Excellent article on Spy Photographers

Forget About J. Lo. These Paparazzi Are After a BMW.

The job of spy photographer has its moments of high drama. Jim Dunne, the Detroit editor of Popular Mechanics who took his first spy photo in 1966 and is considered the dean of spy photographers, recalls once renting a helicopter to get pictures of a Corvette that he had been unable to shoot on the ground. Most tell stories of being run off the road or asked to surrender their film.

The manufacturers' concern is two-fold: that the competition will get advance information about their styling plans and that the pictures of a particularly appealing new model might prompt buyers to postpone their purchase for a year or two, leaving current cars idling in dealerships.

"We think that any competitive advantage we can gain by having the competition be surprised, as well as the media and everyone else, just makes good business sense," said Mike Spencer, a spokesman for the American NYSEHonda Motor Company in Torrance, Calif. "It's a way of life with us."

Honda also likes to test its cars at night, making clear pictures more difficult.

Auto Spies perspective: Let's not kid ourselves, 99% all the spy photos that get out in to the magazines are leaked or the cars are allowed to be photographed by the manufacturers...it's their way of creating buzz. And they way they create even further buzz, is acting like they're mad, that they got caught. We get photos all the time DIRECTLY from the manufacturers who ask that we don't reveal our source of the photo. IBM and Microsoft have a name for this and have been quite sucessful at it over the years...it's called MARKETING!