Oliver Hirtenfelder's Photo Blog

BMW M1

2012-02-06T23:32:00.000-08:00

A few weeks ago I posted a shot of some rear window louvers on a red car. This is that red car.

The car is the insanely gorgeous BMW M1. This particular car right here belongs to BMW South Africa and is part of their 'historic fleet'.

The M1 was somewhat of a collaboration between Lamborghini and BMW. The car was sold to the public so that enough of the vehicle could be made in order for homologation. Basically, they had to build enough road going cars to be allowed to race the car is certain classes. The car used a BMW 6 cylinder, fuel injected engine. The same engine would later be used in the South African special BMW 745i.

This is the kind of awesome motorcar that the public gets to buy when manufacturers want to race. Gone are those beautiful days of buying these special vehicles only to fulfill the manufacturers desire to put cars on the track.

We shot this car for Classic & Performance Car Africa's February/March issue which is out now by the way, so go and buy it. It's awesome ;)

Let me not bore you any further, and let me show you the pictures:

So there we have it. One of the hottest cars of all times. This thing really is gorgeous beyond belief. It's just a pity we couldn't drive it.

But hey, there's always a next time, right?

Those were the days...

2012-01-30T10:11:00.000-08:00

Hi all!

New blog entry. Quite stoked on this one.

The past weekend (25-28 Jan) there was the annual David Piper Classic event at the 'Big Z', Zwartkops Raceway. To be totally honest, it's not called that anymore, but it is the continuation of what used to be the David Piper Classic.

A mate of mine, Stuart Grant, was invited by a particularly friendly chap called Rodney to come and race one of his cars at the event. The car: A one-off MG special, called 'Fatman'. Why was he invited to race? Well, the owner of the car has several other cars, and for obvious reasons can only drive one himself, so, on occasion, he asks other people to drive some of his cars for him.

Stu knows how to drive, so he's a good choice. Getting slightly off topic. Stuart phoned me and said to come through to Zwartkops on Friday to have a look at some of the awesome cars that are there, and just generally to see what's going on.

Obviously I took my camera with me and did a little shooting. I ended up walking around the pit area quite a bit, and then making camp at 2 or 3 spots next to the track. Unfortunately I don't have my media accreditation yet, so I had to make do with the grandstands, much like everyone else.

I wasn't there to do any hardcore shooting, just to have some fun, which is exactly what I did. Once on my computer, I went a little mad with the editing, messing with colours and 'oldifying' a lot of the images. These are some of the results:

The 'Fatman'

That's basically all I have to say. You can see quite a few more of the images here, if you so please. If you like the images, do let me know.

There will be another update at some point in the near future. Bye for now!

A Couple o' Randoms

2012-01-17T23:42:00.000-08:00

So, the year has started. Two great shoots done. Gonna be another while (about 2 or so weeks) till the images are published, and once that's done I'll be sharing them here as well. You'll be able to see the images in Classic & Performance Car Africa and Cars In Action magazines. Both are very worthwhile publications to look out for.

The motoring industry in South Africa usually gets off to a fairly slow start, and this year is no different. There won't be much for me to shoot for now, so I have to do some sitting and waiting. I'm not complaining.

What better time than now, for me to sift through some older images that I had started work on but never got 'round to finishing. That's what I did and I have two images that I want to share today.

BMW 1 Series M Coupe

The first image is of BMW's fantastic 1 Series M Coupe (1M for short). The car has been lit up using a technique called lightpainting. Lightpainting is called that because one almost uses the light source to creat 'brushstrokes' of light across the car, which is one of the reasons for the long, streaky highlights. One then does several of these 'brushstrokes' and combines them in Photoshop to create a uniform whole. I'm fairly new to this technique, and as such I'm quite please with the results.

Mercedes Benz CLS63 AMG Interior

This image, as I'm sure you can see, is of the interior of a Merc CLS63 AMG. A proper beast of a car.
I don't feel like vehicle interiors are one of my great strengths, so I figured I'd give it a bash and see what I can come up with if I spend several hours shooting one. I had the car at my disposal and this is what I managed to come up with. I must say that I am very pleased with the results. It's not too often that I am very happy with my own interior shots but this is one that I am proud of (I better be after all the work I put into it).

Next time you look at your new car brochure and see a beautifully lit interior, spare a moment's thought for the photographer (and probably his assistant) who spent countless hours putting that image together!

More updates coming soon!

The Boss

2012-01-11T08:40:00.000-08:00

OK, so as I had mentioned in the last post, I went out with Stuart Grant from Classic & Performance Car Africa the other day to shoot what has to be the single coolest BMW ever made. And if it isn't so, it's damn close to being the coolest.

The shoot started far later than we had anticipated due to several issues, one of them being the planned location falling through. Despite this, and despite the mercury nudging the mid 30's (by my guesstimation), we managed to produce some most pleasing results, the results of which will be on shelf just in time for payday.

I cannot show you more of the shoot for now, but it'll be in the mag fo' sho'.

Go check it out!

Louvres. Does it get any cooler than that?

Let's do this!!

2012-01-05T04:19:00.000-08:00

OK, so. As is done nowadays, or not, I felt the need to add a blog to my list of interfaces for my friends, family, and clients. I figured I have the website, which works as my formal 'shopfront', I have a small page on Facebook, so now I figured I need one more to complete the trio: a blog. 3 is, after all, the magic number.

The idea of the blog is to put up images that I have shot in my personal capacity and stuff that I have sold or been commissioned to do. All sorts of images will go up here, from cars to weddings to landscapes and all sorts in between.

The blog will be updated when I feel that I have something worthy to put up. So it won't be a regular update once or twice a week, but rather when the time is right. I will do my best to make the 'right time' happen as often as possible :)

So to kick it off, I'm going to put up a whole bunch of stuff that I shot last year. Just a random selection of images. I hope you enjoy them:

These first 4 images are images that went up in a gallery at the Design Quarter in Fourways, called MBW Art Boutique. The two panoramas went up as 200X60cm canvas prints, and the other two went up as +-50X60cm BW inkjet prints. I sold the first one 10 minutes after I dropped them off. What luck. I have since sold 2 more, and have put up some new work. If you want to check it out, head over there...

Shot at a friend's trout farm in Dullstroom, South Africa.

Shot at Nami Island, South Korea. A truly stunning place.

Shot at Ta Prohm, Angkor, Cambodia. This place is beyond awe inspiring

Also shot at Nami Island, South Korea.

Some work that I did for Classic & Performance Car Africa. These guys put out what is without a doubt the single best classic car magazine available in South Africa, and most definitely one of the best available, anywhere! The wealth of knowledge that is at the magazines disposal, and the passion with which they do their job is what has seen this magazine transformed from what was once nothing but an insert in another motoring title to an absolute industry topdog! I am proud to say that I shoot for them.

A shot we did on some Ford Mustangs for a muscle car (or not so muscle car) feature. Check it out in the latest issue. A great read.

A feature we did on this stunning example of a Mazda RX2. Shot in old JoBurg, to give it the facebrick and razor-wire setting it deserved. Writer and Deputy Editor, Stu Grant, was so stoked on this car, he did not want to hand back the keys. A superb car.

Last, but most definitely not least, is a small taste of the stuff I shot for Cars In Action magazine. Cars in Action is a Johannesburg based motoring title, that has just seen a fairly substantial management change, and is now most definitely headed fro great things. I started shooting for CIA about 4 years ago, and was lucky enough to be given my old job back after my return from South Korea. We have what can only be considered one of the countries strongest editorial teams.

You will most definitely be seeing more of CIA in the coming months and years. Look for us on a shelf near you ;)

The cover shot of the Jan/Feb issue. Go buy it!

The spread of cars that we had for our annual Performance Car Of The Year shootout. Nothing short of awesome!

Two images that formed part of the PCOTY shootout. I favoured the bottom image, but unfortunately it was decided that we would run with the top image. Not my choice(of the 2) but still an image I can say I'm proud to have shot!

That's all I've got for now. Keep an eye out for Classic & Performance Car Africa, keep and eye out for Cars In Action, and most of all, keep an eye out for this blog. Good things to come.

Tomorrow I'm off with the Classic Car boys to shoot a perticularly sexy old BMW and then next week I'm off with the CIA guys to shoot a very special, very lickable modern Lambo.

As I've said, keep an eye out ;)