TAG Heuer & Filipe Albuquerque

Precision at it’s finest.

Lately I’ve been shooting more and more watch brands, recenlty I was  given  the opportunity to photograph the awesome race car driver Filipe Albuquerque and some  incredible TAG Heuer watches.

Philip Hanson and Filipe Albuquerque

Filipe Albuquerque is a professional Portuguese driver that will soon be competing on the IMSA 24H DAYTONA in the United States and later next year in Spain for the European LE MANS series.

Here I am composing a three light setup, a use a Profoto's B1 with a Westcott Rapid box on the left, that's a nice soft light, and then I use another two lights to create more depth and volume in the image. One of the challenges of the shot were the mechanics operating in the background.
In this one you can see I was composing the frame with the help of my 3 Legged Thing monopod, I opted for using a monopod because I sometimes like shooting at a shorter speed to be able to have a mixture of natural light and the light of a flash without being concerned about having a shaken image.

We were able to photograph United Autosports in the pit lanes at AIA (Autódromo Internacional do Algarve), this was on a Monday post race weekend, there was less pressure than before a race, however the confusion and the elements that make this environment were incredible. The smell of the tare-mat tracks, used tires and oil. The mechanical noise of the machines operating, the precisision of their movements, were just unbelievably powerful. It was quite rainy so the conditions didn’t make this an easy task and we were very time limited having only a total of two hours to complete this shoot. I tried to keep the shoot simple or it would have been inpossible to get the shots needed.

Because there were people working around us it was important to pay attention to our surroundings. As a photographer I am always careful to respect others work while doing my own.
Communication with the members of your team is key, here, I am sharing the results of the previous images with everyone, this way we can achieve the best results.

I  wanted to create  dynamic and interesting images, to really feture TAG Heuer watches,  this was a demanding task due to the fact the backgrounds were crowded with a lot of clutter and the watches were a small object in this complex environment. They could easily lose their visual relevance in the frame.

I’m really satisfied with the results, and the overall experience, the full results can be checked right here.

 

For such a variety of shots the lighting setups used we’re all very different. For some we used a single flash and others a combination of them.

In this kind of situation I count on my Profoto OCF and their amazingly reliabily , the batteries lasted long enough for us to work without being concerned about them depleting, there were no cables bothering us or our surroundings.

Another important factor was the weight of the Profoto A1 and the B10 plus, because they are so light it was really easy for my assistant to transport them and also to move from one position to the other. Since the day was cloudy and rainy we used Profoto’s color temperature regulator to bring a nice warm light to the shots.

 

My assistant Petko Angelov holding a Profoto B10 plus with a Westcott Rapidbox for a shot.
Here I am showing some of the images shot to Filipe Albuquerque. The FUJIFILM GFX 50s's large display allowed us to easily preview all of the images, the colors were very accurate and made it easy to picture the final result. It's importing sharing the images taken with the people working with you so everyone has a better understanding of the results we want to have.

I used a monopod for this shoot for a couple of reasons, one being that it is lightweight and practical to carry and move around, it also allowed me to adjust the lights without moving the camera and compose at best my shot. I used a macro lens to achieve the best results capturing the essence of the TAG Heuer accessories.

Credits & Special Thanks

I would like to thank my assitant Petko Angelov and also the make up artist Claudia Fonseca, they both did an excellent job!

A special thanks to Filipe Albuquerque and the United Autosports team.

And last but not least, big thanks to Mafalda Gomes from Torres Distruibuição for giving me this amazing opportunity.

Gear List

FUJIFILM GFX 50s
FUJIFILM 120mm MACRO Lens GF
FUJUFILM 250mm Lens GF
FUJIFILM 32-64mm GF
FUJINON LENS
TELECONVERTER GF1.4X TC WR
WESTCOTT Rapid Box
WESTCOTT Collapsible Backdrop
PROPHOTO A1
PROPHOTO B10
PROPHOTO B10 Plus
PROPHOTO Air Remote
3 Legged Thing Monopod
Thinktank Naked Shape Shifter v2.0
Boom Arm (hand held)
SANDISK Memory Cards

Related posts:

LA PHOTOGRAPHIE DE MODE MASTERCLASS PAR JOAO CARLOS Default ThumbnailOn set with the FujiFilm X-H1 and Vintage Motorcycles Part Two – STILLS and the Fujifilm GFX 50S

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