The 10th Anniversary Red Brick Reunion

Last year I attended the Red Brick Reunion for the first time.  And at the end of the article that I wrote, I indicated that I had already put the date on my calendar for the next Red Brick Reunion and planned on attending.  as it turns out the 2024 Red Brick Reunion would be the 10th anniversary of what is one of the largest Porsche car shows and gathering of Porsche enthusiast in the United States.

For me, the draw to the event is on several different levels.  Sure, I’m a car guy in general and a Porsche enthusiast at my core.  My first German sports car was a 1987 Porsche 944 which I owned back in college.

But on an entirely different level, this is An opportunity for automotive photography, which I rarely get.  This is an opportunity to photograph beautiful show cars in a beautiful environment.  The Red Brick Reunion takes place in downtown Oxford, Ohio.  It is a quaint, upscale town with brick lined streets (which is where the event gets its name) The provides an unparalleled photographic opportunity for capturing these beautiful and rare German masterpieces.

PHOTO GEAR

As with last year’s event, I used two camera bodies.  I again used my Canon R5 as my primary camera body, but this time it was joined by my new Canon R6 Mark II in its first official outing,  last year, I used the Black Rapid dual camera harness set up to carry both cameras.  This year I switched to my standard car show set up, which works so much better for doing car shows.  My R5 was on a Black Rapid single camera strap, and my R6 Mark II was on the Ulanzi quick release backpack strap mount, attached to my Lowepro camera bag. In terms of lenses, I brought three but only shot with two.  On the R5 I had my Canon EF 35mm F1.4 II and on the new R6 Mark II I had my Voigtlander RF 50mm F1.0.  In my Lowepro camera sling I had my RF 24-70 F2.8 but it never made it out of the bag.  I also have K&F Concept Nano X-Series 2 in 1 ND/CPL filters on both lenses.  These are highly recommended if you’re going to shoot a car show with fast prime lenses.  The CPL functionality reduces glare off of windshields and hoods, and the ND functionality much like sunglasses for your camera will create a darker image, allowing you to use a wider aperture setting at the same shutter speed.

THE PHOTOS

Most of the photos I took using the R5/EF 35mm F1.4 II, but I think my favorite photos came from the Voigtlander RF 50mm F1.0.  I arrived well before the show was scheduled to open and car owners showing in the event were just beginning to arrive.  I was able to get this 911 shot when I first arrived – my favorite from the event and one of my best ever car photos:

A close second was this 944 photo (obviously near and dear to my heart):

It’s hard to beat early morning sunrise photos – as a photographer, it pays to get up and arrive early.

Photographically, I really wanted to push myself creatively at this event.  I was and remain extremely proud of the photos I took at the 2023 Red Brick Reunion, but I think I took things up a notch this year.  You’ll see a mix of photo edits applied ranging from photo realistic to photo artistic.  In some cases, I applied my own edits exclusively.  In others, I first applied filters such as the Fro Knows Photo FroPack custom filters, then made fine adjustments.

One thing I found myself doing with the Voigtlander 50mm lens which I don’t typically do is inorporating more people into the car photos – sort of like mixing street photography and car photography:

Here are few of my attempts to be more creative:

In other cases I tried to simply “play it straight.”

More examples of creative angles or edits:

The 2024 Red Brick Reunion did not disappoint from the high bar it set with me last year.  The weather was absolutely fantastic – unseasonably cool for early August in Ohio – sunny with a high 76 degrees.  I walked around and took photos for about 3 hours straight – I took more and (I think better) photos than I did at last year’s event.  I was pretty tuckered afterward, but I had a fantastic time.

WILL I GO BACK NEXT YEAR?

Likely yes, though I may scale back the gear that I bring.  Maybe next year I’ll just bring my FujiFilm X100VI (assuming my pre-order ever gets fulfilled….) And make it less about photography and more about enjoying the cars and maybe interacting with people more.  This is still the best car show event that I attend during the Summer so it’s hard to imagine not going.  Until next year…