We just photographed this original owner 1969 AMC Hurst SC/Rambler for our book, The Complete Book of AMC Cars to be published by Quarto/Motorbooks in September 2024. It was purchased on April 25, 1969 from Young Motors in Tipton, Indiana. Of the 1,512 SC/Ramblers built by AMC and Hurst Performance, it is one of about 300 in the toned-down “B” paint scheme. Today it has 42,259 miles on it, and 90% of the paint is original.

Before taking delivery of the Hurst SC/Rambler the owner joined the Army. The car was put into storage while he flew “Huey” (Bell UH-1) helicopters in Vietnam. Ted, thank you for your service to our nation, and thanks for preserving your patriotic Hurst SC/Rambler so well!

Thanks to a chance encounter at the Holz Chevrolet car show July 4th, we were able to photograph the last Dodge needed to update Mike Mueller’s book, The Complete Book of Dodge & Plymouth Muscle Cars. This gorgeous Charger has just 14,000 mile on it, what a great way to finish this book!

We just completed photographing Dodge Challengers for our update of Mike Mueller’s definitive book, The Complete Book of Dodge & Plymouth Muscle Cars. This 2017 Dodge Challenger Scat Pack Shaker was owned by my late boss, Marty Straube. Marty was not only Vice President of Supply Chain, but also a great friend and fellow gearhead. Marty passed away much too young in 2019, but I was hoping I could track down his Scat Pack Shaker. Thankfully his daughter and son-in-law are its caretakers now, and we were able to use Milwaukee’s beautiful lakefront as a location. It is such an honor to include this Challenger in this book!

Inspired by the Trans Am racing 1970 Challenger T/A, the Challenger T/A returned in 2017 with Satin Black body graphics, premium-painted Satin Black Mopar Induction Hood, Satin Black rear spoiler with T/A graphics, T/A illuminated air catcher headlamps, Satin Black wrapped roof and decklid, Forged Aluminum wheels and more. The popular “Plum Crazy” paint color from the 1970–71 Challenger returned in 2014. This Challenger will be part of the revised Complete Book of Dodge & Plymouth Muscle Cars.

We recently photographed a gorgeous 2013 Dodge Charger R/T Max for our update of the book “The Complete Book of Dodge & Plymouth Muscle Cars for Motorbooks. This R/T Max features 5.7L Hemi power, Beats audio sound system with trunk-mounted sub-woofer, and all-wheel drive. THE 5.7L HEMI V8 produces 370 horsepower and 395 lb-ft of torque. Paint is Redline Tri-Coat Pearl. We have just one more Charger to photograph to complete the book.

Last week we photographed our first AMC products for our new book, The Complete Book of AMC Cars. Thanks to long-time AMC enthusiasts Mike Spangler and Cheryl Samuel we were able to photograph two one-of-a-kind prototypes, the 1971 AMX concept and the 1974 Gremlin XP concept. We also shot their 1962 Rambler 400 convertible and 1983 Renault Le Car (Renault was the majority owner of AMC). Thank you again Mike and Cheryl!

We just finished photographing a spectacular 40,000 mile 2011 Dodge Challenger R/T for our update of Mike Mueller’s great book, The Complete Book of Dodge & Plymouth Muscle Cars. This R/T features Redline 3 Coat Pearl paint and the 5.7L Hemi producing 372 horsepower and 400 lb-ft of torque. We used one of our favorite locations, the East Troy Railroad Museum in East Troy, Wisconsin. It’s always a joy photographing such an original and immaculate automobile!

We just photographed our first Dodge Charger, a 2023 SRT Hellcat Jailbreak in F8 Green, for our update of Mike Mueller’s great book, The Complete Book of Dodge & Plymouth Muscle Cars. At 717 horsepower, this “last call” of the Dodge Charger and Challenger is truly going out in style!

I have been asked by Motorbooks to write an update to Mike Mueller’s excellent book “The Complete Book of Classic Dodge and Plymouth Muscle Cars”. Mike’s book covers 1960 to 1974, but so much has happened at Dodge in the 21st century that Motorbooks wanted to add two more chapters on the 2006 to current Dodge Charger and 2008 to current Dodge Challenger. Mike did not want to tackle this project, so they offered it to me. I will also be photographing some of these cars for the books. I’ve admired Mike Mueller’s work for 30 years or more, and I’ve contributed some photos to his books over the years. It will be a challenge to match Mike’s always first-class work, but we both write with a similar “voice” and photograph in a similar style. This should be fun!

We photographed this spectacular 1977 Ford LTD II for Collectible Automobile magazine in July. This beautiful Ford has only 24,000 miles (38,624 km) on it and is completely original, including the factory CB radio and antenna. The current owner just purchased this car from the original owner.

This was our first opportunity using the Nikon AF-S Nikkor 85mm f1.8G lens we recently purchased. The goal of automobile photography is to make the vehicle look as good as possible, and for nearly 40 years I’ve been looking for the perfect solution to separate the vehicle from the foreground and background. When we were photographing with a 4×5 view camera, I used 210mm and 305mm lenses, which are equivalent to 70mm and 100mm lenses in 35mm format. These came close to the “bokeh” I was looking for, but even with careful tilts and swings, I often had to stop down too much to fully blur the background while leaving the vehicle sharp.

Quite simply, the Nikon AF-S Nikon 85mm f1.8G⎘ lens is a dream come true! Look for these photographs in a 2023 issue of Collectible Automobile⎘ magazine.