Here’s a second instalment of my Lexus shoot for NBT TOYOTA following the publication of the RX350 in 2009. Once again, I missed the actual ad that appeared in the Borneo Bulletin newspaper so the kind folks at ZenderFang emailed me a copy of the artwork (a complete one which I delicately ripped to fit in this space). Although on the day of the shoot, an actual IS300C was in the process of clearing customs we were unable to get it ready for the shoot other than that it had been pre-booked by a client, it wasn’t right to do so either. So the red convertible was from a different source while we had the silver IS300 to play with. You’ll find my personal rendition below which wasn’t part of the deliverable but that didn’t stop me from dabbling with the image.
A second in a long day of shoot in the scorching heat. Just 2 images shy of a thousand RAW files were shot in one day from three Lexus models. I don’t know about other photographers but this is surely a personal record. The photo below was taken by Gavin whom I invited to assist me and creative director James from ZenderFang.
A hardcopy print out of the RX350 artwork pinned on the cork board a reminder of the long hours in the sun. The colours from the Canon PIXMA IP6700D is as vibrant as it was the day it was printed.
The picture of the IS 300 in Several Shades Darker was one of the three Lexus models that I photographed along with the flagship LS 460 and the RX 350. NBT, the exclusive distributor of Lexus fleet in Brunei, flew in a creative director from ZenderFang Singapore to direct the shoot. Below is the published artwork of the RX 350 which has appeared as print ads in the Borneo Bulletin paper two weeks back. I marveled at the awe-inspiring piece of work by the industry leading designers.
“The new RX 350 now flies you to Singapore” And you better believe it …
They took the RX 350 from Brunei and placed it on the Changi Airport runway. The sky is the limit! 🙂
Photo courtesy of ZenderFang Associates
Here’s a behind-the-scenes look at how the car was photographed. Artwork of this caliber typically require a large commercial photo studio but since we have no such facility here, we improvised to use the biggest available light source—sunlight. The entire shoot took 8 hours and I walked off with one image short of a thousand shot in full 5D MkII RAW which amounted to over 30GB of data (post conversion to 8-bit TIFF). 8 hours in the sun also meant that we were pretty toasted only to burn some more 3 days later. Seeing the final results made it all worthwhile. Kudos to Lexus Brunei for raising the bar by investing in custom photography/DI work to better suit the local market.
The original unedited picture of the Lexus RX 350 as shot in Brunei before undergoing creative enhancement surgery by the ZF designers.My rendition of the IS 300 shot at the same location as its bigger siblings.
SHIMWORLD 