Value in function and design has a limit, value in history does not.

Perhaps there is no car that better personifies this than the Ford GT40. Not the road versions or the modern versions, I am talking about the car that gave them all heritage. Raced in Le Mans with the Gulf livery that graces everything from watches to cell phones, this car is an icon. It represents a time when cars were driven to the track and raced, when danger was ever apparent and the pilots of the cars were gods amongst men.

I can still remember when one of my friends told me that he had that car and how far fetched I thought it was. Imagine walking into a dark room and the lights turning on to reveal this car. It sat there all alone, it was like I was in my own private museum of racing history, I was awestruck. In all honesty I didn’t even think of photographing it, but rather just enjoyed looking at it and wondering the time and experience this car had seen. One night, while enjoying a glass of wine, my friend and I decided it would be fun to photograph the car; not for money nor advertising, but for history’s sake.

As for the photo itself, it serves as a testament to Nikon’s D3. When we shot the image, we had a camera, a tripod and a strip light.  We knew that it was going to be a dark image and planned how I would walk the light to paint the lines, but the rest of the image’s quality relied on my faith to Nikon. With the D3, as well as the D3X, I have always had the confidence to throw any lighting situation at the subject and let the sensor work it out, and the cameras have always delivered.