Featured - Australian in front

Received news that I have had my image buildup of the Blue EvoIX featured in Australian in Front design website. Nice to get noticed every now and then. It's cool to get compared to a great snapper like Easton even though I am trying my hardest to ween myself from shooting such complicated setups.

http://www.australianinfront.com.au/news/article/chris-brasher

Motor Magazine - Feb 2010

The Feb issue of MOTOR is now on the shelves and I got to do a couple of features on the Past and Present of two very iconic and somewhat "cult cars" the Subaru WRX and the Volkswagen Golf GTI.


Two very different but important cars in modern motoring, not just for their motorsport heritages but for their monumental design breakthroughs over each generation.


We did each shoot in Sydneys Royal National park heading south towards Wollongong via the twisting roads that follow the coast. This was a great shoot to be a part of because it was a weekday so the roads were desolate and the weather perfect.



I particularly love the new Mk6 GTI, the interior is the best I have seen on anycar south of $80k, the quality of the materials and perfect seat/instrument location makes it a joy to drive.



Whilst the 2010 WRX is a great car I dont like the fact that Subaru has just whacked a powerful engine in a more or less bland Impreza. It doesn't have that quality finish that the Golf has but it more than makes up for it with amazing Bang for your Buck motoring. Anyway this is hardly a comparison between the cars, rather a celebration of Evolution in Design.

JDMST 2010 Calendar

Word is out that the 2010 JDM Style Tuning calendar is now for sale. I have two images in this years calendar which looks to be a good one!

It has killer shots from Mark Pakula, Matt Mead and Felix Alim.

So if you need a high quality Large calendar for this year get yo ass to redbubble and order this bad boy!

Image shamelessly stolen from Justin Fox.

Evo 9 image buildup - JDMST 2010 Calendar

Seasons Greetings! Recently I did a shoot for George who owns this immaculate and fast EvoIX. This car is well known in Australia as a very extensively modified vehicle, from Suspension, engine, interior and exterior modifications. George wanted a photoshoot of his pride and Joy and this image would also be used in the JDMST.com 2010 calendar run by Justin Fox.

Here is how I put together this image.

The location was a small quiet alley in the southern suburbs of Sydney. I liked the building in the background, it was angular and modern just like the evo and in a moving shot the blur of the background would look good. Lighting was a 200W fluoro tube ballast lightbank I have been experimenting with powered by a 2 stroke 700W Generator.

Several images were taken to form the composite, the rig was mounted to the car and the angle chosen that I liked, been a calendar the car needed to be the main focus so a narrower crop needed to be used. Ideally I would have liked to have used a wider crop.


I got my assistant to do several sweeps of the car only using 1/2 power of the ballast. The nice strip lighting effect given by the fluoro looks great along the lines of the angular Mitsubishi.

Once I was happy with the lighting I did several shots with the car rolling until I was happy with the motion blur and exposure.

The rest is just choosing the best bits of each car and merging together in post processing. For some reason removing the rig from this image was extremely difficult as there was many tones that graduated oddly. But after an hour or so I managed to convincingly remove the boom.

Here are the images I used: (Click for larger image)



And the final Image.

Motorkhana and Bathurst Evo X

I’ve been very busy lately but a new post. Recently I got to do a couple of cool features with Motor Magazine and AutoAction that got me involved with a bit of motorsport.

First was the Australian Motorkhana championships held in Western Sydney, the story involved me following Team Motor/AutoAction Dylan Campbell in a Renault ClioSport R27 F1 edition as he gave it his best go up against some of the best in the country. For those not familiar with Motorkhana events it basically involves a short 30 second sprint around numerous flags in a designated order, the goal is simple, do the course as fast as possible without hitting a flag or risk a time penalty, the driver with the lowest time after all the courses is declared the winner. It’s a simple but incredibly challenging form of motorsport where anyone with any car can have a go.

The feature required a opener image that would portray what motorkhana’s are all about, speed, aggressive driving and fun. With a bit of discussion with the art director we collaborated to put together a rig shot with the rear wheel leaving the ground under immense cornering load, the Renault Clio is well known for this trait so it seemed suitable.

Actually putting the ideas into practice was relatively simple, I have rig shots down to a bit of a recipe now so the guess work of getting a keeper image is always quite high. I start with a few statics of the car using the polarizing filter at different angles to keep reflections to a minimum, then I’ll expose for the front of the car, side and headlights/grill/plates. The statics ensure I have a failsafe sharp image in case the road we use is a bit rough which can cause vibration during the longer exposures, I can then mix and match the good parts of each image and add them to my main car layer later down the track.

Once that’s out of the way I’ll do an exposure for the background, generally it’s one or more stops underexposed to preserve shadows and I can manipulate that file better than a overexposed one I find. My style generally revolves around a grungy/dark theme so this is what I have become accustomed to. Once I’m happy with the look from the background plate (which Is probably the most important in my opinion to portray the sense of motion) I move onto the car exposures.

I start usually with a base exposure which the meter tells me is correct, 99/100 times it’s way off with all the ND filters and polarizers I run so a bit of trial and error is required to get a starting exposure time. Once that is found I’ll go a stop over and under just to be sure I have all bases covered. Take note all shots are done in raw for further manipulation of the files whilst post processing.

To show the rear wheel in the air we used the small jack that is stored in the clios boot. Jacked the car up and spun the wheel by hand.

Then it’s just a matter of combining all the good parts from each image into the final composite, I won’t go to far into that because It would be one ultra long post. Maybe soon.

In the end the result is quite dramatic, Ideally I would have the sky a few more stops underexposed but the opener required a blown out sky in order to extend for the title text.

The second shoot was for the Mitsubishi Evo X TMR Bathurst edition, this limited edition Evo pays homage to one of the great race circuits or Australia and in fact the world, Mt Panorama which is in Bathurst.

Mt Panorama circuit is steep, fast, technical and intimidating all wrapped into a 6km lap. TMR (Team Mitsubishi Ralliart) wanted to show that it’s fettled with Evo X could handle every part of the track with aplomb and invited Motors Damion Smy to see for himself when he was let loose for 20mins to give it everything he could throw at it.

The TMR Evo X features upgraded suspension, exhaust, engine tune and black painted rims to create a tough looking car that is both at home on the racetrack and can be used on the daily commute for work. The special Bathurst badges and TMR livery sets it apart from other run of the mill evo’s.

Again my goal for the shoot was to emphasise the car at the track, but also have a homage to the Mt Panorama circuit. There is not much more that says “Bathurst” than the famous entrance to the dipper so I utilised the ripplestrips and wall sponsors into a rig shot to show what this Evo does best, and that is go fast!

As with a lot of Press cars, time was limited, and with the circuit also a private road we had to work fast to keep things rolling. I decided on a low perspective that gave a different composition to the shot but also allowed the designer of the page to crop or use the empty space for the title text which is always important to take into consideration when shooting editorial work.

There wasn’t too many difficulties run into with this shot, only the black car and black rims are hard to light correctly but eventually I started to get something I liked. In the end the shoot turned out pretty good.

Performance Imports Issue 114

New issue of Performance Imports is out, I shot this feature in 2008 and it's only just hitting the shelves now! Stans car is quite unique, not just the fact it's running a single turbo RB26/30DET combo, but the fact it's an Auto creates a lot of headscratching. I shot this feature in 2 sessions, with the possibility of cover I shot a lot of cover options that could fit the bill, instead it was relegated to a normal feature which is a shame as this car is awesome.

I'll be updating more with more Motor Magazine work and a big commercial shoot i'm gearing up for soon.

Sheckler and the Red

A while back I posted about the Red camera system, now film makers are finding out what all the fuss is about and putting together big budget movies with them, here is a cool clip showing the making of a new Ryan Sheckler Promotional vid for his website. As much as I hate Sheckler, it's pretty cool.

Sneak Peak

It's been a while since I've done a shoot for a private customer, whilst it's nice shooting for magazines there is additional pressure to constantly produce a high quality of work, so every now and then it's a good break to do a private shoot and try some new ideas and techniques.

Here is a sneak peak of the car in current post production overload…

Here is the result of the shoot at the end of the night…

Hopefully it's repairable.

Hot Tuner 2009

As I dawdled through Sydney's morning traffic on the way to the inaugural Motor Hot Tuner challenge something bright and green appeared in my rear view mirror, it was a couple of cars behind me but I couldn't quite make out what it was. A few kilometres down the road the mystery green object was right behind me, menacing and low. I knew it was a Porsche and a special one to be in that Kermit Green Colour.

He tails me for a few more kilometres, now on the final stretch to Western Sydney International drag way, In no way did I think this would be one of the cars taking part of the event, I thought it was another rich guy taking it to the circuit next door for a track day.

I pulled up at the designated meeting spot, and so does the Green Machine. Yep the 911 GT2 was part of the story, and best of all it was modified and an absolute animal!

As we said our hello's and introduced ourselves, an automotive smorgasbord joined us, Super snake Cobra, R35 GTR, 911 Turbo's, Modified Volkswagen and a Holden Commodore that had more grunt than a Pig Breeder. Take note these cars are all modified, some more than others but the level of these vehicles was exceptional and a credit to those who built and own them.

The plan was relatively simple, gather 22 of the best workshop modified cars from around the country and test them against each other in a series of controlled test to see who was the Hottest Tuner in Aus. Logistically shooting this many cars in 2 days was extremely difficult but we managed to get the job done.

Day one involved the Acceleration test, 0-100kph, Braking tests and 0-400M thrash, whilst on the other end of the track we had the Dyno running measuring peak power and torque.

To avoid any inconsistencies, all the cars ran the same 98 octane fuel, were driven buy the same driver for each of the respective tests and kept locked up in "parc ferme" overnight to stop any overnight tuning.

Day one went relatively smoothly, Fellow snapper Thomas and I worked through lunch to snag a DPS shot with the Blue SS Commodore and the Super Snake doing a Burnout past the line, it worked out pretty well and gave a good mix of emotion and speed to an otherwise boring scenario. Taking exciting images of drag racing is difficult without having the cars lift the wheels or combust into flames so we had to do a bit of head scratching.

That night, Easton Chang made the trip to shoot the cover options, it was great to see his way of thinking and how he shoots his ultra complicated setups, I learned a great deal and will put a lot of the things into practice in future shoots.

Day 2 was at Oran Park Circuit for the track test, one flying lap on the main circuit and another on the smaller south circuit. John Bowe was the Guest driver for the main circuit and is an Australian Touring car Legend, It was amazing to meet one of my hero's from when I was a kid and he is also extremely funny and quick witted. Luffy took to the south circuit and in true Luffy style ripped it up! Doing some amazing powerslides for the camera's and making it look so easy.

In the end it was the Fitzgerald Racing Porsche 911 Turbo that took the honours over the 911 GT2, also noticeable mentions must go to city performance and their amazing R32 Golf which ran 11's over the quarter Mile and decimated many of the other tests. A lesson that can be taken from the event is that power doesn't nessaceraly maketh the car. Starting with a strong base and making smart and effective modifications is the real winner and a recipe for success.

So that was the 2009 Motor Magazine Hot Tuner event done and dusted, hopefully next year a stronger and even faster set of vehicles take up the challenge and hopefully I'll be there to capture it once again.

Motor Sept 09

Newest issue of Motor hit the stands yesterday with the Feature I shot with the three Generations of Renault Hot Compact cars, The Renault Clio R27 F1, 16TS and 8 Gordini all have cool bits and peices that make them different from other cars so it was a real pleasure to experience.

The Clio R27 is a great car, I was never a fan of Renaults until I saw this in the flesh, The stickers while a bit of a wank are a typical Renault way of making something different cool, albeit advertising the fact they won the 2007 F1 championship in 2009 is totally ridiculous to me. It's a trackday special that you could drive everyday. I found the seats a bit too racelike for my liking though especially after sitting in them for a whole day.

I also thought the Renault 8 Gordini was particularly cool, 2 fuel tanks, rear engined and a raw driving experience. It reminded me of a Datsun 1600 but with a few quirks. This particular car was immaculate and a testament to the owners love and dedication to the make.

The 16 TS was also very unique, a Colomn shifted manual, rear seats that lifted up and suspension that felt like you were floating on a cloud. This car would have been revolutionary in it's day. Apparently these made succesful rally cars aswell.... sounds scary.

I was happy how the article came out, Cockburns story is both informative and in-depth but I like the way he incorporates humour to break it up a bit. I would have thought the 3 car rig shot would have been the double page spread but the Static Group shot looks sweet when cropped. Overall I am happy how it turned out.