Tommy's Garage

Thursday, November 23, 2017

Wide Grin

It is actually Thanksgiving Day, so I should probably say "Happy Thanksgiving!"  The truth of the matter is Toni is at work, and it just isn't feeling much like a holiday without her here.  Since she was going to be gone all day, I decided to be a little productive and go out and try to get a few pictures.  The weather was supposed to be clear and cold.  I wasn't going to do much with landscapes with that kind of forecast, so I decided to go and hunt some Old Iron instead.

I got up when Toni left the house at 5am, and headed out to Yadkinville, NC, where I was hoping that an old Plymouth was still sitting.  I had visited it two or three times in the past with varying degrees of success.  I wanted to get out there as first light was hitting so that I could get the warm sun on it, and avoid the bright undiffused sun of daytime.  While I was driving, I was looking in my mirror and saw that there were actually clouds in the sky.  There was an opening near the horizon as well.  It was shaping up to be a great sunrise from what I could see.  The problem was, I had nowhere to shoot it from.  I had to enjoy what turned into a fantastic sunrise from the mirrors of the truck.  Oh well, my intention wasn't to go out and do landscapes today anyway, and I still got to enjoy the sight.

I arrived at Tommy's Garage shortly after sunrise and was happy to see that the car was still there.  The problem that I was facing was it was sitting next to a late model Chevrolet, and Oldsmobile.  I was going to have to get creative with how I shot this car.  I had already planned to shoot isolations of the emblems and chrome.  However, the car was in much worse shape than I had remembered which made it difficult to get in to find great details.

Splitting

What used to be a pretty straight front end had been torn apart.  The hood was now split in half, and the chrome trim on the grills had been removed.  What chrome was left was torn from the front and bend down.  At least the "Plymouth" emblems remained for a focal point.  The patina of the car was still very nice and worth playing around with.  I was able to get a few view of the front of the car as the sun was still low, and behind the clouds.

Looking Over My Shoulder

One nice addition to the lot that had not been there before was an old Chrysler drag car called "Baby Hemi" next to the trees.  As I was composing shots on the front of the old Plymouth, I couldn't help but include the little dragster in the back.  It was almost like a generational comparison between the two.  It interested me, and gave something to put in the empty space in the upper left of the image above.  I liked it so much I used that little car once again for a supporting role in an intimate capture of the antique.

Baby Hemi

This old Plymouth has always fascinated me with the classic lines.  The front end has been my focus for years, but today it was the rear that caught my eye.  I liked the lines and the curves of the rear end (and yes, I know what you are thinking right now).  What can I say, I enjoy some curves.

An added element that was present on the rear of this car was the wheels.  These were intricate spoked wheels with plenty of patina to match the condition of the car.  The whitewall tires were period correct, and also helped to balance the color tones.  This is the first car I can think of that I wanted to use the tire and wheel as a focal point in so many shots.  It just played along so nicely with the flow of the design.

Dynamic Pose

Like I said, those wheels and tires really set the lines off on the rear of the car.  The soft angles, the matching patina...it all just worked together.  For a little touch of character on the right rear quarter, the side window was rotated slightly out of the closed position.  That window shared lines with the roof, and helped to make the whole image flow.  At first, I was wishing that the sky had been cloudy for this shot, but decided that the blue tones were very much needed to balance the overall warm tone of this image.

Lenses and Rust

As I was wrapping up the morning, I went to the rear of the car.  I didn't find any emblems or adornments that I really liked back there, so I started to look at the lights.  There were some interesting lines present that framed the remaining lights on the passenger side.  I started to work out a composition surrounding those lights.  I decided that I needed to include the bumper as a visual frame to the bottom.  The vertical lines of the body and trunk lid helped to frame the lights, and the patina took care of all the negative space.

After about an hour and a half, I had hit all of the areas that I thought that I could.  As I was packing up, I decided to try one more composition looking through the windshield.  It was helpful that the glass was mostly gone, leaving a nice broken frame to work with.

Broken Wheel

it was a different image than I usually capture, but there was something about it that I really liked.  It was odd enough that it didn't make my first round of cuts, but as I was looking back through the 51 images that I had shot I had a change of heart.  It was good enough to be one of the seven that I deemed good enough to be keepers.  Considering it was a day where I just went to get a few emblem pictures, I ended up coming back home with a lot more.  I really do like this car, and I'm glad that it still sits there.  I don't know how much longer it will be though, since it is pretty much a rusted shell at this point.  At least I've had plenty of time to play with it on many occasions.