Kevin Lu stands patiently on the edge of the sidewalk in Toronto’s tony Yorkville neighbourhood. His neck is craned, his eyes are peeled. He delicately but purposefully holds his Canon 7D DSLR camera.
However, Lu is not hunting movie stars or models. He is looking for rare and beautiful automobiles. He’s a car spotter.
Call them carparazzi – a new breed of gearhead – driven to photograph and video desirable and expensive cars such as the Porsche 918 or a classic Ferrari 365 GTS/4 in their natural environment: the streets.
“I really like seeing cars ‘in the wild’ we call it – not in the dealership,” Lu says. “It’s like finding a treasure.”
Car spotting isn’t just a hobby, it’s serious business. Car calendars and media outlets all pay, says Adam Canfield, a British spotter based just outside London.
Top Gear Magazine, an off-shoot of the immensely popular British motoring show, has displayed galleries from what it calls its own “supercar paparazzo” – Alex Penfold, a Britain-based spotter – who scours London snapping pics of Aston Martin One-77s, McLaren F1s and other rare metal. Canfield says calendars and websites pay an average of £100 ($203) per shot.
The insatiable appetite to see cars “in the wild” has spawned an industry.
“Spotting is huge,” Canfield says. “It’s growing immensely every year. On a popular day in London or Monaco, for example, you might see 100 spotters out and about. Three years ago, there were perhaps only 30 spotters in total who visited London frequently.”
Many run down busy streets, sometimes hopping on a moped, chasing cars and looking for the best shot. Some carparazzi have become celebrities. Those with successful YouTube channels, such as Canfield – known online as AdamC3046 – have developed a strong following, with more than 66 million views and more than 66,000 subscribers.
And what is the point of car spotting?
“To see as many nice cars as possible, and to see the rarest cars possible,” Canfield says. “It’s like bird watching, but with cars. A car revving is like a mating call.”
It is difficult to pinpoint exactly when the trend began, but Canfield says it started gaining popularity about five years ago in big European cities such as London and Paris.
“I got into spotting because of my passion for cars,” Canfield says. “I had always been going to car shows with my dad since I was a young kid. I would watch videos on YouTube and [when I got older], I started making trips [to London] to see for myself.”
Canadian gearheads are beginning to see for themselves what spotting is all about. Lu started spotting in Toronto four years ago. He loves that it literally keeps him on his toes.
“You can’t set up your shots like a photo-shoot – you don’t have time [because the car is often moving] and you don’t know the owner. So, you need to adapt to the environment.”
When he started, Yorkville was one of the hottest areas. “The Hazleton Hotel, the expensive restaurants and nice stores draw wealthy people and even celebrities – which means nice cars.”
But now, he says, nice cars are starting to pop up in Markham and The Shops at Don Mills, both suburban locations.
The Canadian spotting scene is growing fast.
“[When I started], I knew about 10-15 people spotting in Yorkville … but now there are way more guys,” Lu says.
His Facebook group, #TorontoCarSpotting, began with just a few friends, but has grown.
Lu handed the site over to a friend, Nishaan Gill, and the group now has more than 16,000 members across the GTA. There are pictures and videos of everything from a modified Shelby Mustang leaving its owner’s driveway to an ultra-rare $1.5-million Pagani Huayra – an Italian supercar – revving in a downtown hotel parking lot.
While Lu’s Facebook group shows that there are many Canadian opportunities, he says that Canadian spotting is different from its European trendsetter. Canada’s harsh winters force the most exotic vehicles off the roads in winter, which shortens the spotting window. And while Lu is aware of people making money from spotting in Europe, he is unaware of anyone doing the same here. Two years ago, Lu made the jump from spotter to professional car photographer.
The Canadian spotting scene may still be in its infancy but that does not mean that its spotters are any less passionate. Mehran Khosravi, for example, a spotter based in Toronto and Dubai, uses a Canon EOS 7D DSLR and a mirror-less Sony A6000. Canfield says he often spends between two and three hours editing a shot using computer software. Proper technique is crucial as a spotter may only have a few seconds to capture an accelerating supercar – blurry photos won’t do.
Lu tries to stand at the edges of sidewalks to make sure that he is not blocked by trees or people and often positions his camera to get proper composition and lighting. He then waits for the car to cross his field of view, almost like a sniper, before taking the picture. Mehran says, “I waited two hours [to get a shot of a] Bugatti Veyron. There were a lot of people around it, which made taking pictures difficult.”
While the term car spotter is generally accepted in the community, spotters are torn over the use of the term carparazzi. Canfield thinks it’s accurate.
“We are basically like the paparazzi, but we don’t care about people – only the cars they drive,” he says.
However, Mehran and Lu despise the term.
“I am not a fan of the paparazzi,” Mehran says. “I think most of them are invasive. I do my best not to be overly invasive towards the car owners. I believe that having a positive connection with the owners is an important thing as a spotter.”
Sandro Frenguelli is a Munk Fellow in global journalism based in Toronto
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