Article and photos by Tomasz Majewski, Fotograf Tomasz Majewski
Since the day Ferrari introduced the LaFerrari to the public, I fell in love with the car, and it has been my biggest dream and goal as an automotive photographer to finally get one for a photoshoot. I never imagined I’d have the opportunity to ride in one.
I live in Oslo, and although I have photographed lots of supercars, hypercars are almost impossible to find, as there are only a few of these in Norway.
This year, I was slowly preparing for the Oslo Motor Show, as every year, when I suddenly saw the post on Facebook – a LaFerrari was coming to the Oslo Motor Show. It´s not difficult to guess my reaction. I was super excited, and I made a new goal for the OMS – to get at least five minutes with the car before they put it inside and block access.
I started to contact some of my friends from the industry, and finally I got right one a week before the event, who told me the car would be delivered Thursday evening or Friday morning, but they will confirm it on Wednesday. On Wednesday, it was confirmed – Thursday, 12:00 pm. I was super excited, and prepared all my equipment. I decided to take my Canon 5d mk3 and 3 lenses – a Canon 16-35 f 2.8, Canon 70-200 f 2.8 and Sigma 50mm f 1.4.
I arrived at the Oslo Motor Show an hour early just to make sure I didn’t miss anything, and I was checking in with my contact constantly for updates on the status of the car. I was informed that it would arrive in a truck delivered by a professional transportation company, so it would be impossible to recognize. However, I was also told it had to go to the front of the building for registration, and then it would be delivered to the back through a security gate for unloading.
I finally got a call; the car had just registered, it had already gone to the back of the building for unloading. I took my camera bag and ran like hell through front entrance, the only way to get to the back of building on foot. I had to show my press pass to security and… I couldn’t find it! I had everything ready for so many days, and I lost the most important thing. Luckily, I had a computer with me, and they let me show my press pass at the accreditation office and printed me a new press card. I was safe, but I was really afraid I had missed the moment of unloading. Luckily, I didn’t.
(See Also: Trip to the Viper’s Den: Carl Jones Photography)
When I arrived at the back of the building, I saw it immediately. At the end of parking lot, there was the truck with one door opened, and though I only saw a little part, I recognized it at once. What a surprise when I saw the car plates – “La Fiat.” When the car was finally out, it was put next to the trailer in the parking lot. There was a television crew who were given priority to conduct an interview with the owner and tape the car, so I had to adjust to the situation.
Depending on where the TV crew was and what they were doing, I had to quickly change lenses to either document some details or the car/interior. I was really lucky that there were only a few people around the car, so I got the chance to get few clean pictures. Since I was not sure how the situation would evolve or how much time I would have, I decided to leave the tripod in my car before I came. The car was mostly in the shadows, so I had to raise the ISO up to 1600 sometimes to get sharp images. I also used a CPL filter to get rid of reflections, but only on one lens. I did not want to waste my time changing the filter to another lens, as the car could be gone at any time.
Suddenly, one of the TV guys told me that he is going to have a short ride in the LaFerrari as a passenger, and film a story with the owner behind the wheel. He expected to have a short ride on the parking lot, but I suddenly noticed they went out on public road. I quickly packed my bag and ran as fast as I could to the public road, as I was sure they would just turn around at the nearest round about and come back. I really wanted to get at least one panning shot of the car.
I quickly found the most reasonable spot to do it and waited.. waited.. for about 20 minutes. They lost their way and it took them a while to come back. I had only one shot to do it, and I can say I am quite satisfied with the result. The car was driving slowly, so I had to slow down the shutter speed to 1/60 to get a better sense of the motion, and finally, it turned quite nicely.
After they brought the car to where it was supposed to stand for the Oslo Motor Show, I had the opportunity to talk for a while with the owner. He has an amazing collection of 40 unique cars, and Ferrari is on top of his favorite car brands. He decided to take the car out again to wash it after the ride with the TV crew, and I asked for a chance to join him for this really short ride. He was kind enough to say yes, making my other dream come true.
It was an awesome Motor Show this year in general as we had some really unique cars, including the Ferrari LaFerrari, Ferrari F12, Lamborghini Huracan, Koeningsegg CCXR, Maserati MC-12 Corsa, Lexus LFA, Bugatti Veyron, Porsche 918, Porsche 991 GT3 RS, Lamborghini Diablo Jotta SE 30 and Porsche Dauer 962 Le Mans, but the LaFerrari took most of my attention. Can´t wait to see what the organizers surprise us with next year!
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