“a blog which will help its creator come to terms with, and learn to enjoy people who simply park like cunts.”

The worlds full of them, which means every day you can join in the fun of submitting c*nts, as well as enjoying other submissions.

Within the hour of discovering the site I’d already found my first submission

Less parked, more abandoned

and shopping at Tesco’s usually results in as many c*nts as groceries

VAG by name, VAG by parking

and SUVs are always fair game

Actually easier to post pics of the ones NOT parked like a c...

and of course the ubiquitous BMW drivers

Oh cock!

So sit back, click through to You Park Like a Cunt or on Facebook, enjoy, and start finding some submissions.

Bought as I was seeking a cheap runabout when I found this on a dealers forecourt, essentially 2 owners from new, 60,000 miles on the clock (at 13 years old), £1500.

3 weeks in & already on new wheels

The 2nd owner had fitted VW Montreal 14″ ‘bottle top’ alloys over the standard 13″ the Golf came with, but he’s been doing so little mileage there was a ‘rear tyres approaching minimum’ warning in the receipts from 5 years earlier and it was still on the same tyres. This was promptly used as an excuse to fit a set up Hockenheim style alloys, unfortunately Fox rather than TSW, as I wisely spent the money on Yokohama tyres to wrap around them instead.

The Golf when I bought it had a small amount of rust on the passenger door, a small dint on the top of the wing, and a little rust around the towing eye hook. Those that followed the BMW repair will know this work was entrusted to @bunie78, and he also carried out the work back in 2000 to my Golf. Whilst at it, we also (yes we, I took the week off work and did nearly all the prep work) the rear was smoothed and de-badged. Though I quickly decided the rear looked a bit bare and refitted mk4 badging.

Other than that it was than mainly run on a ‘if it ain’t broke don’t fix it, but if it does upgrade’ so when the exhaust fell off, a Magnex stainless was fitted. Brakes were virtually always Zimmerman discs & Pagid Fast Road pads (a firm favourite on GTIs) though I did also run the expensive (at the time £60 vs £20 for Pagid) Ferrodo DS2000s once which were EPIC!

The brakes did actually see a bit more attention, I got through two sets of rear calipers seizing before upgrading to mk3 style (also needs the copper pipes rerouting at the rear), and after an MoT advise of deteriorating hoses, Goodridge braided were fitted all round. One extra foible in winter was moisture in the handbrake line would also freeze your handbrake on, so learnt not to use it when parked during winter…

She was treated along the way to M3 style rear lights, clear indicators, and some new number plates, and as the previous owner had also fitted a Cobra bucket seat on the driver’s side, I decided to add a 3 point harness. Between the Golfs chassis, tyres, & the harness meaning you knew exactly what was happening beneath you, I had BIG confidence in this car and could cover cross-country at great pace. This was the non PAS car, which meant whilst the steering was “jesus fucking christ heavy” at parking speeds (as was the clutch), but was delectable at anything above 5mph. Pin point superbness.

The only other week was fitting full FK suspension (which was a tad on the firm side for UK) with a 40-50mm drop when the original shocks gave up, this also necessitated fitting of a CL front spoiler over the standard GTI as clearance was minimal (see top picture), and the standard GTI item scraped both home & works drive when driving in or out.

Other than that, the Golf was basically just serviced, then regularly fast daily, and enjoyed. Over six years I put over 80,000 miles on the clock taking her up to 145,000 miles. At this point she was getting tired in a few places, and I didn’t have the time & finances to do it properly, so I had to take the hard decision to sell. Still even at 19 years old besides a small amount of rust on the tailgate and front wing, the car was solid, and generally all sound. One of the reasons I’ve stuck in the VW Audi camp so long, as the build & reliability of the Golf along with my dads Porsche 924S/944S really impressed over the years.

For a fun drivers car though, it’s still my bench mark, and if the circumstances allowed again, I’d buy another in a heart beat. No toys, no frills to distract, just you, the car, and go find some superb roads.

In pretty much close to mint condition, and with genuine Canon BG-E2N vertical grip – £300 ONO

The hotshoe has minor rubbing from having a flash fitted a handful of times. The only other mark I can find is a minor 0.5mm knick on the ridge between the front control wheel & the shutter release. Anything else being picked up by the flash is dust, or finger smudges. Short of finding one that has never had a flash fitted, I’m fairly sure there will be few as nice as this out there. I’ve got the box for the body (which has all the original CDs, charger, cables etc), not got the box for the grip. Will include 2 batteries.

History – it was bought by my dad as a hardly used mint backup when his main (also hardly used) Canon 30D needed to go in for repair, and so got about 2 weeks light use (ie it probably went out the house twice). I then took this off his hands two years ago as a backup/second body to my 5D. During this time, I’ve added the grip, it’s been out the house about 5 times, and rattled off sub 500 frames in that time. It’s because of this lack of use I’ve decided to let it go.

Specs
8MP CMOS DSLR
3/5FPS
2.5″ LCD
Magnesium body

For full specs see the DP Review on the 30D

So this years cards are:

A fairly simply layout for Gizmo & Furby

though making a miniature cracker & getting a character with no hands to hold it are both harder than you first imagine.

A christmas pudding Apple for Bramley Computers

Which after whisky didn’t work as planned, reverted by to schoolboy physics and some deodorant and a lighter. This also lead to a ‘happy accident’ shot of Cooking Apple (click through to see on flickr).  This is a dual layer shot, with the flames captures in one exposure, and the apple & berries in a second exposure and layered up in Photoshop.

Having gone to all the effort of capturing Santas for the BHF santa jog promotion, it also seems daft not to utilise something from these shoots for Christmas

and the final card for this year, is one of the snowy scenes from last December

Anyway, here’s a selection of pictures from today…

Y.M... oops wrong song

Jump Start?

Belfast Police Station (by PPCC Antifa on flickr)

Belfast Peace Wall (by photographphil on flickr)

did nothing but to remind even an outsider about the troubles, and the past bubbling below the surface. I know Belfast is much more than this, but it did always feel that around each corner was a reminder of the past.

On this visit to Ireland though, I made a promise I was taking the time out to go to the Giants Causeway, seemed a shame to get so close & not actually go there. Along the way though we made a discovery…

After consulting with twitter, we took the long way up to Giants Causeway via the A2 coast road. Out of Belfast, & north of Larne, you find yourself on the mile upon mile of smooth, lovely tarmac, twisting & following the coast line, rocks climbing to your left, the sea feet to your right. Mile upon mile of impressive drive along sweeping curves. Mile upon mile of stunning views, mile upon mile of serenity.

It turns out then that up the coast and away from Belfast, Ireland is a drivers & landscape photographers HEAVEN. The Giants Causeway to be fair was a bit of a let down, it is afterall just a bunch of hexagonal rocks, but the drive & the views on the way there & back? Stunning. It’s a shame the Causeway steals all the glory, as you can pretty much stick a pin in the map along that coast, and be guaranteed a stunning view.

Overrated

How about instead

Kinbane Castle (by Vins64 on Flickr)

which is more than a castle on a rock, you parked at the cliff edge with views of an island, walking down from there you look back at the coast and there’s a 200′ waterfall, and caves and… It should be a major attraction, instead it’s just sign posted as “Kinbane Head” and has parking for 20 cars!

or Dunseverick Castle which is ever so conveniently placed, again fab, and parking for about 6

or Carrick-A-Rede

which has more rocky outcrops, a rope bridge, and god knows what else, to give you an idea, this is the view from the over flow car parking

you parked in the quarry with unobstructed views out to sea, just watch you don’t reverse too far though!

or Port Much

Isle of Much

and this is just a small sample. Every one of these places looked like you could spend hours there. The day we had to tour was simply not enough to take it all in, really need to go back another time and spend at least a week plus here. Oh and did I mention the tarmac? Next time I’ll take something fun to drive too.

2011 Ford Focus TDCI

Despite the ‘all new’ tag, it’s still very recognisable a Ford Focus. Personally I’m a bit disapointed by this, when the Focus first came out, it was a bit of a shocker, and it seems a shame if you’re starting with a clean sheet, not to do something new with the car. The biggest clue it’s a new car besides the front bumpers is the rear lights have been moved off the rear C pillars and back on corner of the rear quarters.

2011 Ford Focus Rear

This gives a bit of a mix on the styling, the front with the gaping (though 50% blanked) front bumpers looks pretty agressive even in standard trim (so any ST or RS version should look like it’s ready to rip your grandmas head off), yet the rear feels softer.

Snarly (but mainly fake)

Focus

What we will be thankful with Ford for not messing with, is the Focus chassis, it still rides superbly, smoothing out imperfections in the road, yet cornering quite flatly at speed, and you can easily drive this faster than the TDCI badge suggests. It has the kind of balance I wish the ST I drove earlier in the year had. Unfortunately the electronic power steering means you pretty much no longer have a clue what the front wheels are doing.

Unfortunately that 115PS 1.6TDCI Duratorq lump is awful. Really awful. I can only imagine Ford have tuned this to suit the new CO emissions for the low £10 tax, it has an official figure of 109 Co2 but it’s ruined the car, and I’m not sure how they had the cheek to include ‘torq’ in the name as it has non. Stuck behind something at 40mph? Drop a cog, pick a gear, any gear, doesn’t really matter, you aren’t about to overtake whatever is in front. Overtakes involve planning and a run up. Come up to a giveway in second, want to live? Seriously stick it in first there’s no guts if left in second. I don’t think I’ve ever driven a car that daily requires you to drop it in to 1st on the move. Multiple times I found myself checking I wasn’t really pulling out of somewhere in 4th.

For Fogs Sake

Just to prove how bad it was to myself, I tried the same slow moves in my BMW but it could actually do it in 4th never mind 2nd! Lower trim models are also available with a 95PS engine if you fancy suicide. I’m also afraid I got nowhere near the claimed 55-76mpg either (though I rarely do), the run up the M1/A1,A66,M6,A75 at the usual motorway/dual carriage way speeds saw it returning around 43mpg, taking it cross country in Ireland & actually ‘driving’ the car dropped it into the high 30s. Reports from a friend who’s driven the petrol suggest that’s as equally gutless too.

Oh, and did I mention the stop start system? I can see the point of these if you live in London, but I think the system needs a bit more intelligence, it just works on premise of no clutch & neutral, cut engine. So driving for 1.5hours non stop, pull up to the first roundabout, drop neutral for a moment, and it cuts the engine, just as you’re dipping the clutch again to go, rather than thinking hang about this is a very temporary stop. It also means it’s cutting it in the mornings when you’re bloody freezing and the engines still cold, so it’s there blowing cold air at you. Luckily there’s a button to turn it off, but I’d like a permanent override in mind, so that was off except for when I turned it back on again, for now I’ll stick with the system I use in the BMW, called the keys…

Inside the Focus has become a button fest, with not 1 but 2 control panels on the steering wheel (which isn’t the easiest to figure), plus audio & voice activation controls (pretty much useless as ever), then the radio console is an even bigger button fest with controls for the DAB, telephone…. I’m still not keen on plastic trying to look like shiny metal, but I’ll sound like a very broken record soon, and luckily it’s only on the steering wheel details.

This does at least mean it does come with what I count as ‘essentials’ in modern cars, DAB (as FM as being discontinued) BT handsfree, a USB port in the glovebox for your iPod/iPhone or USB drive along with an aux input. You can also stream audio over BT but like the old model Focus ST it still requires you to push play on the iPhone each time. Not sure why it can’t auto play like my 3yr old aftermarket JVC unit does with my iPhone.

At least up front it is comfy, the dash looks good, the speedo & rev counter are both in smart hooded binnacles & lit in an attractive white & blue. Put in a lot of mileage over the week without any experience of the dreaded ‘numb bum’, the only real criticism is knee room particularly for the passenger can be a bit ‘tight’. The centre console loses points for not being big enough to store a CD case or A5 map. The 12v power socket it also right back behind the gear lever. With the prevalence of sat navs, mobiles etc that get mounted to the screen, surely these should be closer? Finally had to succumb and buy a longer charging wire so could have my iPhone sat nav mounted to the screen in this car without the wire obstructing the gear change.

Fairly typical of modern cars, rear visibility is restricted by those heavy C pillars, particularly combined with tinted rear glass, but forward visibility is actually better than some I’ve driven of late, with the front A-pillar only being an occasional annoyance.

Safety wise, all models are fitted with a plethora of airbags, ABS, ESP, emergency flashing of brake lights under heavy breaking, and the Focus has earned itself a 5* NCAP rating. Luckily I didn’t have to test any of those features. Higher models can also be specified with Driver Alert in case of drowsiness, blind spot information, traffic sign recognition, auto high beam, & active city stop.

Conclusion:
So overall, despite a few niggles, the new Focus is a good car, safe, practical, comfy, handles well, well equipped. Just not with that 1.6TDCI lump. It’s woefully underpowered. I await the new ST with interest though…

You've Come a Long Way, Baby. Latest mk4 Seat Ibiza with the mk1

Seat have been operating in the UK since 1985, and it’s fair to say they’ve come on a lot since then. Sales are up (and increasing in the currently shrinking market) to a record market share of 2%, to give that some perspective, year to date they’ve sold more than Volvo or Mazda, equal with Land Rover, and snapping at the heels of Mini & Fiat! So on to the cars…

Seat Ibiza FR

The baby of the line up is the Seat Ibiza, a great looking supermini, and so it should be the designer has form, previous work includes the Lambo Diablo, Murciélago & Gallardo no less… Available in 3 door ‘SC’ coupe, 5 door & ‘ST’ estate versions, with engines ranging from the economic ‘Ecomotive’ range with the 1.2TDI up to the rip snorting 1.4TSI petrol with 178bhp in the 3dr SC.  On the day I drove the Ibiza FR 2.0TDI & the Cupra Bocanegra 1.4TSI, first up I’ll cover the FR diesel. The FR is pitched at the sporting end of the Seat line ups, so this model comes with 141bhp 2.0TDI, 17″ alloys, sports seats, FR ‘styling details’, twin chrome exhaust pipes and costs £17,720. On the road it was pretty quick, handled the road nicely and even after a day being driven hard around a handling course by a bunch of journos was returning an average of 40mpg, so friendly on the wallet too, but despite any ‘sporting’ hot hatch aspirations, it didn’t tingle your soul.

Ibiza Cupra Bocanegra

However, for a miserly £200 more, you can have the Ibiza Cupra, or for a further £800 the Ibiza Cupra Bocanegra (black mouth in case your Spanish isn’t up to scratch), and in my opinion this is ‘the one’. It features the VAG 1.4TSI with 178bhp and is mated to the 7 speed DSG semi automatic gearbox. OK you’ve lost two doors, and you’re more likely to see 30mpg than 40mpg whilst giving it a good thrashing, you’ll get to the other end with a huge huge grin. On paper it’s only a second quicker than its diesel brother, on the road though it feels so much faster. This then is a proper hot hatch, unlike the diesel stirs you heart & leaves you grinning. It has lots of useable power, and not too much grip allowing you to take it round your favourite A/B road giving and just drive & enjoy it, without having to keep such a constant watch on the speedo. It was so much fun I took this car for an extra loop of the handling course. The ride was firm but not too harsh, and despite so much power in such a small car, the traction control or tyres were rarely troubled in the dry. I was harsh of the DSG box earlier in the year in the Golf, but in this, it seemed much better set up & suited to it, which is probably fortunate as it’s not available with a manual box.

Bocanegra Rear

Styling wise the Bocanegra will split opinions, you’ll either love or hate the black mouth, if you dislike it, then go for the Cupra which has a body coloured bumper. Both feature aggressive front & rear bumpers, with a matt diffuser on the rear with a nice chromed central exit  trapezoid opening around the exhausts, though I still have a thing against ‘fake grills’ in bumpers etc.

Ibiza Interior

The interior is well specced, and I rather liked the red quilting in the Bocanegra, standard kit includes paddle shift, climate control, cruise control, MP3 compatible CD player,  aux in, & plenty of airbags. Some of the plastics if you were being harsh are a bit cheap & glossy, but I’ve had some years of driving old Audis which had bomb proof matt plastics. It didn’t matter though, I still loved this and got out with a real “yes I’d buy one of these”.

Seat Leon FR+

Next up is the Seat Leon, based on the Golf but with sportier styling (the designer of the Leon is responsible for amongst others the Alfa SZ & GTV, Audi R8 & Leica M9 Titanium (neatly tying in my other hobby)). I drove the Ibiza FR+ and Cupra, on paper, the FR+ sounds pretty much like the Golf GTI mk6 I drove & hated earlier in the year in my post accident grumpy state. Matching 208bhp, DSG gear box, though at least the Leon comes with the much needed 18s as standard to fill the arches. Unfortunately inside, it loses the excellent Golf seats & chunky steering wheel, but turn the key, get it out on the road & all will be forgiven. Where the Golf rode harsh, the Seat has revised front suspension and covers ridges in the road a lot more smoothly, a much better drive. I’d also be tempted to say the DSG ECU has had a bit of work too, but hard to say for sure in a 10 min drive. You also get a lot more toys for your bargain £22,700, not only are those 18″ wheels standard, but you get the essential Bluetooth & DAB, touch screen sat nav, Xenon lights, parking sensors, cruise control…

The Explosive Leon Cupra R

Top dog in the Seat hot hatch line up is the Leon Cupra R, the most powerful car from Seat with 261bhp being sent to the front wheels via a manual 6 speed gearbox (strangely unlike the Golf R DSG isn’t an option on this car). It’s got a lot more presence than the Golf R too with more agressive front & rear bumpers (though prefer the rear diffusers in the matt style as per the Ibiza than the gloss on the Leon) & 19″ wheels as standard. Actually it’s hard to say what it hasn’t got as standard, standard kit includes quilted black leather, bluetooth, cruise control, DAB, touch screen sat nav, parking sensors, 19″ wheels… I think I’ve found four options, which are rear airbags (£230), sunroof (£700), wheels painted white (£300), & two styles of metallic paint (£420/560). Tick the lot and you take the price from a bargain £26,000 to £27,800, but a similar specced Golf R is £37,000.

Cupra R Interior © Seat

It’d be easy to look at the Cupra R as a loaded FR with a bit more power, but it’s soon clear that it’s not. The R engine is a different beast to that in the FR+ and Seat have done a lot of work in changing it’s aural qualities. The delivery is a lot more savage and it shouts about it too with a pleasant roar as you push the throttle down, encouraging you to flex it’s muscles. Delivery of all those horses to the front wheels is kept well in check by the electronic diff so you can push on in confidence as torque steer & understeer is kept well in check, and if you push too hard the brakes are superb, quickly reeling in any excess speed. If anything excess speed is possibly this cars worst feature, in order to explore the car as a driver, you are very soon the wrong side of the posted limit. No doubt this is a faster and more rounded car than the Ibiza Cupra, but it’s for that reason I prefer the Ibiza, it’s more accessible fun on UK roads (and I don’t need a 5 door).

Most common view of the Cupra R

But still the Cupra makes for a great all rounder, practical, base Golf GTI money, lots of toys, happy to tootle comfortably to shops, and a monster lurking beneath the bonnet for when you find yourself on a great bit of tarmac.

So on the first Saturday of August, the sleepy village of Bonsall is awoken as the whole world descends upon them, competitors from as far & wide as Bonsall to Bakewell, some foreigners even turned up from Nottinghamshire too. You can bring your own hen, or if you don’t have one, there’s a local “Henterprise” where you can rent a hen to race.

The competition attracts young & old, on the right is “R” from “The States”, a man of few words, and even stranger than the Nottinghamshire lot.

The premise is simple, it’s basically a 50 yard sprint, first chicken across the finish line wins. The world record for a well trained hen is 2.9 seconds!

And they're off..

Of course you then hope they make a run for the finish line with their owners calling & baiting them

Here chicky chicky

Of course, these are chickens, so there’s as much chance they find the dirt around the start line interesting, in which case their is a three minute time limit, and nearest to the line wins.

Or sometimes they just revert to some good old 1600s hen fighting

but as this is a cruelty free sport (funds are raised towards Campaign For Free Range Chicken Farming) hens that fight are warned, then receive a yellow, followed by red card & removed from the course. The grey hen here picked  a few fights & was quickly dismissed.

Like any sport, there’s evidently some attempts at cheating, though some were easier to see through than others

Luckily all these were caught out & dismissed.

Some were evidently very relaxed with their hens

this one looked very relaxed & happy to sit without being restrained, or others took theirs along for a drink…

But all in a clucking fun day for everyone with lots of racing

Right, anyone for a vindaloo?

Sometimes that is pretty much is as this shot (gratuitously pinched from Ed Callow)

demonstrates. Shot with a Nikon D3100 (their current ‘entry’ consumer SLR), taken in manual mode, with the aperture set at an ‘open’ F3.5 which in the depths of London at the night equalled a shutter speed of 8 seconds. This has given plenty of time for the passing traffic to give those wonderful light trails, which along with light bouncing off nearby shops & streetlights have nicely lit the car too.

Now I can here some brains melting at the back, apertures? manual? shutter speeds?

So some basics

ISO – this is old lingo for ‘film speeds, higher the number, the more sensitive to light your camera is (so shorter shutter speeds). It also equals more ‘noise’, less so on SLRs but a major issue with compacts. The cameras on a tripod, keep this as low as possible, and don’t worry about really long shutter speeds. In fact this is a bonus.

Shutter Speed – How long the camera ‘exposes’ the sensor to light. Hand holdeable speeds are above approx 1/60 of a second, to get time to ‘light paint’ the cars we need time to run around, so seconds, here shown as 2″ (2 seconds) or higher is what we are looking for.

Aperture – Inside the lens is an ‘iris’ just like the one in our eyes. The higher the number, the smaller the iris is, the less light is let in. Compacts are limited here as often the smallest the aperture can be is F8, whereas SLRs will stop down to F22-32 depending on the lens, which is a LOT less light hitting the sensor.

You’ve then also got the camera modes:

M – Manual, you set the aperture & the shutter speed yourself

AV (Canon) or A (Nikon) – Aperture Priority, in this mode you set the aperture, the camera automatically sets the shutter speed to suit.

TV (Canon) or S (Nikon) – Shutter priority, in this mode you set the shutter speed & the camera adjusts the aperture to suit.

P – Program mode, the camera sets the aperture, it usually attempts to keep it around the 1/125 mark, so will open up or shut the aperture down to achieve this.

Plus of course a myriad of scene modes which I’m going to completely ignore.

There’s also the ‘Exposure compensation/Exposure Meter’, in Aperture priority or Shutter Priority you can dial this up/down to instruct the camera to make the picture darker/lighter than the standard exposure. In manual mode this will show if the camera thinks you are going to over expose or under expose your shot.

I tend to use Manual mode, as this way your exposure is consistent between shots, as the camera can change the amount of exposure in other modes between shots as you compare you never can be 100% sure if the change is something you’ve done, or the camera. So I look at what the camera says in say, aperture priority mode, eg I’ve set it to F8, and the camera says 2 seconds, then use those as the starting point in manual mode, adjusting the aperture, or shutter speed, keeping an eye on the exposure meter indicator to ensure you aren’t heading in to over exposure, or so far off the bottom of the scale you’ll never light the car.

So light painting…, so adding to the previous kit of a camera, car  & tripod, we add a light source. For the basics you can use a big torch, so to demonstrate…

One Compact camera with exposure control, one car, and a torch…

There’s no right & wrongs here, this was shot in manual mode, in a dark area, the camera set to F8 and & 2″ (2 seconds), before the shot the camera was indicating this shot would be underexposed by about 2 stops, this would mean the shot would be very dark without any torch light. I set the camera on self timer and as the shutter went off, wafted the torch over the areas I wanted lit. Hey presto. The car is light painted, and the surrounding areas ‘underexposed’ into darkness. Unless you’re a prodigal genius, or just damned lucky, chances are it won’t work first time. Or the second. I’d probably suggest at a point where the camera suggests it’s only slightly underexposed, so when you take a picture you just get a slightly dark pic, then try another adding the light so you can see the difference, then start working to more extreme variations such as this which would be dark without the light. Beauty of digital is each shot is free and the feedback instant. Just keep changing the settings till you start seeing the results.

Photography is ruled by the laws of physics, so whilst this is using a model car, and a small pocket torch, scale this up to a real car, and a big hand held torch. If it’s too bright, then stand further back with the torch (double the distance the car will receive quarter of the light), or stop the aperture down to reduce the light allowed to the sensor. Too dark, stand closer or open the aperture up.

During the long exposure you don’t even need to worry about getting between the camera and the car either, as long as you keep moving then you won’t be stood still long enough to be recorded, as long as you don’t point the torch at the camera.

Here’s another demonstrate the process through the stages

Aperture Priority – No exposure compensation. F4.5 1/13th second

This is how the camera saw the shot, regardless of mode (without flash) this was pretty much the results you are going to get. Sat in the middle of nowhere, there is no passing cars, shops or streetlights to light the car.

Manual Mode – Under Exposed approx 2 stops.

This deepens the depth of the sky, but the car is now silhouetted as the sun is behind, and the car is now very unlit.

Adding some light

This is an identical exposure to the previous shot, but this time adding some light from a flash gun, just one on the floor pointing in quite clearly to the front wheel.

Finally adding two lights

The front flash is now angled to cash a bit more light along the side of the car, and a second flash is held up just out of the right of shot lighting the front end.

The above shot was done using radio remotes on the camera, as the ‘ambient’ light levels weren’t dark enough for longer exposures. As the light levels dropped, so did my batteries. You’ll see quite a lot of magazine shots done this way in brighter light, but they have much bigger flash guns than us.

Here’s something from a shoot a few years ago, did I mention white cars are awesome for this? White reflects the light superbly making your job easier. Dark cars as you can imagine suck the light in. Shooting my old Audi bordering on black but green really saloon on the same night I gave up as I needed a lot more power than my flash at the time .

Shot again in manual mode, with the shutter set to F13, giving an exposure of about 5 seconds. Later at night you lose the ‘dusk’ blues, but longer shutter speeds are easier to achieve, I then took my flash gun set to 1/8th power, and ran along it firing it so it got an even coverage of light. This could just as easily been some torches waived over it.

Hope this helps someone.