Car Photography

Tim Wallace is a professional car photographer, a photographer of mans greatest machine, the motorcar, shooting modern mainstream cars through to supercars and classic cars. Based in the UK and working worldwide both in studio and on location he supplies creative automotive photography to leading motor industry clients and brands. His work is recognised and renowned for its creativity adding real value to client marketing campaigns. His aim, to visually present his subject through striking car photography that is passionate and creative.

For over 20 years Tim has enjoyed working with many great car brand OEMs and agencies across the world providing high-end car photography for our clients’ advertising and marketing campaigns. Utterly passionate about his work and what he does he has been very fortunate to work with some amazing production teams and of course, some amazing cars along that journey, from Ferrari Legends like the 288 GTO and 250 GT Lusso, to classic Aston Martin models like the infamous DB5. When Aston Martin celebrated its 100-year centenary Tim was tasked with a car photography project that was very memorable, he photographed every significant Aston Martin model ever produced starting with the very first Bamford Martin car ever made for the Aston Martin ‘Portfolio of Dreams’ 100-year book. Tim shares with our clients his real drive for creativity within the automotive photography that he produces and is trusted by many brand-leading clients such as McLaren, JLR, Lexus, and Peugeot to provide great car photography that not only captures the car visually but also its essence, how it feels.

Tim shoots internationally with our motoring clients and their creative agencies, and is well known within the industry for the distinctly recognisable style of his automotive photography work. He is a creative with an experienced eye for the details and a true passion for what he loves to do, producing new dynamic and dramatic photography that reaches out to his audience.

Having built a proven reputation over the years for delivering a project on time and within budget effectively, he has experience working both directly for manufacturers and also through client agencies, understanding the importance of client brand guidelines, and making sure that the car photography that is produced from a photoshoot flows through into his client’s current library seamlessly maintaining that all-important consistency. With his experience of working both on location and in studio he is able to adapt his lighting a shooting style so that his clients can get the photography they require with the overall style and feel that will sit correctly with their brand and their advertising and marketing.

"Creating great and impactful high-end car photography for clients is the ultimate end game for me always however I think it's our time served experience within the transport sector that really counts for my clients and the people that I work with. Sure, we can go into studio or on location and shoot images of fantastic cars and vehicles but often the real complex work goes on behind the scenes before we reach that stage to pull all the elements together giving us the opportunity to create great car photography that has both impact and passion.”

Tim - “I love working with a creative team and I’m always open to our client’s ideas, working to always support those to the best of our abilities. I don't think people commonly realise how much is involved sometimes in just getting to a 'shoot day' and I firmly see it as part of my role working with the client to help them and advise them on this, drawing from my own experience over many years of shooting literally all around the world both on location and in studio. As well as the planning of the actual shoot I ensure that I am totally familiar with the client branding needs and we also look at the end usage in advance so that we are firmly set to capture a campaign image or a sequence of cohesive image assets that will be correct for what the end client needs to use those for. My attitude is that what we produce should always be a major 'asset' to our client, and not just a budget 'cost', it’s important to always add value.”

"Some automotive photography projects will sometimes involve the requirement for ‘dynamic’ based motion shots, we have techniques that we deploy that allow us to get some really great dramatic photography that sits well for use in our clients' brochures and other outputs and can bring a car to life, either on track or in a road scene.

Dynamic motion can be used in very versatile ways to capture elements of the car in motion as well as give as a photographer the ability to be very fluid with my shots, opening up more possibilities for very unusual and eye-catching automotive car photography. For most of our overall car photography action work we often use chase cars to shoot from, and this gives us a fluid control over our positioning and is easily set up, providing of course all the required safety measures are in place properly, with the correct safe road or track access in place.”

"It’s easy to create an ‘acceptable’ image for a quick win, but real passion you can make use of the light and design to create a truly inspirational piece of work through careful thought, exposure, and lighting.

A camera does not create a great photograph, the photographer does, 90% of the achievement lies in your imagination of what you want to create.”

Creativity is the fundamental key to any successful commercial photography project when mixed with a strongly defined shooting style. Commercially it is very important for a client to choose a photographer based not only on their obvious technical ability but most importantly on their 'style' of work, this often a driving factor as new work will often need to sit in place next to previous photography that has been completed. Creativity still exists in the capture and control of light with your subject mixed with a strong creative vision and understanding a brand.

Tim is very well known within the automotive car industry for his open approach and his passion to push the creative boundaries to produce the best imagery possible for his clients. He is regarded by many as one of today's leading UK commercial automotive photographers with a unique strong style of work and passionate approach that inspires not only his clients but also their customers from the outputs achieved, something that is reflected through the brands that he works with and awards such as, British Advertising Photographer, and Professional Photographer of the Year, as well as Car Photographer of the Year at the Motor Industry Awards. In 2021 he was announced as Commercial Photographer of the Year at the British Photography Awards in London for his photography for our client McLaren, involving some work shot for their brochures that he has successfully completed for both McLaren and MSO.

"For me, photography is a completely creative passion, the ability to use light and form to capture what I see with my own imagination using lighting.

Working in studio for me is always a pleasure and very much based on creating powerful imagery, I’m also known for making a 'really decent' cup of tea on those long studio days”

“Car photography, and indeed any professional automotive vehicle photography can be quite difficult, for me it’s all about shooting the image to fit the clients requirements. That may be a shot that is powerful and aggressive or indeed one that gives an air of grace and beauty about the car, truck, or any vehicle type. In some ways, I view each car as a person that has a personality, and the starting point is to understand what the design and overall purpose is, the challenge then is to use my photography to best to get this message across.”

Our automotive clients are building steadily each year and we are very fortunate that they include some major corporate companies both in the UK, Europe and US. Like most businesses I’m always looking to tomorrow and the future, new opportunities and potential new clients that we can work with to help carry their branding message forward in a positive with creative photography. I will always be seeking to push the boundaries of what we do, look to create new work that inspires our clients and also bring real value to their marketing and advertising. Photography is a passion for me and always has been however I am equally passionate about our business and the relationships that we build with the amazing people we work with.