Tag: Best of 2009

Part Three of my collection of favorite photos from 2009. Tell me your favorite from this batch in the comments.

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Shot with the Lumix G1 on our Father/Son Road Trip this photo has a somewhat funny story to it. It was morning at Olmstead Overlook, with good light and very few cars around. I was hoping to get a good photo of both my car and Larry Wade’s for the XKEdata.com 2010 calendar. After shooting the cars while looking south towards Half Dome, Larry took off to maybe get some fishing done up in Tuolumne Meadows. I repositioned the 65E down at the far end of the overlook’s parking area facing towards Tenaya Lake. For the entire 45 minutes or so that we’d been at this location not a single car had EVER parked at this far end of the overlook. That is, until I parked my car there. Three times over the course of me trying to get this shot, a car pulled in from the highway and parked RIGHT next to the Jaguar, despite having several hundred empty spaces elsewhere in the overlook area, all of them much closer to the Yosemite Valley overlook that this location is noted for. This must be some Photographers variation of Murphy’s Law! Literally every time I had the lens on right, and everything set where I wanted it to be a car would pull up and park… one time as I was standing in the parking spot they were pulling into! I’d politely explain what I was doing and request that they move their car, and then as soon as I was ready again, another car would arrive. Very strange.

Continue reading “Best Photos of 2009, Part Three”

Part Two of my collection of favorite photos from 2009. Tell me your favorite from this batch in the comments.

One our way home from the Monte Shelton Rally in central Oregon we drove across the Columbia River and then climbed Maryhill out of the Gorge towards Goldendale, WA. A huge windfarm is being constructed that spans both side of the river and I stopped at the Maryhill Scenic Overlook as I knew a great photo awaited somewhere. I parked and wandered about with the G1 trying to find the right shot. Unfortunately it was mid-morning and the light was very harsh and flat. I gave up on a great photo and settled on a placeholder pose for a return to this spot some time in the future with better light. Dawn would be the time, ideally with some interesting clouds. Meanwhile, enjoy this photo.

Continue reading “Best Photos of 2009, Part Two”

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

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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.”