London Classic Car Show 2015

All I can say is WOW and well done to Brand Events the creators, who staged the preview launch for the inaugural 'London Classic Car Show'. A show that won't disappointed any car lover. I've been to a variety of car shows, indoors and outdoors, in many varied locations and this one is definitely in my top three. The show, at the ExCel exhibition centre in east London is easy to access, with in my opinion, the right amount of content. You get to see, hear and smell the cars, an intoxicating mix of car heaven. Brand Events have achieved what they set out to do, by putting London back on the classic car map. On until Sunday 11 January.

The two James’  May and Martin, officially opening the show. Both are avid car collectors, with James Martin commenting that he has two passions in life, cooking and cars. With the the opportunity to enjoy some of his recipes at his ‘Classic Cafe’, three cleverly converted food wagons. James May believes that there are 13 cars that had a profound effect on the motor car as we know it today, and tells all. During his interview with Chris Evans he revealed that he thought the car that changed the world the most was in fact very personal to him, and was the famous Corgi model toy of the ‘James Bond Aston Martin’, complete with ejector seat.

James Martin posing in a mini with his 'Classic Cafe' in the background. The pulled pork sandwich I had was delicious.

Adrian Newey is being honoured at the show. He is the all-time most successful designer in Formula 1, and revealed during his interview with Chris Evans later in the show, that all his drawings are drawn free hand. He learnt his craft whilst a young boy helping his father build cars, in particular a Lotus Elan sprint road car. You can find out more about his incredible career at the show and see on display an array of cars that have played a significant part in both his professional and private lives. I was fascinated to read how much he has achieved and to meet him. Be sure to visit the 'Motor Sport Hall of Fame Showcase' to learn more about him and others.

Chris Evans just before he went on stage to interview James Martin, James May, Adrian Newey, Christian Horner, David Coulthard, Martin Brundle and the event director Bas Bungish.

During Chris Evans interviews, he asked each of the guys to share with us, their memories of their first cars. Adrian Newey's first car was a yellow Lotus Elan which was previously owned by his father and last seen in 1980. It was interesting to hear him describe with a passion how he restored it. The show organisers had tracked down the car and Chris introduced it as a surprise addition to the evening when it was driven down the Grand Avenue for all to see and enjoy, Adrian was visibly thrilled to be reunited.

Adrian drove the car down the Grand Avenue with Chris as passenger for the Lotus Elan to take its place in the procession alongside other classic, veteran and super cars.

We were wowed with a first class display in the Grand Avenue, a runway that I can only describe as a motoring catwalk. Featured were some of the most valuable, rare and desirable classic cars in the world to kick start the new year with an aural explosion. With many of the cars from James Martin's and Adrian Newey's personal collections. Seen here a Mercedes Benz 300SL, with the enclosure behind and the elevated stage, where Chris Evans interviewed the motoring aficionados and organisers. This is just a brief account of a fun filled, educational evening. I highly recommend you go and see for yourselves, the show is on until Sunday 11 January. Thanks for reading I'll be back next month with more news.

Bye for now.

Stella

Inside Rolls-Royce at The Saatchi Gallery

The Saatchi Gallery on the Kings Road, London is playing host to 'Inside Rolls-Royce' a brilliant interactive exhibition and is a celebration of the exquisite craftsmanship that goes into making each and every one of these works of art. If you want to get out of the rain and submerge yourself into a world of pure luxury and experience what it feels like to commission your very own Rolls-Royce then don't miss it.

I won't tell you too much more as you need to see it for yourself, these photographs I took will give you a taster.

On until Sunday 16th November from 10am until 6pm with free entry.

Thanks for reading

Bye for now.

Stella

'A Drive Down Memory Lane' Exhibition Now On

The inaugural Classic and Supercar photographic exhibition 'A Drive Down Memory Lane'  launched

last Sunday 12 October with a VIP audience from the worlds of the music, aviation, sports, jewellery, publishing and fine art industries. The exhibition is currently being held atChartwell Westerham Kent, the family home of Sir Winston Churchill.

Theexhibition showcases my photography of classic and supercars, and is of particular interest to those who haveClassic and/or Supercar collections who would love to have their collection produced in a bespoke hand crafted book.

The majority of the photographs on display at the exhibition were originally taken for a bespoke book which I was commissioned to produce, to mark a special birthday.

The Process

I was approached back in July by Wayne Thornton, event co-ordinator at Chartwell, and was asked to display my Classic and Supercar photography to reflect Sir Winston Churchill's love of the finer things in life. This was an opportunity not to be missed.

In addition to the wide variety of cars I had already ear marked for the exhibition, I also had the honour of photographing a Lanchester 40 hp 1921 and a Rolls Royce 20/25 1935 in front of the house at Chartwell. Some of these photographs also currently feature in the Westerham & Oxted Life magazine.

All the photographs selected for the exhibition have been printed on Museum Quality Fine Art paper and framed in black ash wood with Art Glass to show the true colours of the cars and to minimize reflections by 99%. I can highly recommend this glass to show your photographs or art work at their best. I invested in LED lights to clip on each framed photograph for the finishing touch.

The Launch Afternoon

I had been planning the launch of the exhibition for sometime and was both nervous and excited, there was a lot to do to bring it all together, not to mention my speech - don't forget I'm use to being behind a camera!

I wanted the afternoon to reflect a little bit of nostalgia from the 1940s, with sparkling wine from Squerryes Court served in original champagne saucers (2 cases of the saucers were found in my parents' attic from their restaurant days) and Spirit of Kent beer from the Westerham Brewery served in traditional half pint dimpled beer jugs, with waitresses dressed in white aprons and decorative hats to complete the look.

The sound track for the afternoon was a compilation I put together from Vera Lynn, Glenn Miller, The Pasadena Roof Orchestra, and Charlie Parker as we worked our way through the decades to present day.

A number of visitors had brought their classic cars with them to set the scene, but the star of the show has to be the 'Tucker 48'.

The Tucker 48

The 'Tucker 48' is an iconic car was made in the 1940s by the great inventor Preston Tucker - of which only 50 were ever made. The car in the photographs is the 49th and the ONLY one in Europe. The last time it was seen in public was in 2008 when it won 'Best in Class' at the prestigious Cartier Style et Luxe Concour D'Elegance at Goodwood.

We are honoured to have this very car for the duration of the exhibition positioned at the front of the house for all to admire.

The Car Photography on Display

A car from each decade that Sir Winston Churchill was resident at Chartwell 1922 - 1965 are amongst the photographs on display. The exhibition is a car lovers dream. If classic cars aren’t your favourite there is also photography on display of some modern day high performance cars, such as the Ferrari Enzo, Ford GT and the Ferrari California.

The launch was a huge success - thank you to all who attended.

The Mulberry Room at Chartwell is proving to be the exhibition hotspot in Kent. A huge light and airy space, to showcase art works with well sign posted access from the M25, A25 and A21. The exhibition is held until Sunday 26 October - and please check the Chartwell website for opening times.

Testimonial by Catherine & Randolph Churchill (great grandson of Sir Winston Churchill) after the launch of the exhibition 12th October; “What a wonderful exhibition you organised at Chartwell yesterday evening. Randolph, John and I so enjoyed seeing your magnificent photographs as well as the fabulous cars on display. The rain certainly did not dampen the spirits as we all looked at the array of magnificent cars.”

I'll be back in two weeks with my next newsletter.

If you have enjoyed reading this newsletter and would like to read previous ones you may have missed please click this link www.smscreativephotography.co.uk/blog

Thanks for reading

Bye for now.

Stella

Wilton Classic and Supercar Show 2014

Wilton Classic and Supercar Show 2014

I'd been looking forward to going to the Wilton Classic and Supercar Show for a while now. 

The show took place in the grounds of the Wilton House Estate, near Salisbury.

The Wilton Classic and Supercar Show 2014 is an annual event, now in it's sixth year,

and took place on Sunday10th August. The show is the brain child of Lord Pembroke

the current resident of this ancestral home and his friend Jay Broom,

and was set up to share their love of classic and supercars with the public.

The show was suitable for all the family and had something to offer the local residents as well as avid petrol heads.

Major car manufactures were given the opportunity to showcase their latest cars, hot off the production line.

This years event hosted a demonstration rally event too.

The weather on Sunday started off wet and windy but it didn't discourage the crowds

who travelled from all over the UK to share a little bit of car culture.

Let me tell you more...

What Was On Display

There was a broad selection of cars on display including the only Aston Martin Bertone Jet in the world.

McLaren P1 a selection of Ferrari's

including a 1957 250 Testa Rossa and the Bugatti EB10 and the car above the 1959 Chevrolet Corvette.

The centre piece for the "head to head" theme for the show,

in which classic icons met their modern counterparts, was the Mercedes 300 SL Gullwing

and SLS AMG,  and also showcasing the BMW M1 and i8, Lamborghini Miura and Huracan.

The parade of over 150 supercars featured marques such as Bugatti, Pagani, McLaren, Ferrari and Aston Martin.

In front of Wilton House’s south façade, on the South Lawn, visitors could get up close to some rarely seen classics,

fortunately by this time the sun was out, umbrellas down, coats off and engines roaring.

Rally Car Display

The grounds also boasted a real life high-speed demonstration of superb Group B rally cars on an authentic rally stage,

with the Race2Recovery team joining

the action in the Bowler Wildcats that they fielded in the gruelling Dakar Rally earlier this year.

My Car Photography Exhibition

I will be launching my inaugural exhibition at Chartwell in Westerham, Kent, the family home of Sir Winston Churchill, featuring some of the most iconic cars from each of the decades he lived there, between 1922 until his death in 1965.

Sir Winston Churchill had a great sense of style and appreciated the finer things in life.

The exhibition will be open to the public for two weeks in October. I will tell you more about this event in forthcoming newsletters.

I am in the early stages of planning which photographs to exhibit and who to send press releases to. Amongst the photographs on

display there will be classic and supercars, my www.stellascordellis.com website will tell you more about me in this field.

Oh, by the way, the title to my exhibition is:-

"A Drive Down Memory Lane"

Where This All Began

My passion for car photography started when I was a child and shared my brothers'

interest in anything with wheels and an engine.

I started my photographic career at just 15 years old when I went to work at a

photographic studio in Croydon as a Saturday girl.

I left school the following year to start an apprenticeship with a three year

day release course at their commercial studio.

It's been a long and varied journey and my love of photographing people as well as cars has

led me to explore this exciting direction my business takes me to.

The Rolls Royce, Silver Cloud 1963 below was photographed as part of my course work whilst at college,

and looking back this is where it all began...

Thanks for reading. If you didn't go to the Wilton Classic and Supercar Show  this year,

its well worth going to next year, you won't be disappointed!

Bye for now.

Stella

Edenbridge Car Pageant

On Monday 26th May I drove a few miles south to Edenbridge to see (and hear) for myself what the car pageant I had read about had to offer. The weather was overcast and wet, not ideal for such an occasion. The event was organized by the Eden Valley Chamber of Commerce as part of the Edenbridge Fun Day. As a member of the Oxted Chamber of Commerce I caught site of an email from our chairman letting us know what another local chamber were up to over the Bank Holiday weekend. I’m very glad I took note of this because what unfolded filled me with delight and added so much to my visual and mental portfolio of cars! All on my doorstep in Fircroft Way, Edenbridge, Kent.

John Surtees OBE

Edenbridge is the hometown of Motor sport legend John Surtees OBE.

This year John is celebrating 50 years since he won his Formula 1 World Championship title as well as his 80th birthday. John Surtees OBE is a one off; the only person to have won World Championships on both two and four wheels. John proudly showcased his F1 bikes and cars outside his Bradford shop, Station Road, the Surtees team factory and business base for the past 56 years. The cars were built at this address and mainly by local residents. Edenbridge High Street was closed to allow the parade to take centre stage. It was led by John in the Ferrari 158 which he won the 1964 Formula One Driver’s World Championship, and was followed by Team Surtees Formula 1 cars of the Seventies driven by Scott Malvern and Robbie Kerr.

Exhibition and Book

John will be launching his book “My Incredible Life on Two and Four Wheels” on June 19th 2014. The book contains over 250 photographs some of which were on display at TOPFOTO Gallery also in Fircroft Way. The photographs are an incredible account of an incredible man. The majority of the photographs were taken by John Topham a documentary photographer who lived in Edenbridge until he died in 1992, please follow the link to find out more about him http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Topham_(photographer).

The book can be ordered from Evro Publishing.

The exhibition was an added bonus to my afternoon as it showcased some of John’s finest moments, even better, it was an opportunity to own a limited edition print signed by John Surtees and very reasonably priced too, £50 for an unframed A3 print.

Fund Raising

The event raised funds for the Kent Surrey and Sussex Air Ambulance Association and The Henry Surtees Foundation.

The foundation was set up in memory of John’s son Henry who was tragically killed in a freak accident at Brands Hatch in 2009 aged just 18 years, whilst competing.

The Pageant

I was pleasantly surprised to see so many owners turn up with their cars and bikes, they had travelled from all over the country to take part in this prestigious event. I chatted to a few of them who were happy to tell me the history of their cars, one man told me he bought his MG when he was just 18 years old and has owned it for the past 36 years, and was passing it over to his son to enjoy.

Amongst the parade were Ferrari, Aston Martin, MG, Corvette Stingray, Lotus, BMW, Morris Cowley to name just a few. They followed John’s parade of cars and gathered at the Lingfield Road recreation ground, the other end of town, for all to enjoy as part of the fun day.

It was a very enjoyable Bank Holiday Monday afternoon, thanks to all involved who made this the great success it was, despite the great British weather.

All part of my other passion in life photographing Classic and Super cars. You can see and read a bit more about this on my website www.stellascordellis.com

If you would like to commission me to take photographs of you, your family, or your cars, then please get in touch.

Bye for now!

Thanks for reading, my next newsletter will be in two weeks time.

Stella

Top Marques Monaco 2014

I have had the pleasure of photographing many Super Cars over the past year so I was very excited to be going to Monaco last month to visit the Top Marques event, the most exclusive Super Car Show in the World!

It took place over the Easter Bank holiday, but luckily for me it started on Thursday 17th April so I could get there just for the day on the first flight out of Gatwick and the last one back before Monaco was heaving with all the Easter holiday makers on Good Friday.

My Journey

I flew to Nice airport and got the train from a little train station a short bus ride from the airport called "Nice St Augustin". For a few euros I took the 30 minute journey along the coast line which must be one of the prettiest train journeys I've taken, it certainly beats the East Grinstead to Victoria line that I'm more familiar with.

We stopped at seven stations on the way and the train was certainly filling up with many people visiting Monaco for the tennis or the Top Marque Show. Once I got to Monaco it was an easy walk to the Grimaldi Forum home of the show. As I was approaching the forum I was just in the right place at the right time to photograph the arrival of the Lamborghini Aventador which took pride of place at the entrance to the show and was supplied by aaarentcars .

A Little Bit About Monaco

Monaco officially the principality of Monaco is the second most densely populated country in the world! Prince Albert II is the head of state and has immense political power. Monaco has a coast line of 2.5 miles and the state has no incometax, low business tax and is well known for being a tax haven and is attractive the super wealthy.

The roads were very congested due to the ongoing building work as the new Yacht Club takes shape and the preparation for the Grand Prix in May.

Grimaldi Forum

The Grimaldi Forum is the main exhibition centre and very impressive too. On arrival I was just in time to join in the walk about that was going on with Prince Albert II, I managed to tag along with the press to get a few shots.

The cars on display were an incredible array of dynamic performance and aesthetic genius. With the added option of being able to test drive a selected few, this I'm sure was a big attraction to the many visitors over this four day event!

Super Cars

On display were cars by a variety of manufacturers Noble, Ferrari, Jaguar, McLaren, Quant, Tushek, Tesla, Lexus, Mercedes, Bentley, to name just a few. I was there to promote my photography of Classic and Super cars and met with the spectators to show case my book which is designed with the serious collector in mind who would like to have their car or cars photographed to add value to their collection, but most importantly to document their car as a work of art and to reflect the owners lifestyle and finished in a bespoke limited edition book, this part of my website will tell you more.

If you would like to take time out in Monaco next year the Top Marques Show is from April 16th- 19th April 2015 I'll be back again to soak up a little more of my passion and of course the Cote D'Azur.

Thanks for reading

Stella