Locals: Mike's 1988 Ferrari Testarossa

As you can imagine, I don't get to spend a whole lot of time around supercars. I've certainly seen my fair share up close at various car meets and shows, but I've never had access to one for a photoshoot. I had seen Mike's Testarossa online a few times, and he had always seemingly been pretty generous about bringing it out to various meets, including last years Turkey Run in Daytona around Thanksgiving, so I figured he'd be a perfect first run into exotic photography. My friend Kirt had met him a few times, so he shot him a message to see if we could find a time to get together and do a little shooting. After a couple rain delays, we agreed on last Saturday morning; meet at the Burger King, knock a quick set out at a few of my favorite locations, do some rolling shots up and down I16, and be back in our warm homes before our wives woke up.  Best laid plans right?

Macon is thankfully home to a plethora of incredible locations to photograph a car. A century of urban growth with a generation of dereliction makes for great textures and plenty of character. Thanks to efforts of some great people recently though, that trend is exponentially turning the other way. Much of the urban decay is being repaired and revitalized which brings new faces downtown. Wonderful news for everyone. Except for me when I'm trying to find a spot to shoot a Ferrari and both my first choice and back-up are packed full of cars. Luckily, there is always somewhere else to shoot, but dang it if I'm going to use my chance at a Ferrari in some C-list overshot brick alley. We set up on the back alley off Poplar and MLK, but I got bored real quick. I asked Mike to follow me, that I had another location in mind. I didn't. 

After driving around for a couple minutes, drawing a complete blank in a city where nearly every block would have been fine, I settled on this dumpy little mid-century red brick building on Whatever Street off of 7th. Nothing screams Italian classic style like iron bars on broken windows right? I get to watch Chad Burdette shoot Ferrari after Ferrari at Road Atlanta, and here I am with my one chance capturing all of its European glory in front of where someone's grandpa paid their water bill in 1963. Bordering on giving up and paying the guy some gas money, I spotted a neat little green industrial building in the distance that I had never noticed before. Kirt jumped in the Taco and drove over to see if we'd be able to get over there. Thank God, we could.

I have no idea what this place is, what purpose it serves, or if I was allowed to be there, but it is incredible. It's the kind of place you travel to. I'm still not entirely sure that it is appropriate for a Ferrari, but at this point I was just thrilled to be somewhere interesting. And I'm genuinely excited to show these shots off. Honestly, I would have liked to have had my strobes. But then again, warmer temperatures, three more hours of prep and shoot time, a paid assistant, and a cup of Aimee's apple cider would be have been nice too. Overall, it was a good time. I really appreciate Mike bringing the car out on a cold morning, and being willing to drive it into a cocaine barn or whatever this place was. Solid guy with a beautiful car. Thank you.

So what's my takeaway with all of this? Better planning? Bring my strobes to every shoot just in case? Buy warmer gloves? No, just nail the rolling shot. That's all anyone really wants to see anyway.