from others in Singapore.
Q: Among your car photos, which are you favourites? Why and how do you shoot them?
That is really hard, I have been shooting around and my works have taken me overseas lately which hasn’t been shown yet.
But one of my favorite would be shooting the Nissan GTR and a Ford Mustang Boss 302, the Nissan GTR story. It was my favorite car when I was growing up, my dad had a Sunny thus I naturally took a liking for Nissan and disliked Toyota (I grew up over time to accept their great cars though).
Yeah, so one day I was given the opportunity to work the GTR and not just for a day or two but if I calculated correctly, I had total 12 days. That was magical enough in it’s right(sic). I had the chance to live with it and get to know what it was like to have your dream car as an everyday car.
For the Mustang shoot, I headed to Jakarta to meet my friends I met from other jobs and they gave me the chance to shoot Boss, Shelby Mustangs and Chargers. Well, we know as Singaporeans, to see a muscle car is darn rare for us, so when I had the chance to work with it, I was already happy.
Although what made it more awesome was being able to drive the Mustang for awhile. haha! Yeah, they handed the keys over to try it and I was sold to the ‘dark’ side.
Q: When you are out shooting car photos, are most of them planned scenes, or you just go with the flow and shoot?
Well I’ll try to think of various themes and see what I think suits the car. I’ll see a reference of photos from Google and try to think what angle works with this particular car, then usually on the shoot I forgot what I planned and just go with what I think I like.
Q: Any tips to shoot great car photos like Black Market Pictures? What other services do Black Market Pictures provide?
Tips? Well, I don’t know but I think we should always try to do different things with photography. Like find a technique that is uniquely yours… I found mine and I am glad it has put smiles on the many owners whom I met along my journey as a photographer wannabe.
What other things we do? Well… we have done a lot of different kinds of video jobs. Performance recordings. Weddings. Corporate videos. Track day videos. I guess you could say, anything under the sun that is possible, we will do it.
Q: Are you a car siao too!? Any car siao moment to share? Or most car siao thing you ever done?
Me personally, yes! I do love cars if not I can’t shoot cars at all! Hahaha a siao thing… hmmm.. politically I can’t really say too much but I did had some awesome time burning out a Mustang in Jakarta. ;) I’ll leave the rest to your imagination. HAHA!
Check out Black Market Pictures Facebook for more awesome!
Thank you Moses! Now I feel exactly like this guy in the picture. Car siao fans should know which film is it from.
我要买GTR!