Searching For Silvia - Shooting The Nissan S15 (Original Work)

To start this photoblog off, I have to ask you a rather unusual question: when was the last time you saw a unicorn? Yeah, that sounds a bit silly, right? How about the Loch Ness monster? Bigfoot? Honest politician? I think you get the point. Well, these mythical creatures also exist in the automotive world - and one of them can be found in the form of a Nissan S15 Silvia.

If you live in Japan, Australia, or New Zealand, then this may not seem like a big deal to you. But bear with me, as things are a little different here in South Africa. The S15 was never sold in this country, and importing one is impossible (unless it’s for track use). Rumour has it that there are less than 5 of these cars prowling our local roads, which makes it rarer than any Italian exotic. For example, you’re more likely to see a Lamborghini Aventador or Ferrari 488 out during your morning commute. By a stroke of pure luck, a friend of mine crossed paths with the owner of a mint silver-grey example, who mentioned that he was interested in getting some photos taken of his car - which is still the only S15 I’ve ever encountered here. Naturally, I jumped at the opportunity.

Now that we have introductions and backstory out of the way, let’s go and take some photos.

The day started with a long drive up the coast to a small town known as Salt Rock, located on the outskirts of a slightly larger town called Ballito. After navigating the incredibly narrow coastal roads, I arrived outside the owners house, where an amazing sight greeted me: the S15 parked next to his 200SX drift car. Who would have thought that a slice of JDM heaven existed here on the coast of South Africa?

After shooting the breeze for a bit, our little convoy departed to the photoshoot location - a new business park development not far outside of Ballito. The road led to a dead end with a convenient loop for turning around, and being a weekend, activity in the offices would be little to none. However, we clearly weren’t the only car-orientated people to know of this area, as there were burnout lines stretching up and down the entire road. We later discovered that this small street was used as a time attack course for the Ballito Street Heroes racing event. Question answered.

Here's a view of the site from above.

The car was positioned, my two 580EX flashes were whipped out, and the first photos of the day began to take shape. Placing the flashes in various locations around the S15, I took a range of photos, from standard full size shots, to some lower diagonal photos. Even though the shoot had just started, I was already pushing to work as fast as possible, due to the ominous stormclouds on the horizon (luckily, no rain ended up falling that day).

Moving out from our first sheltered spot, we positioned the S15 directly in the middle of the road - not like any other cars were going to be using it. I took a few generic side shots, but they just weren’t working. However, we had a ladder in our spare car, and it seemed like a waste to not use it, after taking the time to load it up. Setting up the ladder and clambering to the top, I took a slightly elevated side profile shot of the S15. Side photo checked, it was time to get some rolling shots in.

Ah, rolling shots. The bane of my photographic existence. For one reason, my long hair used to whip around and hit me in the face whenever I stuck my head out the window, and would occasionally appear in front of the lens. Since I refused to tie my hair up, I rectified this problem in a rather simple way by getting a haircut. One problem solved, one to go. There was still the issue of capturing the perfect moment when the chase car and subject car are in exact motion. The hit and miss ratio is very high, but when it does work, you’ve got a winner. I have a car photo rig build in progress, which should hopefully help these types of photos in the future.

To end off with, we just managed to scrape the rather low S15 over the pavement and onto a large dirt area for some extra options. I once again pulled out my 580EX flashes (now featuring rapidly depleting batteries), and knocked a few additional shots out. Just like that, the main portion of the shoot was complete. We managed to sneak a few more photos in at a local shopping mall car park, as we went on a search to find food once the shoot was complete. With the shopping mall not offering any suitable food types, we finished off the day in a most traditional Durban way – sitting at a beach restaurant with a bunny chow and a few drinks.

If the thought to try and harass the owner to sell you this car has crossed your mind, then that’s just too bad. It has already been sold (then sold again), and is now lurking the roads in an undisclosed location somewhere in Southern Africa. But if you do cross paths with this particular car, know that what you’re looking at is the automotive equivalent of a unicorn.

DISCLAIMER: All photos and writing are my own original work (other than the Google Earth screenshot obviously)

Equipment used:
Canon 6D
24-105 F4 L Series
Tokina 10-17mm fisheye
2X 580EX flashes
Photoshop CC