1959 Chevy Impala
Aug, 2013Views
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annalaviolamilo
March 25, 2014
Thank you to the staff for the award! :)) ...and thank you to all the commenters, likers and recognitioners! Lol. Feeling super!! :))
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Behind The Lens
Location
I shot this beauty in its' pit at Santa Pod during the Mopar Euro Nationals, July last year! Not far were the owners working on it, who momentarily walked away and that's when I took my opportunity to take the shot. I'm quite a timid person and my height doesn't help either, so I paced around waiting for the right moment!Time
It was around half 4 in the afternoon, fairly late in the day for Santa Pod events with only a couple hours left, so I was fortunate that it wasn't very busy. The visitors at this point were either in the stands watching the drag races, in their pits re-tuning their vehicles or back at their campsites. It was at this point where I managed to get quite a lot of shots which I was very happy about!Lighting
Shortly before taking this shot, the weather was beautiful, the sun was beaming, blue skies with big, white, fluffy clouds! The longer I took to take the shot, the clouds begun to close in, it was only shortly after taking this shot it started chucking it down! I must say that even with a grey cast, this Impala continued to gleam! Such a beauty!Equipment
As I was walking around for hours, I ensured I carried lightly. The only equipment I had used was my Canon 7D, Sigma 10-20mm f/4-5.6 lens and the sky's natural source of light!Inspiration
I've always loved the art and photography surrounding the 50's style Pin-up's and the American Classics of that time, along with American muscle cars that followed. As I had only been photographing these style of cars since March 2013, this whole community of Classics and Muscle car enthusiasts was something completely new to me, and seeing many cars like this Impala all in one short walk from each other blew me away, I felt like a kid in a candy store! So any chance I had, I would take it, and the more I shot, the more I had learned, not just about the car, but approaching the vehicle. As I had my wide angle lens which was also new, I was experimenting and learning new ways to to approach each individual car with the characteristics of the lens. Each have their own characteristics, style, tone, and had to be approached in a whole new light! I think the one thing that spurred me on to take a shot like this is referring back to the 1957 Plymouth Fury in John Carpenter's adaptation of Stephen King's thriller 'Christine' - besides the obvious red paint job, it has this aggressive feel to it as well!Editing
With the post-processing, I went through all the 'basic' retouching methods, plus a 'little' more. I was going for an editorial style finish with this shot, so I'm not sure if anyone can quite tell, but I removed the tops and sides of cars, vans and tents, and replaced the background with a fence and sky creating the horizon. Apart from that, I adjusted the temperature to a warm, sepia tone, along with the basics - brightness/contrast, highlights/shadows, dodge/burn, line sharpening, and punched out the colour of the Impala, as well as removing any scratches, spots etc. In the original shot, the lower half of the front was darker, so I adjusted it to what seemed to be an evenly lit front.In my camera bag
The equipment I carry with me is supposed to vary depending on the project. If it's a project with specific requirements I'll only carry what I think is necessary, but that's vary rare, as I usually carry everything I have - and this is purely down to making the most of every opportunity! I've only been shooting for 3 years as a hobby which is slowly shaping up to be a career path, my 'artillery' as I like to call it, is very small at the moment! My bag of joy contains: DSLRs: Canon EOS 7D Canon EOS Rebel XS Lenses: Canon 50mm f/1.8 Canon 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6 Sigma 10-20mm f/4-5.6 Tamron 55-200mm f/4-5.6 Filters: Jessops 58mm Skylight 1A Filter Jessops 58mm Circular Polarizing Filter Flash & Manual Controller: Yongnuo Speedlight YN560-iii Yongnuo YN560-TX Two sets of batteries for the DSLRs and lots of rechargeable Energizer batteries for the flash. Two 16gb CF cards, and Two 16gb SD cards.Feedback
Experiment, experiment and experiment! Get to know the motor you're shooting as every single one is different! Similar to shooting portraits and pets etc. for instance. Just remember the moment when you tried out your lens for the first time, there's always another way to utilize it and get the best out of it, the same approach should be applied to shooting motors. Don't move on to the next one if you're put off with not 'getting it right' or how you might have envisioned it in mind, keep shooting till you get it. From experimenting with lenses and their characteristics - depth of field, focal length, angle, to that of the car - its' shape, form, tone, size - they go hand in hand, and differentiate at every angle! And then there's the lighting, spacing surrounding the motor, its' environment... and never be put off by the distractions in the background. Similar to the post-processing of this shot of the Impala, there's always a way to 'capture' and 'perfect' a shot to how you envisioned it.
