ARCHIVE: LOOKING AT CARS 20

 

 

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The Looking at Cars series: looking back through the nine years of the FATman Photos archives (and some new images too), I’m posting pictures of cars in various contexts and styles.  Earlier Looking at Cars posts are here: 1 (with context); 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 . 

Click onto the “early morning” tag (below) to see more images from the early hours of the day. 

Click onto the image to open a larger version in a separate window.

Technique: TG-5 at 25mm (equiv); 3200 ISO; Lightroom, starting at the B&W Blue Filter profile; south Bristol; 12 Sept 2020.

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ARCHIVE: LOOKING AT CARS 19

 

 

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Scene from a suburban driveway: status symbol with sunrise and heavy dew.

The Looking at Cars series: looking back through the nine years of the FATman Photos archives (and some new images too), I’m posting pictures of cars in various contexts and styles.  Earlier Looking at Cars posts are here: 1 (with context); 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 .

Click onto the “early morning” tag (below) to see more images from the early hours of the day.  

Click onto the image to open a larger version in a separate window.

Technique: TG-5 at 100mm (equiv); 800 ISO; spot metering; Lightroom, starting at the Camera Portrait profile; south Bristol; 5 Sept 2020.
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ARCHIVE: LOOKING AT CARS 18 – SUNRISE BEHIND PARKED VAN

 

 

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Walking into the sunrise, walking towards a van, walking home.  At first the glare from the sun was totally dazzling, I was in a world of blinding highlights and impenetrable silhouettes.  But as I moved into the van’s shadow, there appeared this view in through its dew-soaked windscreen.

The steering wheel is at lower left, and one of the black wiper blades at lower right.  The circular black spot attaches the faintly seen rear view mirror to the inside of the windscreen, and there are also the vague outlines of seats with headrests and the illuminated panes of its rear windows – through which the sun is shining onto the inside of the windscreen.

The Looking at Cars series: looking back through the nine years of the FATman Photos archives (and some new images too), I’m posting pictures of cars in various contexts and styles.  Earlier Looking at Cars posts are here: 1 (with context); 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 . 

Click onto the “early morning” tag (below) to see more images from the early hours of the day.  

Click onto the image to open a larger version in a separate window – recommended.

Technique: TG-5 at 61mm (equiv); 800 ISO; spot metering; Lightroom, starting at the Modern 01 profile; south Bristol; 9 Oct 2020.
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ARCHIVE: LOOKING AT CARS 17 – DARK CAR (MONO)

 

 

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An image of three parts.  The two cars, manufactured and highly mobile confections of metal, plastic, rubber and glass, racing away from each other on a road that is certainly not for those more sensitive souls who are forever slowing down to compose poetry or look at the wildflowers.

And then the white line in the road’s center, undulating slightly as it climbs towards the hill’s crest.

And finally the light, spotlighting the dark car as it rushes urgently towards us,  and seen more faintly through the trees on the right, and then more brightly (the light at the end of the tunnel?) on the left.

The Looking at Cars series: looking back through the nine years of the FATman Photos archives (and some new images too), I’m posting pictures of cars in various contexts and styles.  Earlier Looking at Cars posts are here: 1 (with context); 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 . 

Click onto the image to open a larger version in a separate window – recommended.

Technique: X-T2 with 55-200 Fujinon lens at 305mm (equiv); 400 ISO; Lightroom; Silver Efex Pro 2, starting at the Architectural preset; fast road over the Mendip Hills, above Compton Martin, Somerset; 24 Nov 2017.
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ARCHIVE: LOOKING AT CARS 15 – WHITE CAR (MONO)

 

 

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White car with its boot open, Broad Street, central Bristol; 16 Aug 2013.

I guess that here I’m attempting something abstract and different, trying out an idea.  I was approaching this car through a covered alleyway, the open end of which framed it.

The car is stark – pure (i.e. completely blown) white highlight, pure black windows, and a very few more middling tones.  And, as a foil to its immaculate, streamlined lines, it has its open boot stuck up in the air at an acute angle.

And then, in this abstract composition, other, somewhat less pale, elements are set in the enveloping blackness.  Most notably, the pale column coming downwards from the top of the frame (where is cut by the dark lines of a grill) to intersect the car’s black back window.  Then there are the two white rectangles on the pavement below the car, and the less obtrusive white elements left and upper left of the car.

This is a simplification of reality and an attempt at graphic design.

The Looking at Cars series: looking back through the nine years of the FATman Photos archives (and some new images too), I’m posting pictures of cars in various contexts and styles.  Earlier Looking at Cars posts are here: 1 (with context); 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 . 

Click onto the image to open a larger version in a separate window.

Technique:  G11 PowerShot at 140mm (35mm equiv); 400 ISO; Silver Efex Pro 2, starting at the Silhouette preset.

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ARCHIVE: LOOKING AT CARS 14 – REFLECTION ON BROAD STREET

 

 

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Up close and personal with a (rather up market) car; Broad Street, central Bristol; 16 Sept 2016.

A somewhat abstract image.  As with pictures I’ve done of animals, getting close in, filling the frame, the photo’s subject in a way trying to burst out of the frame – but with the added dimension here of reflections, the large pale grey one on the left being the (distorted!) paving stones in a pavement.

The Looking at Cars series: looking back through the nine years of the FATman Photos archives (and some new images too), I’m posting pictures of cars in various contexts and styles.  Earlier Looking at Cars posts are here: 1 (with context); 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 . 

Click onto the image to open a larger version in a separate window – recommended.

Technique: X-T1 with 55-200 Fujinon lens at 300mm (equiv); 3200 ISO.

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ARCHIVE: LOOKING AT CARS 13 – EARLY MORNING, TEALHAM MOOR

 

 

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Early morning mist, Tealham Moor, south of Wedmore; 8 Apr 2015.

The old and the new.  A smart new vehicle coming south down the tarmac of Jack’s Drove at a good pace and, next to it,  the water-filled ditch (rhyne) which has been here for a century or two, well back into the times when the only vehicles along here were horse drawn.

The rhyne acts as the fence around the field of pasture visible on the right, the gate of which is accessed from the drove via the little bridge.  The metal gate, which is hardly visible on the right, has wooden rails at its sides to stop ever venturesome cattle from trying to squeeze around it and escape.  The droves are tracks between the fields which allow farmers to access their land without crossing that of others.

The Looking at Cars series: looking back through the nine years of the FATman Photos archives (and some new images too), I’m posting pictures of cars in various contexts and styles.  Earlier Looking at Cars posts are here: 1 (with context); 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 .

Click onto the “early morning” tag (below) to see more images from the early hours of the day.  

Click onto the image to open a larger version in a separate window – recommended.

Technique: D700 with 70-300 Nikkor lens at 270mm; 400 ISO.

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ARCHIVE: LOOKING AT CARS 12 – CAR PARKED BESIDE TRAFFIC LIGHTS, EARLY MORNING

 

 

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Most mornings, I walk past this car.  It is parked up on a broad stretch of pavement beside traffic lights and a main road and now, as the early mornings darken, I’m more and more attracted by the bright reflections of lights in its clean, shiny bodywork.

The Looking at Cars series: looking back through the nine years of the FATman Photos archives (and some new images too), I’m posting pictures of cars in various contexts and styles.  Earlier Looking at Cars posts are here: 1 (with context); 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 .

Click onto the “early morning” tag (below) to see more images from the early hours of the day.  

Click onto the image to open a larger version in a separate window – recommended.

Technique: TG-5 at 100mm (equiv); 3200 ISO; spot metering; Lightroom, starting at the Modern 01 profile; south Bristol; 20 Sep 2020.
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ARCHIVE KENYA 89 – BACK ROAD NEAR AKALA (MONO)

 

 

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Back road through farms near Akala, in the far west of Kenya; April 1979.

The wideangle lens makes the road appear in worse condition than it was – and, in any case, it was dry weather; tackling this in wet conditions would be something else again.

The VW Beetle was wonderful for this sort of thing.  No 4×4, just drive in the two rear wheels, the engine seated over the wheels – which made for very good grip –  and a large metal plate underneath most of the length of the car, to guard against rocks and boulders.

But the car took quite a hammering on this trip and, as I pulled out at the end of my stay for the long drive back to Nairobi, my front wheels had, unbeknown to me, taken such a pounding that they were facing outwards, i.e. away from each other.

This very soon wore both tyres completely bald and, when I came upon a police road block, I had a hard job persuading them to let me through.  Luckily there was an excellent garage specialising in VW repairs in Nairobi, and however badly I damaged the car, they were always able to fix it.

Another thing about this picture is that it was taken in a very fertile, agricultural landscape teeming with people.  I’ve only just stopped for a photo, and already there’s a young lad standing by the car.  If we were really to get stuck or break down, there were always plenty of willing hands to help push and pull us on our way.  They were friendly – and distinctly humorous – people.  Less friendly was the malaria, which initially got its teeth into me during this safari.

Click onto the image to open a larger version in a separate window – recommended.

Technique: OM-1 with 28mm Zuiko lens; Agfa CT18 colour slide film rated at 64 ISO; converted to mono in Silver Efex Pro 2, starting at the High Contrast Red preset.

THE ARCHIVE KENYA SERIES

I’m re-posting photographs that I took in Kenya over 30 years ago.  You can find more context here .  Click onto the “Archive Kenya” tag (below) to see more of these film images from Kenya.

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ARCHIVE: LOOKING AT CARS 11 – EARLY LIGHT, AND DEW

 

 

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I walk back home most early mornings along a road lined with big cars and big, comfortable, middle class dwellings.  These houses are on my right, to the east of me, with – on clear days –  the autumn sun rising behind them.

There are big areas of shadow where the houses block the sun’s light, but the driveways between these semi-detached houses are ablaze with the early light, with most of the cars pointing directly into it.  There’s a lot of contrast and some blazing reflections, but looking carefully and using the TG-5’s 100mm telephoto and its spot meter, there are areas like this, with the sunlight glancing almost horizontally across the cars’ dew-soaked bodywork and illuminating every surface feature, texture and tiny drop of moisture.  Walking past these cars never fails to draw my gaze.

The Looking at Cars series: looking back through the nine years of the FATman Photos archives (and some new images too), I’m posting pictures of cars in various contexts and styles.  Earlier Looking at Cars posts are here: 1 (with context); 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 . 

Click onto the “early morning” tag (below) to see more images from the early hours of the day.  

Click onto the image to open a larger version in a separate window – recommended.

Technique: TG-5 at 100mm (equiv); 800 ISO; spot metering; Lightroom, starting at the Modern 03 profile; south Bristol; 14 Sept 2020.
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