Friday brought to us fairly good weather and another cruise night at the Uniontown Shopping Center. So I’m posting a few more car shots on the blog and then I’ll take a break from the cars for a while. But there is something interesting coming up in the next few days I just have to finish the processing of the photos I took.
Stay tuned for…..
For a long period of time hanging out at the Uniontown Shopping Center was the “in thing” for young and old alike. People would spend hours talking to their friends, showing their hot rods off and just riding around the parking lot. But, as with all things, time passed and things changed. The shopping center changed their parking lot so that you could no longer ride in a circle around the lot and the “kids” found new places to go and things to do. A tradition was lost forever.
If you remember the good old days of the shopping center you may want to stop by there on a Friday night and revisit your past. Every Friday through out the summer the rumble of hot rods is in the air once again. The weekly car cruise brings out several cars every week with new ones showing up all the time. I have the pleasure of visiting the cruise quite often and I always see something new every week.
So if you’re in the mood for a little nostalgia or just want to check out some amazing cars I suggest a quick trip down memory lane and a visit to the Uniontown Shopping Center. (located at Walnut Hill Road and Morgantown Road.)
Just a quick thought on the following car photos. I’ve been photographing cars for many years and have grown a little tired of the typical car photo. So these are a little different, I like to focus on the details or show cars from a different perspective. I hope you enjoy my vision of the world of car cruises.
On Saturday I had the chance to visit the National Pike Steam, Gas, & Horse Associations show. Twice yearly people from all over the area gather for the largest working show of antique equipment. Along with the antique equipment they also have an antique car show.
The antique car show typically brings in a few interesting cars but this year there was a Ford Model A club in attendance. And of course I got the chance to photograph this great group of cars and trucks.
Before we see the photos I thought I would tell you a little about the Model A. Ford produced the Model A from 1927 – 1931. It was the replacement to the hugely successful Model T. By the end of the production of the Model A Ford had sold over 4 million cars. The cars cost between $385 and $1400 and were available in different models and colors.
Hope you enjoy the photos as much as I do.
Well since the warmer weather has finally ascended upon us we might be a little overwhelmed with all the fun things we can finally do. One of my favorite things to do is check out car shows and of course take along my trusty Nikon D300. (Soon to be replaced with the Nikon D7100, but that’s another post).
When you photograph car shows one of the challenges is the people at the show. It can be very challenging to photograph the cars and keep the people out of the photo. I have, over the years, accomplished this by finding interesting angles, small parts of the cars, and of course reflections. This makes photographing the cars a little more enjoyable and you are able to get around all those annoying people.
I’m adding several photos to this post to give you a better idea of what I like to photograph at car shows. Hope you enjoy!
Keeping with the “think warmer” theme I going to post a couple of photos from a few years ago when I was a track photographer at a local race track. These were shot with a Nikon D100 and the cars were traveling approximately 120 miles per hour. As the track photographer I had access to the infield and was able to get very close to the action. Although some would say to close, I was never worried. I was standing a mere 15 feet away from these cars for most of the photos I did that summer.
Now I’m really thinking about summer and the fun I had at the race tracks over the years. If you ever have a chance to go to a dirt race I highly recommend going.
Tonights post is a simple one. Just a single picture of the car that my dad loved. For those of you that know me, you know that I love cars. And you may have deduced that from some of my post on here. Well take that to the Nth degree when it came to my dad. He loved cars with a passion and the 1955 Chevy was one of his favorites. He had several over the years and he always told me that he would love to have one again. Well that day never came for him, but maybe someday I’ll be in a position to own one of the cars my dad loved so much.
So today I went to the World of Wheels car show in Pittsburgh. I walked around the show photographing cars that cost more than most houses. I’m talking about pristine cars, beautiful, perfect in every way. But which cars do you think had the biggest crowd around them? The Rat Rods. For those of you that don’t know what a rat rod is this is the wikipedia definition:
A rat rod is a style of hot rod or custom car that, in most cases, imitates (or exaggerates) the early hot rods of the 1940s, 1950s, and early-1960s. Most rat rods appear “unfinished”, regardless of their status, as only the vehicle’s bare essentials are driven.
So todays post will have a couple of rat rods and I will post some of the other cars over the next few days.
Tomorrow I’m heading out to the ice festival in Ligonier, Pa hopefully I’ll find a few interesting things to post.
Tonight, I decided to share some my vision of that amazing invention: The Automobile. To say I’m a fan of cars would be a “slight” understatement. I have been involved with cars my whole life. As a kid, instead of playing in the streets, I was normally at home working on a car of some sort. My dad was a mechanic and painted cars. And I was always right there along side of him working, helping, and learning. I learned many things about the cars that we worked on and grew to have a great appreciation for classic and antique cars. My dad and I never missed an opportunity to visit a car show.
Years later I started to photograph automobiles and found that overall shots of the cars was, well, kind-of boring. So I began to photograph parts of the cars and I think that the results show the intricacies of the car that many may never have noticed. Today I’m am posting several closeups of classic and antique cars. I hope you enjoy them as much as I do. Feel free to let me know what you think.
2Eight Photography 