So who or what is Roo? Well, he is a rather stunning Porsche 550 Spyder recreation. For those who don’t know, and shame on you if you don’t, the Porsche 550 Spyder was a 1950s-produced Porsche. It was made famous through racing and also because it was the car James Dean had his accident in.
This was only my second time ever seeing a Porsche 550 Spyder. I had previously spotted one at the Megapohonics event last summer. It was exciting to do more research and look at recent images online, which inspired me to think about the different types of shots I wanted to capture. Unfortunately, the biggest drawback of this shoot was that I don’t live in RAK, where the car is based.
A couple of days after I arrived, I met the owner of the car and her partner. Yes, you heard that right; the owner of Roo is a woman, and no, she doesn’t treat him like a garage queen. In fact, just a week prior, she had taken him around the Abu Dhabi motor circuit. They were both fantastic people, deeply passionate about cars, particularly vintage Porsches, so naturally, we all got along incredibly well. We discussed various ideas and potential locations.
I was extremely fortunate that with this shoot I did not have to do any scouting. Originally I was out there on a golfing holiday and the owner and her partner went and did the hard work for me. I was extremely grateful for this as I could only do so much on Google Maps of the area. Mainly because the RAK/Dubai landscape is forever changing, honestly it’s mad, in the 6 years since I was last year they decided to build a canal in Dubai. Anyway.
They discovered some excellent locations for the shoot and sent me pictures of each site. We had more options than we had time to explore. Using their local expertise, we devised a plan. In total, we settled on about 3 to 4 locations.
It was a great day full of fuel, sand and sweat. It finished with the sun setting in our final location with some stunning golden hour light. We knew the shoot was over when we all stopped to admire the car and realised it was time for a beer. We headed back to RAK from wherever we were, that’s not me being a gatekeeper on location I just genuinely didn’t know where we were.
It was a long day but what a day it was. The little guy can be found on Instagram here as well so please do go check him out. It sounds like they’re going to be doing some rather cool things with him over the next year or two. Plus, who doesn’t want to see a Porsche 550 Spyder on their feed?
As always please go over to my Instagram and drop me a follow and if you’re interested in a shoot then please don’t be afraid to contact me here or on my Instagram.
Just one quick one before you leave I couldn’t not include this image. Definitely my favourite from the shoot.
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