Category: Car Photo Of The Day

Sure, this is not exactly a stunning photo, but I didn’t make it with art in mind. I was intrigued by this hanging bag on the firewall of this Alfa (sorry, no guessing games today… the answer is stamped right on the photo!) and had to capture it. Given the car Mitch Katz’ Alfa’s vintage is the same as my E-type, 1965, it is interesting to compare the industrial materials used for items such as this. In the years prior, Jaguar used glass jars mounted to the firewall, though in 1964 they changed to plastic (though the fuel filter bowl remained glass.) The Alfa engineers chose to make this funny bag to perform a similar function, complete with grommets for mounting. You would never see something like this, or Jaguar’s glass containers today. Sometimes it is the minor, behind the skin touches, that also lend charm to these old cars.

Here is a photo of the Alfa’s entire engine bay. Lovely little car!

This La Carrera Panamerica car was photographed on the Going to the Sun Rally a few years ago. One of those sort of shots I love to make over and over again because they just look… awesome.

This one is badly lit we were northbound mid-morning, so the sun was in the wrong spot. It is also just a bit off to the left side of the frame, losing just enough of the car off the right side to annoy the hell out of me. Still, it is a wild looking car, and the image has a sort of je ne sais quoi quality to it… let’s call it “roguish.”

Making these sorts of photos involves setting up a camera for mid-fast shooting (fast enough to keep the car sharp, slow enough to blur the background just a bit), then holding the camera as low as I dare, with an outstretched arm, out the open passenger door of the E-type. I hold down the shutter and fire four frames per-second or so and pan the camera to (hopefully) keep the subject car in-frame as my driver blows by in a roar of hot metal and burning hydrocarbons. One of these days I’m going to lose a camera, or maybe finger.

It will be for me like van Gogh’s ear; a willing sacrifice for my art.

For all you car-spotters: recognize the rig?

Digital cameras seem to have the ability to shoot just a bit better in low light than film cameras ever did. (Leica excepted of course!) With flexible and higher ISOs available in the film days, you can generally get shots on chip that would have been fruitless on film. My old Olympus camera was pretty darn good in low light, with a fairly fast f1.8 lens. It is what I used to shoot this image.

This was shot at an informal Jaguar owners’ get together in San Francisco a few years back. Several E-types were parked in a row, and after the dinner was over, as guys were standing around chatting, I wandered about taking photos. Grabbed a few good ones, but this is one of my favorites of the bunch. Car spotters can shout out the differences between each car.

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My new camera’s fastest lens is f3.5, which isn’t going to cut it for me long term. This is why I’m looking around for a fast lens at the moment. I have an amazing “photo assignment” coming up that will require a lot of night shooting. (More news on that as it develops… pardon the pun!)

When topless this car is truly elegant in appearance (though apparently not in performance), and in an odd bit of connectivity I owe my very existence to this car. However, much like the Jaguar XK 120, when fitted with a hard top or in Coupe form it is as if Venus herself has been transformed into a hunchback.

Can you name the car?

And I’m not talking about the car! To me this is just such a nice shot. Taken at the Annie & Steve Norman Classic Motorcar Rally a few years back. The classic BMW Coupe and the Port Gamble water towers look great. The dumpster and crane in the background? Not so much. In cases like these I usually reach for the cloning tool in Photoshop and start removing such minor eyesores from my backgrounds. Not today though, too busy. Sorry!

I really like this photo. I snapped it at the Art Center Car Show last summer in Pasadena, California. However, unless you are an aficionado of the marque, I imagine you would not be able to name the car. So I shot a photo of its engine bay and perhaps with these two hints you guys can name that car:

I have a bunch of shots taken from the Art Center show of some amazing, rare, and historic vehicles which I should start showing here. Stay tuned.

The weather is unseasonably beautiful here in the Pacific Northwest right now, as any of you watching the “Winter” Olympics must know. Sunny and warm is not what you think of first when somebody say “February” around here. Meanwhile the old Jaguar sits out in the barn and I haven’t even begun my “winter projects list” and it seems Spring has sprung!

Maybe this photo will get my motivation up to get started on the list. What do you think?

Oh yeah… Can you name the car in the photo?