Hello Reader,

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Firstly, I hope my US readers had a wonderful Thanksgiving yesterday!

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I have, of course, updated my annual list of the Best Black Friday Deals for Photographers. There's good stuff on there.

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Now that the housekeeping is out of the way, let me explain the subject line of the email.

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Long-time readers or social media followers may remember that, in addition to my photography business, leading workshops, and writing content for Shutter Muse, I also occasionally take on side projects in video production. These often, though not always, involve cars—and quite frequently—relate to Formula 1.

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A few months ago, Mercedes reached out to Nick Schrunk, the director I regularly work with. They wanted to create a teaser film for an upcoming car launch, featuring Mercedes F1 driver George Russell and Brad Pitt. The plan was to shoot in Las Vegas in November, coinciding with George’s attendance at the F1 race.

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As a writer for these projects, my role is to generate creative ideas and shape them into plots and storylines that align with the brand’s visual needs and the director's vision. I sometimes write scripts, and then we adjust everything according to feedback and the practicalities of filming at the available location.

As something of a car specialist, I also created a test plan for the prototype Mercedes AMG on this project. This was carried out on a full-scale recreation of the Las Vegas location, set up at the Mercedes test track in Germany. The reason? While we had a clear vision of what we wanted the car to do on camera, we needed to determine whether it was capable in its unfinished prototype state. Mercedes insisted that the stunt driving be completely real—no CGI!

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I'm aware that this isn't my usual content and I know some people won't be interested, so I'll keep it short. However, I'm proud of the result, and honoured to once again play a small part in another great visual project.

-->> Click HERE to watch the final film.

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I'll leave the camera fans with a nugget of interesting insider information: The action shots were done with this surprising camera, because the combination of its small form-factor and global shutter make it unique. Footage from a global shutter camera, when used at speed for action such as this, has a visceral feel to it that rolling shutter cameras just can't match!

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Right, I'm off to pack my bags for a trip to Costa Rica in a few days where I'll be leading a wildlife photography workshop with Aaron Baggenstos. 2025 has certainly been full of variety!

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Oh, and one more time, my Black Friday photography deal list.

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Cheers,

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Dan