Getting quality photos of your car can be hard. Your best bet is to get your whip detailed, hire a professional photographer, and then buy some prints. Or, you could just run into Utah’s mobile car studio, and get yourself an amazing print-out on the road.
The project is the brainchild of photographer Connor Guldner. Based out of Salt Lake City, Utah, he had a fun idea. He’d go hunting for cool cars out on the road; once he spotted one, he’d wave his camera at the driver, and take some awesome rolling shots with their cooperation. The magic, though? He’s making prints and handing them over to these random lucky drivers on the highway!
Connor’s work is rapidly racking up views on Instagram as he shoots more cars around the city. His greatest effort thus far involved a gorgeous white BMW E30, with the “Narco” build racking up 3 million views already. Just peep the magic here.
Connor could have made do with an iPhone and one of those cheap little Polaroid printers, but he’s a professional photographer who takes things a darn sight more seriously than that. He’s out here shooting on a Sony A7 Mark III, with a 28-75 f2.8 lens giving him both great clarity at speed and a nice sense of depth of field.
Once shot, he uses a tablet to quickly print a photo on his Canon PIXMA PRO-200, and frames it up on the spot. He then signs a certificate of authenticity, wraps up the lot with a few stickers and sweet treats, and hands it over to the driver with an extended grabber.
Obviously, it’s not the safest game out. Handing objects between moving cars is a bit of a risk. Also, he’s out there shooting without a hand strap on the camera. That’s taking an expensive risk. Still, at least Connor is leaving the driving to someone else while he shoots out the passenger side of his vehicle.
Oh, except for the time he shot a Porsche Cayenne off-road, and he ghost rode his Honda on cruise control out on the dirt flats. That’s kind of beyond the pale.
Connor has actually been at this since 2023. When he first started, he was shooting stationary shots for strangers in parking lots, which made editing and printing the shots far easier. He was also using a smaller Canon SELPHY CP1500 printer, rather than the full-size Pixma he uses now. The ethos was the same—he’d find cool cars, shoot them, and give the owners some complimentary prints as a treat. It was only later that he started doing rolling shots, and editing and printing them while out on the road.
Connor’s shots are good enough that you might want to go and drive around Salt Lake City hoping to score a print yourself. Ultimately, though, you can just hire Connor’s services instead—it’s a much surer and safer way to get him to shoot your car.
Image credits: Connor Guldner via Instagram screenshot
Thanks to @babelinfocalypse for the tip!
I’ve seen these videos, and I just assumed everyone involved knew what they were getting into and it was all staged.
It’s a really fun concept and I hope it gets him plenty of business.
I love this so much that my buddy, whom is also a photographer, has agreed that we should set up my car to do similar in our area.
What is a photog? or are we that close to talk emoji?
this isn’t a new abbreviation of the word photographer…
quick search later, Merriam-Webster says it was first used in 1898, which wasn’t even terribly far off from the first use of the word photographer.
My experience with the word photog comes from working in newsrooms, both TV and newspapers. Granted, haven’t worked in that arena in a long while, but the studio or wedding photographers did not like being referred to as a photog, at least in my experience.
Oh and that Sony is a sweet camera, almost bought one recently, but decided to stick with Canon since I already have their lens.
This makes me SO happy!
That’s some pretty clever promotion for a photog. Definitely differentiates him from the 4 million others online trying to get gigs. At least until the copycats show up elsewhere…
I love this but it seems a bit less risky to have a url on your car where your
photo subjects can go and drop a few bucks to download a nice res roller pic.
For sure. But for someone who is probably trying to get more business, people would definitely choose to watch this. So yes, it is for the clicks.
True. But at least for the moment, the grabber just makes this extra wonderful in my book.