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Randy Wells is a car photographer based in Seattle and L.A. His automotive photography has been voted among the best in the Pacific Northwest.

Randy Wells, Seattle, Santa Barbara, Car, Photographer, Best Automotive, Photography by Randy Wells

PORTFOLIO

Randy Wells has the good fortune to photograph, film, and write about cars and transportation for the best manufacturers, advertising agencies, collectors, auction houses, and magazines full-time. His work has appeared more than 20,000 times worldwide, including magazines like National Geographic. All his work is personally handcrafted. See the link above for 65 galleries featuring thousands of stock images available for prints and licensing.

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THE ROAD TO H*** IS PAVED WITH GOOD INTENTIONS

The key is to never let it get you down. There can be a lot of mis-communication when everyone is coming from a different point of view. Fractured is how I see the world today. It can be frustrating, but it’s up to each of us to follow what we know to be the truth. It’s good actions that matter. Forget the rest.

I’M ON A CAYMAN ROLL

It wasn’t that long ago that I wrote and photographed a feature for the Porsche Club of America’s national magazine on a Cayman S that was perhaps the most expensive one ever ordered. Now, the April 2024 issue features one of the least expensive used Cayman S models purchased that has been turned into a top-time-of-the-day autocross weapon.
Congrats to Tara and Steven Lau for their wins at last year’s Porsche Parade and national SCCA events! Check it out in the latest Porsche Panorama Magazine.

Image of worn out flowers in South Puget Sound, Washington, Pacific Northwest

YOU CAN SEND ME DEAD FLOWERS

“When you’re sitting there in your silk upholstered chair…”

Maybe you know those lyrics, and maybe you don’t. Yet, everyone who has heard a Robert Ludwig (RL) mastered first UK LP pressing of Sticky Fingers by The Rolling Stones played back on a great sounding system knows exactly what I’m talking about.

RECORD COLLECTING

If you are after the best reproduction of sound quality in recorded music for any performance you will want to collect direct copies of the original master tape. That’s true for everything recorded up to about 1985. After that most music was recorded digitally.

Of course, direct copies on tape are very hard to find or very expensive, or both. So most serious audiophiles spring for the original all analog LP record created the years the album was first released in the country where the music was recorded, mastered, and cut to vinyl. Continue reading “”

ICM

“Intentional Camera Movement” (ICM) is the hot new topic in photography, joining that other popular image description,”Bokeh”. I’ve been told these terms mean “motion panning” and “backdrop blur”, respectively. Reminds me of the use of “negative space” as just another word for “background”. This new terminology sure makes the person using it sound like they know what they are talking about!

Funny thing is, motion panning (aka ICM) in color photography has been in use since Ernst Haas fist pioneered the technique in 1954 while using ASA 10 original Kodachrome in low light (see his photograph “Bullfight” above). The other art synonyms have been around even longer. Silly me.

4-3-24

HAPPY WORLD PARTY DAY!

World Party, along with the newly coined day, is the name of a band led by the recently deceased Karl Wallinger. He had left the Celtic group The Waterboys in the late ’80s to produce a string of stellar solo albums, including Goodbye Jumbo in 1990. Much of the world never paid attention to this non-grunge record at the time. In the UK it was hit, it was nominated for a Grammy, and made the best list at Q Magazine. Like all his records, they sound great on original vinyl, but an early CD will do just fine. You can also stream it dumbed down, or hear it remastered loud on a new CD or LP.

Wallinger’s music is a channeled mix of The Beatles, Rolling Stones, Dylan, and Beach Boys set to catchy lyrics. There are some lessons for life enclosed in his albums for those who are bored with inconsequential music.

(Photo: Jeff Kravitz/FilmMagic)

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SHARE YOUR WORK WITH A QUALIFIED PROFESSIONAL

Showing your work to your family and friends only goes so far. To receive the most honest and critical evaluation of your photography, choose a professional working in your field to view your best stuff. That way you have a qualified opinion that can help you keep growing in an efficient manner.

(Photo of Randy on assignment: Andrea Wells)

3-20-24

STEINBECK’S AMERICA – FROM SOUTH TO EAST

Travels With Charley: In Search of America by John Steinbeck is a good read. so much so that I felt compelled to document my own journey across America at the end of the 20th Century on analog film. I traveled in my camper van over 150K miles in four years, mostly alone, shooting from dawn to dusk. I wore out that van, so I bought another one and photographed for another three years, ending my travels along Steinbeck’s route in 1999.

The first printing of my Steinbeck’s America book is a very limited edition, which is numbered and autographed. The book is 7”x7” softcover with deluxe gloss cover and 156 heavyweight pearl pages with 121 full color photographs.

For information on how to order my photo book Steinbeck’s America, please contact me HERE.

Here are my notes from the third part of my trip.

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CHEAP AND GOOD ENOUGH

If you are a budding photographer who wants to add a side hustle shooting automobiles, make sure you are “cheap” and “good enough”. That way you might get enough gigs to survive your first year in business. If you work really hard shooting cars once a week and practicing Photoshop every day, you may eventually have “something to say” (aka: develop a great eye and a style) that will separate you from the pack. Then you can charge more. If that happens, it can take up to five years, but learning on the job requires that. Remember, it takes 10,000 hours of intense focus to become an expert, technically. Just don’t try to fake it ’till you make it. That never works for very long.

(Illustrator: Unknown)

STEINBECK’S AMERICA – FROM WEST TO SOUTH

John Steinbeck’s 1962 book Travels With Charley: In Search of America was so inspiring that I was compelled to interpret my own journey in photos across America at the end of the 20th Century. Here are my notes from the second part of multiple trips.

For information on how to order my photo book Steinbeck’s America, please contact us HERE.

From West to South

At the time John Steinbeck undertook his journey across America he had been confirmed as one of the most significant figures in 20th century American literature. His work included a dozen celebrated novels, a collection of short stories, and several screenplays (Of Mice and Men, The Grapes of Wrath, Cannery Row, East of Eden). His keen sense of the environment and nature, and how man interacted with it, was unique – and in many ways he was a writer of the people. When he accepted the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1962 he spoke these words: “The ancient commission of the writer has not changed. He is charged with exposing our many grievous faults and failures, with dredging up to the light our dark and dangerous dreams for the purpose of improvement.” Continue reading “”

STEINBECK’S AMERICA – FROM EAST TO WEST

Reading John Steinbeck’s 1962 book Travels With Charley: In Search of America in 1992 was so amazing to me that I felt compelled to photograph my own journey across America from 1992-1999 on analog film. Here are my notes from the first part of my trip.

For information on how to order my new photo book Steinbeck’s America, contact us HERE.

From East to West

When John Steinbeck left the safe haven of his Sag Harbor home on Long Island in the autumn of 1960 with his French poodle, Charley, he was embarking on a three month journey to rediscover the land he had championed and loved. He drove north to New England in his self-contained camper truck, which he named “Rocinante” after Don Quixote’s horse. There he visited his youngest son in Deerfield, Massachusetts and a literary friend on Maine’s Deer Island. He then turned west in what could be described as a hero’s journey. He had suffered episodes of numb fingers and slurred speech the previous winter, and at age 58 was contemplating his own mortality. With the vastness of a continent before him, he likened his self-appointed mission to the overwhelming task of beginning a new novel. Undeterred, he undertook his last epic road trip with Charley by his side. Continue reading “”

SEPIA IS THE NEW BLACK

PCA’s national Porsche magazine, Panorama, has published a feature of mine on two Sepia Brown colored 911 Targas separated by 50 years in age. Richard Raimist is the owner who so helpfully provided these perfect Porsches on location in Palm Springs at the annual Porsche Parade last summer. Lots of details and comparisons between them fill ten pages accompanied by my images made at sunrise. Enjoy!

Porsche Panorama Magazine