Toyo Tires picked my photo as one of 20 finalists in the 2026 Shutter Space contest. I read the email three times. The news still felt unreal on the third pass.
Shutter Space is Toyo’s photo contest, and this year marks the 10th time they’ve run it. Thousands of photographers submit shots every cycle. The 2026 gallery and car meet happened at Adro’s headquarters in Irvine, California, the aero company known for reshaping the G80 M3’s front fascia, the same fascia that split car forums right down the middle when BMW first revealed it. Did Adro’s version actually fix the pig nose for you, or just move the argument somewhere else? I’d love to hear where you land on it.
I flew out of Green Bay for this one. Booked the flight, the hotel, the rental car, all on my own dime, because there was no version of this where I let someone else stand in that room for me. My hands were shaking a little at the gate. Ten years of shooting cars, and I was finally about to see one of my own photos hanging on a wall that mattered.
I thought I had this figured out. I’d driven through LA a few months back and figured I knew what I was walking into, so I left with plenty of cushion, aiming to land by 5:15 for a 6pm start. I forgot how fast that city turns on you. One accident cleared, another opened up two exits later. Lanes that looked wide open for a mile would lock solid out of nowhere, no warning, no reason I could see. By the time I pulled into the lot it was 5:54, heart still going from the drive. Walking up, nothing had started yet. Nobody was rushing. I’d sprinted through traffic for nothing, and honestly, I’ll take that trade every time.
The parking lot put on a show before I even walked inside. As I pulled in, a prerunner rolled up across from me, no dirt on the tires, still unfinished in spots, but running. Wild to see a truck like that sitting in GA, but that’s LA for you, only the cleanest builds get to be part of the show, and honestly that’s not a bad concept. I was pretty impressed by some of the other GA cars too. Talk about quality. You guys really know how to build some monster cars out here.
Adro’s headquarters matched the cars outside. The space felt laid back and welcoming, but still carried weight, the kind of place you’d want to hang around even without an event running. Warm light, concrete floors, that faint smell of fresh rubber and detailer that hits you the second you walk into a real car space. The team built the layout around an insanely modified S15 as the centerpiece, turning slow under the lights like it was still deciding which angle looked best. Around it sat a row of insane builds. Only three of them were true big bodies, VIP style down to the wheels. The rest of the lineup hit just as hard, an S2000, a Mercedes, two RX7s, a Beat, and a wild Corvette that had no business looking that clean.
Then I found the reason I flew out. The Top 20 finalist photos lined the garage walls next to a stage looping highlights from past years of the contest. I spotted mine the second I walked in.
Not a studio shot. Hardy’s RX7, a real night on the Brooklyn Bridge, well past midnight, and I remember just trying to keep the framing steady because the flames were lighting up the whole shot and the city was thinning out around us and I honestly couldn’t believe what I was catching in real time. Now it hung on a wall in Irvine, printed bigger than I’d ever seen my own work. Ten years of shooting, and this was the first time any of my photos had been printed at all. I stood in front of it and didn’t know what to do with my hands. I submitted that photo on a whim, on one simple thought: why not, worst they say is no. Standing there, I felt exactly how far I’d come since I started, from shooting on auto settings and getting lucky, through film school, to finally having real command over the one subject I care about most.
None of this would’ve been possible without the help from my videographer buddy Thomas S, aka @txm.motion on Instagram, for help with setting up and capturing the shot of the RX7.
During the recognition, the team mentioned I’d flown in from Wisconsin. That landed harder than I expected, hearing it said out loud in a room full of strangers. Afterward I talked with another photographer about shooting aerial rollers from a drone. I’d seen the technique before but never heard someone break down how they actually pulled it off.
I didn’t win, but the reveal still stood out as one of the best parts of the night. The team kept the winning photo covered under a drape, hung on fishing wire between two lift posts, backlit the whole time so the shape glowed faintly through the fabric. At 7:30, everyone gathered around, phones already up. They announced the finalists in the room first, then the winner: Joshua Rezende, who shoots as Black Tire Media. Then the drape came off. That was it. The room leaned in together, and the winning shot was staring back at everyone. Standing there with the other finalists who made it out that night, the whole thing hit different.
There was a lot going on car-wise too. AMGs everywhere you looked, a Rolls-Royce parked like it belonged there. Outside felt like its own thing entirely, tuner cars mixed in with BMWs, Supras, GT-Rs, nobody separating by badge or price tag. That’s just how it goes at a meet like this. Everybody’s there for the same reason, and the whole lot felt relaxed because of it.
I’m flying out later today with a photobook already packed, a small physical piece of the choice I made on a whim to submit and see what happened. Ten years into this, that whole night is a pretty good reminder of why I started.
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