MEQUON CAR SHOWS

Each Tuesday night throughout the summer, one of the restaurants in my town (Mequon) sponsors a "classic car" show.  Usually there is a theme (e.g., "70s muscle cars), but what this means in practice is that anyone who has an older car or just a sporty car that they are proud of can bring it to the show.

I have gone to a couple of the shows this summer just to take photos.  The last show was advertised to feature Asian performance cars.  Well, I have an aging Acura TL Type-S and was offered a spot among the featured cars.  I laughed and demurred.

Usually, whenever I photograph the cars I wind up taking a variety of shots, some of details, others of the entire car.  I am almost never happy with the full monty shots.  I have come to think that I am just better able to "see" details and tight shots.

Here are some of the photos from the shows, beginning with a couple of shots of an old beetle that had been painted an intriguing shade of orange.

I am very poor at identifying the make or model of cars and cannot recall the the following older car was, but I did like the combination of colors and lines that it featured.  Yes, unfortunately, that is me reflected in the chrome of parabolic headlight, a common photographic hazard at these events.

I do recall that the following hood ornament and door handles were from a Model A (I think) Ford.

I also enjoyed another elder statesman of an auto that featured headlights that were really headlamps, this one with an actual gas flame.

Occasionally, I convert the photos to black & whites.  This seems to be the case particularly with cars from the 1920s to the early 1950s, when the use of chrome was more generous.

And here is another black & white of a 1950s car with an exceptional low-gloss-finish paint job.

Sometimes my photographic targets are relegated to iconic grille and hood ornaments, as in the following shots.

A little too spare, perhaps.

And sometimes I get a laugh out of the vanity plates that some of the cars sport. (My car's plate, by the way, reads SKEPTC).

The first of these was pretty obvious.  The second, I'm quite sure, was STOLEN.

John