What's my car meet/festival photography setup
Do you want to how I photograph great pictures at car meets? Nah. Tough luck - Here's how my mindset and camera kit helps me take great pictures at car meets.
Camera
I use a Nikon D850 because of its intuitive button maps. I'm not willing to go into obscure menus to find ISO; when I'm photographing in a busy area.
I also love the high-pixel-count, weatherproofing when I'm taking pictures in the heavy rain. Its British weather.
Finally, its an absolute pleasure editing pictures through Lightroom and Photoshop when I'm adding sharpness. Even removing distractions to the picture.
Lenses
I've got two prime lenses and one zoom when I attended car meets. I mainly use a Sigma Art 50mm f1.4l when I'm photographing in smaller spaces and guaranteeing a higher quality picture ratio. Thumbs up!
I now use a Nikkor 85mm f1.4l lens when I'm in a bigger space and make the subject pop out from the background. Before I had this lens, I used a Samyang 85mm f1.4l with a low-medium ratio of quality images.
Finally, I use a Nikkor 70-210mm f4l telephoto lens to capture motorsport pictures on track. When this Nikkor telephoto lens gets a crisp yet dynamic photo on track. It's portfolio worthy.
Business card/Flyers
In 2019, I didn't make business cards and flyers. Instead, if I did ask a person if I can take photos of their cars, I'd take out my phone and show them my Instagram profile. It was slow and not relevant to the car owner.
Then, in 2020 I began drafting the designs for my business cards and flyers. My briefing was to showcase my photography and ways to contact me efficiently.
I could be more expressive with flyers and showcase my favourite pictures to show people what I do. On purpose, I made the business card and flyer line up with each other in a waterproof film.
How do I photograph at car festivals?
After I plan what festival I want to visit, I visualise a map in my head regarding where the cars are. I wark around the area in a clockwise way. So I photograph a variety of cars.
I pay extra attention when there are unique or supercars because they interest me and tell a fantastic story about these vehicles when writing my posts.
If there are many people around the vehicles I want to photograph, I can pivot and choose the next vehicle.
Conclusion
You need minimal equipment when you're photographing at car meets. One camera, two lenses and a packed lunch. It's a fantastic place to meet new people, get extra content and work with event organisers.
It's vital you photograph very rapidly so. You don't get pictures of crowds obscuring the subject. Meh. You have to know where the buttons are intuitively on your camera, so you aren't messing around in menus.
Finally, have a purpose and a map in your head, so you know what cars you'd love to photograph. To maximise how many great pictures you've taken in the event.
What's your best car photography you've learnt? Let me know in the comments below and subscribe. Also, check out my Member's Club if you want to increase your automotive photography workflow.
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