A Day at Luftgakuhlt Auto Show



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By Ian Spanier

I’ve got a good friend who is a Porsche fanatic, personally I’m not really into cars, but there is something amazing about a gathering of nearly 1,000 Porsches in one location at Luftgekuhlt, an exclusive annual event. I joined him last year at a small location making images of what can only be described as real life Matchbox cars.

This past May, I found myself driving nearly 2 hours to attend the 2017 Luftgekuhlt event in San Pedro, California. Rain in California is a rare event, but boy did it rain that day- and although cars were still organized outside, thankfully there was a nice inside display, keeping us out of the rain for a while.

Taking car pictures is a challenge in itself; add to it a crowd that was easily two to three times the size of last year and dark skies. I had packed a light kit- knowing how much walking around there would be I created a mental list of items to leave in the car, and on it was my tripod. Last year, which was completely outside, I shot everything hand held. Being inside with a lot less light available, I would have liked to have a tripod…thankfully I had a lightweight and super portable solution in my bag, the Platypod Ultra.

Whenever I find myself in a crowd of photographers, I loathe it. I find that every time I set up a shot here comes another photographer either standing next to me to capture nearly the same shot- or in this case, literally standing behind me waiting for me to move to make the same shot! The Ultra gave me something different to work with- surely no one else there could shoot from the floor the way I could- even if they were to lie uncomfortably on their stomach, they would be limited by the need for a long exposure. At the very least, I would know I walked away with some images that were from a little different perspective from everyone else.



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About the author: Ian Spanier is an award-winning commercial and editorial portrait, travel, outdoor/adventure and fitness photographer based in Los Angeles, California.