(Olympus E-3, 70-300mm at 70mm (2x crop factor), ISO 100, exposure 1/500 sec @ f/13)

The Motor Muster at Greenfield Village in Dearborn, Michigan manages to get a great collection of automobiles. Many cars on display are ones that you would see (or would have seen) driving around your neighborhood. However, the show also gets a few cars which are more unique. One example is the Hudson Italia. This car grew out of a need for Hudson to offer a sporty car to compete with other manufacturers. I personally don’t find this particular car attractive when viewed whole, but I love some of the details. This particular shot shows an area just over the passenger side headlight. Looks vaguely like the Star Trek emblem to me! A couple of years ago I saw this car at a different car show and took this shot.

Comments and feedback welcome.

Image and text Copyright © 2009 James W. Howe – All rights reserved

(Olympus E-3, 14-54mm at 54mm (2x crop factor), ISO 100, exposure 1/1250 sec @ f/3.5)

This past weekend I attended the 2009 Eyes on Design car show held at the Edsel and Eleanor Mansion in Grosse Point Shores, Michigan. The event is an annual affair and is a fund raiser for the Detroit Institute of Ophthalmology. This is the shows 21st year. Each year has a different theme and this year highlighted advertising and cars. Many of the cars on display had a framed advertisement for the vehicle next to it. It was interesting to see the way cars have been marketed through the years.

The image above shows a ‘mascot’ or hood ornament from a 1930 Packard 740 Roadster. What caught my eye with this particular ornament was the color. Most mascots that you see are chrome or crystal, this one looks to be brass. Whatever the material, it caught my eye. As I framed the shot, I noticed that the next car made an interesting background. I shot this from both sides and I liked the look of this one better. The car in the other angle was a grey/silver and didn’t go as well as this one. I did a little tweaking of the contrast, but that was about it. The majority of the work on this image was done in Adobe Lightroom.

Comments and feedback welcome.

Image and text Copyright © 2009 James W. Howe – All rights reserved

Please see some other mascot shots in my Hood Ornaments Gallery on ImageKind.

(Olympus E-3, 70-300mm at 114mm (2x crop factor), ISO 100, exposure 1/100 sec @ f/10)

This past weekend I attended two car shows, each showcasing vintage automobiles. The first show that I went to was on Saturday and it was the annual ‘Motor Muster’ held at Greenfield Village in Dearborn, Michigan. The ‘Motor Muster’ is a huge event, with hundreds of cars, motorcycles and bicycles from past to present. While the show has some very nice cars, and the location at Greenfield Village is wonderful, it is disappointing in one regard because the show is laid out in such a way that you really can only see the fronts of most cars. Still, I was surprised that I came away with a large number of good shots this year.

What you see above, is the hood ornament of a 1936 Pontiac Master Six 2-Door Touring Sedan. I was able to lean over the rope to get a nice shot of the hood ornament. The yellow/cream color you see in the background is actually the body of a 1935 Cadillac. Sometimes it’s hard to get a good shot of a hood ornament in the field because you can’t always control the background. In this case, the positioning of the other car resulted in a perfect background to my shot.

Processing of this shot was minimal. There was some lint or other fuzzy things attached to the ornament, probably from a cleaning brush, so I cloned those out. I also darkened the hood of the car in the lower right corner. Other than that, some minor contrast and sharpening was all that was done to create the final image.

Comments and feedback welcome.

Image and text Copyright © 2009 James W. Howe – All rights reserved

This image can be purchased.

(Olympus E-3, 14-54mm at 54mm (2x crop factor), ISO 100, exposure 1/160 sec @ f/8.0)

This shot of a Saleen S5S Raptor was taken at the 2008 Concours d’Elegance car show held at Meadowbrook Hall in Rochester Hills, Michigan. This show always has an excellent collection of both vintage and new automobiles. I’m looking forward to this year’s show.

The Saleen is one of the fastest production vehicles available today. With its 5.0 liter engine, it can do 0-60 in 3.2 seconds and a top speed of 200+ mph.

Comments and feedback welcome.

Image and text Copyright © 2008 James W. Howe – All rights reserved

This image can be purchased as a poster.

(Olympus E-3, 70-300mm at 70mm (2x crop factor), ISO 200, exposure 1/1000 sec @ f/4.5)

This image was taken in the Depot Town area of Ypsilanti, Michigan. I was visiting the area to attend the annual Orphan Car Show held nearby. As I was walking to the show, I saw this sign. I really liked the vintage character of it. This part of town has some really nice old buildings and many of them have been rehabilitated. I took this shot with my 70-300mm lens on my Olympus E-3. Processing was fairly minimal.

Comments and feedback welcome.

Image and text Copyright © 2008 James W. Howe – All rights reserved

This image is part of my Color gallery on ImageKind. Please check it out!

www.jameshowephotography.com