Sitting pretty
A classic Ford sitting in the reflection of the whitewall wheel of an Chevy pick-up.
A classic Ford sitting in the reflection of the whitewall wheel of an Chevy pick-up.
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Sep, 2015Views
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2020 Choice Award
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Behind The Lens
Location
The local council put on a classic and vintage cars show, people from the local area and not so local area all congregated with bikes, cars, trucks, and vehicles you rarely see, hopefully much more to come in future years! Being so local to where i live, it was a great opportunity to get out with my camera and try my hand at something I've never done before, weather could have been much better, but as i found my way around the camera (still being extremely new to photography then), i tried to get some more adventurous angles unlike other photographers around that all seemed to go for the same think. Having a walk around two American classics, i found the perfect chance with the reflection of the Ford in the Chevy wheel.Time
It was taken around mid day/early afternoon, typical British weather left me with nothing but muggy, cloudy weather and very little chance of catching a break for some sun.Lighting
The sun being so clouded over despite being at around the perfect time of day to shine down onto the Ford make the colours seem very bland and dull, much like the sky. With that in mind i moved my way around to get the angle that gave just enough natural light into the reflection to show up the car clearly, but not much of the sky, combating the lack of light to bring out the colour, i went with a black and white shot.Equipment
Back then i had only one body, a Canon 40D I'd bought second hand online, i had at this point found a great deal on a Canon 50mm F/1.4 which really made the difference at that point in time for me. The image was shot at 1/100th, f/8 with the point of focus being on the dice dust cap of the chevy to really help frame with a strong the Ford with the Chevy Whitewall Tire, the ISO was set to 200.Inspiration
Just by chance i found myself in the right position at the right time, being fed up of so many around doing the same thing, taking images at the same angle, moving to the next car, doing the exact same thing had bored me. So i started to try and follow the angles and lines more for something different, it just so happened i had got something in my trainer that i bent down to sort out at this point, and spotted the reflection on my way up. A few shots to try and find the right angle that I wanted and that was it.Editing
Firstly was the conversion to black and white, i then gave a slight drop in the highlights to tone down the brightness a little, while giving a tiny lift in the shadows to show a little more of the details. Other wise the image is just as it was shot.In my camera bag
Having little to no budget, It has been a long, painful road with finding the limits of my 40D pretty early on, at the time of this, i had that as my only body, an 18-55 kit lens, plus a 70-250 macro lens. The addition of my 50mm f/1.4 prime was a great boost to my gear at that point. Due to ill health, I haven't been able to afford the gear I am now in need of as apposed to want, but recently I have added a new main camera body to my bag with a Canon 7D MkII. It was a tough decision, but with having loves for both gig and aviation photography, it seemed like the right choice to make. Next additions to my bag will be a 100-400mm lens for my aviation, and 24mm prime, 24-70, 70-200, all f/2.8 for gigs. Then maybe see if i can stretch to a Canon 5D MkII or MkIII for my gig photography, that's the plan at least!Feedback
I always seem to do a little research on what is going to be there, the trouble with this event is there was no list of cars showing! The next challenge was being prepared for whatever weather gets thrown my way, being England, you can even sneeze and the weather will go from hot and sunny to wet and miserable in that time! The rest of it i find is to look at what all the other photographers are doing, It's a great way to learn and pick things up, but then don't be afraid to go against the grain, if 90% of the other photographers are going for that one shot, then go the other way and try and get something else. It doesn't always pay off, but when it does, there won't be another 30 photographers with that exact same shot.
