Richard Small began taking high dynamic range (HDR) photographs for esthetic reasons, but soon the technique solved a practical problem. "Professional photographers go out in the best light—the golden hours early in the morning and late in the afternoon," he says. "I couldn't do that."

Richard is a dedicated photo enthusiast, not a pro shooter. He's an executive at a company that manufacturers high-performance mufflers—hence his familiarity with cars and his access to car restorers and custom car builders—and his shooting hours are limited. "But with HDR, I can shoot almost any time of day and make it look like great light."

The esthetic reasons? The look and the feel of the image.

HDR seemed to enhance detail, and it gave him a great deal of control over the look of light in a scene.

Richard finds HDR and his D3 a perfect match. "The D3 has a great dynamic range built in," he says, referring to the camera's resolution and the superior quality of the images it produces. "You need a camera capable of capturing what makes a car come to life and all the careful work that's gone into restoring it."

And make no mistake, Richard plays to a tough crowd. "When you show the real car aficionados a print, they know if you got it right, and they don't hesitate to tell you if you didn't. That's the crux of it." In his photos, he strives to complement their attention to detail and their know-how.

"The cars talk to me," he says. "I know that sounds weird, but if your subject doesn't resonate with you, you're going to have a hard time coming across with anything. You're not going to get the wow factor." He often gets a visceral reaction that tells him how to photograph a car, what parts and what angles are going to best show it off. "You've got to spend time and move around them—and I often ask the owners to move them to different spots. I'll go low, I'll go three quarters, I'll get closer. I do a lot of walking around. They talk to me, and I hope people who see the pictures hear it, too."

You can check out the full range of Richard's photographic interests at www.richardsmallphotography.smugmug.com.