Paparazzi Snaps Photos of Newest Car Models

Aug. 19, 2009— -- It's no secret that the most valuable photographs for mainstream paparazzi are the ones snapped when celebrities least expect it, documenting the furtive kiss or the bad hair day. But there's another breed of paparazzi on the prowl -- half-photographer, half-spy -- whose target is not celebrities, but new cars.

Brenda Priddy is the world's leading car spy. The 49-year-old chases automotive companies' newest models, and snaps pictures of these top-secret prototypes years before their creators want anyone to see them. In the process, she drives carmakers nuts.

"I think they're trying to hide it from everybody -- primarily their competitors," Priddy said. "They don't want their competitors to see what they have planned for the future. They just like to keep it secret until they introduce it at an auto show somewhere."

The cars are often incognito -- disguised during test drives with fake body parts and black coverings over key features.

Priddy sells photos of the cars to trade magazines, newspapers and Web sites in dozens of countries. Her biggest seller of the year: photos of President Obama's new limo, which Priddy's team of automotive paparazzi caught long before the official unveiling.

"Obama's limo was the hottest selling photo, well, one of the hottest selling photos we've ever had," she said.

But Priddy says that she gets just as excited shooting brand new cheap cars as she does shooting a cutting-edge BMW.

"I make the most out of everything that I shoot, so if I shoot a $12,000 Kia or a $70,000 luxury car, I get just as excited," she said.

"Nightline" hit the road with Priddy to see what it takes to snap photos of hot rides.

Car Companies' Ground Zero: Testing New Rides

We followed Priddy to a strip of land in the Mojave Desert, which has become the ground zero for every car company on the planet to test their newest rides under intense triple-digit heat.

Priddy is chasing what she believes to be a 2012 Volkswagen SUV hybrid -- a model that's never been seen before.

"This is interesting ... this is a car carrier and it's different from the one that was here last night, which gives us an indication [that] possibly more Volkswagens are in town today," she said, sorting the clues.

Photo Courtesy Brenda Priddy.

Priddy says all her shoots are perfectly legal, since she stays on public property. But that's a concept that's unfamiliar to some of the engineers who come from other countries; Priddy claims that one of the engineers tried to run down her son. To settle the matter, she said she ended up calling the company's headquarters -- it wasn't her first time.

"When she closes in for the kill it's like, 'Get out of the way,'" said ex-husband John Priddy. "It's like watching a predator. It's vicious when she's got that prey in her lens, nothing's going to get in her way. She's going to go after it."

Those in Priddy's inner circle are convinced that she's the master of her trade.

"She's so unassuming, you know, you don't picture her as the spy photographer -- she's the housewife," said former Nevada highway patrolman Steven SyZdek, "but she's really good at it."

Priddy often shoots for three months straight, basing her business out of a flea bag motel in the desert. Her other photographers are fanned out far and wide, snapping photos of cars across the globe. One member of her team captured a photo of Robert Downey Jr. at the wheel of an Audi sports car during a Hollywood film shoot. The car was supposed to be revealed with the release of "Iron Man 2," Priddy says, but her team beat them to the punch.

Photo Courtesy Brenda Priddy.

But it's more than metal and fiberglass to engineers who attempted to shield their beloved prototype from ABC News' cameras, before they realized we were more interested in talking about Priddy than their cars.

"It is our mission -- we have to test it, but we don't want to show it," said one German engineer, who would not tell ABC News the name of the company they work for. "It is part of the game."