Photographing Cars (1)

Mercedes 170d

Taking pictures of classic cars: Cars are not so difficult to photograph, unless they are jammed into a parking place or moving at speed. A wide-angle lens is helpful if you are shooting from close. Talk to the owner if you can to learn of what special features to focus on. Snap also the details: the emblem, or the hubcaps, or louvres. If the car lights can be turned on, this can sometimes add life.

Not always possible though, seize the moment (couldn't find the owner, used a digicam). However, the front of the car impresses as it emerges into the sunshine from a darkened garage,

Panasonic TZ5, f4.6, 1/125, 081222
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Top down

It’s great weather.
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Gray: Shall we put the top down?
Wayne: Why not! It's a perfect day.
Gray: Reminds me of a short story I once read. Forgotten the plot but recall the title was, "Jones' Beach" and it was early summer and a student was enjoying the morning air driving his car, top down, to the beach and he felt young alive.
Wayne: That's what we want to feel. Young and alive. Put the top down.
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Smarts are only half a car

We are interested in renting a car. What kinds do you have?

We only have small cars. Smarts. 60 euros a day.

60 euros? Smarts are only half a car. Surely the rate should be half price?

Smarts are good cars. I have one myself. The rate includes unlimited kilometers and insurance. And they cost less for parking and gasoline.

OK. We’ll take one. For three days.

We will prepare it. While you are waiting how about a cup of coffee?

Great idea. Strong.

Of course. Strong coffee for strong people.
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Form and function in car design

An MA45? Not a name to trip easily off the tongue or set feelings alight. Like Mustang, Cobra, or Viper. Or Diablo.

Well, it’s not as bad as some of those other names like Mazda Bongo, Volugrafo Bimbo, AMC Gremlin, Suzuki Justy, or Honda Acty Crawler.

And its looks?

Its aesthetics may not win a concourse. But its sound! A straight six has this distinctive note. Especially shooting through the Manawatu Gorge. Wagnerian!

What about those other ones with nice lines cited in the lineup? Maybe your budget wouldn’t stretch to an E-type but a DS would tickle the old chap pink. You know he has a soft spot for Citroens.

That’s because he values function as highly as form. He likes to open the trunk and throw in a few hydrangeas along with his chainsaw as well as his lunchbox. You know, he still likes to tell the story about a DS being able to get along on three wheels if one falls off. But I know, that’s just an urban myth that’s been around the block more just a few times.

And you prefer pure form?

Well I couldn’t find a Dino.

A Dino? You can’t get a lawn-mower in the back of one of those.

When I get my Dino, I won’t have to be mowing lawns anymore.
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Citroen CX Pallas

This came in the post for you.

A magazine? From 1980? Hey wait. A road test of a Citroen CX.

Some kind of medicine?

A car. You know. Like we used to have in Saudi Arabia in 1983. Beautiful but eccentric.

Like so many French.

But distinctive. Difficult to mistake it for any other car.

Pity we had to junk it.

Compliance laws protecting Japanese cars. Some things it did very well. The seats were superb. The interior was Starship Galactica. But it wasn’t especially sporty. I remember one reviewer writing something like you have to row pretty hard to keep the speed up on the windy bits. Sort of tongue in cheek writing that predated Jeremy Clarkson. Good choice Zen.

It was good in the desert though.

And they were versatile. There was a stretch version good for carrying newspapers and camera crews.

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The Car as Art?

The car as art? Watched a Discovery program on a flight a couple of days ago, a concours d’elegance for cars. It came down to five contenders.

5. Citroen DS 1957. Sleek lines and the unique hydropneumatic suspension, but if you weren’t a French sympathizer you might have other ideas particularly about its rear end treatment.

4. Aston Martin DB5. 1964 James Bond chariot, a British based, Italian-tweaked design, powerful but heavy to drive.

3. Ferrari Dino 1968. Low looks make it one of the most beautiful Ferrari shells but a smaller engine let it down in performance compared with its bigger brothers.

2. Bugatti Type 57 Atlantic 1936.

Pronounced mudguards and goggle-eyed windows; certainly a unique sculpting of the car shape. But engine and suspension technology has improved since 1936.

1. Jaguar E-type 1961. A popular vote for a beautiful and easy enough to drive sports car. And it WAS a comparative cheap performance car at the time.

Interesting that Italians were involved in three of the designs, that two of the cars were French and two of the cars of the cars were British. All designs are pre-1968.

Anybody want to line up something German, Japanese or American and made after 1970 against these?