MY KAMM 912C PHOTOS IN EXCELLENCE MAGAZINE

It was a pleasure to complete this assignment on a unique bespoke Porsche built by KAMM Manufaktur with lots of carbon fiber. With feather weight and a trick motor, it’s light, powerful and as cool looking as it is to drive and talk about. Porsche journalist Peter Linskey wrote the story, and I made the images for the current (September) issue of Excellence Magazine. Check it out!

Excellence

THE CONSTITUTION OF THE UNITED STATES

Have a safe 4th.

Last year at this time I posted about the 250th time the signing of the Declearation of Independence was celebrated (the official anniversary is this year). Here’s some more reading material: written in 1787:

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A CELEBRATION YOU MAY NOT HAVE HEARD ABOUT

Native Americans recently celebrated the 150th anniversary of their victory at the Battle of Little Bighorn. With the focus at this time being on America’s history that has somehow been twisted into white nationalism, it’s refreshing to report an acknowledgement to the original people who lived here and their own fight against tyranny.

(Photo: Tallyr Irvine / AP)

ON THE ROAD AGAIN

This time I’m just headed home from New York where I covered the annual Porsche Club of America Parade. Looking forward to digging into all the images I made there for the October issue of Panorama!

MORE LP REISSUE REVIEWS: MILES DAVIS AND HIS FIRST GREAT QUINTET

It was Miles Davis’s first quintet from 1956 that propelled him to fame as a band leader. Comprised of an all-star line-up of talent including John Coltrane, Red Garland, Paul Chambers and Philly Joe Jones, this small group redefined “modern” jazz with their live performances in the villages of New York City. The recordings they made together, which are gathered together in the new Craft Recordings Miles ’56 four-LP box set reviewed here, remain highly influential.

See full review here:
Tracking Angle Review

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TRANS-ANDES ARTICLE COMING TO PCA PANORAMA MAGAZINE

Image of “Desert Flyer” Porsche 964 competing in the 2017 NORRA Mexican 1000 Rally with the Rothsport Racing Team, Cameron Healy and Jeff Zwart, drivers and navigators, Baja del Sur, Mexico by Randy Wells

Porsche Club of America’s national Panorama magazine will be featuring some cool Porsche rally stories soon. One of them I wrote about Cameron Healey and his daughter Siri on their South American expedition along the Andes in their 964 Safari 911 named Desert Flyer. I’ve covered Cameron’s adventure before on two Mexican Baja 1000 rallies. This one is even more exciting. It required their making it down all the way to the tip of the continent. In the process, they covered some extreme terrain as they traveled for six weeks with Kalmar Adventures. Challenges included traversing the world’s largest salt flats and mountain passes over 15,000 ft. Check it out!

JUST BACK FROM TENNESSEE AND THE PLATICA PORSCHE 911R EVENT

In a nod to honoring the past and celebrating the present, the team at Harper Porsche in Knoxville, Tennessee organized a unique Porsche event for the third year in a row. This year the 1967-68 911 and 2016 991 model that were given the badge 911R were featured. Five original 911Rs were there along with thirty 2016 models, fourteen of which were in paint-to-sample colors. The venue was a beautiful pink marble rock quarry in Knoxville. It was one of the best Porsche events I’ve attended. More on my story and photos in the future.

Image of a road in fog at Great Smoky Mountain National Park, Tennessee, American east coast by Randy Wells

TAIL OF THE DRAGON

Very few travel destinations have stories I’m excited about. I could do a book on “The Mother Road”, Rte 66, having traveled, photographed, written and read about it for 40 years, and I probably should have for its 100th Anniversary this year. However, I am not known for doing the obvious. I’d rather focus on the meaningful and overlooked.

Tennessee’s “Tail of the Dragon” is not necessarily overlooked, especially for sports car and motorcycle riders, but the twisty mountain road is just part of the story. What surrounds it, the people, the scenery and the experiences, just make it that much better.

I’m back home now after a couple of days driving it. Good times! Sorry rental car. Don’t worry it just needs an oil change, new tires and brake pads.
Look for a travel article in the future.

Automotive Photographer and Promotional Writer Randy Wells, Image of a tan sports car and the Seattle skyline in Seattle, Washington, Pacific Northwest, Porsche 1967 911S, property released

THE BEST PLACES IN SEATTLE FOR CAR PHOTOGRAPHY

I’m spilling the beans, so to speak, although there are hundreds of other locations and geography near Seattle that will work just as well as those listed below.

Let me start out by saying backgrounds are very important, but so is the color of the car, as is the light, which IMO is the most important element of all.

Not all car colors work for photography or filmmaking on a sunny day. Fortunately (or unfortunately) Seattle is not that sunny except for a handful of weeks during the summer each year.

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LOOK AT ME VS. LOOKING INSIDE YOURSELF

Appearances or integrity? That choice is made every day with the world shifting towards a more superficial “look at me” way of being.

Slowing down, staying on a clean diet, reducing screen time, letting your personal emotions come to the surface, and using those as a base for generating conceptual ideas is a worthier creative goal than propping yourself up with temporary “solutions”.

Here’s a great article that I can recommend for photographers wishing to connect with what they have to say (the most important part of finding your “style” IMO).

FStoppers article

WHAT DO YOU THINK IS THE AMERICAN DREAM?

Looking back from the moon in Artemis II, the planet Earth looks the same as it always did. Unfortunately, it’s just a photograph, and photographs lie.

Even if you ignore climate change and recent weather events, the American Dream is different. Owning your own home might still be possible, if you have a high enough paying job or you receive your parent’s house (or a large inheritance), but otherwise it might very well not happen.

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HAVE WE CROSSED 110TH STREET YET?

Marvin Gaye’s “What’s Going On” is amazing in its own, but this Bobby Womak soul song is on a whole ‘nother planet.

IMO, Jackie Brown is one of the best Tarantino films ever, and it starts with this tune. It can be interpreted many ways on April Fool’s Day.

Don’t be a fool, fool.

SUPER WIDE ANGLES CAN BETRAY YOU FAST

Some readers have asked me to elaborate on the use of a super-wide angle lens for photography.

To master anything wider than a 24mm lens on a full frame camera (like the 20mm photo seen here), requires a lot of practice, especially in automotive and architectural photography. The real risk is to unwittingly insert distortion where you don’t want it, in the corners and edges of the frame.

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HAPPY ST. PAT’S WITH YES

The Yes Album blows me away even today, followed closely by Fragile and Close to the Edge. I introduced my poetry class in high school to them in 1971. Lots of great choices are available in LP pressings now.

(Cover Photo: Phil Franks)

NEW STORIES COMING

I love doing stories that have meaning. A lot of folks like to read about new cars.

For some reason, I like old cars, especially historic Porsches, so that’s what I tend to write about.

Porsche’s iconic 1966 906 and 1967/68 911R race cars are important, at least to me. IMO, the marque’s brand awareness and motorsports heritage would not be what it is without these two cars. Fortunately, these are the cars I’ve come across lately to do features on.

I’ve had fun researching the 906 and 911R over the past couple of months. Look for the results soon. Hope you like these stories!

(Oklahoma City Mural “Summer of 66” Copyright Nick Bayer @createcostudios)