Here’s a four-part wrap-up of what I think are my best photos taken this year. I’ll number them so you can cast your vote for favorites in the comments section. Most of these are car-related, as you would expect. Keep in mind that several of them are not so much great photographs as they are captured moments or places that say something to me. Most however are overall good shots. Let me know what you like, and why.
These were shot with my usual repertoire of three cameras, and I’ll try to identify which camera was used for each. I’m still getting the hang of my newest camera, the Panasonic Lumix G1. It has a LOT of promise, and will likely start making some great images for me once I get the hang of it. The G1 was bought mid-way through 2009, so early photos were shot with my trusty old Olympus C-5050 zoom, a 2002 vintage digital camera. Despite its relative low resolution and limited lens, I had been shooting with it for so long that it became an extension of my brain and eye. I’m astounded on occasion how great the images from this camera can be. Finally I have a Nikon Coolpix L11, a 2006 vintage point & shoot that I bought dirt cheap for use doing time-lapse videos. Since it is so small I tend to carry it around with me almost all the time – mostly to shoot random oddball cars for the CPotD series – but I also hand it to my kids when we are traveling for them to use as “their” camera. Nick especially burned up the memory card on our father/son road trip.
Note: I’m not happy with the JPEG output of PicMark, the application I use to add the copyright notice on the images, (the B-17 image is completely borked!) so expect some higher quality images later today when I can re-run the images from the originals
The E-type is a compendium of long-radius curves and ovals. The only place on the car that gets complicated is the rear, especially on the open two seater (the coupe’s rear has a more elegant resolution of these converging shapes.) At a pause in the action on-course of a JCNA slalom event in Vancouver BC I swung around and snapped this study of my own car’s rear end. I like the way it turned out.
This is one of the first shots I made with the G1 and the telephoto lens I picked up for it. After years of shooting with short lenses and ultra-wide angles having a true telephoto again (my last one was with my old Pentax in the 80s!) was a revelation. Long lenses open up a different world. Traditionally people use them to shoot far-away objects. I can see that value for people who shoot things like birds, such as my buddy Chuq. I mostly shoot cars, so for me the telephoto allows me to shoot detail shots without the radical distortion that usually comes along with my wide-angle lens. That distortion has its place, but sometimes the compressed perspective of a telephoto is preferred.
Continue reading “Best Photos of 2009, Part One.”
