Volvo Vintersaga
A beautiful film from Volvo. So incredibly natural with insane atmosphere.
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A beautiful film from Volvo. So incredibly natural with insane atmosphere.
For someone who lives at the tip of Africa, I actually get to see a lot of the world in my work travels. Travels I worked my entire career to have. If you asked me at the start of the year if I saw myself ever getting to see the most remote corners of China… I’d have thought you crazy. Well, fools on me this time. I’ve recently wrapped up one of the most incredible journeys I’ve EVER done in my career with Ford and their new Ford Everest.
Shanghai, Beijing, Xinjiang, Urumqi, Hami, Nanchang, Shihezi, Kuytun. These are just some of the many places I got to see. From as far East to West to North as the China borders go, we went. I was told we did over 10,000km in travel within China over 2 weeks. So yeah, we racked up some serious travel miles. The only way I would be to describe it: mind-blowing. Not only are the natural landscapes of China as vast & surrealistically beautiful as people like to call South Africa, it is just SO different to anything I’ve ever experienced. Culturally & traditions endlessly fascinating. Old world mixed with new. People. People everywhere.
Our campaign was geared towards showing the Ford Everest in the most epic scenery. ‘The most capable Ford yet’ being the slogan. Things are always organic to a degree on shoots. Certain things change as the travel & locations reveal themselves in that moment. Everything is pre-scouted, so there is no guesswork on what we’re going to do. However sometimes things just, work, that wasn’t part of the original plan. Our 6KVs did change a slight bit because we had so many regions to cover & different things appeal to different regions. However it will always be the strongest material to show off the capabilities of our vehicle.
So here are our 6 final hero images & below is a compilation of behind-the-scenes which were kindly sent to me by my assistant & producer. What a blast! I’d do it all over again in a heartbeat.
6 Final KVs
Behind The Scenes:
JAGUAR F-TYPE COUPE
–by Seagram Pearce
Anyone who lives in Cape Town knows what it is like driving through town. The grid layout is a never-ending start-stop procession. There is the slow irritation of traffic thrown in the same bag of needing to be somewhere urgently. What if, for a minute, this was the same place, yet, instead of seething contempt, you relished in mechanical gargles, roars, and throaty blipping sounds. Combine this with luxury and an exceptionally on-point fitted design of a red leather interior. Suddenly we’re talking about a completely different experience for our day.
We all want to feel special in some way. For some of us, it is when your song comes on the radio and you find yourself head-banging like a rockstar. Yet, this time, I’m referring more to getting inside a car and instantly feeling like it is a special place to be. Your invitation to the Secret Gentleman’s Club – every day. Let me introduce you to one of the finest creations to come from the Jaguar laboratory of magical-stuff engineering: the Jaguar F-Type Coupe R.
Visually, the Jaguar F-Type Coupe R is both beautiful and brutal. It has a design that demands attention from all eyes – be it the petrol attendant who whistles when you pull in, the guy riding his bicycle down Sea Point Promenade, that woman out for her morning jog or the businessman next to you at the traffic lights who thought he had the vehicle of choice until 10 seconds ago. The design features, such as the elongated nose, draw much from the Jaguar E-Type which was so iconic for its time, it rightly earned the trophy as most beautiful car in the world. So Jaguar know a thing or two about design and I’m pleased that they haven’t lost the art over the years, especially in today’s cookie-cutter fashion.
Granted, I never actually got around to lifting the very elongated hood. However, what has been crammed into the engine bay is large, loud, brutal V8 power, and it is ever so thirsty. Jaguar’s 5.0L V8 engine doesn’t leave you feeling lacking when you put your foot down. In fact, if you’re not careful, a hard floor stomp will turn you into a human cannonball…a most willing repeat customer for the canon shoot event, I might add. It unleashes 550 BHP, or for us locals a stomach wrenching 410 kW and 680 Nm Torque. To petrol-heads, those kinds of figures are like telling your kid he can grab as much candy his little arms can hold… and then some.
The Jaguar F-Type comes with various modes for your driving style. Situated in your centre console like the flip switch to the nuclear launch, is your driving mode button. Starting her up defaults to standard driving mode which is a nice balance between throttle response, suspension softness and general riding comfort. The V8’s unmistakable engine sound has been crafted into something else all together. I can guarantee you the first 500 times you hit the pulse-throbbing (yes, it actually does have a pulse glow rhythm), glowing ‘start’ button you’ll take a moment to appreciate the mechanical opera you’ve gotten a front row ticket to. It’s intoxicating! Jaguar has designed, crafted and mastered one of the most beautiful sounding vehicles in the world. If there is one thing I cannot convey with enough expletives, it’s how this car sounds. At this point, its worth mentioning that when you think nothing could get better, it does. Flipping your driving mode switch down into Dynamic Sports Mode unlocks all sorts of illegal-feeling driving fantasies. Your dial clusters turn red, and your suspension stiffens. What you thought was the most beautiful exhaust tone now becomes two octaves lower by opening butterfly valves in the exhaust. You’ve invited the devil to dinner, and he brought friends.
Granted, all I did with the Jaguar F-Type at first was convert petroleum into one long permanent grin on my face. The rear wheel drive feels precise and you feel solidly connected to the tar below you. You can feel the precise design in cornering, and pushing the limits in safe track environments is all kinds of fun. Yet, we know the British for their refinement, class and distinction. So what about the open road? Engaging normal (or comfort) mode lets the automatic 8-speed gearbox take over. The open road ahead becomes a remarkably comfortable journey. Honestly, I was not expecting this tar and rubber-devouring animal to become my silky coach. This proves that the F-Type works as an all-round vehicle, not just an expensive track toy.
It was difficult parting ways with this vehicle. At the end of the week I had wrapped up two filming days and two shoot days. I spent every other moment relishing the time I had bonding with Jaguar’s finest offering. While money can’t buy you happiness, it can buy you the Jaguar F-Type Coupe R, which is pretty much the same thing.
I realised that I had in fact forgotten to do a long standing tradition of reviewing a year in retrospect to see what had been done in those 12 months. I had actually put all the content together, but gotten so distracted with how busy 2015 has started off. I also decided to do something new for this blog. I very seldom share any travel images that I shoot while traveling on assignment. 2014 saw loads of travel to some awesome locations, so I’ve added in a few of those just to mix things up a bit. I always have these grand ideas to put together a nice solid selection of travel images, but never seem to get a moment to do it. Perhaps 2015 might be the year for that, who knows. :)
So I’m also going to just add a highlight review of 2014 in no particular calendar month order because I’ve realised it doesn’t actually matter either. It’s the year in review, not month.
So here we go! The year Twenty Fourteen:
There is that phrase about “it’s not how much you have, but what you do with what you have”. This gets applied to photography very often when you hear someone bemoan the fact they don’t have the new f1.2 lens, or latest camera body that can do ISO 30,000,000 & it’s the reason they don’t shoot more, or shoot better images. This is getting applied more & more to filming too these days with available tech being readily accessible. While entry level equipment may not be shooting ProRes444 & allow for creamy highlights & massive dynamic latitude, the point remains -shootingf/filming/doing a good idea is better than just talking about it. Period.
This is why I personally love little stints like this one that Bentley Motors did. They filmed a short film about their vehicles & did the entire thing using an iPhone5S. They didn’t stop there. They then did the edit on an iPad Air. On top of that, they did it on the back seat of the vehicle they were filming. Now a lot of that is purely media hype ra-ra, but the fact is, these guys took the most basic equipment we all have (mine is lying next to me on the desk) and DID something. Instead of just talking about it on a round of beers, they took initiative. That is the underlying key to all this.
DOING something, whether its filming/shooting/baking/blogging/writing/sculpting/painting is better than just putting it off because you think you need that *something* to do it. That barrier is your own lazy ass. I’m guilty of this. We all are. Yet you’ll be surprised at how much you can create & do in 1 day. Just 1 day alone. So next time you think of opening up Facebook & twitter to complain (and waste away your entire day) about what you don’t have & can’t do, rather grab your smartphone & head out. Go film something. Go shoot something. At the end of the day you’ll be +1 portfolio piece & something for someone else to talk about. Yay you.
Well what can I say… a childhood dream has come true. Whether or not the storyline is anything to write home about or not, they certainly brought the metal! I’m not ashamed to admit I got goosebumps watching this (full screen HD). If this doesn’t inspire me to shoot my own NFS short film, nothing will.
I can’t believe it has now been another year. Another year down. More adventures, more trips & just plain epic times. It is the one thing that I love most about this career. I have NO idea what is coming in the future. Often as all freelancers feel, there is a huge feeling of unsurety about the future. Will I get hired for the next job? Will I be the one they call for xyz job? You can kill yourself with “what if”. The thing I’ve learnt is that if you let things happen, things happen. (Yes, thats right. I meant to say that.)
Every year around this time the South African Guild of Motor Journalists (SAGMJ) holds their very prestigious annual awards. Their goal is to showcase the hard work of those who work hard in the South African automotive sector. It spans across all forms of media: radio, print, online, web. It has grown significantly over the years to what it is today. The prizes are that much more sought after each year. I think the ‘competition’ becomes that much stiffer each year too! This is what the SAGMJ hopes to achieve: raise the level of automotive journalism (in all forms) in South Africa.
This brings me to a rather proud moment. For the 2nd consecutive year, I have won Automotive Photographer of The Year for 2013. Best Motoring Photographer of The Year was another one. I also won The Carlie Norval award for Best Photograph of The Year again. I wrote about who Carlie Norval was & why there is this award in last years blog post about this same topic.
I’m rather humbled to have won all the photography awards for the evening. These things are just very nice bonus’ to putting your head down & working hard for a year. Whenever it comes to these awards, I have a brief moment where I wonder if I’ll even have anything worth entering! Then I begin trawling through the previous 12 months worth of work & soon realise I have more work than I can even enter. A minor moment of self-reasurance when this happens. I breathe a sign of relief. It’s been another good year. I have my clients to thank for this. Without their support, I’d be a ship lost at sea.
Right now we’re in the dead of winter industry wise. Season is ahead. I’ve been secretly (or not so secret if you follow my instagram/twitter) working on a few projects which I feel is a fantastic new direction for me career wise. I’ll be sharing that with you all very soon. For now, thanks again for all the support you guys give me. The constant feedback & cheering from the sidelines. It goes a long way in helping me keep going. We’re all running as hard as we can towards something. That ‘something’ is different for all of us. But I don’t forget the extremely humble beginnings & the people who gave me their shoulders to stand on.
So this is me, Seagram Pearce, South African automotive photographer signing off for now.
Well to put it mildly I’m an avid biker. Most of the time I just admire the wheels I can’t afford. This is no exception. This crossed my timeline recently & had to share this beauty. With the amount of work going into developing electric cars & dual-electric systems I’m really glad to see some work is going into electric motorbikes! Check these teasers & then check out their official website.
2012 is drawing to a close very fast. I’m currently sitting in Dubai for a 5 day shoot. Just when I thought the year couldn’t end in a better way, it did with this current job squeezed into the last few days of 2012. What a joyride! I can remember with such clarity sitting & putting together 2011’s collage of work. How insanely quick this year has gone. You’ll notice there is a lot of work during the year & towards Oct, Nov & Dec almost nothing. Thats because most of those months I’ve been shooting stuff for release in the new year. So unfortunately I can’t show it off just yet. So let’s kick this off! (ps: click for larger images)
JANUARY
– DesignTimes
– TopCar
– TopCar
– Beach Lifestyle
– TopCar
– Fitness Fashion
– Boxing
FEBRUARY
– Get It Mag, Sandra Prince
– Test Shoot
– Test Shoot
– Test Shoot
– Personal Fine Art
– TopCar
– Galaxy & Co 2012 in-store campaign
MARCH
– TopGear SA
– TopGear SA
– Get It, Elana Afrika
– TopCar
– TopCar
– TopCar, Alain Prost
APRIL
– TopCar
– TopGear SA
– Hi-Tec Product
– Novel Book Cover
– TopCar
– Dranged Fitness Clothing
– Dranged Fitness Clothing
– TopCar
– DesignTimes
MAY
– Lexus GS350 Press Pack
– Lexus GS450h Press Pack
– Lamborghini & Hasselblad Promo
– Lexus GS350 Press Pack
– TopCar
– Get It
– Blacktop Rally 2012 (cannot be summed up in a photo)
– Galaxy&Co 2012 in-store campaign
JUNE
– Test Shoot
– TopCar
– TopCar
– Allan Gray Time Campaign
– Galaxy&C0 2012 in-store campaign
JULY
– TopCar
– Bridal Beauty
– Beauty Test
– Beauty Test
AUGUST
– TopCar & Toyota Supplement (pt.1)
– TopCar & Toyota Supplement (pt.2)
– TopCar & Toyota Supplement (pt.3)
– Allan Gray Time Campaign
SEPTEMBER
– Drive Out
– TopCar
– Personal Starscapes
OCTOBER
– Test Shoot
– Test Shoot
– Suzuki Brochure
– TopCar
– TopCar
– Test Shoot
– Suzuki Brochure
– Suzuki Press Pack
– Suzuki Brochure
NOVEMBER
– Get It
DECEMBER
– Coming in the new year