I was fortunate enough to shoot my first Porsche last weekend. I’ve always had a “thing” for Porsche; I’ve always seen them as the quintessential sports car whose lineage can clearly be seen in the simple and clean body lines that are instilled into the long history of the brand. I’d never gotten the chance to drive one until now, so up to this point, my opinion on these cars was based solely upon the raving reviews from most auto magazines that I receive on a monthly basis. Seeing them on the street or in a parking lot was the closest I’d ever come to the experience of a Porsche.
I was very excited when the owner contacted me for a shoot. He owns a stunning example of the 997 model – a 2008 Carrera White Turbo Cabriolet. It has a six-speed standard transmission (as God intended) mated to a twin-turbo flat six that produces 480hp and 460 lb/ft torque. With a talented driver, (present company excluded) it will sprint to 60 miles per hour in 3.5 seconds. Its body is purely Porsche, with wide hips, a raked roofline and almost goofy looking “bug-eyed” headlights.
The interior is swathed in beautiful, rich black leather with glossy carbon fiber trim on various bits throughout. A chronometer and lap timer sits perched on the center of the dashboard for the few weekend warriors who may see actual track time. The thick rimmed steering wheel sports a few handy controls for the radio and cruise control, both of which most drivers will find are negated by the soundtrack of the flat six out back.
After settling into the driver’s seat and acclimating myself with the controls, I was set to go…That was if I could figure out what secret passcode or sweet nothings I should whisper to the stubborn shifter in order to engage reverse. Having driven German cars before, I assumed that it involved the usual push down, over-and-up motion, but the shifter refused to budge. After a couple off-color words and repeated attempts, I coaxed the shifter into reverse with a motion that can be best described as a “W”.
Once on the road, it became very apparent that this was a supercar that had not forgotten its manners. Steering required just the right amount of effort, the ride was firm yet pliable over imperfections and the clutch was easily modulated so as to save me from the embarrassment of stalling in the middle of an intersection. I quickly realized that this was not just a car for ripping around a track; it was also perfectly comfortable to cruise on city streets at a respectable (and legal) rate. Only one gripe came to mind, and that was from the considerable noise made by the soft top when the car was placed on an uneven surface, such as pulling in and out of driveways. It creaked and groaned in ways that were pretty unbecoming for such an expensive car. Having never before driven a convertible, I passed this off as normal but something tells me that might not be the case.
Once my girlfriend (my trusty “flash-girl”) and I entered the freeway in second gear to head to our shooting location, I was able to dip into the reserve of power the Porsche had on hand. It accelerated dutifully, if not a bit anticlimactically. Then the turbos spooled up. In the blink of an eye, the Porsche’s demeanor changed; the nose raised what felt like six inches, the rear end hunkered down and the tach needle banged off the rev limiter before I could even register that I was traveling at nearly 90 mph. The whole time, the Porsche made no fuss about any of this, with minimal road noise and only a faint hiss from the turbos lurking behind my ears. Seeing as this was not my car and it would be a shame to spend such a beautiful sunny day in jail, I kept the speed under 80 mph for the rest of the drive to the location.
The location we picked for the shoot was the same place as we photographed the 1978 Ferrari 308 earlier on. There has been one thing I’ve discovered about Cypress, and it is that good scenery is very hard to come by. With seemingly never ending expanses of concrete and strip malls, it was a challenge to find a worthy backdrop for such a car. So I stuck with the safety location that I’d chosen just in case. It is simply an empty country road minutes from 290 where I am free to do what I please with the car.
This shoot was a tough one. The owner was only available to shoot at high noon, when there were no clouds in the sky. The light was harsh and direct, and the shadows were pretty unforgiving. I noticed with my polarized sunglasses on that the sky appeared very deep and saturated at the top of my vision, and it reminded me of the fantastic stlye that BBC’s Top Gear uses. Their tack sharp subjects surrounded by a shallow DOF and a high gradient in the sky make for a great visual that I’ve long been a fan of. I decided to try and duplicate that look with this series. I affixed my 3-stop ND filter and polarizer to the end of my 50mm 1.8 lens and got to it.
Shooting in a sparse location makes you work for interesting angles. There was a culvert on the side of the road where I could get 10 feet below road level, and I used that in a few shots to gain a perspective that I thought was interesting.
I used off camera flash only on the front shot of the Porsche, to light up the grille which was getting lost in the shade. Other than that, all the shots were taken with natural lighting.
Since it was too bright to attempt a rig shot at that location, we drove around a bit more to find a location with a bit more shade. We found an office building nearby with some trees covering the parking lot, and decided that it would have to do. It was tough getting anything over a 1″ exposure, and the wind was picking up which made a lot of shots far too blurry to be of any use. It was a frustrating experience to say the least!
I shot the interior shots back at the owner’s home, where the sun was blocked by other houses and trees, which made for very pleasing light in those shots. I was very happy with how those turned out, especially for not using any sort of off-camera lighting.
All-in-all, my love for Porsche has been nothing but affirmed. Now that I have had the pleasure of driving one, I can appreciate even more the every day driveability of this beast. It never once felt like a twitchy, nervous sports car that makes you walk the knife’s edge the entire time you’re driving. It was white-knuckle fast, fun and easy to live with. It was a shame to relinquish the keys to its rightful owner at the end of the day.
On to the photos!
