CLASSIC CAR RALLY

Last weekend while we were visiting Geri's father in the Twin Cities, we happened upon a classic car rally.  These events are organized by classic car enthusiasts who arrange a time and location to bring and show off their classic cars.  These are open to the public, but most of those attending are just the owners of the cars and their families and friends.  This one was held, fittingly, in the parking lot of an auto parts supply store.  There were perhaps 40-50 cars, ranging from 1930s restored roadsters to custom hot rods to 1970s muscle cars, with perhaps a preponderance of the last.  I thought it might present an opportunity to take some photos.

This proved a lot more difficult than I thought it would.  It was bright and sunny that Sunday afternoon, making for very "flat" light (my first excuse).  A lot of the cars had great paint jobs that had been brought to a high polish.  And I thought that that could provide opportunities for interesting reflections.  I soon discovered that reflections could be not just of other cars but of me--not what I was looking for.  Here is an early shot in which I was seeking to take advantage of reflections:

Not so good.  First of all, the reflection includes too much asphalt, as well as an ugly sign, and not enough cars.  Second, I should have incorporated more of the car, including the wheel so that the viewer has a better sense of what's going on.

There were a couple of really ugly cars, including a very small 1954 Nash, shown below.  Why anyone would spend the money to restore such a car is a mystery to me.

It probably would have been better to have photographed this car from the side, but I was taken with the license plate--and the oversized trailer hitch on the rear.

Another truly ugly car was a Studebaker.  I regret that I did not get a shot that shows that car's unfortunate lines.  I will admit that the car was very nicely restored and I did get a shot of the car's front end.  Nice paint job.

Speaking of paint jobs, one vehicle that caught my eye was a 1950s truck that had been restored and painted an electric green.  Here are a couple of shots of that truck:

It was evident that the owner of this truck had had a lot of fun bringing this one back.

Here are a couple more detail shots of other cars in the rally:

Unfortunately, you can see my reflection in the lower right of this first shot.  The shot below is of a customized Corvette with a great eagle on the hood:

Two of my favorite cars in the rally were a 1957 Cadillac and a 1957 Chevrolet, perhaps because that was the time (1957) when I first became conscious of car styles and when car styling had become an important part of automobile marketing.  Here is the 57 Caddy:

Nice.

And here is the 57 Chevy:

In reviewing the photos that I took, I feel that I should have taken more photos that were either full body shots or else smaller details.  Additionally, I think I should have taken more wide angle shots from close range.  This would have provided better depth of field and could have created some interesting distortions that are characteristic of very wide-angle shots.