I don’t know a lot about cars. I mean I know how to change a tyre, check the oil level, or put on snow chains and I can even drive one. I also know they are very inefficient mechanical machines and I hope one day they drive themselves so we will be safe on the roads and able to spend the ‘driving time’ doing other things like reading, sleeping, or looking at the landscape through the window.
Anyway, I love cars and the way they look in a good picture. The design, lines, curves, colours and textures of some classic cars are things that interest me. That’s why when my wife told me that there was a classic car meeting in the region we had to go and take some photos.
It was a hot sunny day, and this can be good and bad for photographs. Cars are like mirrors under bright conditions and it’s highly likely that reflections of anything close to the cars would appear in most of the pictures. Sometimes this adds a nice effect on the polished bonnets and defenses. Other times the colours are burnt and the textures are lost.
I love the circular shaped shadows coming from the trees and the green cast on the silver coloured bumper on this Dodge 3700 GT below.
There are two things I have very clear in my mind when I’m approaching a car to take a photo: first one is ‘to duck’. We all have seen images of cars taken from the average human height point of view so if I want to get a different view I need a different perspective.
Second thing is ‘details’. I’m always tempted to frame the whole car in the picture which is perfectly fine too, but cars have lots of small details which are lost if you don’t get close to them: emblems, rims, upholstery, dashboards, headlights, radiators, etc.
The pipes of this Zimmer Golden Spirit Red Coupe shone under the hot sun:
The owner of a classic Ford Model T suggested I photograph this kerosene headlight and he was kind enough to open it for me. The open lid is a lens which magnifies the light coming from the wick in the inside.
The car show took place in a park with lots of trees. As the cars were in the shade colours are saturated, but at the same time there is plenty of light so there is no need to increase the ISO. The result is photos showing vibrant bodywork and shiny metal parts, perfect portrait environment for classic cars.
