Photography Blog

Fast forward to early November and I knew I only had limited time until the snow started falling and The Boss would be put away for the winter. Pete assured me he'd sweeten the pot for me if I came down by bringing out his father's '11 Porsche GT3 and our mutual friend Jon tagged along with his '08 BMW M3.

Not being too familiar with the area, I let Pete pick out the photoshoot locations and he did not disappoint. I'm already looking forward to going back down in the spring to shoot more cars around Des Moines!

Once we'd used up all of the available light in the area, Pete, Jon, and I took the cars over to an old grain rail station. Pete drove the GT3, Jon drove his M3, and I was handed the keys to The Boss. Oh man, what a car! With the exhaust bellowing out of the side pipes, it's worth the price of admission for the sound alone! Of course, the real reason anyone buys a car like this is for the performance, which The Boss has in spades. That big, grunty V8 was more than happy to put down the power any time I asked it to and the chassis remained neutral and easily controllable even when I asked for more power than the tires could contain.

I need one of these in my life!

It wasn't long before we ran out of light and I headed back to my hotel for the evening. After warming up a bit, I headed out for a night on the town and enjoyed as much of downtown Des Moines as anyone could in just one night.

The next morning, I awoke to a beautiful view from my 7th floor corner suite (free upgrade!) and prepared for one last day of shooting.

We had decided that Sunday would be the perfect day to get some rolling shots out in the Iowa countryside surrounding Des Moines. The weather was beautiful and with a crisp breeze, we set out to get some more photos, this time with Pete's brother driving the GT3.

After driving around on some back roads for a while, we found a place to line up the GT3 and The Boss for a race. With the TracKey in The Boss and launch control activated, the GT3 pulled up alongside. Pete kept the revs set to 2600 RPM when he launched and actually picked up a nice lead on the GT3 which couldn't match The Boss for sheer torque or insanity. It wasn't long, however, until the frenetic 3.8L engine of the GT3 built up some revs and caught back up to The Boss before passing it by about a car length at roughly 110 MPH. Meanwhile, Jon and I had fallen far behind in the M3 chase car. This, of course, all took place under closed conditions by trained professionals in the safest manner possible.

In any case, it was a fun and exciting weekend and I can't wait to get down to Des Moines again in the spring.