CARS, TRANSPORTATION & LANDSCAPE PHOTOGRAPHY Jan 2014

Anja Behrens comes to car photography with a fresh and uncomplicated attitude, taking advantage of transitory situations and using them to create images that are light and fun to look at.

Due to her design background Anja's work benefits from a graphic observation and precise colour adjustments.

The Images featured in this Spotlight include driving on Swedish ice lakes close to the Arctic circle, a private racetrack near Malaga, and the famous 'green hell' from the Nürburgring. Also shown is the offshore wind park Alpha Ventus in the North Sea.

Anja has been working across Europe with the Mercedes AMG Driving Academy on brochure and event themes for the past three years. Besides transportation she also works in people, lifestyle and portraiture photography, especially with up and coming musicians and actors.

“Everything that a person can imagine, others can make it happen,” Jules Verne.

“Which of my photographs is my favourite? - The one I am going to take tomorrow,” Imogen Cunningham.

“You cannot depend on your eyes, if your imagination is out of focus,” Marc Twain.

“People say that the pictures do not lie - Mine do,” David LaChapelle.

“Be creative,” Befree Studio.

Bob Williams has been shooting national advertising campaigns for his worldwide automotive clients for almost 30 years.

His creative eye brings together a unique graphic approach combined with his own lighting style that creates a specialised look and feel for his clients' products. These skill sets are well matched with his laid-back personality and sense of humour.

His studio is both a visual and a functional photographic retreat and is yet another example of Bob’s passion for form and function. His creative skill sets combined with an accountant’s attention to detail are used to consistently balance his clients' bottom lines with their creative top lines.

Clients include Buick, Cadillac, Chevrolet, Chrysler, Ford, Lincoln, Mazda and many others.

Sun flares. Coldest weather in 100 years. Race car and a tank… yes, a tank! Talking to someone in space, or just listening in, but more on that later. Brian Garland does what he does because nothing is ever the same or easy! “That’s not cool, and we want cool!”

Brian thrives when skirting around the edges of what is comfortable, embracing the inevitable chaos that comes with a shoot, and combining a well-designed plan with the organic unfolding of a moment. Whether in studio or on location, still or motion, Brian is an innovator in lighting and capturing the essence of whatever it is that he is shooting... even a tank!

Brian Garland Productions provides a killer crew of creative problem solvers, experienced in all things. Together, Brian and his team try to always have a good time while pleasing not only the creatives and clients, but also what’s inside his head.

Carl lyttle is an automotive and landscape advertising photographer based in London. Carl is one of the world's leading CGI automotive photographers and he shoots advertising campaigns globally for leading auto manufacturers such as Nissan, Subaru, Mercedes, GM and Land Rover, to name but a few.

Carl has a dedicated team of CG artists and retouchers who he works closely with to create the quality imagery and realism from CGI that his clients require.

Chris Myhill had a successful 2013 and is already about to shoot his second campaign commission of 2014.

The last twelve months saw more travel within Europe and projects further a field in China for major agencies. In Europe the most recent campaign was shot for Kia as the stills execution backing its TV launch for early 2014. In Italy, Chris’s experience was requested to shoot an interesting campaign for Fiat as part of its America’s Cup involvement, depicting the 500L model with an innovative paint finish. Chris continued his pursuit of the aeronautical form in 2013 and brought those themes together to create the feel for the TT images.

No doubt an exciting feature of 2014 will be the opening of Chris’s new venture, Myhill & Steel gallery. With a high-street presence and the website, it looks like a busy 2014 already!

Born in Provence, Clement left his native France to study film in Australia and graduated from the prestigious UCLA. Taking a path steered by his love of the sun Clement's work has a clear appreciation of light and simplicity. His distinctive style originates from his early days as a music and fashion film director in Los Angeles, where he became interested in the use of photography and the ability to voice his feelings in one image. His travel imagery and gentle use of light for portraiture, reportage and fashion have caught the eye of a multitude of clients. Shooting vast landscapes, backstage at fashion shows or the lobby of a boutique hotel, Clement is equally at home.

Based in London, Clement shoots for an extensive variety of clients including Lexus, Smartcar, Panasonic, Novotel, and Canon. He is also constantly producing personal projects. In 2014 his new book 'Portraits de Ville Cannes' will be launched as part of a series by Be-Pole.

Darren Capp studied fine art photography at college and has been shooting for over 20 years. His art-based study guides his work with perception and style across both his advertising and personal work.

Darren is one of the leading car photographers in Australia. Assignments have taken him across the globe, most recently working in Shanghai for Mitsubishi. He also just completed two campaigns for Renault Australia. He just loves shooting cars, capturing the magic hour light glint off the sheet-metal, watching the light work its wonder into the background. The brief is merely the starting point for Darren to impart his knowledge, sense of fun and attention to detail over the course of the shoot.

His clients include Audi, BMW, BYD, Ford, GM, Mazda, Mercedes, Mitsubishi, Range Rover, Renault, Subaru and VW, amongst others.

"A few years have gone by with thousands of cars, motorcycles and even bicycles coming through my viewfinder." With aesthetics, humour and tenderness, Dingo gave them all their emotions and energies. He has frozen their movement. His pictures are stories. And now, by the virtues of video, the images come alive.

His secret: a small highly effective team.

Dingo is represented in Paris by Angela De Bona Agency.

Based in Sydney, Easton Chang has won the coveted award of Australian Advertising Photographer of the Year in both 2013 and 2012 with his portfolio of advertising car photography. In recent months alone, Easton's calendar has seen him shoot for Cadillac in Detroit, Mazda in New Zealand, Ford in Shanghai, Cadillac in Shanghai and Lexus, Audi, Hyundai and Porsche locally in Sydney, among many other commercial, PR and editorial projects across Australia.

Now with over half a million followers of his work on Facebook, Easton’s work and style has become incredibly viral and prominent in the social media community.

Now based in the US, New York born and Buenos Aires raised, Freddy Fabris has been working in the advertising industry for the last 18 years, shooting cars, people and conceptual campaigns on different locations throughout the continent.

From pre-to post-production, his involvement with every project is profound and detailed, giving each one its own character and distinctiveness.

Clients include BMW, Toyota, Ford, Unilever, Turner, Panasonic, Energizer, Dove, Rexona, Coca Cola, McDonald's, and Nutrasweet.

Jacques Mezger is a Swiss car advertising photographer based in the Canary Islands. He has been involved in many car shoots and various TV commercial projects for companies such as Lincoln, Porsche, Land Rover, Audi, Nissan, Seat and more.

His knowledge of the incredible variety of landscapes on the seven islands gives security to his clients to quickly find the right - and best - location: 15 km of motorway without traffic, volcanic black rock landscapes, modern buildings and roads that hug the coastline are just some of the many features to uncover.

Last year, Jacques was in charge of the location department for the movie 'The Fast & Furious 6' on Tenerife (this is where the famous tank chase scene on the motorway was shot). Currently, the tax incentives for film and audiovisual production and the eternal springtime weather make the islands extremely attractive for shooting.

To be able to deliver the best quality, Jacques' images are carefully crafted using a medium format camera in collaboration with retouching artist Patrick Bras (Eclipsebcn) and 3D artist JM Vega (Placentastudio). Together they can offer both CGI and car photography in real locations.

The images featured in this Spotlight are an excerpt from Jens' current book-project 'Shooting from the hip'.

Contrasting the usual production requirements and procedures involving tons of equipment, assistants, lighting, post-production and so on, during this shoot nothing but a smart-phone was used. All pictures were taken using the 'hipsta-app' only and are now being put together into a book.

Jens says he enjoyed the freedom and spontaneity resulting from the restrictions and limitations that this project brought.

Jens is based out of Frankfurt and works worldwide in the areas of transportation, landscape and people for agencies, magazines and direct clients.

Johannes Riedel has nearly 40 years of experience and extensive knowledge of car and still life photography. Frequently recognised for the excellence of his work, he was recently awarded the Gregor International Calender Award 2014 for Rolls Royce Motor Cars.

Part of Johannes' work is lighting design, painting and sculpture. In his 375m2 studio virtually anything is possible. He is inspired by philosophy, a source for his aspiring perfectionism, good design, craftsmanship and technique. He experiences light, colour and form through his camera and implements this into his work at every opportunity.

Visit his website for more information.

Josh Balduf is a North American photographer currently residing in the New York City area. Josh studied fine art photography and received his Bachelors of Fine Arts at the University of North Florida. His photographic career soon took flight as a freelance motorsports photographer with The Associated Press, where he learned to constantly push the creative boundaries for a more exciting image - capturing beauty and action simultaneously.

Josh’s gorgeous imagery has taken many forms, from his most widely known, mesmerising automotive photographs, to his beautiful landscapes, attractive products, and stunning jewellery photography of the world’s rarest diamonds and gems for various clients.

When he isn’t photographing for clients, Josh keeps behind the camera to create personal projects. His work has taken him to racetracks and venues all around the country, such as Daytona International Speedway, Road Atlanta, Lime Rock Park and Wall Stadium, to name a few.

Mark Bramley is an award-winning car and landscape photographer based in London. His clean yet graphic style has won him a host of international awards and sought after clients.

Mark’s diverse skillset includes scratch modelling CGI elements and blending them seamlessly into real world photographs. His foray into moving imagery has seen recent commissions from BMW and Honda Europe amongst others.

Drawing on his vast experience Mark’s automotive lifestyle work merges editorial looseness with a cinematic edge.

He is represented in the UK by The Miss Jones Agency and commencing the 11th February, Mark will be represented by Tim Mitchell Artist Representative in the USA.

Michael Miklas is a renowned photographer in all genres that bring together beauty, aesthetics, mood and expression - namely people, car and fashion photography. It comes as no surprise that he loves to combine automotive photography with the aesthetic aspects of people and fashion photography, regardless of the different approaches required.

Knowing what works and blending his techniques into highly creative and modern pictures, often showing the subject from unusual angles, Michael's compositions evoke emotion and show something special. They tell a story and concentrate it into one image while leaving plenty of room for interpretation. Often they reveal their entire beauty and nature at the second or third glance.

Clients including Audi, Volkswagen and Lambda Performance trust his intuition and share his passion for perfection. They also appreciate his sensitive and cooperative personality when it comes to successfully realising their projects.

Michael lives in Hannover from where he runs his own studio and travels for projects all over the world. Visit his website for more information.

For Nick Nacca, image making isn’t capturing a moment in time: it is several moments combined. Blending, shaping and sculpting with light is at the heart of his vision that creates images that stand out in a world of clutter.

Visit his website to witness the full effect.

Specialising in car, landscape and CGI photography, Paul J Harvey has been shooting global advertising campaigns for over 10 years.

Recent work includes a shoot for Peugeot in Barcelona. He was also a winner in the 'Abstract' category of the 8th International Black & White Spider Photographic Awards. Paul’s landscape work is regularly displayed at galleries in both London and Paris. Fluent in French, he resides between these two cities.

Clients include Assystem, Channel4, Christian Dior, Chrysler, Citroen, Concorde-Lafayette, Ford, Gdf-Suez, Honda, Lancia, Mercedes, Mitsubushi, Nissan, Peugeot, Renault, Shell, SNCF, Toyota, Volkswagen and Volvo.

The new Porsche Macan. "Life, intensified." The headline says it all. 65 full CGI motifs on three different continents helped intensify life for Stephan Romer and his team. The amazing journey took them from Australia via Singapore to North America. Long exposure times and busy cities created this unique look for the newest line from the Porsche family.

Post-production on both 2D and 3D was handled by Circle Media, London, with the perfect mixture of British perfection and humour. Production support in Australia by Lighthouse Productions; in Singapore by the Shooting Gallery Asia; and in America by Found Production.

"To all of them a big 'Thank You!'"

At the end of 2013 Stephan Romer took personal aerials while shooting his next epic CGI campaign in his home country New Zealand. This up-coming project remains top-secret.

For the last few months, Sébastien Mauroy has been shooting extensively for Lexus and Toyota. His experience and efficiency facing high-end commissions comes from a strong advertising background and more than 16 years shooting cars (sometimes up to 150 a year!) for various European car magazines. His natural style combined with sophisticated techniques gives him plenty of flexibility in his creation process both in and out of the studio.

From PR work for model launches to very confidential prototype shoots and the creation of marketing pictures for brochures and ad campaigns, Sébastien is easy going and cares about making his clients comfortable. A perfectionist, he is swinging for the fences on every project.

Sébastien is currently working on a large ATL campain for Toyota that will be unveiled at the next Geneva motor show. After that he’ll be shooting the new Lexus CT200h in Rome.

Be sure to check out his latest work on the very hot Ford Mustang, the Lexus GS300h, the Toyota Yaris hybrid R shot for the 2013 IAA motor show, and his european ATL campaign for the new Toyota Corolla.

Thomas von Salomon and his team recently completed studio shots for marketing and sales literature for the new BMW 4 Cabrio.

• Agency: Serviceplan
• Client: BMW
• Assistants: Michael Compensis and Bon Ametsbichler
• Post-production: Delta E/ Andreas Neuerer, Munich

Visit the website for more information.

Tomek Olszowski is an award-winning car photographer based in Cracow, Poland. He is a graduate of Architecture and Digital Graphics. His love for cars and the magic of photography led to his current way of life and his biggest passion: automotive photography. His work is recognisable by its unique style and quality.

Tomek offers full service car photography: CG photo shoot previews for advanced montages, location - day and night - shots, studio shots, interior, static and motion shots and post-production from the very beginning to the final images.

His client list includes Mercedes-Benz, Maserati Poland, Seat Magazine, Hyundai Magazine and TopGear Poland.

WilzFoto is a commercial outdoor, industry, lifestyle and off-road automotive professional production group. The company is defined by deliberate communication, strategic technology implementation and surgical attention to detail.

"You have media-questions and needs? We provide solutions with built-in brand-intelligence on time, on location, at or under budget... every time."