Service Station
by James Howe on Jun.10, 2009, under Michigan
(Olympus E-3, 14-54mm at 14mm (2x crop factor), ISO 100, exposure .6 sec @ f/4.0)
This last weekend I went to the Classic Car Club of America (CCCA) car show held at the Gilmore Car Museum near Kalamazoo, Michigan. There were some terrific old cars at the show (and I’ll likely post some shots of those as well), but the museum itself is worth the trip. It’s set on 90+ acres and houses hundreds of cars in various barns. They also have a recreation of a 1930’s era Shell service station, which is where this shot was taken. I was walking through the station and I really liked the look of all the old tools, manuals, and other service station materials. My grandfather owned a station years ago and it brought back pleasant memories.
The image itself has had little post processing done on it. The color image was converted to black and white, some toning applied and a slight vignette added.
Comments and feedback welcome.
Image and text Copyright © 2009 James W. Howe – All rights reserved
All of my images are available for purchase, please contact me or visit my online Image Kind gallery.
Le Klint – 172
by James Howe on Jun.01, 2009, under Abstract
(Olympus E-500, 14-54mm at 54mm (2x crop factor), ISO 100, exposure 1/180 sec @ f/4.5)
Here’s an image that is a bit different than what I’ve been working with recently. This is actually an older image that I took at a friend’s house a couple of years ago. The image shows a Le Klint 172 pendant lamp, tinted to give it a little color. I took the shot by first turning the light on. I focused in on various parts of the lamp until I got a composition that I liked. For this image, I took the raw image, added some contrast and then played with the hue/saturation slider until I got a result that I liked. I have a couple other versions of this lamp, including a black and white image that I really like. I recently found a group on Flickr which is devoted to Le Klint. Check it out here.
The out of camera image can be seen below.
Comments and feedback welcome.
Image and text Copyright © 2007, 2009 James W. Howe – All rights reserved
Fleetwood Diner – Ann Arbor, Michigan
by James Howe on May.29, 2009, under Architecture, Michigan
(Olympus E-3, 14-54mm at 29mm (2x crop factor), ISO 100, 5 exposures @ f/9.0)
The Fleetwood Diner is an Ann Arbor institution. The diner opened in 1949 as the Dag-Wood and was built from a kit manufactured by the Dag-Wood Diner Company in Toledo, Ohio. The diner was renamed the Fleetwood Diner in 1971. The exterior was originally enamel, but was given a stainless steel exterior in 1998. For more history and interesting tidbits on the diner, visit The Fleetwood Diner page, hosted by a local Ann Arbor resident.
The image itself was produced from 5 different exposures ranging from -2 to +2. The images were processed using Photomatix, with additional processing in Photoshop CS4. Similar to my Acme Mercantile shot, I again used the Topaz Simplify filter from Topaz Labs to ‘simplify’ some of the features in the background.
Comments and feedback welcome.
Update: An alternative version of this image can be found on my Flickr account. Check it out and let me know which one you like better (if you have a preference)
Image and text Copyright © 2009 James W. Howe – All rights reserved
This image is available for purchase in my Color gallery at ImageKind. Contact me directly for other purchase options.
Acme Mercantile – Ann Arbor, Michigan
by James Howe on May.27, 2009, under Architecture, Detroit, Michigan
(Olympus E-3, 14-54mm at 14mm (2x crop factor), ISO 100, exposure 5 stop HDR @ f/9.0)
On Liberty Street in Ann Arbor, Michigan is a terrific little store with a variety of interesting merchandise. The store is Acme Mercantile. I took this shot of the storefront on a morning walk through town. For some reason I was in the mood to take storefronts that day. Most of the images I shot on my walk were taken with the potential to make an HDR image. I set my camera to shoot 5 bracketed exposures, 1 stop apart. I was doing this hand held and I set my camera to fast shooting and clicked off 5 quick shots at various exposures in an attempt to minimize movement. Of course, one problem was that it was windy that day, so any thing which could be affected by the wind (like leaves on a tree) created motion that I didn’t want.
I started processing by having Photomatix convert the 5 exposures into one HDR. From there I went in to Photoshop. I corrected some perspective distortion and then went on to some additional processing. I’ve been experimenting with selectively using a filter from Topaz Labs called Simplify and I used it on this image to minimize the problem with the moving leaves. I created a new layer and went into the Simplify filter and selected the ‘Buzz Sim’ preset. This creates an image which looks like it was painted. After saving the layer, I created a layer mask on that layer and selectively reduced the filter’s effect. I wanted to keep most of the store front sharp, but keep the stuff in the distance ‘simplified’. I also liked the way the filter made the reflection in the front window look, so I kept the filter effect there as well.
I always feel guilty when I use some sort of ‘creative’ filter on my images. I feel like I’m cheating somehow. However, at the same time I like the end result. I’m curious what others think, not only about this particular image, but about using ‘creative’ filters in the post processing stage.
Comments and feedback welcome.
Image and text Copyright © 2009 James W. Howe – All rights reserved
This image is available for purchase in my Color gallery on ImageKind. Please check it out!
Packard Dashboard
by James Howe on May.20, 2009, under Automobiles, Michigan
(Olympus E-3, 70-300mm at 179mm (2x crop factor), ISO 320, exposure 1/200 sec @ f/5.6)
I took this shot of a classic automobile dashboard at a car show held at the Gilmore Car Musuem in Hickory Corners, MichiganThe museum has a terrific collection of cars spanning the decades, and they also have some nice special events. I’m attracted to older cars, particularly those of the 30’s, because they have such wonderful design elements. This dashboard to me just oozes craftsmanship and design.
Note: I originally thought this was from a Cord, but as one commenter notes below this is more likely from a Packard. I’ll keep my eyes peeled to see if I can fully identify this vehicle.
Update: I can definitely confirm that this is from a Packard but I’m not sure the exact vintage or model. My guess is that it is mid 1930’s. I recently went to a show which had a few 1932/33 Packards and the dashboard’s were very similar but not exact.
This shot was taken with my 70-300 telephoto because I wanted to get a shallower DOF on the image. I converted the image to black and white, but in reality the color image isn’t that much different, just a bit more color in the gauges. There was minimal post processing work, mostly curves adjustments. I posted an alternative version of this image with a square crop to Flickr. I found that this image makes a great little avatar and I also use it as my background on my Twitter page.
Comments and feedback welcome.
Image Copyright © 2008 James W. Howe – All rights reserved
This image can be purchased. Other vintage car images available at ImageKind in my Automobile Details gallery.
I also have some vintage car photography products on sale at www.vintagecarimages.com