Car Spotting - What is it & why is it a dirty term?!

Many have heard of the term "car spotting" but what is it?
It's spending numerous hours, pounding the streets of high class areas in cities, in search of supercars and hypercars. Both foreign and domestic.
In London's case, Knightsbridge and surrounding areas is where everyone goes.

There's negative connotations surrounding the term, and this can be due to disagreements between owners and said 'spotters'- a comment on social media that someone didn't appreciate, it can be due to someone getting snapped unwillingly, or just due to spotters standing in the middle of the road annoying drivers!

Now, I've been called a 'spotter' yet, I'm not. This isn't due to it being considered an insult or anything, but I don't have the dedication for it. Not like the real spotters do! These guys can walk around from morning till night, in search of something cool. Some travel from hundreds of miles away to visit London, just to do some spotting!
There's a type of hierarchy with all of it, you have the guys who have been doing this for a while and are fairly well known - even having their images published, there's people who have a good social network following due to it but aren't quite as known, and then it trickles down to those who just walk around taking photos/videos... just because.

After speaking to spotters, I've found out why these guys do it. The reasons vary from person to person. Ranging from just wanting to see these incredible vehicles in person, to practicing photography, to how it gives people something to do, all the way to how it's an escape for some people.
One real sad story I heard was how a boy, only around 11-12 years old, was being bullied at school "for running around after cars." He wanted to give up so the bullying would stop. This was really sad to hear. All he wanted to do was see these £250,000 plus cars out and about - yet he was bullied cause of it! I knew of a few people with cool cars who said they'd happily go down to the school in convoy to pick him up one day. Fortunately the bullying seemed to stop and he's still doing what he enjoys.

I love my automotive photography and yes I do walk around with the spotters occasionally, this is to practice my photography or just to go and say hi! But I don't deserve the title of spotter as I mentioned, these guys are just so dedicated to it. For as much as people will say it's pointless or a waste of time, some of these guys are making money from their images or videos! So it can't be that bad. Even those not making money from it, they're still getting to practice or better still, just doing what they love!

Enjoy what you love!

Skully x

Battalion30five GTR London Meet

Hey!!

I'm going to do a post about the time I was surrounded by around 30 odd GTR's! Sounds horrific, right? ;)

I had a message from a guy called Max a while ago asking if I wanted to shoot a few GTR's, this sounded awesome, as I have a real soft spot for these Japanese masterpieces. Max was from a well known GTR owners club, Battalion30five.
We had had some plans about doing a shoot for a while, yet it just never seemed to go to plan unfortunately.

Anyway... I had a phone call asking if I fancied doing a shoot with some GTR's. Well I had a shoot during the day, but like hell was I going to miss this opportunity again!!

The plan was to use some areas around Canary Wharf, then head off on a cruise via the City and out on a little run to some tunnels.

I arrived around 5 minutes early, prepped my gear and waited. I didn't know how many to expect as numbers for meets can drop or increase considerably.
A couple of stunning R35's appeared. As I was snapping these beasts, a whole queue of GTR's showed up in sweet symphony with their howling modified exhausts!!

As everyone gathered it was obvious this meeting place was no way near capable of holding everyone. We were lucky enough to be able to head upstairs to a car park, this provided a fab location for some shots!

As time ran out on using the car park, it was time to head into the city! Now this was absolutely insane to see!! I had a friend in my car filming all the antics so I was sandwiched as a sort of "R35 Support/Media Vehicle" in amongst all these modified beauties!
There were crowds of people gathering on the bridges above Embankment having a look, people in their cars, passers by... it was insane!

We reached a location I'd ALWAYS wanted to use, but it's a tough one to use due to police restrictions and safety... Pall Mall!

For all the images see: https://www.flickr.com/photos/jkingman/sets/72157649964838720/

I didn't follow this lovely lot through the tunnels to their final destination as I'd of shown them all up... and when I say that, I mean I'd of never kept up ;)
 
I want to say thank you so much to the fab members for being so kind and for allowing me to take photos of their pride and joys! It was a great evening and such an amazing site to see!

Thank you Battalion30five.

Skully x

Apologies for the lack of posts! Busy busy...

So as the title suggests, I apologies for the lack of posts! 
I was planning on keeping my blog up to date as I went along but that doesn't seem to of gone to plan ;)

Here's what's been keeping me busy (full detail posts to follow)

- Oakley Design Lamborghini Huracan LP680-4 wind tunnel testing.
- Black Diamond Premium Valeting Porsche 911 993 Turbo
- Billionaires Auto Club Batmobile Audi R8 GT Spyder
- Quick visit to Joe Macari
- Autosport 2015
- Battalion30five GTR Meet

I'll do individual posts about the events and include some of my snaps.

Hope everyone is well!

Skully x

 

One well known Rose Gold 458 & an Aventador.

Afternoon!

Sorry for no posts for a few days! Not been doing too well but anyway...
Here are some shots of two very iconic cars. Prancing Horse v Raging Bull.
Ferrari v Lamborghini.

You may recognise the 458, that belongs to Yianni from http://www.yiannimize.com/ with it's Rose Gold wrap.
The Aventador was just one of London's many 'raging bulls' you see driving around.
I don't think I'll ever get bored of them to be honest!