(Nikon D700, 70-300mm at 170mm, ISO 200, Exposure 1/2000 sec @f/5.0)

This past weekend I attended the 2010 Meadowbrook Concours d’Elegance held at Meadowbrook Hall on the campus of Oakland University in Rochester Hills, Michigan. The show is never a disappointment, with a large collection of classic automobiles. I really enjoying photographing the details of classic cars. The cars, particularly of the 30′s and 40′s were a wonderful combination of art and engineering. A perfect example is shown above.

This image shows the mascot, or hood ornament of a 1935 Packard Model 1405 Phaeton by Dietrich. The ornament is by Lalique, called ‘Chrysis’. I don’t know if it is original to the car or a replacement. The car itself has an interesting history. It is one of only three of this model ever made, and only two remain. The car was part of the inaugural parade for FDR’s second term. It was owned for a time by Domino’s Pizza founder, Tom Monahan. In 1986, it competed in the Great American Car Race. It is a wonderful example of 1930′s automobile coachwork.

Processing of the mascot image primarily involved cropping from the 35mm format and converting to black & white. When I took the shot, I tried to get a background which wouldn’t distract from the hood ornament. In a car show, it is sometimes difficult because they have the cars packed so closely together. I was lucky with this one. I was able to get an angle on the shot which put a patch of grass behind the mascot. When I converted the image to black & white, I toned down the green until it become a soft back light. The raw, out of camera image is shown below.

I’m not sure this is going to be the final version of this image. I think I might crop just a bit more to create a square image. I might also eliminate the bit of the car hood that you see on the left, leaving just the mascot on the pedestal. I played around with that a bit and I haven’t decided whether I like it better or not. I took a few other angles of the same subject. I like the one below because of the bright spot in the upper left but would also look nice cropped down from the top as well.

As always, please feel free to leave your comments, suggestions and opinions.

I’d like to thank Steve Brown for information on the name of the hood ornament. If you like cars, check out his Flickr gallery. Wonderful stuff.

Copyright © 2010 James W. Howe – All rights reserved.

(Olympus E-3, 14-54mm at 23mm (2x crop factor), ISO 100, exposure 1/320 sec @ f/8.0)

This shot shows a 1936 Cord 810 S/C Phaeton which was on display at the 2009 Concours d’Elegance car show held at Meadowbrook Hall in Rochester Hills, Michigan. I’ve always been attracted to the Cord, particularly those from the mid 1930′s. I love the design elements, particularly the ‘coffin’ nose and the exposed exhaust pipes. The car just has great lines and exudes class.

I originally posted this image on Flickr shortly after the event. A couple weeks later I was surprised to receive an e-mail from the owner! His daughter had seen the picture on Flickr and had told her dad. One of the highlights for me about this car was the unique color. Most Cords that I have seen are black, brown, cream, but this one had a very interesting green metallic color, very sharp. He gave me some additional backstory on the color used for the car:

I picked up this Cord as a severely butchered rear-drive hot rod in 1959. It took me until 1967 to get it all back to original and I enjoyed driving it almost daily until 2005. By then it was a very tired dark green driver with many scratches, mis-matched paint repairs etc A close friend offered to spend the weekend painting it all one colour so it would be a bit closer to presentable. The weekend turned into three years and a month with both of us working every spare moment on it. The colour was being considered by a self appointed committee of about six. I wanted a lime green like Duesenberg engines are, they were coming up with black cherry, copper, multi colour chamelion, and then we hit upon the pearlessence type light green. A very possible but unknown original colour! Without the experimental pearlessence it would be “Ganges Green” I believe, it is the fish scales that make it “glow”.

Another interesting bit of information that I learned from the owner was that this car was the inspiration for a painting by noted automobile artist Tom Hale. The rights to the painting were purchased by Kruse and used on a poster promoting a show at the Auburn Cord Duesenberg museum in 2008, seen here:

I’ve always admired the work of Tom Hale, even though I didn’t really know much about the artist. I really like the strong graphical quality of his work.

My finished image is a combination of the raw image with a contrast adjustment combined with some ‘simplification and blurring’ over the front fender. It was a bright, sunny day and it was hard to control reflections. I first used the Topaz Simplify filter in Photoshop CS4 to de-emphasize the people in the reflection. I masked out the parts of the car that I wanted to remain sharp. I then used the blur tool to smooth out the image a bit more.

Comments and feedback welcome.

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

This image, and others, can be purchased from my gallery at jameshowephotography.imagekind.com.

(Olympus E-3, 70-300mm at 70mm (2x crop factor), ISO 100, exposure 1/1000 sec @ f/8.0)

Every year I look forward to the Concours d’Elegance car show held at Meadowbrook Hall in Rochester Hills, Michigan. Each year this car show brings in over 200 classic cars, many of which are rarely seen in public. This year was the 30th year the event had been held at Meadowbrook. For those unfamiliar with automobile history, Meadowbrook Hall was built by Matilda Dodge Wilson and her second husband Alfred Wilson. Matilda was the widow of John Dodge, one of the founders of the Dodge Brothers Company which was later sold to Chrysler. Hence, this location is a very appropriate place to hold a car show.

This particular image shows the grillwork of a 1934 DeSoto Airflow automobile. DeSoto was a Chrysler brand from 1928 until 1961. The Airflow was a unique vehicle for the time. It used unibody construction, which was a new concept at the time. The car also was one of the first to use a streamlined design. Unfortunately the American public wasn’t ready for this new styling and coupled with some notable mechanical problems, the car was a failure.

This image has had only minor processing done to it. Contrast was increased and converted to black and white. I masked the nameplate to bring back its color. The color of the car was a gray, and the color in this image is almost exactly what the color looked like in the color version. Converting to black and white also removed a blueish cast from sunny sky.

Comments and feedback welcome.

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

This image, and others, can be purchased from my gallery at jameshowephotography.imagekind.com.

(Olympus E-3, 70-300mm at 70mm (2x crop factor), ISO 250, exposure 1/160 sec @ f/9.0)

This detail shot of a Duesenberg Model JN was taken at the 2008 Concours d’Elegance held at Meadowbrook Hall in Rochester Hills, Michigan. This Duesenberg is only one of four of this model ever made. Only two are known to still exist. Another interesting fact about this Duesenberg is that it was once owned by Clark Gable. Gable purchased this car as a gift for his wife, Carole Lombard. After she died, he sold the car on the condition that it never return to California as long as he (Gable) was alive. This car boasts some unique features, including a cut down windshield and a double spare tire holder. Gable himself sketched these details and gave them to the coach maker who created the body for this car. Visit my Duesenberg Model JN page to see more images of this car.

Comments and feedback welcome.

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

This image can be purchased.

Please check out my www.vintagecarimages.com for more detail shots of classic automobiles.

(Olympus E-3, 70-300mm at 70mm (2x crop factor), ISO 250, exposure 1/160 sec @ f/9.0)

You are looking at the front end of a 1935 Duesenberg Model JN Roadster by Bohman and Schwartz. This car was one of many on display at the 2008 Concours d’Elegance held at Meadowbrook Hall in Rochester Hills, Michigan. This particular automobile has some interesting history. The car was a gift to Clark Gable from his wife, Carole Lombard. When she died, he abandoned the car and requested that it never return to California while he was alive. The car is a masterpiece of craftsmanship. It was restored several years ago and there are some videos on YouTube showing a master painter applying the pinstriping by hand. It’s a wonderful automobile.

Comments and feedback welcome.

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

This image can be purchased.