A ride with Adrian Vanq Wong

Being known in Singapore’s automotive scene as Vanqphotorque, Adrian Wong is the photographer you seek for your automotive photography needs. Fueled by his passion for cars and his educational background in NTU ADM Photography & Digital Imaging, Adrian infuses both aspects to orchestrate visually aesthetic photographs based on his tagline “What I See Is What You Get”.

With his humble beginnings in 2007 from online forums, he has since shifted his focus to specialize in Fine Art & Commercial Photography, expanding his clientele to commercial companies and editorial magazines such as TopGear Singapore and many more.

Felix Chew talks to the veteran automotive photographer about his passion for cars and gets to aid him in one of his automotive photo shoot involving a Lamborghini Sesto Elemento (20 in the world) and Lamborghini Reventon Roadster(15 in the world).

What fueled your passion for automotive photography?

Similar to how every other typical young boy who grew up playing toy cars, I was the same except I took my love for toy cars to the next level. I grew up playing with 1:64 scale HotWheels & Matchbox cars and since then amassed a huge collection of these cars amounting to at least 2000 to date. In fact, as I grew older, my passion for cars grew stronger, so I started collecting bigger cars of 1:18 scale as well. However, I wasn’t contented with just collecting these cars because they can never replace the feeling I could get from being right beside the real thing.

Hence, in 2007 I decided to join an online car forum to widen my exposure to different kinds of cars. Forums were the “in-thing” during that period of time because Facebook groups and other forms of communication mediums weren’t as popular then. During that time, automotive photography was a very niche market, there weren’t many photographers available that specialize in shooting cars. I started offering photography services on the forums so that I would have the chance to get close to various car models. I still remember the very first car I shot was my friend’s Honda Civic. Since then, I had the opportunity to meet more people on the forum and also had the chance to practice shooting their cars. From this point onwards, my network grew as I started to know more people in the industry driving different cars and was finally given an opportunity by a friend on the forums to enter the media industry as an automotive photographer.

Could you share with us some of your more memorable photography experience?

Back in 2009, I did a calendar shoot for a Spyker C8 Laviolette, a car with a rich history in the airplane industry. As the car was a left hand drive that is not allowed on the road, we transported it via a flatbed tow truck to Seletar Hangar. A lot of preparations were made in prelude to the photoshoot because of the nature of the location and the car. The reason why this shoot was memorable was because it was almost cancelled due to unexpected rain. However, the least expected occurred, after the rain we were blessed with beautiful skies and weather, which helped enhance the beauty of the Spyker C8 Laviolette.

Another memorable photography experience I had was of the Koenigsegg Agera S which is the most expensive car registered in Singapore to date.

And the most recent memorable photography experience for me was the 28th SEA games 2015 commemoration photoshoot with Scuderia FSG, involving 38 car in the formation of IV being the largest car group photoshoot I have ever done which took me 2 months of planning.

Do you have any tips regarding automotive photography?

What I would advice aspiring automotive photographers or even the layman who enjoys taking photos of their own cars would be to look at more photography works of other automotive photographers and learn what works and what doesn’t. Try to shoot your automotive subject in the way you feel the car would look best. Work towards creating your own style of photography, which is why I always tell my clients that What-I-See-Is-What-You-Get.

Writer’s on-the-job experience with Adrian Wong

It was really exciting to be able to work with Adrian on his photo shoot, especially when the subject was a limited edition Lamborghini Sesto Elemento. While preparing the strobes for the shoot, not only did Adrian taught me about how light and shadows actually gives depth and forms to the shape of the car, he also showed me the importance of keeping the light consistent as we shifted the lights around the car. Honestly speaking, working with Adrian was really an eye-opening experience for me.

Thank you Adrian for your time.

To find out more about Adrian’s automotive photography, head over to www.vanq.net

You can also follow him on Facebook at www.facebook.com/vanqphotorque

Or on Instagram at www.instagram.com/vanqphotorque

Photo Credits: Adrian Wong & Felix Chew