Revisiting the Blue Apache

Tuesday, July 3, 2018

Patina in the Morning Sun

I've been in a little bit of a creative slump for the past couple of weeks.  Shooting a week solid at the beach, and then coming home to working on the series for the rat rod Cadillac really wore me out.  Add to that, I have been having problems with the computer locking up once again which has really caused me a great deal of stress.  I think I've got the computer issues under control though.  I am limping on a single bank of memory right now (8 gigs), while I wait for two new banks of memory to arrive later this week.  At least I am able to function at this point, just a little slower than I am used to is all.

Since I have a traffic assignment this evening, into tonight, I thought that I would use this time to try and get my creative groove back on line.  I had looked at the weather and the morning showed to be mostly clear with a few clouds here and there.  That wasn't enough to justify going to the mountains which was what I wanted to do.  However, it was passable light for doing some rural shooting as the sun came up.  Since I had a print to deliver in Yadkin County, I figured that I might as well hunt around out there for something to shoot.

After doing my last Behind the Camera entry, I was feeling nostalgic about the old Blue Chevy Apache that I had shot in 2014, and done a fresh edit in 2016 which had won a photo contest shortly thereafter.  I checked the map and found that according to the last pass over the area, the truck was still there.  I remembered speaking with the owner back in '14 and getting a little history on the truck.  I was expecting to speak with her once again to gain permission to get in close to the truck.

When the Light Hits

Knowing how this is situated, I was expecting the sun to catch the front of the truck more than anything and that was fine by me.  It should provide some dramatic light to work with.  When I arrived at the house, the sun was up and already bathing the shelter and the truck.  There was a good deal more hay in the shelter than the last time, but the house looked to be in a much different state than I remembered.  It looked to be vacant, but the yard was mowed.  There were no cars around, and all of the blinds were closed on all of the windows. Weeds were grown up pretty tall around the base of the house.  From the looks of it, I wasn't going to get an answer at the door.  To keep legitimate appearances up, I parked in the driveway with my tag showing to the road and neighbors.  I went ahead and grabbed the camera.  Just in case, I fitted the 70-200mm lens with a Singh-Ray Color Combo Polarizer to give me the reach to get some shots in quickly without having to completely walk through the yard.

I started making some compositions and noted that the exposure, while pretty contrasty, was within the latitude of the camera.  Knowing that the grill would be my biggest problem, I exposed for the highlights, and let the shadows fall where they would.  I had plenty of details in the shadow portions so I was pretty confident that I could balance the exposure in Lightroom so that the image would reflect the view that my eyes were seeing.

I worked my way closer and closer in until I was at the wide end of the lens.  I hadn't been challenged yet, so I went back to the truck and swapped over to my 24-70mm lens which would allow me to get in close and distort the perspective of the truck ever so slightly.  I kept the polarizer attached though as it really helped bring the blue of the truck out a bit more.

A Summer Morning

As I got done with the basic shots of the truck, I started to work on some of the details.  The problem that I was running into was the weeds that had grown over the truck.  Where the lighting was the best, I wasn't able to really get a good view.  The ones that I shot were not all that great and I ended up trashing them in the first or second pass through the images.  The remaining three compositions were surprisingly similar, but the more I looked at them, the main subject was different in each one.  I felt that they each stood in their own right, and deserved their time on display.

I was getting back in the swing of photography, and was starting to feel that creative energy surging once again.  I spent some time driving aimlessly around Jonesville, NC, looking for some more rural subjects to photograph.  I found a few, though not as many as I was expecting.  The lighting wasn't right for any of them, so I just filed them in my head for later and kept looking.

After a while, the sun was up too high and the light was too harsh on the West side, so I opted to wrap it up.  It was time to go and deliver my print in East Bend anyway.  This is part of the frustration of photography.  I had spent about three hours on the road looking for things to shoot and ended up only finding one subject that had good light.  There are plenty of times that I don't even find that so I'm pretty happy with the morning altogether.

I'm hoping for some really good weather very soon so I can get out and do some mountain landscapes again.  It has been far too long since I've been out to the Blue Ridge Parkway under some dramatic skies.

Behind the Camera: My Wabi Sabi Style

Welcome back for another installment of my monthly "Behind the Camera" series.  In this series, I delve a little bit into the motivations behind my photography and why I do some of the things that I do.  This month, I have decided to talk a little bit about my interest in the rusty and aged subjects that I have been shooting here of late.  I'm actually scheduled to do a webinar on this very topic later this month with Singh-Ray so this is a chance for me to start to get my ideas together on the topic.

I started photographing old barns almost immediately when I got my first camera.  In fact, the first day I went out with the intention of capturing "art" instead of just pictures, I found myself at the Old Mill in Guilford County, and also found the remnants of an old house well in the woods off of W Market St in Greensboro.  Those constituted my first images with my first "real" camera.  From there I started to concentrate more on landscapes, but if I came across a nice barn I would shoot it as well.  I read recently that old barns are a favorite subject for newbie photographers and I guess I fell right into that mold.  My primary motivation for photography was capturing the landscape though.  It just took me a while to learn how to organize things in the landscape to make a compelling image.  I think that this is why barns are a favorite subject for photographers.  There is already a point of interest in the landscape, and an anchor to capture the eye of the viewer.  My landscapes at the time looked like a layer cake with the sky above, with a fairly flat horizon and not much in the way of visual anchors to draw you in.  A barn added instant visual interest to the picture and I enjoyed that!

For years, I would go out to capture the landscape, but I would keep finding rural settings that would grab my attention more and more.  I found that I loved to see how the wood aged, and how rust would start to coat the metal roofs.  Then I found my first location with some old trucks.  I had not thought to capture vehicles before, but for some reason the rust caught my eye.  There were a total of four trucks at this particular property, three of them were stuck in the woodline, and the fourth was just on a ridge at the beginning of a clearing.  There was even a pair of tractors that I started working with in the same area.  In the end, I had a whole bunch of pictures with subjects that I had never really worked with before.  I was amazed at how much personality that the images had, and the textures of the rusted trucks added a pretty cool touch.  I was so impressed with the way one of them turned out, I actually entered it into a photo contest later that year.  It actually won a third place ribbon, but I forfeited it because I felt that the judging was flawed across all of the categories.  That is a different story altogether.  The point was, the pictures of rusted vehicles were obviously appealing on some level to others as well.

It wasn't until I came back from a long hiatus from my photography that I started to learn why I was being drawn to rusted relics, and old barns.  I had even been drawn to rotting tree trunks over the years.  As part of my re-education in photography, I selected a lot of books to read in order to brush up on some of the new technology and techniques.  One of these books was Creative Landscapes, by Harold Davis.  In addition to hitting on lots of different elements in landscape work, he also touched on some of the concepts behind it.

Spring Cradle

The first concept that he speaks of is "Tao" which is a philosophy with roots in ancient Chinese culture.  Tao is traditionally connected with the landscape painters who seek a spiritual connection with the landscape that they are painting.  This applies to both grand landscapes as well as intimate, or even microscopic renditions of the landscape.  It was these connections to the landscape which had always drawn me to what I wanted to photograph.  I was finding myself being drawn more and more to images that I shared a emotional or spiritual connection with.  Old wood, whether it was in a natural setting as seen above, or as part of something man made, drew me in on a very deep level.  As I was reading this book, many of my motivations on photography started to make sense.

As I moved through the book, I came upon another concept from the East which really should have stumped me, but it was like a light had turned on when I read it.  The concept that the author was trying to convey was an ancient Japanese aesthetic and world view called "Wabi-sabi".  This view accepts that everything passes, and is by nature, transient and incomplete.  Art which is based in the Wabi-sabi concepts accept that this decay and decline is beautiful.  That decay is then used as the prime vehicle for conveying the emotion in the imagery.  Simply put, "All things pass, and in their passage lies beauty."

Under Cotton Skies

As I was finding my rhythm once again in photography, I was putting to use this newfound knowledge of Wabi-sabi and looked to strengthen my connection with what I was shooting.  I celebrated the decay that once appealed to me as just something interesting to photograph.  That decay became the main element in many of my photographs.  Barns fit that bill very well, but in no time at all, I was working on finding old cars to photograph for the same reasons.  Being a car guy at heart, I found that I was able to achieve a great level of Tao in my compositions because I already had a deep connection with these vehicles that were left derelict in yards, or in the woods.

A Rusty Streak

In the beginning, finding these old cars was quite difficult.  It usually involved a lot of luck as I was just driving around and a sharp eye looking out behind houses, and in the woods.  I found that barns were quite a bit easier as they are pretty big, and usually set fairly close to the road.  It became the thrill of the chase to find these old cars though.  Since I have been doing this type of photography, I have gotten increasingly better at spotting these old relics.  For instance, the picture above is a Pontiac which has been sitting beside this field for a number of years now.  It is visible from the highway that I use most often to get to the mountains.  I had passed it by many times before catching it one day coming home.  I had trained myself to look off to the sides of the highways, well into the yards of houses that I passed, and there it was, right beside a big white house.  I exited the highway and snaked my way back to the location and determined that the property was more than likely vacant, so I had the opportunity to check the car out.  The driver's door was open, and the grass was completely grown up around it.  It had been here for a while, but I wasn't sure how long.  I don't know how I had missed it over the years, but I was glad that I had found it.  I have since been back many times to photograph it, with the most successful visit shown above.

Wide Grin

Other times, these cars are just sitting right out in the open for all to see.  In this example, the old Plymouth is sitting in a repair shop parking lot at a major intersection in Yadkin County.  I had been out driving in the area looking for some barns the first time I photographed it.  I have been back a few times and was able to take advantage of different lighting each time.  Also, each time I saw it, the car was in a different state of deterioration.  In this last visit, the trim was dangling, the wheels were removed from the front, and the windshield was broken out.  All of these elements gave more clues to the current state of affairs for the car.  It is the continued visits to this car that really fascinate me.  Whether the changes come from vandals, or parts scavenging, it shows a different character each time.

Impressive Stance

There are other times that I rely on word of mouth as to where to find these cars.  The salvage yard where I found this rotting Buick was based on a tip from a friend of mine.  I have since been to White's Salvage yard twice to photograph the different cars in the lot.  They have a lot to choose from and every time I go there, I come back with some pretty amazing images.  The nice thing is that the owners don't really mind that I am walking among the boneyard.  Their only request is that I do it during business hours and let them know that I am there.  I find that completely understandable.

The other end of the spectrum to finding these cars and even barns is that so many times they require entering the property to photograph them.  This is harder than it sounds, especially with me being a police officer.  I just don't feel comfortable walking right onto private property to photograph something.  Ideally, I will be able to make contact with the property owner so that I can ask permission.  The conversation usually goes a little something like this:  "Hi, I'm a photographer and I enjoy photographing old cars and barns.  I notice that you have a ____________ in the back yard and I was wondering if you would mind if I shot a few pictures?"  The answer is typically "You want to take a picture of that old junk back there?"  We chat for a few minutes and then with any luck I will get permission to enter the property.  Other times, I am denied that permission, oftentimes before I'm ever able to ask.

Cracked but Intact

Here is one of those funny stories from my adventures searching out these old cars.  I was out driving around one Sunday and happened upon Pack's Body Shop which had a rather large salvage yard attached to it.  It was obviously closed, but I noted that there were no fences, or other barriers in place.  There were no signs indicating that I wasn't allowed on the property, and nothing in place that prohibited me from walking through.  I parked right up front in the parking lot to indicate that I was there, and grabbed my gear to start photographing the area.  I was out there a couple of hours that morning and had no issues at all, even with lots of cars passing by.

Several months later I returned on a Saturday and figured that I would do the same thing.  I got my gear and started to get set up near some cars up front.  This time, there was a guy that slowed to a stop in the road.  I went out to meet him and asked if he was the property owner.  He wasn't but stated that the owner lived right down the street and that I should probably go ask him.  I could handle that, so I went down the road on foot and found the house where the owner lived.  I knocked on the door and stepped back from the door allowing a full view of myself (hey, I understand folks get apprehensive about strangers knocking).  While waiting for the door to open, I caught a sense of movement from the side of the house.  I looked over and found a gentleman coming around the corner with a gun in his hand.  OK, it wasn't pointed at me, so I was not terribly concerned, although I was unarmed.  He inquired as to why I was there and I gave my normal speech.  He was less than impressed and said that he never wanted to see me on his property again.  I attempted to plead my case one more time, and was met with a similar reaction.  I left, and have not returned since.

That was the first time that I had been turned down for a chance to shoot on somebody's property.  It was one that I will always remember since there was an off chance that I could have gotten shot.  Although, I am glad that it went that way rather than him finding me among the cars and shooting first and asking questions later.  

There was another time that I was coming from Hanging Rock and stopped off to photograph a truck that was sitting under an overhang of an old gas station right off of the road.  There was nothing but businesses around, and it was a Sunday.  I got out and set the camera up and started to get my composition just right and I see a truck coming from a little ways down the road.  They slowed and entered the lot.  Before I could ask anything the driver asked (with his right hand conspicuously out of sight) what I was doing there.  I answered that I was photographing the truck sitting under the overhang.  His response was "Who takes pictures of things that don't belong to them, you need to go."  I tried to show examples of what I did, but he was not interested, and I still couldn't see his right hand.  I figured it was time to go, so I packed up, and while loading my camera gear back in the bag he continued to question why I was there.  Knowing that there was probably a gun aimed at me, I opted not to engage in any arguments.  I got in the car and left with him following behind me for a mile or so.

Fire Prevention

On the other hand, I have had the completely opposite experience when photographing these rural scenes.  One of my favorite stories is one that happened recently in East Bend, NC, at Outlawed Restorations.  I had found this location after a full day of photography in the mountains.  It was just too good to pass up, so I pulled off to the side of the road and surveyed the scene.  There were a couple of houses that could have been attached to this property, but with the changing weather I needed to shoot fast and didn't have much time to ask any permission.  I figured that the scenes that I wanted to shoot I could get from the street.  I started working out positions and compositions, but before long a gentleman stepped out of the shop that I had assumed was closed since it was a weekend.  I was all prepared to be told to leave, but saw him motioning me in to talk.

This was where I met Dean Cornelius and he was quite gracious about letting me onto the property to photograph whatever I wanted to.  What a nice surprise!!  He told me a little bit about the vehicles on the lot and about what he did there.  The difference being able to be on the property versus standing on the road was huge.  The picture above was shot with my 70-200mm lens zoomed in to almost 200mm to get the composition I wanted for a panorama.  Once I got onto the property, I was able to swap to my 24-70mm lens and get images like this...

Shattered Dreams

There is just no substitute for being able to get up close and personal with your subjects.  Dean and I have since formed a pretty good friendship, and I've been back out to his place once more for my own purposes and then was invited back for a contract shoot of a Caddi that was going up for sale.  What started out as a normal contact asking for permission has since blossomed into other opportunities. I have to say, I like these experiences much better than those where a gun is involved.

Ole Caddi at Home

Another benefit of speaking with the owners of these cars is that I get a lot of the history behind them, which aids in the spiritual connection with the subject.  I've talked with several folks who have their deceased loved ones vehicles on their property.  Some are destined to be restored, others are just there as a tribute and memory to somebody they have lost.  Either way, it is fascinating to me to learn about these cars and what they mean to the owners.  As a car guy, I completely understand the emotional connection that we have with our vehicles, and how those vehicles somehow become linked to us.

There are plenty of times that I am unable to make contact with the owners of the properties, and in those situations I have to make a choice.  Should I just come back another time, or try to capture something from a location that I feel comfortable in.  I've shot a lot from the side of the road, and I've ventured onto property that looks to be relatively abandoned.  Every time I do this I expect to have a property owner approach me, so I usually work fast in case I am told to leave.  I'm always very conscious of signs indicating that they don't want anyone on the property, or fences that provide some type of barrier to the property.  Again, as a police officer, I just can't risk a criminal charge over my photography.

Found on Roadside Dead

When it all comes down to it though, I've found that these rusted out cars have a soul remaining and it wants to be captured.  When I see this decaying Ford, I am transported back to a time before I was even born.  I am hearing the cheers of kids in the back seat on a family trip.  I am imagining the owner of a brand new car taking it home and polishing it.  I can imagine the lengths that the owner would go through to keep the car on the road and then finally being forced to give up the ghost leaving it in the yard, until it could be overhauled.  In a way, the car's life flashes in front of my eyes, and I can imagine 40 or more years worth of history behind the subject that I am photographing.  It is my hope that I am sharing that same reaction with the viewers of the pictures.  It is a great case of "if that old car could talk..."

Time to Mend

The Wabi-sabi approach to photography applies to just about every aspect of my photography these days.  I might not always be photographing old rusted cars, or even barns, but I can find beauty in the decay of so many things that surround us.  This fence along the Blue Ridge Parkway illustrates that quite well.  In the middle of the Spring flowers and vibrant colors, we have a very dramatic sky that breathes life into the image.  Then there is the fence.  It has obviously seen better days and has been standing for quite some time.  Several of the boards have fallen, and what is still standing is showing signs of decay.  By definition, this really should not fit in the image, but it does.  In fact, the fence becomes the image in a way.  It is all beautiful and shows life in different stages all at the same time.

Chrome Scallop

Even in an abstract composition, I can find beauty in decay.  Here we have the side of an old Ford that has clearly been left out in the elements for some time now.  The chrome is no longer shiny, and the paint is no longer rich in color or gloss.  There is mold where Turtle Wax used to be, and pine needles where glistening reflections had once been.  To look at this pictures, you really don't know what you are looking at, unless you are really familiar with the cars of the era, but the shapes and textures stand on their own.  There is an understated beauty to this scene even though there is a lot of deterioration going on.

Guarded and Weathered

The next time you are driving down a country road and thinking to yourself "this is such a nice road," consider why it is a nice road.  There sure isn't a lot of high rises, and concrete.  The cars aren't flashy, and you will see that weathered wood and rust dominate the man made elements.  Might it be you too are enjoying the beauty is the passage of time?  We say it hearkens back to a simpler time, but I would disagree.  Sitting in your car with air conditioning and an automatic transmission whizzing down the road, are you really thinking that working on a farm is simple?  Maybe driving a car with three on the tree and an AM radio is somehow more relaxing than what you are in.  Somehow I think we are getting things confused, and we are actually seeing these things in the waning stages of life which is much simpler than when they were in full functioning trim.

For me, there is a certain quiet, calm, reverence to these old structures and cars.  I can remember the good times that were had in and around them, but not really the hard work.  I see many happy memories that I have never experienced first hand, and that helps to center me in a current world of turmoil.  I guess in a way I am capturing a fantasy image of what once was, while celebrating the life of the subject I am photographing.

Magic Bus

Another equally valid point to this type of photography is that you never know when these pieces of our collective history will be gone.  Case in point is this bus.  I have shot it a total of three times in various states of decomposition.  This was the most recent and it dates to 2014.  Shortly after I shot this bus, the property sold, and the new company that bought the building had this bus hauled off.  I don't know of the outcome of this bus, but I do know that it will never be here to be photographed again.  My camera was able to document the last days of this bus that served proudly for a career.  With every click of the shutter, I might be taking the last picture of an object that will ever be shot.  To be that kind of historian is pretty impressive when you think about it.

Just Tired

Here is one of those pictures that documents a scene that didn't last for another 24 hours.  Most would have passed the opportunity by, but I saw something really cool in this setting and stopped to photograph it.  I spoke with the owner and found out that there was a guy on the way to pick up the tractor to take it away later that afternoon.  This was absolutely the last chance to photograph this scene as it sat.  I found that it spoke volumes with all of the little subtle elements within the image.

I hope that I've opened your eyes a little bit as to why I'm drawn to these rustic scenes and rusty old cars.  I really do believe that there is a lot of beauty in them, and I really hope that I capture that beauty in a way that speaks to you.  I know of many in my audience that don't really care for these types of images, but I know a good many are coming around to enjoy them on some level.  There is beauty at all stages of life, and we owe it to ourselves to stop and enjoy it when we can.  

Until next time, enjoy the beauty that surrounds us!!  If there is anything that you would like to know about my photography, let me know.  I'm always looking for inspiration for these Behind the Camera entries.

On Assignment: Outlawed Restorations

Saturday, June 23, 2018

Hello Dolly

One thing that I failed to mention in my series from Topsail Island was that I received a text from Dean Cornelius with Outlawed Restorations in East Bend, NC.  I had just finished up a shoot from his shop the previous weekend and that had lead to a conversation about the rat rod Caddi that I had shot in the barn.  It was going up for sale and the actual owner of the car had commissioned some pictures to be taken of the car for the broker in Florida.  Well, when Dean texted me, he let me know that the owner was now interested in me doing the pictures for the Caddi.  To make a long story short, I spoke with not only Dean, but the owner of the car and came to an arrangement.  It was going to have to wait until I got back in town before I could get the pictures, and they were OK with that.

Essentially, the assignment was simple, shoot between 12 and 15 shots of the Caddi so that the broker can post them online.  They needed to capture the spirit of the build and car, and spark the imagination of the potential buyer.  These types of shoots are all about feeding the fantasy of owning a product.  It was a little different that what I was normally accustomed to, but I jumped at the chance!

Caddi Pipe

Before going, I had a few ideas of what I wanted to shoot of the car since I had now seen it a couple of times.  The biggest thing that I wanted to capture was the exhaust pipe out of the side of the car.  This is just not something you see on a Cadillac, and I thought that feature alone would sell the car.  Having the emblem below the pipe was an added bonus.  I set the shot up here to showcase the lowered stance of the car, the whitewall tire with original hubcap and the shiny bit of chrome trim.  The highlight was that gigantic hole in the side of the fender where the diesel fumes could escape.

Resident of US

Another feature that I wanted to capture was the seal on the door.  I had always been under the impression that it was a replica of the Presidential Seal which is on the Limos of the POTUS.  Well, I was shown to be wrong by Dean.  He pointed out that he had the seal slightly altered when it was painted on the door.  To avoid any possible problems with the Secret Service, the seal reads "Resident of the United States"...I guess that is a true and accurate statement.  It is a really cool feature on this limo.  This shot also shows the stance of the car on the air bag suspension and the section of a tree trunk that grew over the exhaust hole in the rear bumper.  Instead of removing it, Dean just cut the wood around the corner of the bumper and left it there.  While you see a lot of rust here, there has been plenty of metal welded up behind the panels  to make sure that the car is still solid.

Air Compressors

Speaking of the air ride suspension, Dean wanted me to get a shot of the air compressors and tank in the trunk of the car.  What is so special about this is the way that the lines were plumbed.  They were done to mimic exhaust headers and should appeal to any car guy.  By the way Dean, I vacuumed up a little bit on the carpet with a clone stamp tool just to clean up the appearance a bit.

Cummins

Diesel Caddi

While externally, the big exhaust pipe is the eye catcher, it is what is under the hood that makes that pipe so cool.  This thing runs on a Cummins diesel engine which is turbo powered and has several very cool touches under the hood.  Most notably is the radiator overflow jug which pays tribute to Dean's Fire Department days.  Yep, you see it correctly, that is a fire extinguisher.  I wonder if Kidde ever though that they their product would be used for this purpose?

Captain's Chair

No automotive shoot would be complete without a shot of the interior.  I mean that is where the owner will be sitting and spending most of their time.  The burlap seats are quite the centerpiece in the car, and the texture on the dash is from the burlap pad that was glued on it to replace the failed leather upholstery.  The owner decided that he didn't like the burlap and Dean took it off which left this residue.  Honestly, it works!  You can also see the air controller here in the seat, as well as some of the gauges.  For those who are interested, this was an HDR shot made up of five exposures which allowed me to get plenty of detail throughout the cabin.  I think it is a great representation of the interior.

Control Center

For those that want to get up close and personal with the instruments, I got in low and shot this view of the dash.  It is not quite fine art quality, but it does a great job at showing what it needs to.  This car is just so cool!!!!

Limo Interior

What is a limo used for?  Hauling lots of people, or a few of them in extreme comfort.  I would be totally remiss if I neglected to include a shot of the rear of the car to show the expanse of room and the jump seats.  The question was how to do this.  Well, I had a trick up my sleeve that was going to really impress Dean.  I pulled out my Rokinon 14mm lens and fitted it on the camera.  I got right up on the door and set the image up.  When I was done, I had to show Dean what I had captured with this nifty lens (best $250 I've ever spent).  He was amazed that is showed the entire interior of the car.  Honestly, I was pretty amazed at the outcome of this shot too.

Draggin' Like Friday

At this point I started to ask Dean what features he wanted to capture that I had missed.  I mean, this is to show off his work, so I wanted his input in the shots that I used.  He started to tell me about the air horn (yes, a road tractor air horn on this Caddi) which was located just behind the passenger front tire.  OK, that was going to be easy enough to capture.  I got down low and used the whitewall tire as my anchor, and I exposed to capture the horn in the wheel well.  I also got the exhaust pipe...yes, that is my favorite part of the car I think.  Does it show?  The lowered stance and patina are also very visible here in this shot.

Fill 'er Up

Going down the list of details, he showed me the fuel filler which is still used.  It is a standard feature on this car, but still quite cool, and the tank has been replaced by a smaller '55 Chevy gas tank to allow for the air system to be in the trunk.  I tell you, there are so many thoughtful touches on this car!  You can also see the intake vent for the air conditioning right in front of the trunk lid, as well as the patina on this side of the car.

Number 30

VIN Plate

Two other little details were the plate that goes on all of Dean's builds, as well as the original VIN tag that shows that this is number 213 for the '55 Caddi Limo body.  An interesting side note here, the current owner of the car wanted Dean to sign below the edition plate.  This is not something that he normally does, but I really like the idea.  He is an artist and should sign his work, each and every time.

At this point I was pretty much done with the require shots, but I wanted to play a little bit more with this car.  I had a few images that I shot which were more or less for me, but included in the package if wanted.  They highlighted features that liked, and just a shot that I wanted to take.

Custom Touches

I just can't get enough of the exhaust pipe sticking out of the side of this car.  I love the fact that there is a factory emblem right below it which is unharmed.  The chrome trim makes for a great leading line, and you can see the details in the distance of the seal, and the chrome trim.  This is just a fun image, and one that I like.

Vintage Caddi

Well, there comes a time in every blog entry where I have to say "the end".  This is that time.  I had a great time with Dean and spent about two hours capturing the images.  I had another hour processing them once I got around to doing them.  I could definitely see myself doing more of this type of shoot, whether it be for a broker, or for a celebration of your own vehicle.  I am a car guy at heart and I love working with automobiles.  I just hope it shows here, and that my client is happy with the images.

Edit: 06-28-2018

After speaking with the broker, I realized that I forgot some of the obvious shots that were needed for the car.  I needed broadside images.  I knew this, but since I was quite worn out from the recent trip, it just slipped my mind.  I was able to schedule another follow up shoot where I collected the last two images needed for this Cadillac before the add would go live.  Of course, since it was my mistake, there was nothing else charged to the client.  That was the proper thing to do, and I how I like to do business.

Long Caddi

Power Caddi

Circle the Wagons

Topsail Island: Part 5

Friday, June 22, 2018

By Dawn's Light

Here we were, our last day at the beach.  To get you up to speed, I've woken up at or before 5 am each day.  Toni has been bed ridden since Wednesday with a terrible stomach bug, Sierra and Hannah have perfected the art of sleeping in and getting their much needed 12 hours of sleep each.  As morning approached, my camera sat outside on the deck acclimating to the warm and humid conditions of the beach.  I was sleeping soundly in the bed, at that perfect temperature...you know the one...where nothing will motivate you to leave the bed.  Yep, I was there the minute that the alarm rang at 4:45.  I looked outside and it was pitch black.  The phone would not stop ringing because I no longer had the fine motor skills to operate it with precision.  I was tired.  I mean I was really tired.  All I wanted was to stay in the bed for a little while longer.  However, if I did that, I would be forfeiting my last day at the beach, and taking the route of Grumpy and Giggles (I'll lay claim to Grumpy being mine).  I couldn't let them tie it up on the last day.  I had to take one for the team and get up...which I did.  I think I called myself some bad names though...I was tired.

I got moving and checked the weather.  It was looking pretty cloudy and the chance for a good sunrise was slim. I was OK with that since I had such great luck the day before.  I grabbed my gear and headed out to the sand.  Every step was a strain, and my back refused to be happy about carrying the 30ish pounds of camera yet another day...but I went.

I started to look around to see what caught my interest on the beach.  I could tell right away that a sunrise shot wasn't going to be in the cards.  That meant I could focus on some other things.  I could see a patch of interest in the clouds to the Northwest so I started to look for something that could go underneath those clouds.

What I found was a row of houses just North of where we were staying that caught my eye.  There was a yellow one that had the porch lights turned on and there were matching boardwalks for that house and the neighbor. Just beyond that there was a faint dab of warm color in the sky above the clouds.  This was going to be my subject for the morning.  I grabbed my camera and fitted the 16-35mm lens so that I could get in close and use the grass as a foreground while still including the houses and stairs.  I opted to avoid using a polarizer simply because there was not much light to work with.

I worked on several different variations of the compositions and finally settled on what you see as the opening picture here.  The exposure ended up being 30 seconds so there was actually a bit of movement in the clouds.  I had thought about using a 10-Stop filter, but there wasn't really enough variation in the clouds to really make that interesting.  The slight movement was enough for me in this situation.  The histogram showed that I had all the data in the shot that I needed in order to process it with detail in both the highlights and shadows.  I'll be honest, when I got home and processed this image I was really impressed at how it came out.  There was a good deal of color correcting that went into the image due to the low light, but it really stands well against the other images I had been shooting for the week.

As the sun came up though, I was losing the interest in the clouds above.  I opted to see if there was another angle that I could shoot from which might provide some better images than what I was running into as the day moved on.  I hunted around for a while and then ultimately came back to the same houses.  The angle that I had been shooting from was no longer a viable angle, but I could see that the sun was about to clear the clouds and would be casting a great warm light very soon.  The interesting clouds happened to be just opposite of the sun.

Coastal Residence

I worked on a few compositions and finally decided on a horizontal approach using the stairs as a leading line up the hill and a frame for the blue house on top of it.  I waited for the sun, and shot a frame here and there in case that was the best light that I would get.  My waiting paid off though.  The sun finally crested the clouds and a wonderful warm light hit the stairs and the houses.  The sky above was a wonderful blue with some remnants of clouds scattered about.  This was the image I was after.  I had magic light, and wonderful clouds.  This one got me excited, but only briefly.  I then reminded myself just how tired I was.  My creative juices had run out.  While I still had some good clouds, and good light, I was done looking for interesting subjects to put in front of my camera.

I made the short walk back to the room and started the normal routine.  I found Toni awake, but still in the bed.  The minions were still asleep, so that left us at Old Farts: 1, and the Trunk Monkeys: 0.  My streak was in tact!  I got the camera cleaned up one last time and started to get ready to roll out.  We finally got everyone up and moving and we were on our way back home around 10am.

This has been a very long photo expedition with a lot of ups and downs.  I had started out the processing portion with 390 frames shot.  of those, I had narrowed it down to 40 images that were worth a second look.  By the time I was finished with the processing, that number had been whittled down to just 28 images.  This isn't too bad considering that I was taking a lot of the same scene with different lighting.  There was no sense in showing off the same scene with only subtle differences, so I just picked the best out of the series and went with that.  There were a lot of images that I tried on days which I came back and shot again with much better conditions.  I'm really happy with how the week turned out photographically.  I hate that Toni wasn't able to enjoy the trip, and that, of course, impacted the Wonder Twins and their enjoyment.  But hey, at least that got to sleep and jump over waves.  We even saw a few dolphins in the water.  memories were made, and this is definitely one of those vacations with a lot of funny stories.

Thanks for joining us on our trip, and in case you were wondering, the one kid that we picked up on the way to the beach.  We did take her back and left her where we found her.  She was little redder, and a little sandier than when we found her, but she still had most of her fingers and toes.  As far as Sierra, she is currently catching up on her sleep and is recovering well from the week.  Toni, however, is getting worse and has been occupying the couch all weekend barely able to do anything but sleep.  She is one some medications that should help clear this up, but it is a long waiting game at this point.

Monday
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Wednesday
Thursday
Friday <--- You are here

Topsail Island: Part 4

Thursday, June 21, 2018

A Rosy Outlook

When we last left our band of vacationers Toni was sick, and the girls were waterlogged, and well rested from multiple mornings sleeping in.  My camera was left outside like it had done something bad inside, and the forecast was set for a decent sunrise.  I had found my beach groove sometime during the day on Wednesday and I was ready to get out and have a great morning as the sun was rising.

I got up at 4:45 so that I could be out plenty early just in case the camera decided to fog over again.  I started to look for a good location to set up as I took stock of the sky.  To my pleasure, there were clouds in the sky today, and it appeared as though there was only a thin strip at the horizon.  This meant that there was a good chance at some good color in the sky.  I had played out the tide pools already and was not wanting to go that route again so soon.  I was still looking for some beach grass on the dunes to put under a great sky, and found some just North of the motel.

Now for those of you who are worried that I am trampling all over the dunes to get my shots, I assure you that I am only using access points for the boardwalks from the other houses which are cut into the dunes.  I know how delicate they are and have no want to disturb them.  I do really enjoy photographing them though, and that was just what I did on Thursday morning.

With my location chosen, I needed to choose a composition.  I wasn't needing to go too wide here, so I chose my workhorse 24-70mm lens and decided that I would leave the polarizer off.  It is of limited use shooting into, or directly away from the sun anyway.  I got into position and found my composition and waited.  The sky was starting to show some color, but not nearly as much as I was hoping for.  I continued to shoot and eventually saw that the sun was coming over the clouds so I moved slightly to put the sun between blades of grass.  I liked the idea, but the shot lacked balance, so I recomposed and moved the sun over to the negative space to the right.  Right after I did that the sky erupted in color!  This was the situation I had been waiting for all week long.  No longer did I need to try so hard to get the color to show up, I just had to point and shoot.

Top Of the Morning

As I was shooting the rising sun, I saw above me that the sky was blue.  Now when shooting sunrises and sunsets it is always beneficial to get sections of blue sky for contrast an color balance.  I had my opportunity here, so I flipped the camera on its side and recomposed once again.  I actually really loved this shot, and could feel the adrenaline coursing through my veins as I shot a few frames while the colors faded away.  I had no issue that it was a short lives sunrise, this was the best one I had seen at the beach in some time, and I was happy with it.

I walked around a little bit looking for other photographs to shoot, but with the increasing clouds I could tell that I was done.  That is the thing about beach photography...completely cloudy days are not my friend at the coast.  I need drama in the sky, and I just wasn't going to get that this morning, but I had a handful of really great pictures that I was excited to see processed.

When I got back to the room, Toni was still in bed, Hannah was still asleep, and Sierra jumped out of the bed and said she was ready to go to the Sea Turtle Rescue Hospital.  This was at 7ish in the morning, so I will give her credit.  Old Farts: 1, Curtain Climbers: 1.  It was a dead tie for the day.  When I informed her that they didn't open until noon, she looked quizzically at me and crawled right back into bed fully dressed to go out.  I'm still giving her credit for the early rise though.

I sat down at the table and got my cleaning supplies out.  It was time to do the daily wipe down of the camera and equipment that I had used.  I was getting rather proficient with this part of the morning.  I packed everything back up and figured that it would probably be there till tomorrow morning.  I knew that there was the possibility of storms this evening and that usually means some good clouds.  However, I was committed to take the girls to the Rescue Hospital and take them for min golf.  There was going to be a dinner in there as well, so I wasn't really expecting to be back in time to do anything near sunset.

Well, things don't always go as planned, and sometimes that is a good thing.  The Sea Turtle tour only took about an hour as opposed to the several that I was thinking it would take.  With the heat of the day, Thelma and Louise only wanted to play one round of golf which was great by me.  I've learned that I have no patience when it comes to getting a little ball in a hole.  I'm still holding my position on golf.  After you hit it as hard as you can, if you find it, you win.  Simple rules, and still has a level of difficulty to make it interesting...but I digress.

It was too early for dinner at this point, and the Bobsie Twins had eaten donuts for lunch.  It was vacation, so sue me!  I'll make Sierra eat extra green beans this week.  We went ahead and headed back to the room.  They were wanting to go down to the beach and swim.  I stayed on the deck to watch them and so I could be close to Toni who was still pretty much bed ridden at this point.  When they returned to the room it was decided that dinner would be sandwiches that were bought for lunches so I didn't have to make the 20 minute drive into town for food.  That opened things up for the possibility of a hike down to the Southern tip of the island.

Southern Tip of Topsail

This was the area that Toni had run to a few days before, and the girls had walked down there the next day.  It was my turn now, and I set out around 6:45 so that I could get there in plenty of time for golden hour and ultimately sunset.  One thing that I noticed as I made my way South was that the wind was getting more and more powerful as there was less and less land to block it.  It was very similar to the first evening on the island and I was a little hesitant to pull the camera out of the bag for fear of the sand getting into every nook and cranny.  But, this was going to be my last chance to shoot a sunset over the dunes, so I continued on.

I found another tide pool that was showing at low tide, and above it was a gorgeous cloud formation.  This was as good a reason as any to get the camera out and start working on some compositions.  I chose to go with my 24-70mm due to its versatility and a close second reason was a little more protective lens hood over my wider angle lenses.  I worked around trying to find a composition that worked that didn't include my shadow (the sun was at my back for a change).  I started to find my groove with daytime beach photography and the frames started adding up.

Let it Wash Over Me

I was really hoping for some more foreground interest out here, but the beach was pretty clean and unmolested.  I opted to use the water as a foreground which is a little risky with the sand being pulled out from under the tripod legs at times.  It is entirely possible that a camera could be knocked over, or pulled over from the current.  That meant I had to be really careful with how things were progressing.  The clouds were great and I was all alone in the world at what seemed like the edge of that world.  It was a really nice experience, and I reveled in it.

Atlantic Caress

I got progressively more and more brave about shooting in the water.  Eventually I was standing in the surf and had found out just how much pressure to apply to keep the tripod grounded in the surf.  This allowed me to be able to get further in the water, which was feeling pretty good on my feet.  I was watching the clouds and was realizing that there was the potential for a pretty good sunset over the dunes.  I decided it was time to abandon shooting the clouds over the water and start to concentrate on the dunes which were looking pretty spectacular already.

Topsail's Coastline

As I started to figure out the best way to capture the dunes, I realized that the sun was still much too high up in the sky to be effectively photographed.  I once again turned my attention North where the clouds were quite impressive.  They were starting to take on the warm colors from the sun already.  I found a patch of greenery on a small dune and worked out a few shots from there.  I was still getting excited about the possibility of a phenomenal sunset and was rather preoccupied with that through much of this series of photographs.

Evening at the Dunes

The time that I had been waiting for was finally here. The sun was low enough in the sky that I could start making exposures.  While I would have liked to have used one of my Singh-Ray ND Grads here, I wasn't willing to expose them to the sand that was blowing so fiercely.  I was counting on the lens hood to protect the front element with the polarizer attached.  While setting up my first of the sunset dune pictures I gave the polarizer a twist to see just how advantageous it would be shooting directly into the sun.  In a surprise twist, it did actually add some color to the sky, so I left it on.

The real trick here was to expose for the highlights which are impossible to recover after the fact.  The plan was to eek out the details with Lightroom in lieu of using the filters. With the first exposure over the dunes I could see that I had enough information on the histogram that I should be able to recover the shadow details without any problem.  I was getting excited about the light show that was about to begin.  It is rare for me to shoot a sunset, yet they are quite easy to read since they start with a lit sky.  Sunrises are all about guess work until  first light hits.

Driftwood Ripples

I continued to work around the dunes as the sun was dropping.  When I found a composition that didn't include the sun I would take the shot.  There were lots of odds and ends that made for interesting foregrounds when shooting into the dunes.  With the wind howling about, the sand was getting some nice waves and patterns developing.  I used those as leading lines. and repeating patterns to lead eyes into a photo.  The bits of driftwood added to the scene in many cases as well.  My focus was on the sky though, and I was seeing some pretty amazing stuff developing in the heavens.

Coastal Mohawk

There are just some days you are living right and good things happen.  This was apparently one of those days because I had several great opportunities to shoot some wonderful dunes, and the sky was getting really interesting above.  I was starting to see a bunch of colors developing which indicated things were going to get interesting quickly.  While I was waiting on one scene to develop, I moved my position ever so slightly and shot this interesting dune with a tuft of grass down the middle.  It turned out so well that I flipped the camera and tried it again as a portrait shot.

Wind in Your Hair

By this point the lighting was getting dim and the wind was still a problem.  When shooting something like tall grass in the wind with dim light, motion blur becomes a tremendous issue.  I knew I wasn't going to get tack sharp blades of grass in this wind, but I wanted to minimize the motion.  I had already upped the ISO on the camera to 400, and was now bumping it up to 800 in order to get a relatively quick shutter.  It seemed to work and allowed me to render the tall grass as slightly blurred to indicate the wind, but sharp enough to not be distracting.  It was a fine balancing act for sure.  The sun was steadily dropping and I was seeing my chance for the shot I had set up originally.  I got the camera back in position and was still using this one mound of sand, but shooting in a different direction.

End of Days

The histogram was showing me that I was getting all of the information that I was needing at this point.  The sky was looking amazing with areas of blue, gold, and even red and orange.  There was so much visual interest in the clouds that I could barely contain myself.  I shot several frames with the hope of getting the grass to stand still since the wind was actually starting to die down.  This was the way to end a day with a camera!

I was satisfied at this point.  This had been a tremendous day for both sunrises and sunsets.  I had been out and captured both of them successfully, which is all I can ask.  Now, it was time to make the mile walk back to the room.  Man, that was a long walk!

When I arrived, I found the room dark except for the television.  Toni and the girls were all in bed with the lights out.  Old Farts: 1, Eye Rollers: 0.  I had redeemed myself from this morning!  I turned on a small desk lamp and started the process of cleaning the camera for the second time in the same day.  The tripod was in bad shape from where I had dropped it to the ground to get low a few times.  The lever locks were all gritty with sand and I needed to get that out.  That meant a trip to the tub to rinse all of the joints out to ensure smooth operation. 

I got everything packed up and ready for the next morning.  The freshly cleaned camera went straight outside once again to stay the night.  The morning was looking less than ideal for a sunrise, but I had been out every day so far and there was no reason to skip a day.

Monday
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Thursday <--- You are here
Friday