Following a brief chat at the Classic Car Show 2015, Ross Jukes had arranged to carry out a private shoot for a tidy Ford GT replica. The location for the shoot was Bruntingthorpe airfield, and the lucky owner of the GT40 was Dick. On the shoot we had myself, photographer Ross Jukes and videographer Daniel Barnett. After a quick chat with security we made our way down to the airfield to our first location between two huge refueling planes.
First Location – Towered by Planes
You can see from the pictures below the car looks fantastic set between the planes with the sun bursting through the top of the scene. Having a chat with Ross he was pretty happy with the light for the shot, but it was about 4 degrees with 20mph winds so it was pretty nippy!
Ross and Dan worked their way around the car from a few different angles to capture the perfect composition and the best light.
On the day my job was to assist both Ross and Dan and drive the tracking car, a nice Range Rover Sport that you can see here. As there was cold temperatures and strong winds for parts of this shoot Dick and I took a seat in the very comfy and warm Range Rover whilst the guys got to work on the GT40.
Here is how one of the final shots looked. After waiting for the light to land just right on the car and with a bit of an adjustment in post production it looks like a warm sunny day.
The Perfect Moment – The Right Light
Whilst moving the car around to the second location for the shoot, we were tailing the GT40 and when coming out from under the planes, we noticed the light starting to burst through the trees and with the GT40 sitting super low on the ground we had to stop for a few minutes and get this shot. Just look how special the car looks.
Moving round onto the airfield we knew that some of the best shots of the GT40 were going to be the moving shots. We set Ross up in the Range Rover Sport, safely harnessed to the cargo hooks which meant that we could travel at around 30mph to capture the GT40 in motion. We took around 5 laps of the airfield shooting the car from different angles. We had radios to shout instructions between the cars making it easy to move around and get the shots we wanted. Whilst Ross was shooting from the back we had Dan capturing video out the passenger window making the most out of the experience.
Rolling Shots – Harnessed in and Ready to Roll
Here are some of the shots of the GT40 in motion, looking amazing. The car looks like loads of fun to drive and the noise of this car is just incredible.
Front Three Quarters on the Airstrip
Next up on the shot list was making the most of the runway and getting the GT40 set up in all this open space. Ross carefully lined the car up and with the sun setting in the background the scene was set – perfect!
Rear Three Quarters – Positioned Just Right
We took shots from many different angles over about 20 minutes as the light adjusted, then wanting to do the same in reverse we turned the car around, Ross lined it up as he wanted again and we shot the rear three-quarters.
Two Great Cars, One Successful Day
The sunlight had been kind to us on the day and for January where we had feared rain, heavy cloud and even snow leading up to this shoot, it couldn’t have been any better. From a personal perspective I was enjoying myself too, having two great cars to work with and enjoy whilst capturing some special memories of a classic car isn’t something I get to do on a daily basis, so why not take a moment to enjoy it. Here you can see the two lined up looking like complete opposites, but best friends for the day.
Finish the Day Spitting Flames
Finishing the day, the sun had dropped and we wanted to try and capture the GT40 spitting flames because… well why wouldn’t you want to? In the video below you can see Dick running the GT40 up to the side of the Range and Dan filming the car just waiting for the flames to come.
Behind the Scenes Video
To get an overview of the entire day take a look at the video below to see just how the shoot went from behind the scenes.