Time Out for Some Bokeh

I found that taking photos of hood ornaments was a nice break from using my tripod to create HDR sequences at the Car Show by the Sea in San Pedro. While having so many cars packed closely together makes creating a nice HDR composition difficult, it makes macro photography of hood ornaments and emblems a joy. The cars surrounding the object being photographed are for the most part very reflective, with fantastic paint and lots of chrome. This means that when shooting with my macro lens using a very shallow depth-of-field, these reflective background objects are rendered out-of-focus very beautifully.

Chief Pontiac

I've photographed a lot of Pontiac Indian head hood ornaments but I've never seen one made of clear material before. This example was very striking and I took several exposures of it from many viewpoints. This one was a favorite.

It's What's Up Front that Counts

Another cool hood ornament from the Point Fermin Car Show by the Sea in San Pedro. Loving the Bokeh on these shots!

1947 Chevrolet Fleetline

There were so many great cars at the Point Fermin car show by the sea, Kathy and I didn’t know what to photograph first. We arrived a couple of hours before the show was officially opening but there were already more than 100 cars parked and hundreds more flowing into the large ocean front park that hosted the show.

I walked around trying to sort out which cars I definitely wanted to photograph from those that while amazing, were already well represented in my growing photographic archive. This proved nearly impossible to do because so many cars had custom features that were very interesting and unique.

I just couldn’t pass up this immaculate 1947 Chevrolet Fleetline. I love this model and make a point of photographing them whenever I have the opportunity. I spoke to the owner who explained to me that other than being lowered with air bags, the car was restored to be completely stock. That includes the color of the paint and the material used in the upholstery of the seats and headliner.

There’s just something about these long low slung cars that just capture my interest like few others do. I took several sets of shots from various angles so I’m sure I’ll post the others if they look ok after post processing them.

My Favorite Photographer

See this photo on Flickr

Last April, Kathy and I spent the weekend in San Diego to attend the annual Chicano Park car show. We got there early and found 50+ cars had already arrived with what seemed like 100 more vying for parking places. After the show we walked past a small market with an interesting and very colorful wall mural. I convinced Kathy to pose for just a few shots. She hates being in front of a camera but as usual, she looked lovely. If you'd like to see Kathy's photography head over to www.tweakedpixels.com

Goddess of Speed

Kathy, her brother Kevin, his son David, and I all met very early on a recent Saturday to attend the 2013 Uptown Whittier Car Show. It was really fun and I'm glad we were out early because by 2:00 PM the show was very crowded and the temperature had exceeded 95 degrees. The scene was quite different at just after 6:00 AM that morning. The show wouldn’t officially open until 9:00 AM so there were only a handful of spectators and the organizers kept all of the cars waiting in three long lines at the far end of Greenleaf Avenue. We were able to take some great pictures of the cars there. This Packard hood ornament was taken later that afternoon with my 100mm macro lens.

Remembering Jae Bueno

I really felt sad today when my wife Kathy told me that the great car culture photographer, Jae Bueno had passed away. I knew he was sick and that he had cancer but I didn’t know how serious it was. I only spoke to Jay on a handful of occasions, but when we saw one another, he always made time to wave or pause for a minute to say hello or something encouraging about Kathy’s work which really made me happy. That’s pretty nice given how accomplished Jae was. Not all photographers I meet at car shows are that nice. I guess they feel competitive or something. Jae always seemed… humble. He was usually smiling, chatting and shooting great images. I’ve followed his work in Low Rider magazine, his photo stream on Flickr and his website www.JaeBueno.com and usually found them to be inspiring. Kathy often would mention to me that Jae had posted photos from a show she couldn’t attend or wasn’t aware of and I know she admired his skill as well.

 

Jae, I’ll miss seeing you and your wife at car shows. I hope you didn’t suffer. I know your family must be devastated. I know your many friends in the car culture scene will miss you too. They always seemed so aware of your presence. Often I would be at a car show setting up my tripod and camera to photograph a car, and the owner would say “Jae Bueno is here too, do you know him? Do you shoot for magazines too?” to which I would have to answer “I’ve met him a few times, but I just shoot for fun. I’ll leave the professional photos to Jae”.

 

This photo was taken on a blazing hot day in September of 2012. Kathy had heard about a car show at Mayfield High School in Bellflower, California and we decided to go. We ran around shooting photos and tried not to get overheated. I was heading for a shady curb where Kathy had already taken refuge when I saw this motorcycle. I don’t typically shoot them, but this one looked super cool. When I got home and reviewed my photos in Adobe Lightroom, I saw that I had inadvertently also captured Jae and his wife in this shot. Jae is the guy in the grey shirt holding a camera and smiling. His wife is just to his left. Here he looks happy, healthy and in his element. I’m glad I have this photo to reinforce my memory because this is how I’d like to remember Jae Bueno.

Bokehlicious

Southgate California car show. I love my 100mm Minolta macro lens. Nuff said.

Darkness at the Edge of Town

I spotted this beautiful four door 1939 Chevy Master Deluxe at the Run Whatcha Brung 20th annual car show in Rialto, California. It wasn't entered in the show but instead was just hunkered down in a restaurant parking lot at the far end of the downtown shopping district, it’s low slung chassis managing to look dark and foreboding even while sitting in the bright sun.  I didn’t really intend to walk all the way to the edge of town but I'm glad I did. This turned out to be my favorite car from the show. I mused that the gangsters that owned her were just getting a bite to eat before continuing their daily mayhem. 

Since the car was a deep reflective black I decided to use Nik Software's SilverEfex Pro to bring on the pseudo silver halide goodness and  dispense with the saturation altogether. Once I saw the result, I was reminded of a phrase I saw written on the back window of another low slung machine “Praise the Lowered”

Rule Breaker

They say that rules are meant to be broken and I guess my rule that I never take photos of cars with their hoods up is actually more of a guideline. This beautiful 1939 Chevy Master Deluxe was way too cool to pass up without taking a photo, hood up or not. But there's actually more to the story. When I saw how interesting it looked with the hood up I was actually compelled to shoot it this way. That didn't stop me from asking the owners son to check if his dad would lower it for me (which he did) but while the hood was up, I shot a few HDR sequences. The car looked immaculate to me but the owner told me it was about to go in for a special wax job that was quite expensive. This was in preparation for a big low rider show held in Los Angeles.