1931 Studebaker Hood Ornament

Posted on Jun.09, 2011, under Automotive

(Nikon D700, 28-300mm at 300mm, ISO 200, Exposure 1/500 sec @ f/8.0)

When I think of a ‘Studebaker’, I think of the funky looking cars that were made in the 50’s and 60’s not a stately automobile on par with Duesenberg, Packard, etc., so I was somewhat surprised to find that the car belonging to this hood ornament was a Studebaker. I took this shot at the Classic Car Collectors of America show at the Gilmore Car Museum. When I go to these shows, I generally find some aspect of the car that looks interesting and I might not even know who made the car. As a way of keeping a record of what shots belong to what cars, I’ll take a picture of the identification sign that is usually posted in front of the car. So with this one, I saw the hood ornament and thought it look interesting, and after I took a few shots, I took a picture of the identification sign and at that point found out that it was a Studebaker. This years show had a special emphasis on cars manufactured in Indiana. Studebakers were manufactured in South Bend.

I initially wasn’t going to do any real processing on this image, perhaps just some sharpening, but in the end I decided to go with a very simple black and white conversion. I’m actually slightly surprised at the quality of this image as it was shot with my Nikon 28-300 lens. While I like the range of this lens for ‘walking around’, I haven’t been thrilled with the quality of some of my shots with it. This one, however, came out quite well I think.