GFWilliams is an automotive photographer from Great Britain. He has been ranked as one of the top supercar automotive photographers to follow online, take one look at his work and it’s clear to see why.
Become A Premium Member is access to more in-depth questions that help move you forward!
In This Episode You'll Learn:
How George got his start in photography
The hardest part about photography to learn
The job description of an automotive photographer
How to create a story in your image when your subject has no face
How much planning is involved in an automotive shoot
The importance of light and artificial light
The biggest mistakes new automotive photographers make
Premium Members Also Learn:
Who hires Automotive photographers
How to book your first magazine shoot
Selling your photos vs licensing and how George is changing the industry
What kind of gear you need to be taken seriously as a professional
Resources:
Did you enjoy this episode? Check out more recent interviews with other great guests!
Full Interview Transcription:
Disclaimer: The transcript was transcribed electronically and may contain errors that do not reflect accurately what the speaker said. Because of this, please do not quote this automated transcript.
Raymond: 00:00 Hey Raymond here from the beginner photography podcast. And today we're talking about supercar photography with one of the best. So let's get into it.
Intro: 00:10 Welcome to the beginner photography podcast with Raymond Hatfields, the podcast dedicated to helping you grow your photography skills. Raymond interviews the world's top photographers in their field to ask questions that will get you taking better photos today. Now with you as always, husband, father, Ho brewer, La Dodger Fan and Indianapolis wedding photographer Raymond Hatfield. Welcome
Raymond: 00:40 back to this episode of the beginner photography podcast. As always, I am Raymond, your host and a wedding photographer here in Indianapolis. And if you have never been to Indianapolis in the month of May, you are missing out Indianapolis in May, uh, Indianapolis hosts the Indy 500, uh, during the month of May and kind of all over the entire month is kind of, um, focused or, or centered around automotive racing. And obviously automotive racing has a huge history here in a Indian in, in Indianapolis. That was kind of hard to say. And uh, for, for more than a hundred years. So this is like, it becomes an event and the entire city, the community gathers around and we all get excited, uh, for one thing. And that is, uh, just the smell of, you know, engines and in just the sounds, it's great. And the flyover practice, it's so much fun. And because of this, I think I've had a bit of, um, you know, a lot of a car, um, you know, ideas just kinda running through my head.
Raymond: 01:53 Uh, so surprise today I interview a commercial automotive photographer and, uh, I've never interviewed a commercial automotive photographer before, and in fact, I've never spoke with a commercial automotive photographer before. So this is a really interesting interview. Um, w that, uh, that caught me off guard for, uh, you know, quite a bit of it because I didn't know exactly what I was getting into. There's, there's a lot of little nuances that are different in every, every form of photography. And, uh, automotive photography is no different. So before we get into this interview, I want you to see some of the photos that we will be talking about, uh, in, in, in the interview. So, uh, I want you to check out the show notes. I posted some photos of today's guests in the show notes and you should be able to just swipe up on your podcast player.
Raymond: 02:47 Um, if you're, if you're in, uh, the, uh, apple podcast app, I know that you can for sure, and then just take a moment to look at some of the incredible, incredible photos. All right. So, uh, once you do that, come back here. Uh, and I just want to note that there was an issue with my audio recorder, um, for George today's guests. So therefore the audio is noticeably different from recent interviews, but if you stick with it, I know that you're
going to take away some great information. And as always, I, uh, reserve a piece of the interview, uh, where me and today's guests talk more about the business side of photography. So in this case, automotive photography. So, uh, and then I saved that piece of interview for premium members of the podcast. So in today's interview, premium members are going to hear who it is that hires automotive photographers, how to book your first magazine shoot, selling your photos versus licensing your photos and how George is kind of changing the industry honestly and what kind of gear you need to be taken seriously as a professional.
Raymond: 03:58 And we all know that you can take a great photo with an iPhone and that's one thing, but when it comes to print and advertising, it is entirely different in iPhone photo just doesn't really cut it. So George talks about that as well. So if you are looking to make money in automotive photography and you want to know the answers to today's questions, then a become a premium member. Head over to beginner photography podcast.com and just click that premium membership button right there at the top and you can join to day. All right, that's it. Let's go ahead and get on into today's interview with GF Williams. GF OEMs is an automotive photographer from Great Britain. He has been ranked as one of the top automotive photographers to follow online. And if you just take one look at his work, it's clear to see why. George, thank you so much for coming on the podcast.
GFWilliams: 04:49 Thank you. It's nice to be talking.
Raymond: 04:51 Yeah, I'm really excited for today's episode because we don't really get to talk to a lot of automotive photographers. I don't know why I've tried and tried many photographers like race event photographers or, um, and for some reason or another it just doesn't get to work out too well. So today, uh, I'm excited especially to have somebody of your caliber, uh, this is going to be a really great interview, but before we really get into the nitty gritty of automotive photography, can you share it with me and the listeners how you got your start in photography to begin with?
GFWilliams: 05:22 Yeah, well, it all started for fun as I think most photographers do. Um, and it was back about 10 years ago. Um, I was 16 years old and at first it wasn't a love of photography. It was a love of cars and it was an excuse to move my dad's cause around his driveway and take photos of them in the process. So that was sort of the real beginnings and just experimenting with a camera, working out what it did. I, I really liked the techie side of photography, so that really appealed. And after a while I got a bit bored of just being on the driveway. So I asked them friends to photograph their cars and it developed from there basically. Wow. 10 years later.
Raymond: 06:09 Yeah. Here you are still doing it. So how, yeah, I kind of want to know about how it started. Like when you first picked up the camera, obviously you wanted to take photos of, of your dad's car, but when you picked up the camera, did you have any idea what you were doing at all?
GFWilliams: 06:23 I'm not massively, I picked up the technical side really quickly from youtube videos, that kind of thing. Again, like a lot of people do. I think, um, and I understood how to use the camera in manual and what achieved what results fairly quickly, which meant that I could then be focusing, ignore the pun. Um, um, the more creative side and trying to do things a bit differently and trying to get the actual quality of the photography better.
Raymond: 06:54 I gotcha. I gotcha. So it all started from this love of cars. Did your dad have a, a particularly interesting car that, that made you want to photograph it?
GFWilliams: 07:04 Yeah, so he had a couple of cars at the time. He had Kate from seven and he had a replica push, three, five, six speed stuff and if you know anything about me
and then um, I still drive that push speeds then now so that I'm allowed to drive now, which is nice. So I borrow that as often as possible. And I bought myself a k from seven, three years ago. So cause that's Instagram. It is, yes.
Raymond: 07:34 That's a, that's a very cool car. I'll be sure to post the link in the show notes so that people can check it out. It's a, it's very interesting. It's open wheel, it's open roof. Uh, it's not a very traditional car that you would see on the road. And, uh, and if that's the car that, that your dad had that you wanted to photograph, I could see how, uh, that would, that would want to get you to get that camera in your hand. So do you still happen to have like those first photos? Like, do you remember how it turned out? Did you achieve what it was that you were looking for?
GFWilliams: 08:02 I could dig them out potentially. Um, I can't remember whether I've still got them. I've got photos from my earliest or from my first proper shoots. Um, which I was looking at today actually this morning. Um, it's fair to say I've got a bit better luck. Um, but there was definitely some good stuff in there, surprisingly so. Um, it's actually quite nice to look back, but this stuff on the driveway wasn't great if I'm totally honest.
Raymond: 08:37 Well that's good. Yeah, it's good to, it's good to be able to look at those photos and then, um, you know, at least assess what it is that, uh, that you either like or don't like and then, and then move forward from there. So how challenging was it there in the beginning to, um, try to get more cars to photograph if you know, if at the time you didn't even have your license?
GFWilliams: 09:00 Uh, well it was only about a year before I got my license. So at first I would get people to pick me up and we would then go and do the shoot. So they were all quite local. Um, and this was before the days of Instagram. Really? No one really used Instagram, so times have changed. Back then it was forums, um, eastern heads being the main one I used, which was very popular and I just asked stuff and said, is there anyone local that I can photograph their car? I will, not the money, I just wanted to have fun. It was never going to be a career for me at that stage. I just enjoyed it and wanted to take photos. And I wanted to learn. So luckily I had about five people come back to me saying, yeah, we'd love to do it. Let's go and take some photos. And Sarah, my misses judged purely off the photos I'd taken on the driveway, but they gave me the opportunity. So I was quite lucky. Um, so I ended up shooting a Ford Mustang, Roush, uh, ultimate DTR, which is a British kit car and a Lamborghini Guyardo.
Raymond: 10:06 Wow. Right. So like the first four guys were still like, like very, uh, like traditionally nice looking cars too.
GFWilliams: 10:15 Yeah. And that helps. They were right up my street because I have an interest in supercars as I think a lot of people do. I'm taught not to. Um, but yeah, it, it was, it became my niche that I would be photographing these kinds of cards and it's still is today. So right from the beginning until now, it's stayed true.
Raymond: 10:38 That's awesome. That's awesome. That's very rare, I think in photography that many people start off with something and then, and then continue on with it into their career. So, uh, if you could take me back to those first few shoots that you did. Uh, did you have some sort of game plan or they just picked you up and they asked her where do you want to go and did you photograph in their driveways? How did that work?
GFWilliams: 10:59 So what I did, I went onto Google maps and Google street view and I went and found as many locations as I could locally that I thought I could get away with using. Um, I wasn't too clued up on private land and where you're allowed to shoot and where you weren't of course, cause I was 16, but I figured I could get away with it because I was 16.
Um, so we went and shot some photos on a local vineyard, um, and also on a ended up real estate. So industrial sites I would very rarely use now, but in terms of an easy place to practice technique, that's perfect cause they're quiet. Um, and the vineyard, I still take some photos there today, so I explain clearly onto a winner. Yeah.
Raymond: 11:51 Do you ever, uh, this is kind of a side question. Do you ever like share those photos with the vineyard
GFWilliams: 11:57 at night? No. Gotcha. I tried to make sure they don't like this. I'm taking both of them. I did actually call them up before that first shoot and ask for permission. They said yes. And I've taken that to be permission forever. Definite permission. We buy, I sit at the, I don't do any, uh, commercial photography that and you'd just the fun.
Raymond: 12:22 Oh, right. Yeah, of course. Of course. Now I got it. I got it. Um, so, so as, as a, as an automotive photographer, I kind of want to know what do you view your, your job description as, what is it that you're trying to get out of these photos?
GFWilliams: 12:39 Um, now I would call myself a commercial automotive photographer because I, a of what my client base is, I am working for the manufacturers and I am working to a brief every time, uh, which is challenging, but I don't know. That's difficult. I, I, yeah, I'd say that sort of answers it vaguely, but I already have a job description as such. I am just a photographer. I like acts.
Raymond: 13:14 Okay. Okay. So follow up then. Uh, I guess what I'm getting at is that in wedding photography it's very easy. Like my job is to tell the story, right? It's very easy to show up on a day. People are already happy, they have emotions. Um, and it's easy to capture those emotions on subjects that have faces, you know? So how do you create some sort of story around your images?
GFWilliams: 13:38 Um, I think it's the context of where you put them is a big part of the story and it's how you, I mean, it's combination of everything if we're honest, because you've got to have the lighting, right? You've got to make sure all the lines on the car look correct. Everything counts towards that final image. And it's not necessarily that I'm trying to tell a story the whole time. Quite often I am, but it's a story that we are creating from scratch on the whole, we're making it a story as opposed to actually being a story. It as it would be with a wedding, with a wedding and events happening on the whole. I don't really shoot events, so I am making it an event. That makes sense.
Raymond: 14:28 That does make sense. And you kind of mentioned earlier about shooting a to a brief. Can you kind of talk about that a little bit? Is it, um, can you tell me what it is and where these, these briefs come from?
GFWilliams: 14:43 So the brief either comes from the agency or the client that you are working for and it in how it is, but sometimes, and this is probably most common with most of them, my work, you will have what's called a creative director and the creative director will tell you exactly what they require. Um, in terms of assets, which is what you are ultimately creating.
Raymond: 15:11 Can you tell me what that means? Is, does that mean like the photos that you give?
GFWilliams: 15:14 Yeah, exactly. The final finished photo. Um, and that asset will have a particular usage which is determined before the shoot. Say for instance, it will go on such and such a position on an Instagram feed, which is quite a common one now, but you
plan it all out in a bond so that the feed looks correct and, uh, I had the right look to it. So you've got that. And then the brief will say angle of the car, uh, if there's a look and feel that after they will state that. But quite often they will leave that down to me and they'll just give me a general steer. And I think I've got quite a lot of experience now, so they're happy to do that more when you're first starting. There'll be hopefully if you've got good clients, more specific and then they become a bit more relaxed as they've worked with you a bit more.
Raymond: 16:10 Sure, sure. So, uh, just, just so that I'm clear, it would be something like they say, hey, we need, um, five photos for Instagram. We want the car in this position and we want it to feel powerful. Go ahead and go do your thing. Does that sound about right?
GFWilliams: 16:31 Um, yeah, it's more in terms of how natural they want it to feel. Uh, whether they want the car to pop off the frame or whether they want it more to be in part of a scene, that kind of thing. And they tend to be fairly specific with angles for each shot because it needs to look correct and context and maybe for layouts of stuff as well. If it's, if it's got other usage like print, then they might put texts and they need space in a certain area of the photo and you have to think of all of that and get it correct.
Raymond: 17:10 So then you get that brief, you're like, awesome. It can you give me an example of a car maybe that you shot recently?
GFWilliams: 17:20 Uh, so I shot a high on die in America. I shot three cars, race, car.
Raymond: 17:26 They come to you and they say, here's the brief. What's the next step? You say, okay, I got Hyundai. They want this, this, this and this. How do you, how do you go about planning the shot?
GFWilliams: 17:38 So you have, the first thing you have to do is go through the what's called the bidding process, which I won't go into too much, but it basically means you're working out how much time it's going to. So once you know where you're shooting it, you can kind of work out in your mind the logistics of everything, whether you're moving between locations, that kind of thing, how long you've been, how long you think you're going to need to get those shots and you give yourself a bit of a buffer for if anything goes wrong, like weather or car issues, that kind of thing. And you then sort of allocate the amount of time and you build a schedule. Once you've done that you say how much money you want. Like yes, hopefully, uh, that's, that's the boring business side of things I don't really like. Um, and then it progresses to a, it depends on the client, but on the whole, I will then have what's called a pre production meeting with the client and talk to them in detail exactly what image and is which and how I will achieve it for both the creative and the technical aspect. Okay. Just to kill aspect as well.
Raymond: 18:56 Gotcha. So at this point where you're, where you get this brief, you're not even hired for the position yet?
GFWilliams: 19:04 Uh, no. On the whole, the brief will be sent to more than one photographer.
Raymond: 19:08 Oh, I see. Oh my gosh. Wow. So then they just kind of pick the one that fits this campaign the best for them and then they move forward
GFWilliams: 19:18 on the whole, I think this is correct in saying, I think when they send the bid out, they know who they want to use and they have to fill a process where they
get three people, at least the bed and they can do it. Um, and you have to be roughly in the right ballpark figure, but that fairly easy.
Raymond: 19:41 So then can you walk me through this process that you had with Hyundai, with this latest a set of shots that you did when you got the brief, did you already have an idea of how the photo would turn out in your head?
GFWilliams: 19:54 Uh, yeah, I could, I could work out what it needed to be from what they had said on that brief. It was, it was actually a pretty good brief. The agency were good, um, and I could work out exactly how much time it needed. Unfortunately, we had to cut it down a little bit, but such as life. Um, and I was quite lucky because the job was out in America. Obviously I'm British and I happened to be in la where the agency was so I could go and meet them for face to face and it just meant we could go and clarify exactly everything on the free or, um, the final stages of getting the logistics and everything like that. Right, right. So then walk me through the logistics. What, what, what, what does this mean when it comes to burn building the shoot day?
GFWilliams: 20:48 So I was lucky that I had a very good producer and that is someone that will do all of the logistics. So I don't have to think about that too much. But what he is effectively doing is hiring the race track that we were shooting on a sorting out accommodation, flights, food for everyone there. Anything you might need. So if you need to hire any equipment locally, that kind of thing. Um, so the, I can turn up and shoot and not be distracted thinking for instance, Oh I hope the food's going to be okay for the client. Lunchtime. I don't need to be thinking about that. I need to be shooting like, especially when we have so little time.
Raymond: 21:33 Right, right. So I these people your team or are they, do they come from the agency?
GFWilliams: 21:41 Uh, it is, I use freelances and often I will ask the agency to say who they like working with. Cause I think you've got more chance of winning the job if they're working with people they've used for sure. But I also have a selection of people throughout the world that I know now who are very good at it.
Raymond: 22:00 Oh good, good, good. Okay. So, um, I, so like you said earlier that it's more common for a company to hire you rather than a single person. Um, how is that, how it worked for you in the beginning, like for those first few shots that you did? Um, no,
GFWilliams:
Raymond:
GFWilliams:
22:22 22:22 22:24 22:25
lots of,
not at all. Okay. Can you,
yeah, that,
Hey Raymond here and if you're listening to this, you are listening
Raymond:
to the free version of today's interview. If you want to hear more from today's guest about the business of photography, consider becoming a premium member every week. Guests answer questions about products, pricing packages and so much more that will help your growing photography business to rise. This is the next logical step to join head over to beginning of photography, podcast.com and click the premium membership button at the top of the page. Interesting. Okay. So that, that perfectly ties into my next question, which is, uh, how important is, uh, lighting for, for automotive photography. So if you had to guess, if you just had to take a shot in the dark, what percentage of your photos would you say are mostly natural lighting and what percentage of your photos have some sort of artificial lighting?
GFWilliams: 23:22 It's hard to say as a percentage term because it more depends on the job and the brief. But well over half of my, I'd probably say over 60, 70% of my work is natural light. Oh Wow. Okay. So quite a lot. I, I, I'm of the opinion that if you can simplify things, do, um, especially if you get a do the result by simplifying than do it cause it's more efficient. Uh, and that's quite important in a commercial world, but thinking more of a creative sense. Um, I think you're best off using lighting. So get a natural light shot, make it look as good as you can and then add flash only if necessary to sort of lift the image a little bit. They trying to be fairly subtle.
Raymond: 24:24 Yeah, yeah. Yeah. So how, if you know, most people enthusiasts, right? Car enthusiasts, even hobbyists will go out and if they see a supercar, they're like, oh, I got to take a photo of this. And then they take the photo and the photo is usually garbage. Right? Um, even though that is done with natural light. So do you have some tips for beginners to kind of manipulate natural light in a way that will make a car look more pleasing?
Speaker 4: 24:49 Okay.
GFWilliams: 24:50 Yeah. So a big thing about car photography is polarization and how that reacts with the car. So a polarizer is a filter that only lets through certain way blends I believe is probably the best description of it. And what that really does is it means you can cuts out reflections on a reflecting car, body or window, and you can twist the polarizer to get different, uh, sections of the car blanked, not blanked out, but less reflections on certain sections. Uh, so that is a really useful thing to have on your Lens. As a car photographer. You have one on every lens and you use it pretty much all the time. And it's only if you want loads of reflections that you'll ever take it off. So I'm sure that's pretty important. Not really.
GFWilliams: 25:48 Um, I think the second part of that is you should be walking around the car looking at various different things on the car. Um, in terms of reflections, in terms of where the light is captured, cap catching on parts of the body work. So if certain Bates are in shadow, it creates more shape in the car sometimes. Um, and kind of showing the car in the best light that you can, that is available if the car is parked. All you can do is walk around it and step back from it, different heights, that kind of thing. If you're then controlling the car and you can park it anywhere on a location, you have total flexibility to get the car with the best background, with the best lighting possible. So yeah, it sort of opens up a world of opportunity, which is quite interesting and takes time to learn, but you do learn what works best and it becomes second nature. So
Raymond: 27:03 that makes sense. Yeah. Have you ever had a, uh, I'm sure you have. Can you tell me about one of the most challenging shoots that a, that you've had a you've had to go through.
GFWilliams: 27:14 There's sort of challenging in different ways. Of course failure is a very challenging thing to deal with,
Raymond: 27:24 but that that's out of control. Right? Okay. Oh, I guess a lot of things would be out of control I suppose. Like you show up to a situation, camera works fine, car looks great but something's not working.
GFWilliams: 27:37 Yeah. It's, that's pretty rare actually. Um, it's normally an external factor that causes the problems. Um, I think the client picks you to because they like your style, the problems arise when there's conflicting opinions between various different people within an agency or within the client. And so while one person may like it, another one might hate it for instance. And then you've just got to try and work through these things in order to
get to somewhere where everyone is as happy as can be to get it signed off. And I think that is probably the biggest challenge that you will ever face is when someone just doesn't like it. But if you've done it in your own style, which is what they hired for, you've kind of, you've got to be confident in your own ability. And if they don't like it, then that just is what it is. And you've just got to keep working with them to try and get to a point where it works. And sometimes you may not like the end result, but they might like it for instance. And such is life. You're getting paid. So who cares. Okay. That's frustrating though. Very.
Raymond: 29:01 Yeah. So what sorts of things would they be, sorry, I thought you was coming back in. What sorts of things would uh, would I guess producers or creative directors, uh, want changed, um,
GFWilliams: 29:17 that you were kind of normally situation? Normally it stuff that you can change in retouching. Um, so the effect on the car, how it's fitting with the background, sometimes even what the background is. Um, so I had a project where the creative director really wanted CGI and he was telling me exactly what CGI he wanted. I'd shot the car in a studio. And in my opinion, it looked great with the studio background. The creative director was very set in his decisions of what he wanted and ultimately we just couldn't make the photo look good and we really struggled to come up with a solution that worked. And ultimately it ended up with us going higher in the company. And I'll escape me talking to one of the directors and saying, look, I can't make this work the way that he is asking for it because ultimately I believe what he's asking for is wrong. And the conclusion was the director agreed with me luckily, and we ended up making it work with a studio background.
Raymond: 30:40 Oh, okay. Okay. I see. Yeah, that can be, uh, something that, you know, if you can't fix it on set, I would imagine that most people would try to, would not know what to do. So. So thank you for sharing.
GFWilliams: 30:53 Yeah. And it's, it's ultimately about your relationship with the client. And just dealing with that because there's always a solution. It may not be the solution you want, but there is always a solution.
Raymond: 31:07 Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. Um, so we were talking earlier about kind of those first photos that we took in the, in the driveway. You said that you saw some of your first worker earlier today when you were looking at those photos, you had said that he was like, Oh wow, I'm glad that I've progressed in my skills that I've gotten a good bit better. What are some of the mistakes that you saw in those photos that you see other amateur, um, automotive photographers making?
GFWilliams: 31:36 I think you can break it down into different sections. Um, so you take composition and lighting as probably the two things and then you've got the technical aspects as well. Um, in terms of composition, I always try and make it so the car within the frame of the shot has a bit of space around it because your client might want the crop. Um, but also just generally, I think it's a bit more visually pleasing and you don't want a car right next to the edge of frame, that kind of thing. It doesn't look nice. And I think general composition, you just over time, I've got a bit, I've got a better, I basically, I know what will work, what doesn't. Whereas when I was first starting, I would experiment and things, so I didn't know what worked and whatever. And because of that, some of them didn't, hadn't my opinion what works and what doesn't might have changed as well.
Raymond: 32:41 Yeah. So it's important to go out there and take a lot of bad photographs at first.
GFWilliams: 32:47 Yeah. Yeah. Ultimately you won't learn unless you go out there and take lots of photos. Yeah. So you've got that from the composition on the lighting. Um, I think when most people start with lighting, they go a bit over the top. I think we're all guilty of that. Um, I certainly was. So that's, that's not great. One thing I say to people is when your lighting, certainly with cars, I don't know what it's like with other aspects of photography, it's the shadows and what you're not lighting because that creates shape and ultimately you should be trying to show the shape of the car or your surroundings by using light. And when you're using flash you've got total control of that in theory. So you should be able to get it absolutely spot on. So that was an area where I've certainly improved where for an example, before if I was liking the side of the car, I would just have let the side of the car full on.
GFWilliams: 33:57 It's a flat panel. Now I would go from up high for instance, which means you can see the gradients of the shadow across the door, which shows that there's a shape in it. And that's just practice and knowing what works. And I think I get a better blend between ambient areas and the lit areas. Now that it looks a bit more natural. And to me, if someone can't tell whether it's natural light or Flash, I've done a good job. Right. And, well, it's before you could definitely tell it was flash because the car was popping off the frame. That might correct looked a bit like,
Raymond: 34:40 and I try and avoid that now. Sure. So how important was learning off camera flash for you? Like right in the beginning?
GFWilliams: 34:47 It's an essential to understand how it works. Um, because I mean, you never know when you're gonna need it. Yeah. Like it's rarely for anything professional, whether that's magazines onwards, you need it and you need to understand that and I think that opens a lot of creative potential as well.
Raymond: 35:10 Perfect. Perfect. So you as an automotive photographer who kind of specializes in supercars have had, um, a lot of opportunities to photograph some beautiful cars that people would have no opportunity to be able to do so. But I'm sure that you have a dream car in a dream location, uh, that you're just dying to shoe. What would that be for you?
GFWilliams: 35:34 That's a really hard question because I felt like I, every time I come up with one, I tend to make it happen and I'm not, is my aim, whatever. I come up with an idea of something I want to do like that. Um, I loved shooting stuff in the desert and I think just interesting areas in America, certainly. Um, like shooting in death valley was a dream for me and I did it with a Bentley a couple of years ago. Uh, and shooting in the desert out in the Middle East with supercars and putting them in the sand where there's such a juxtaposition between them. I love that kind of thing. And then one that I achieved the other day when I was in la, there was a location called lower grande, which is probably the most overused location in la, but I really wanted to shoot that. So now I have, and it terms of cars really, and I, it sounded bad to say this, I've kind of shot everything I would want to
Raymond: 36:42 up to this point. Right. Who knows what's going to happen in the future.
GFWilliams: 36:45 Yeah. So what's exciting for me is when you cause come out and when I'm the first one to shoot them, that's super duper exciting for me. I've got one next week actually, which is a car no one knows about at this stage, which I'm shooting, which is going to be the global release of it. And that is the ultimate excitement of my dog when you get to do a massive job like that. So that's awesome. Congratulations. Thank you. Got It. Got To do it. Well,
Raymond: 37:15 yeah. Well, I mean just by, by looking at your work, I can tell that you're, you know, you're competent, you're very creative, you're not going to screw it up. I'm not worried about it. If you were, if you were worried about that, you know, I'm not worried about that at all. Um, George, I really want to be mindful of your time. I really appreciate you coming on here, sharing everything that you did today and just helping out the listeners kind of understand automotive photography a little bit better than what they did before. Uh, your talk. So, uh, before I let you go, can you let the listeners know where they can find you online and where they can follow and just drool over all of your photos?
GFWilliams: 37:52 Of course. So if you want to have the nicest look at my favorite work, then go to GF williams.net and go to the portfolio. Have a look through there. That's my favorite work personally. Um, if you go onto the retouching section as well, you can see some nights before afters, which it seems to always be quite popular. And then if you're on Instagram, going to act GF Williams and you will see whatever my latest work is on that.
Raymond: 38:24 Perfect. George, again, thank you so much for coming on the podcast and I'm really excited to keep up with you and then all of your future automotive work and I can't wait to see what you're working on next.
GFWilliams: 38:34 Thank you so much. It's been a pleasure.
Raymond: 38:37 As somebody who's, uh, my car has been in the shop now for three weeks because the dealership is just, you know, I just hate going to a dealership anyway. Um, my, my, uh, the sink rose in my transmission went out. Not that that matters to this podcast, but anyway, after this interview, uh, I got really excited to go out and, uh, you know, just try something new, photograph my car and uh, just see what happens. You know, I love interviewing other photographers of, of different genres because it, uh, it's really the best way to grow it is the best way to grow. And it's by trying new forms of photography to, uh, you know, to find out what it is that you like and then transfer those skills into what it is that you do or what it is that you love. So I've really been itching to get my car back and hopefully by the time you hear this, I will have my car back.
Raymond: 39:25 But I t I doubt it anyway. Um, I want to know, are you going to go out and photograph your car? It, you know, you don't have to have a supercar like George was saying in his interview, any car will work. It really, uh, it, as long as you add the right context to the photo. And you know, you make the car the hero, you're going to get a great shot. But for me, I think my biggest takeaway in this episode was just how, how shooting with intention grew George's presence in his market incredibly fast. You know, from the beginning, he knew that he wanted to photograph cars, so he didn't mess around with portraits or landscapes because he knew what he wanted to shoot and then he went for it. And as a result, he became established rather quickly, honestly. So I'm not saying that you need to know what sort of photography that you want to shoot is right now.
Raymond: 40:23 Right? You don't have to, in fact, I think that it's best to go out there and taste everything and shoot for free until you know what it is that you want to shoot, what it is that gives you that passion, you know? And then once you figure that out, go all in and that's it. All right. So I just wanted to let you know next week I have a huge announcement, uh, that I'm making all about the official launch of auto two amazing, which is my course guaranteed to teach you how to shoot manual in 30 days or less. And I'm making an announcement that I, I, I honestly can't even believe what I've lined up for those who sign up for the course. It is going to be incredible and I know that you're going to get a ton of value out of it. So if you wanna know more, join me back here next week where I will share all of the juicy details with you. So that is it for this week though. All right. Until next week, I want you to get
out. I want you to keep shooting. I want you to focus on yourself and I want you to be safe. That's it. All right, I love you all.
Outro: 41:37 If you enjoy today's podcast, please leave us a review in iTunes or your favorite podcast player and continue the conversation with Raymond and other listeners of the podcast by joining the beginner photography podcast Facebook group today. Thank you. We'll see you again next week.