cars – 2Eight Photography

Crusin’ at the Uniontown Shopping Center

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.

It’s Finally Warm Out.. Now What

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!

Fast Action Dirt Racing

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.

Three Generations of the Amazing Batmobile

Todays post might take some of you back in time to the days of the caped crusaders fighting evil in Gotham City. If you remember back to the the TV show and the cartoon blips with “BANG!!”, and “POW!!!” in them you will definitely remember the first of the three generations. The second came many years later and the third is from the last two movies.

To the Batcave Robin

1955 Chevy on Fire

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.

The Rat Rod Gets the Attention

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.

Tow Truck Rat Rod

Rat Rod

Coffee n Customs

Lowrider Fire Truck

The Intricate Parts of an Automobile

Tonights post is a prelude to my day off tomorrow. The World of Wheels car show is in Pittsburgh this weekend and tomorrow you will find me meandering through the cars with camera in hand. I’ve posted before about my love of the automobile and the ties that I have to it and my father. Tomorrow will be no exception, although he is gone now I know that he would have truly loved this show. I hope you enjoy the photos as much as he would have.

Here are a few cars from past shows. Tomorrow I will post some from this years show.

1956

Amazing Paint

The Goat

Headlight

Shadows

Adams Family

When it’s Cold Outside Try….

When it’s too cold outside like it has been here the last couple of days one of the things that I like to do is still life photography. I will take over the kitchen and turn it into a studio with my lights, backdrops, and other items all just to take a few pictures of something I saw sitting around the house.

For the technical readers I use Elinchrom studio lights model Bx500ri with soft boxes, grids, and mini spot attachments. I have been using these lights for about a year or so and have found them to be simply amazing.

Below is a few of the photos I shot using these lights and my Nikon D300. Hope you enjoy. And as always comments and questions are welcome.

1976 Nikkormat

Yashica C

Polaroid Land Camera 95A

Mustang

R/T

Chrysler

Miniature Town

One of the nice attractions at Phipps Conservatory is the miniature railroad display that they out up every year. And every year I am just as excited as the last to photograph it. Somehow it has a way of making you feel like a kid again.

Main Street

Relaxing by the Pond

Chocolate Anyone

Speeding by Phipps

The Automobile: My Way

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.