TPRM is on site at the Shelby American factory at Las Vegas Motor Speedway, where the Shelby GT350 and Super Snake pace cars emerged this morning for an early photo shoot. Led by the GT350, the cars will pace the 2010 Shelby American Sprint Cup Series race on Sunday. The legend himself Carroll Shelby will serve as the grand marshal of the race.  Click here for the press release.

Have you ever wondered what happens behind the scenes of a photo shoot? While it’s certainly hard work, the effort pays dividends if done professionally.

The photo shoot, with veteran photojournalist Jerry Heasley, started at the crack of dawn to take advantage early morning light. TPRM team helped design the shots, line up the cars, determine the lighting and even control security. It’s amazing how many people show up with cameras today whenever a Shelby photo shoot happens.

The key to a successful shoot is determining the use of the images. That determines the background, composition, lighting and use of action. In this case, the photos were all going to be used for books, magazines and factory documentation, so action shots were not critical.

But shooting in the desert at a racetrack on a NASCAR weekend presented its own set of challenges. Cordoning off an area to keep vehicles out of the shot background, restraining over enthusiastic fans with their own cameras and completing the job before the “sweet light” went away were a few of the issues that we faced. However, the shots will be spectacular and memorialize this historic weekend forever.