(Olympus E-3, 14-54mm at 14mm (2x crop factor), ISO 200, Exposure 1/350 sec @ f/3.5)

Yesterday I posted an image of a 1935 Duesenberg taken at the 2008 Concours d’Elegance held at Meadowbrook Hall. This image was taken from the 2007 Concours and was my first time visiting the show. The car in this image is a 1933 Packard V-12 Convertible Coupe, and is just one of fifty that were ever built. When new, the car sold for $4,000, which in 1933 was a great deal of money.

For processing, I chose a similar approach to yesterday’s Duesenberg image. I was experimenting with the Cutout filter in Photoshop and I liked the posterization effect it gave to the image. In addition to the filter, I also blacked out some areas in the corners to bring more attention to the details of the car.

I’d be happy to know your thoughts on this one.

Copyright ©2007-2022 James W. Howe – All rights reserved

(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 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 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