Month: March 2010

The Virtual Storefront for My Automotive Photography

Now you too can buy this image.

After years of consideration I’ve finally decided to take the advice of many friends and fans and offer some of my automotive photographs for sale. I have no illusions of this being a means to making a living, but if all goes well I’ll be able to buy a lens or two.

I’m using a service called SmugMug, that allows you to order prints, mounted prints, and framed prints which will be shipped to an address of your choosing. You can pay online securely using a credit card, and select shipping methods and whatnot. Given that print sizes may not match the file size you are also given the option to crop the photo to fit. There are also a few bits of merchandise for sale with images on them, as well as digital downloads for use on screen and print

I’m still working behind the scenes to get the store ready, so the shelves are not stocked properly, and some items my not remain in the inventory for long. I suspect I’ll be thinning the herd soon. Captions and keywords need to be edited too, but feel free to wander the aisles and check out the merchandise.

Having purchased a few prints myself for office decor, I think the sweet spot for size is between 14″ and 24″ on the larger side of the photo. This will become larger as I populate the galleries with newer photos from my G1 camera. I enabled the “camera info” tagging on the photos so if you see “Panasonic DMC-G1” in the info area the images should scale quite large. My older Olympus cameras made images that will likely start falling apart quality-wise at anything larger than 20″. Eventually I’ll remove all but the best images from the older cameras.

Prices are largely determined by the costs, but I’m open to feedback, especially from my core followers here on my website. For you guys I’ve arranged a “Grand Opening Discount” of 33% off anything and everything (except shipping), just use the coupon code “CheapChuckPics” at checkout.

The URL for the store is: http://photos.goolsbee.org.

Let me know what you think.

Car Photo of the Day: This was once considered high tech.

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!

Car Photo of the Day: Galería de los Pícaros

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?

Car Photo of the Day: Stalking Big Cats at Night.

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!)

Car Photo of the Day: It’s Red … and Weird.

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?

Car Photo of the Day: Where’s my cloning tool?

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!