As an advertising photographer shooting new campaigns for some of Tier10’s clients, we have been working with dealers in major markets and photographing new vehicle models in front of iconic locations. The purpose is for those dealerships to have unique advertising-quality imagery to show their community that they are local, and there to stay. Recently, we hit up New York City to shoot a series of ads for Paragon Acura. One of Tier10’s partners, Scott Rodgers, supervised and art-directed the photoshoot.
The job was to get the new ZDX and MDX captured in front of some iconic New York City scenes over the course of 1 shooting day. I kept lighting configurations pretty easy and efficient. I used 2 assistants as human tripods holding powerful radio-activated studio flashes connected to heavy duty battery packs in backpacks. They looked sort of like they were ready to join the ghost busters when they were all geared-up.
We hit a series of locations around New York, without spending more than 20 minutes at each spot. We were able to maneuver around the need for permits by not using any stationary lighting or tripods, which is why we used humans to hold the lights instead.
I’m telling you, these beautiful new Acura’s were easy to photograph with their clean modern lines against the classic New York streets. Our biggest challenge, though, was getting a photo in Times Square. We had to get up before dawn and wait for our opportunity to POUNCE on the right location before crowds of tourists filled the streets. As you can see in some of the shots, we actually managed to get photos of the vehicles parked in the middle of the street in Manhattan! It was all a matter of working quickly and efficiently. Thankfully, Scott Rodgers and I make a good creative team, so that is easy to accomplish.
Finally, we wrapped the day taking some sunset editorial portraits of Brian Benstock of Paragon for upcoming magazine articles. In his behind the scenes photo, the street may look empty, but that’s because we bravely blocked off traffic for a few quick shots on that tight 1-lane street.
