Ford versus Ferrari
Joannie and I are very pleased to share a cool light painting project that features Ford versus Ferrari (in a fun way!). We traveled to Oshkosh, Wisconsin, for this one. What makes this light painting project really different is that we were interviewed beforehand, and then we were photographed and filmed while we did the photography part!
Here’s our setup photo taken prior to light painting three rather unique vehicles in a hangar at Wittman Regional Airport in Oshkosh, Wisconsin.
A couple of years ago, at EAA AirVenture, I met Jennifer Jensen at our Light Painting Photography booth. Jennifer loved what she saw, and we had a great conversation about the whole process. She also talked about what she does as the president of NextJen Studios. More on that in a moment.
Once again, in 2025, she stopped by the booth to say hello. This time, we talked about a really cool car, a Ferrari, that she had ordered. I told her that it would be amazing to light paint it for her when it gets here!
Fast forward to this spring, and I received an email from Jennifer telling me that she’d taken delivery of that car, a 2025 Ferrari Roma Spider. Last fall, she’d also taken delivery of a second vehicle, a 2024 Ford Bronco Heritage Edition. She wondered if we could do a light painting and include both vehicles, kind of a Ford versus Ferrari theme! Pretty sure you know what my answer was!
Auto Exotica Magazine
Jennifer produces TV shows, including The Aviators and Auto Exotica. Her idea was to share a story about us as light painting photographers. We would create an actual lighting painting for the article: “Ford vs Ferrari” for Auto Exotica magazine.
Here’s our base image. From here, all of the layers get added until the one-of-a-kind artwork is complete!
I’m typically not nervous when I light-paint (only about the weather and the dew point), but I have to say that I was a bit nervous about this project. As I think about it now, I wasn’t nervous at all during the light painting part, just the getting ready and the interview part. I know that Joannie wasn’t exactly excited to be interviewed, but she did great! I think I did ok, too!
Light Painting a 2024 Ford Bronco Heritage Edition
Jennifer’s 2024 Ford Bronco Heritage Edition features throwback 1960s styling. This beauty features Robin’s Egg Blue body paint with an Oxford White modular hardtop. The front end has a white grille with red “FORD” lettering. It comes standard with the Sasquatch Package, which includes 35-inch med-terrain tires, 17-inch Oxford White wheels, and a 4.7 drive ratio.
This one brings back fond memories of the Ford Bronco II that we had back in the 80s.
Light Painting a 2025 Ferrari Roma Spider Tailor Made
The 2025 Ferrari Roma Spider is an amazing automobile! It was created through Ferrari’s Tailor Made Program. A fun fact for us is that it’s actually the very first Ferrari that we’ve ever light-painted!
With incredible styling, this beautiful Ferrari has a completely custom interior made of Count Prestige Reddish Brown leather. The leather smells just like a baseball glove (I mean that in a really good way)! And, it will eventually wear like one as well!
The Argento Nurburgring silver dream-line that runs along the bottom of the exterior is mirrored on the interior. The Roma Spider is powered by a 3.9-liter twin-turbo V8 paired with an 8-speed dual-clutch transmission.
The blue 2025 Ferrari Roma Spider is freakin’ amazing! (It smells really good too!)
As a side note, Joannie looks really good in the driver’s seat!
Joannie’s looking great in the Ferrari! It’s on her list for her birthday this year!
The Surprise “Background” Guest!
Joannie and I arrived in Oshkosh a couple of hours before setup time, and we had a nice dinner with Jennifer. A few days prior, I had suggested that we come up with a backup plan, as thunderstorms were forecast for the evening that we had set for the project. Through her connections, Jennifer found a hangar at Wittman Regional Airport, the site of AirVenture every year.
Not only that, but there was a chance that we could have an aircraft in the image too. While we were eating dinner, she received a text saying that we could use the plane in the photograph. I thought, that’s pretty cool!
But that wasn’t the whole story. It turns out that this wasn’t just any aircraft, but a P-51 D Mustang! And, if that wasn’t enough, it’s a famous P-51, too! – “Happy Jack’s Go Buggy”!
“Happy Jack’s Go Buggy” is certainly quite the backdrop for Ford vs Ferrari!
Upon completion of the 3-vehicle light painting, we pulled the Ferrari and the Bronco out, and we light-painted the P-51 all by itself! Watch for that striking image coming soon!
Here’s the final light-painted artwork of the Ford Bronco Heritage Edition, the famous P-51 D Mustang “Happy Jack’s Go Buggy”, and the Ferrari Roma Spider!
The Movie
As always, we’ve created a short “Build Video” of this cool project. In all, Joannie and I took 244 images of the three vehicles. In post production, I used 77 of those images, in 119 unique ayers to complete the one-of-a-kind artwork.
The large American Flag was indeed in the hangar. I took artistic license and relocated it lower in the image. The light painting just looks better that way. The link to view the video on our YouTube channel is below:
Thank you for taking the time out of your day to check out this cool project! – M&J
Are You Heading To EAA’s AirVenture 2026?
If you love this light painting project, wait until you see these amazing projects printed on metal! Printing our light paintings on aluminum brings out the very best in our one-of-a-kind artworks.
Come see for yourself at EAA Adventure in Oshkosh. We’re located in Hangar C, Row F, Booth 3064. If you’re there, please stop and say hello. We look forward to seeing you there! Thank you!