About two years ago, Darren Greenwood (Photographic Technology ’97) set engines revving in the local hotrod community.

With an airplane hangar set up for shooting a fleet of rental vehicles, he made time for an impromptu photo session featuring a friend’s pride and joy: a midnight black, souped-up ’51 Ford pickup. Once the shots were printed, word began to spread about the local photographer’s new spin on the concept of “baby” pictures.

Soon enough, Garage Shots (an offshoot of Darren Greenwood Photography) was born, allowing him to combine his love of hotrods with an ever-present craving for creative expression.

With the advantage of a drive-in studio in Edmonton, Greenwood could reach a clientele that – like one customer claiming to have invested more than $300,000 in his vintage Camaro – spared little expense for the sake of a sweet ride.

A photo-shoot he can turn into prints for framing or even binding into a coffee-table book highlighting the fine details of a car, truck or motorbike, is “just one more offshoot for them to enjoy their vehicle and be proud of what they’ve done and what they’ve built.”

Greenwood’s knack for capturing what he sees as the “personality and lines and curves” of any vehicle have begun to turn heads outside the hotrod community as well.

It also earned him his first formal exhibition in a museum or gallery. Visions in Steel, held as part of Alberta Arts Days, Sept. 17-19, 2010 at the Reynolds-Alberta Museum, showcased images selected from the roughly 40 photo sessions he’s done to date.

While, as a business venture, Garage Shots has yet to help Greenwood realize his own ambition of a hotrod to call his own, the satisfaction it gives him as an artist and automobile enthusiast has proven priceless.

“It’s complete freedom to create what I want to create.”