A Guide to Automotive Photography- Part 8 - Enjoy the Ride

Consistently having fun and enjoying automotive photography is crucial to avoid burnout and boredom. When photography starts feeling like a chore, it’s easy to lose your passion for it.

But don’t worry! If you feel your love for photography slipping away, there are many ways to rekindle that fire. Here are some tips to help you enjoy your work and rediscover your love for automotive photography.

Do shoots for fun.

When the high stakes are off the table—no pressure for a perfect product or tight time constraints—you have more freedom to be creative. This freedom allows you to take shots you wouldn’t have taken otherwise. Unique, carefully taken images are the most fun to shoot and post-process.

For example, the two shots of the Defender above and below came from spending hours around this vehicle. Even though I was shooting for these guys, there was no real pressure or time constraint. I had nothing to prove—just a camera and time.

With creative freedom, you start finding angles and ideas you wouldn’t have thought of originally. You learn much more from these shoots than from the serious ones. You are free to learn, free to fail.

Find someone who is willing to let you have a shoot for fun. Take your time on that shoot to try new things and perfect old techniques. Eventually, you will be quicker to get creative shots in the big-time shoots because you spent time training with low-stakes shoots. You will enjoy automotive photography more if you know how to get the good shots and add your creativity on the back end faster. Have fun learning with low stakes so you can have fun crushing it when it gets real.

Find Others

Automotive photography is growing in popularity, making it easier to find people who share your passion. Seek them out! Do collaborations! Learn from each other! Car photography doesn’t always have to be a solo endeavor. I recently covered a private event with an up-and-coming photographer named Soren Swift (check him out!). The whole experience was much more enjoyable with him there.

Building relationships with clients and photographers to a point where you become friends is crucial to sustaining an enjoyable career. There is something humanizing about being a friend, not just a photographer.

Embrace opportunities to shoot without pressure, connect with fellow photographers, and continually experiment with new techniques. These practices will help you rediscover your love for photography and ensure a fulfilling and enjoyable career. Now, go out and enjoy the ride!