Red In The Afternoon
Nikon D7000 18-200mm @ 56mm ISO 200 1/200 f/11 Lr4; PsCS6
The San Marino Motor Classic, June 10, 2012, Lacy Park, San Marino, California.
To view in high resolution or to purchase this or similar prints please click here: http://goo.gl/DDUfc
Orange Duo
Nikon D7000 18-200mm @ 40mm ISO 125 1/80 f/16 Lr4; PsCS6
A treat for orange lovers at the Pasadena Police Department Classic Car Show, June 17, 2012.
To view in high resolution or to purchase this or similar prints please click here: http://goo.gl/DDUfc
1932 Packard Series 902 V12 Sport Phaeton
Nikon D7000 18-200mm @ 48mm ISO 320 1/200 f/11 Lr4; PsCS6
On display under the trees at Lacy Park in San Marino, California during the 2012 San Marino Motor Classic.
Prints are available at: http://goo.gl/b61Pb
1933 Marmon
Nikon D7000 18-200mm @ 44mm ISO 320 1/320 f/11 Lr4; PsCS6
Captured at the 2012 San Marino Motor Classic, June 10 in Lacy Park, San Marino, California.
Prints available at: http://goo.gl/J7o4D
Reminds Me Of Chocolate Milk
Nikon D7000 18-200mm @ 32mm ISO 125 1/60 f/16 Lr4; PsCS6
It must be the color scheme of this 1940 Chevrolet pickup truck, the cream and brown tones make me think of chocolate milk, and I can see in my mind milk crates with old glass bottles of chocolate milk stacked in the bed of the truck. This beautiful machine was captured at the Pasadena Police 2012 classic car show in Pasadena, California on June 17, 2012. This year’s Pasadena Police show was a bit of a disappointment, though, not as many cars as last year, and fewer, in my opinion, distinctive vehicles. I also thought last year’s venue on Colorado Boulevard was a better showcase in front of Paseo Pasadena rather than this year’s venue on Green Street, behind Paseo Pasadena.
Prints available here: goo.gl/iPFsg
Classic Car #125
Nikon D7000 18-200mm @ 75mm ISO 320 1/320 f/11 Lr4; PsCS6
Captured at the 2012 San Marino Motor Classic, Lacy Park, San Marino, California.
Prints available at: http://goo.gl/DMbZP
Cadillac Dream; Improving Past Performance
Nikon D7000 19-24mm @ 18mm ISO 800 1/1250 f/20 Lr4; PsCS6
One of the most important attributes of Adobe Lightroom is the fact that it is not an image editor, but an image data base application. Unlike tasks you perform in Adobe Photoshop, which permanently alter files, tasks you perform in Lightroom that are related to editing your image are non-destructive, you are not altering your image, you are simply attaching a series of descriptive attributes to the image file. No matter what you have done to an image file in Lightroom, you can always return it to its original, raw file state. This means that Lightroom allows you to travel back in time, and “re-do” any image in the catalog.
This has proven very useful to me as my skill levels have improved over time and my self-critical eye has become more discerning. The original rendering I made of this image last year used the HDR process, and that processing resulted in a muddy image with no additional dynamic range other than the range of tones that are present in this rendering. The other outcome of my original HDR rendering produced an incorrect color tone on the body of the Cadillac. Today’s image was processed in a straight-forward manner, with minimal adjustment to overall exposure, highlight and shadow detail. Minor boosts in contrast and clarity of the car and a boost in brightness of the chrome and white walls were brushed in. A virtual copy was made of the entire image and that second image had clarity reduced and was darkened. The two images were then composited together in Photoshop, producing the bright, sharp foreground image of the car with a subdued background. I am very happy with the final body color, which to my recollection matches the actual body paint color of the car in life. Suffice it to say, I am now moving in a steady direction away from HDR processing of my automotive images.
Prints are available at: http://goo.gl/tC10m .
“I don’t like it when you ignore me”
Nikon D7000 18-200mm @ 34mm ISO 200 3-bkts f/20 Lr3, HEP1, TpzSim; PsCS5
Another image from the Chino American Legion Car Show this past November. This coupe was parked next to the “Weekend Warrior” and impossible to overlook.
Please click on the image to see it in high resolution or to purchase a print.
A Boy’s Passion Is Born
Nikon D7000 10-24mm @ 19mm ISO 800 3-bkts f/16 Lr3, HEP1; PsCS5
For a change of pace we are back to automotive images in the blog this week. This image was captured at the Pasadena Police Department Classic Car Show in June of this year. One of the issues that impacts the images that I capture at these events is the fact that all the cars are so close to each other, it can be a challenge when you are trying to capture an image of one specific car. I like to let the viewers of my images appreciate one car at a time. In quite a few cases I resort to employing post processing techniques, and then the likes of Topaz Simplify and Photoshop, among others, come in to play.
Another element that can be distracting in these scenes is the people usually “loitering” around the vehicles. Sometimes I try and wait them out to get an unobstructed view, sometimes I find that if I am patient, the people may position themselves where they can become a part of the narrative of the image. This was one of those times.
To view in high resolution or purchase a print, please click on the image.
Silver Ghost
Nikon D7000 10-24mm @ 17mm ISO 800 3-bkts f/16 Lr3, HEP1; PsCS5
Another classic Chevrolet at the Pasadena Police Department Classic Car Show, June 19, 2011. A reminder of how inspirational art objects of the past can be for artists of the present.
Hard Charger
Nikon D7000 10-24mm @ 15mm ISO 800 3-bkts f/16 Lr3, HEP1,ASSA3; PsCS5
Whether the car or its owner, you get the idea that once they start driving forward, they will not be slowing or stopping until they have reached their objective. A Dodge Charger (circa 1968) on display at the Pasadena Police Department Classic Car Show, June 19, 2011, Pasadena, California.
Chevy Front Quarter
Nikon D7000 10-24mm @ 24mm ISO 800 1/320 f/16 Lr3
This image is for my friend Sheila Creighton who is a photographer and an automotive lover, Sheila blogs at Imagery of Light. This classic piece of automotive art was on display at the Pasadena Police Department Classic Car Show, June 17, 2011 and was parked on Colorado Boulevard where the Rose Parade takes place every New Years Day.
Righteous Red Rod
Nikon D7000 18-135mm @ 31mm ISO 640 1/200 f/22 Lr3, PsCS5; TpzSim
All is right in the world for the man or woman who can park their lovingly hand crafted red hot rod next to a shady tree on a hot summer afternoon, pull up some lawn chairs, a cooler of cold beverages, and shoot the breeze with other automotive aficionados. This scene was captured at the “Old Pomona Hot Rod & Custom Car Show” held at Thomas Plaza just off of Second Street in Pomona, California on July 23, 2011.
This was another one of my painterly exercises achieved using the Topaz Labs Simplify plug-in with Photoshop. While this rendering is obviously a far cry from a purist’s concept of a straight documentary photograph, to me it conveys the beauty of the automobile, and a sense of the person who handcrafted it and a feeling for the time and place where it was displayed on both an analytical and an emotional level.
