| GALLERY DIRECTORY |
Post #1 - Homepage
Post #2 - Gallery directory
Post #3 - About Me
Post #4 - Wall of Fame
Post #7 - Demo Shots (Part 1)
Post #10 - Demo Shots (Part 2)
Update #1 - Down Under (9.30.16)
Update #2 - Overkill (10.07.16)
Update #3 - Mess Around (11.21.16)
Update #4 - Coming 11.25.16
| ABOUT ME |
Hi. My name is Sean, but I usually go by vAcesWild on the forums. As you can tell by the first part of the title, I am a member of the Forzatography Collective. I joined in July 2016 as a way to stay connected to the friends I’ve made through the Forza franchise over the years; as well as striving to learn more and take better photos. A little bit about my personal life - I’m a second-year student at Niagara College in beautiful Niagara-on-the-Lake, and amateur photography is a hobby of mine. As a result, you’re quite likely to see some of my photos periodically. I’m a diehard rugby fan (played for six years but I’m taking a sabbatical) and I’m a music junkie. You’ll probably notice that all my posts feature music; that is how I format things. I also enjoy writing; everything from stories to reviews. I’ll mention that more in a moment.
I plan on updating this thread twice a week, college schedule and motivation allowing. I’ve run three previous Forzatography threads on here before (FH2,FM5 and FM6) and maintaining multiple galleries is difficult for me, so for the moment I will be running just this one. With my FH2 gallery, I would post on Friday and have what I referred to as ”Teaser Tuesdays”. I’d like to stick to a two-post a week schedule, but that may prove to be a bit much for me. I’ll see how it goes. The two days for these posts are up in the air, as my school life is not ideal for maintaining the current format, but we’ll see.
| MY FORZA HISTORY |
I’ve already gone over this before in different threads, but my Forza story begins with FM4. My friend bought it on release and we alternated races and had a lot of fun with it, but that was before I owned an Xbox 360. I got one shortly after that and Forza Horizon as a Christmas gift the following year, but never got around to picking up FM4. The thing is, I’m a poor racer, an even worse designer/painter and I can’t tune for beans. But I still loved Forza, so I turned to photography as my way of standing out from my friends, who race and drift and tune to their heart’s content. I’m happy just snapping pictures and posting them here. And that’s how I got involved with the forums and FTC.
| UPDATE STRUCTURE AND FORMAT |
Each post I make will follow one of two structures. My plan is to have the content updates structured so that there will be a short-to-mid-length topical write-up of the “star” vehicle(s), followed by a link to a song that will play as you scroll through the photos underneath. I can’t guarentee that I will stick to this format as life has a tendency to throw curveballs your way, but I’m eager to see how this plays out. The second format will be used for the “catch-up” post, where I respond to the feedback and comments left by you. It will be more informal, more relaxed and a chance to form new friendships and let the banter fly. I am also planning on sharing some of my real-life photos with everyone in these posts - somewhere between 1 and 3, depending on many factors.
| ADVICE |
While I don’t pretend to be an expert in photography (digital or real-world), I do know a few tips and tricks that I am more than happy to share. If you are looking for some advice in improving your work, message me and I will see what I can do to help. Everyone has been there, regardless of skill level or playing time, where a fresh set of eyes or some feedback can do the world of good. I’m more than happy to be that person, all you need to do is ask.
| WALL OF FAME |**
All photos featured here have won either a WPC (weekly photo contest) or forum challenge for their respective game.
Forza Horizon 3
COMING SOON
Forza Motorsport 6
(Turn10 Photocomp7 Winner)
Forza Horizon 2
(Turn10 Photocomp15 Winner)
(Turn10 Photocomp18 Winner)
(Turn10 Photocomp22 Winner)
???
(Turn10 Photocomp37 Winner)
???
(Turn10 Photocomp45 Winner)
???
(Turn10 Photocomp47 Winner)
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(Turn10 Photocomp53 Winner)
???
(Turn10 Photocomp58 Winner)
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Looking forward to what you can create!
I am interested to see what you can produce once you have settled into FH3’s photomode.
| DEMO SHOTS - PART ONE |
Hi everyone,
As a sort of tie-over until Friday when my gallery is ready to go, I decided that I would share some of the photos I took with the demo. The vast majority of these shots were experimental, more of a way to fine-tune my settings and practice until the game was launched.
This batch of photos came from my first play of the demo. Unfortunately, I didn’t progress very far in the demo due to time constraints (ed. note - had the time, got hooked in photo mode.) I’ll upload round two tomorrow and on Friday the first update should be ready and posted. Enjoy!
RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT
Let me know what your favorite shots are. More to come tomorrow.
Cheers,
Ace
Good to see you Ace 
love this looking forward to more
I’m quite partial to higher saturation settings, so of course this one stood out to me the most. The colors just pop! Nice use of aperture, and the composition is great as well.
| DEMO SHOTS - PART TWO |
Hi everyone,
As promised, here is part two of the shots that I took with the demo. These shots were more about fine-tuning settings and experimenting with lighting options than any set theme. As such, the photos are all over the place and not really related. Before I post the photos though, I’ll just respond to the comments from part one:
It feels good to be back! Glad to be here and I’m glad you like the shot. I sunk a lot of time into that one (far more than I should have, if I’m honest) but I love the final outcome. I’ll be around to visit your gallery soon!
Hi there! Nice to see a new face. Thanks very much for the comment - I love the shot too! I know the demo is just that (a demo) but I felt quite limited by what I could achieve. It seemed like every shot I took was at the beach. Having said that, I’m very happy with how the majority of the photos turned out and I hope you are too.
EXPERIMENTATION, FINE-TUNING AND TWEAKING
Cheers,
Ace
God bless it what a diverse gallery every photo is a unique experience in the best way possible
Looks like you’ve got a greart handle on the settings already Ace.
Love the tone and minimal filtering in this,
| DOWN UNDER |
Hi everyone,
It’s here! Horizon 3 is finally here for everyone! Judging by the sheer amount of galleries popping up around the forums, I think it’s safe to say that Australia is a hit. So far it seems to me like there’s a very healthy mix of photo-mode veterans to greenhorns, which bodes well for the growth of the Forzatography community. It’s nice to see the veterans of the community welcoming and helping the new recruits with the forums and the game. I’ll be around to comment on galleries in the next day or so - I can’t wait to see what everyone has been up to.
Speaking of, what’s everyone’s initial impressions of FH3? I love it…so much so that I’ve barely progressed in the game. Aside from the lack of free time to devote to FH3, I’m very happy with the game on the whole. Visually, it’s definitely one of the prettiest games. I thought all the talk of the skies was just typical developer promotion, but the more time I sink into the game the more I notice how truly breathtaking it is. The employees who were sent out to Australia to capture the footage of the changing skies nailed it. The sound is good too - aside from the usual complaints about car X not having the right sound or being loud enough. Personally, I don’t really care too much about vehicle sounds in the Horizon series. I tend to focus on the soundtrack, and what a lineup. It’s hard to pick a favorite station at the moment - I find they’re all excellent, and no doubt I’ll listen to all of them extensively. But the biggest surprise for me is the handling. In short, I love it. I find it to be bang-on what I’d imagine each car to be like, without being too unforgiving for less serious drivers. To me, it’s the perfect feel - miles better than FH2, where everything seemed rubbery, and slightly more sympathetic than FM6.
Turn10 and Playground Games - take a bow. I haven’t had as much time as I would have liked to sink into FH3, but to me this is exactly how a Horizon game should feel.
Anyways, with the write-up done and out of the way, let’s dive into the content. I’ll be honest, in the leadup to release I started roughly planning how this gallery would shape up. I had originally intended to make the post about just how Australian this could be - featuring a 2014 HSV Maloo GTS. In hindsight, I’m not really sure how I intended that to play out, so I’ve adapted the post slightly. As far as music goes, there was a lot of internal debate about what I could use. However, it seemed most fitting for me to use a classic, so without further delay, here’s my first week’s update.
Cheers,
Ace
Nice to see you again, Still creating amazing shots as always!!
Awesome start to your gallery Ace Lovely work with all the photos from the demo! This is my favorite out of your new update:
Although the two below that are very nice as well.
I’m loving H3 so far. The racing is so fun. Those headlights at night are giving me a fit though 
My personal favourite is this one.
Love shots 2 & 5!
Where do I start great work with the Maloo! But my favourites so far are the B&W’s from the demo simple stunning!!
| OVERKILL |
Hi everyone,
It’s Forza Friday, and I’m slowly getting used to posting weekly updates again. It’s Canadian Thanksgiving this weekend so the writeup today will likely be shorter than usual. I’ve just gone on a commenting spree too, so it’s only fair that I start by responding to the comments left over from my previous set.
Thanks for the comment! It’s good to be getting back in the swing of things. I’m not sure about amazing, but I’m glad you like my work.
Glad you like the shots! I agree about the headlights, but my biggest complaint is how easy it is to lose skill chains, particularly when they start to get lengthy. Then again, I’m a terrible driver so that’s more of an operator error than a fault with the game.
Nice to see your name popping up here. I quite like the oddball factor the shot has - a Lamborghini SUV is not the type of vehicle you’d expect to see blasting down the beach.
Thanks very much! Shot 2 is probably my favorite from the Maloo set.
Glad I made the resident Australian happy with my work on the Maloo! And I love those shots too - they’re probably some of the best black and white shots I’ve taken in Forza.
It is well-documented that Enzo Ferrari insisted that Ferrari flagship cars carry V12 engines. These cars have always been iconic and the object of many people’s dreams due to their incredible power and beauty. I have always been a fan of the 599 GTO - I found it to be a near-perfect mix of form and function bundled together in a sharp-looking package. Then Ferrari decided that the car had reached the end of its lifespan and, to my eyes, did the impossible. They took a car that was almost perfect, with the exception of the name, and replaced it with absolute perfection. The F12berlinetta is an 11 out of 10. That shouldn’t be possible, yet it is. The stylists at Pininfarina somehow made the car look as sleek and elegant as only a very select group of Ferrari’s, and with a pricetag a third of it’s other members. The engineers took the V12 engine and gave it everything it could handle, giving the car 730 horsepower and 509 pounds-foot of torque. There is no denying that the F12berlinetta will be forever remembered not only as one of the most bonkers, insane and powerful cars the company has produced, but also the most stunning and gorgeous looking ones too.
Then someone at Ferrari with a very sick and twisted mind got a brilliant idea. What if we took an F12, a car that scares reviewers and professional drivers alike, and made it faster? Is that even possible? How do you do that? Well, let’s start by removing weight and adding even more power to the monster hiding under the front hood. Less weight and more power from a car than was already one of the lightest and most powerful production vehicles to ever drive out of the gates in Maranello. What else can be done? How about speeding up the already lightening-quick transmission to make shifts even quicker? And while you’re add it, let’s completely re-do the bodywork to add more downforce to keep it planted? Why not? The car has already shattered performance records of the previous generation hypercar from Ferrari, the Enzo. But what should we call it?
It’s a car that is completely pointless, totally irresponsible and will give all who get behind the wheel nightmares for the rest of their lives. It’s a terrifying example of redundancy and overkill. Some call it by it’s badges. I call it a widowmaker. Here is my work from my time with the 2015 Ferrari F12tdf.
I’ve also included a few shots of a 2015 Chevrolet Corvette Z06 and a 2013 SRT Viper GTS.
Cheers,
Ace
Nice work! I really like those on the Maloo!