2026 Washington Auto Show

In 2025 we got to see Buick’s Wildcat EV, and this year brought the new concept car’s roots to the show in the form of the original 1985 futuristic testbed (and legendary Hot Wheels).

First unveiled in 1985, the Buick Wildcat concept was a sleek, forward-looking statement of where General Motors imagined American luxury performance could go: low, wide, unapologetically futuristic, and packed with then-cutting-edge digital instrumentation.  Seeing the original Wildcat on the auto show floor this year made for a striking time-warp moment, especially when viewed through the lens of last year’s Wildcat EV debut.  While the 1985 concept leaned into Bézier curves, aviation influence, and analog futurism, the modern EV reinterpretation carries that same experimental spirit forward with smooth surfaces, bold proportions, and an all-electric ethos.  Nearly four decades apart, both Wildcats serve the same purpose: less about production reality, and more about Buick staking a claim on what its version of the future looks like.

The Washington Auto Show sadly seems to shrink every year these days, and this year felt especially small, with fewer attendees due to the snowstorm still impacting the region, and large swaths of missing attendance - I remember the days when German manufacturers were on display, and luxury marquees such as Lexus, Porsche, BMW, Mercedes, Lincoln, Cadillac, and Jaguar were all highlights; this year, not even Nissan was included in the Japanese offerings - very disappointing annual downsizing.  Based on this, I was shocked Alfa Romeo and Land Rover both had small displays.
Exotics are always present in some capacity, but these are halo cars for the average attendee; I’m speaking about the missing makes attendees previously would have been able to experience the product.

After the show, a cool scene of chilly, ice covered DC:

2025 Washington Auto Show + HDR Commentary

Today’s post comes with a giant 🤓nerd-alert🤓, as I discuss technical details in an evolving World of imaging, applied to car geekery.

Like most years at the Washington Auto Show, I spent my time at 2025’s expo exploring the show floors with a camera, using the event to casually experiment and hone skills in between exploring the latest automotive offerings.  Practicing upcoming techniques in no-pressure situations is a great risk-free way to keep skills on the cutting edge.

Last year I gathered footage to practice with my HDR video editing workflow.  This year I did the same with some proper 120fps footage, and also edited all still images from the day in HDR, as HDR still formats are upcoming and I like always staying knowledgeable and prepared.

I’ve edited several personal photosets in HDR to practice and learn how the new formats accommodating expanded range of luminance is currently able to be edited and to ensure backward compatibility with SDR displays - for video, HDR is widely available and supported, with practically all new TVs and productions available in HDR formats.  Photos, surprisingly, however, are supporting HDR after video, with the format war still raging on; the predominant image format and paired colorspace has not been determined yet.

HEIF/HEIC seems to be the best choice, closely related to the HEVC video standard most end-user and web HDR video is deployed as: its high efficiency compression and support of gain maps and modern colorspaces like P3, however end-user support is still limited so it has not flourished except for Apple’s usage encouraging support to expand.  AVIF is a similar format that is promising, but even less widely supported than HEIC.  JPEG XL is not new, but is a much modernized expansion of the original staple JPEG format.  Then there is finally standard JPEG, which can be encoded with a gain map to enable HDR on HDR-compatible devices and applications, and is backwards compatible with SDR in the existing standard, however it is the least efficient of these filetypes, and gain maps are something of a tack-on making these files not always interpreted correctly by some applications.

Possibly a larger issue is how HDR stills can currently be edited.  One can edit a RAW file in HDR using the standard color and contrast edits we all know and love, however editing software may also offer SDR compatibility proofing and grading, which I’ve found is not able to exactly match the HDR grade - this is a critical shortcoming in terms of backward compatibility, and ensuring a consistent deliverable to end-users.  Furthermore, editing HDR images in Photoshop and maintaining the correct grading and luminance mapping is spotty, with use of Generative AI tools strangely returning SDR results in Photoshop while the same generative utilities used in Lightroom directly on a RAW file returning HDR results (or a result that is at least properly mapped to the image’s luminance - I must assume it is generating an SDR image and an HDR gain map to pair).

In short, despite HDR video being widely supported, support of HDR still images is still extremely limited, and is not currently ready for widespread use: compatibility is king, and SDR still images are still the standard one should be using for anything mission-critical, ie client deliverables.

NOTE: The images in this post are NOT HDR; they are SDR-only; my hosting provider currently does not support HDR filetypes, as it converts all uploaded media to standard SDR JPEGs for web efficiency - hopefully some day in the future HDR data will not be stripped, and modern filetypes will be supported.  These images were natively tone-mapped on export for viewing in SDR as close as possible to their HDR versions.

2024 DC Auto Show

It’s been tradition amongst my friends ever since college to visit the DC Auto Show every year - the only years I’ve not attended were the year it was cancelled due to COVID, and the one year I happened to be buying a car the same day of the show.

This year was no different; we made a day of it and explored the show as usual.  This year I did something a bit different, and took some video clips in addition to my usual photographs of whatever caught my eye - I treated this as an exercise to sharpen my skills with a new video editing suite, and perfect my HDR and high framerate workflows.

After the auto show, we all met up with some friends at our favorite cozy spot in the district.

BMW XM Launch Cocktail Party

If you’re a regular follower, you know I frequently attend various car events.  Some of my favorites are those sponsored by automakers showcasing their latest performance and technology offerings, which often has a driving or interactive component.  I have to say, of all the manufacturer events I’ve been to thus far, this cocktail party absolutely wowed me the most.

BMW definitely knows how to run events, I can confidently say from experience after last Summer’s BMW Ultimate Driving Experience featuring an autocross component of their i4 M50.  Likewise, BMW definitely knows how to throw a party.

This wasn’t my first time at the Long View Gallery; in 2015 I attended McLaren’s unveiling of their new 570S, so I expected something like that; I was pleasantly proven wrong before I even got inside the gallery.  The music could be heard from out front, and the mood lighting was a spectacle capturing the attention of passers by.  Inside, guests were welcomed and invited to enjoy signature cocktails at one of the multiple open bars, sample the numerous hors d'oeuvre, (including sushi and ceviche served on a BMW branded ice sculpture), and mingle around the cloaked BMW XM.

Also, any event with a cigar roller is going to automatically win points from me.  This is exactly the second time I have seen this; the first was a wedding I photographed over a decade ago.  This cigar roller had cigars for every taste and experience level, with mild, medium, strong, and amaretto; I’m admittedly not knowledgeable about cigars, but I know enough to know I enjoy the extremely occasional one with an Old Fashioned or glass of single malt.  I grabbed a few for myself for a special occasion, and a few for some friends; although there were matches and cutter available, nobody in attendance indulged at the event.

There’s a bit of a joke that I can’t go anywhere without being recognized, and while that’s not entirely true, chance would have it that I got spotted by a fellow commercial photographer also attending the party, and we enjoyed chatting off and on throughout the evening.

Soon it was time for the big reveal.  A brand VP and engineer gave an introduction of the vehicle, and discussed the XM’s vision and performance as the performance crossover was unveiled.  A notable design point of the XM is that it is the first M series SUV to have its own fame design, not sharing its platform with any other model in the BMW lineup; the XM’s platform is entirely BMW M.

Inside, the XM is all performance, with large flappy-paddles, and dedicated M Performance buttons on the wheel.  Passengers are pampered with ventilated leather, and treated to moodlighting and geometric design cues.  In the boot is a custom leather BMW XM travel bag, with dedicated strap and hook to ensure it stays put during spirited drives.

In the alley behind the Long View Gallery sat the original BMW M1, which served as inspiration for the XM.  The mid-engined coupe sports a more traditionally enjoyable 5 speed manual transmission, and propelled 277HP to the rear wheels; only 453 examples exist.

Inside, artist David Garibaldi began live-painting a BMW-inspired piece combining the DC skyline with the BMW XM’s headlight design.  The canvas was also live-silent-auctioned while he was painting.  The entire process took around 30min, but seemed much faster.  It was fascinating seeing his mixed tool process, switching between brushes, blades, and his fingers between strokes.  By the end of his painting, his glasses were smeared, his suit was speckled, and his hands were completely covered in various colors of paint.

Although the main events were finished, the party was still going, with many still lingering to enjoy drinks and get their chance to explore the XM.  With the playlist spinning, I’m surprised an impromptu dance floor never broke out.

On my way out I captured a few photos of the gallery front since I didn’t get any on my way in; besides, it looked better at night with the lights from the party still bumping inside.  BMW had fed us well, but I knew I’d be hungry again a little later after getting home, so I grabbed a go bag from nearby Ghostburger to enjoy as a midnight snack later in the evening.  It’s a spot I’d like to go back to when they’re not about to close - it definitely rounded out the theme of the evening, which was pretty colored lights.

DCA Planespotting - May 16th, 2019

Last week after a photoshoot at DCA, I dropped by Gravelly Point for a few minutes since I was feeling up to it (I am recovering from a shoulder injury). I didn’t stay long, but couldn’t resist the beautiful weather. I snapped some photos, but really wanted to try the EOS R shooting 4K through a 400mm lens, which equates to 700mm with the EOS R’s 4K crop. In short, 700mm handheld makes for great photos, but is really hard for video (duh).