Cars under the bright sun

I only made it to one Jimmy's Old Car Picnic, and it happened to be the last one. No, I didn't kill the event. Sad to see it gone as there were a lot of sweet cars parked in Hellman Hollow. Some were in concours condition, some had more than a few rust spots.

It's the latter cars that are more interesting, because you can tell that they've been used hard, and yet are still loved.

I had the 35mm f/1.8DX mounted on the V1 when I started taking photos. This was my first outing with the lens, and it's not the ideal length for car shots on a CX body as it's a bit long. It helped that this was an outdoor event with some space, but it make for tough framing. You do get that nice fade to OOF with this lens.

Outdoor car shows are brutal because of all the polished chrome, shiny panels, and other reflective surfaces. It didn't help that the sun was pretty high up in the sky and shining brightly. Dark colors and highlights are a challenge for the V1 as the sensor's dynamic range isn't as good as a DX or FX body.

The flare on this Buick Riviera is interesting because of the inverted points. So far this is the worst case I've seen, and a reminder not to shoot into the sun with this lens. I do like the little touch of the picnic table in the background, gives the shot that '60's feeling.

Chromatic aberration is a bit of a problem with specular highlights and the 35mm DX. Proper NEF processing will reduce it a bit, but there's still a lot more than with the native CX lenses.

The V1 and 35mm DX combination did a lot better at Bayline 2014, aided by the overcast skies. The two did a stellar job when I used them at Super Hero Festival. The 35mm DX is my poor man's 32mm f/1.2, at least until I can afford the 32mm.

I eventually switched to the 10mm f/2.8 to be able to frame a whole car in the viewfinder. Who says you can't get subject isolation at 10mm on CX? And yes that's me reflected in the radiator, yet another problem of shooting closeups with cars.

More images can be found here

Hit rate: 191/328, or 58%

Check before you pack

Rushing out to an event when you're half-awake is never a good idea. I thought I grabbed my 35mm f/2, and was I surprised to find the 50mm f/1.8 in my bag when I got to Lincoln Park for the Lion's Cars-in-the-Park event.

I made do with what I brought. I had to step back more for some shots, and the bokeh isn't ideal (check out the heptagonal OOF highlights). But when you're around so much beautiful metal, it doesn't matter what your hardware is like.

Hit rate: 45/114

Last weekend before Christmas

We had lunch at Win's on Taraval. My craving for beef with scrambled egg over rice satisfied, we took the L metro (now up to $2!) to check out Union Square. It wasn't as crowded as it should be with less than a week of shopping. There were no lines at Macy's, although there was a queue at See's. Oh, and a really long line at the skating rink.

Saw a clean pagoda 280, with a nice interior that had probably been repaired. I'd love to have one of these cars. It's funny to see a car without headrests. Sadly, none of the currently available and affordable cars is attractive enough for me to want it. Hopefully things will change in five year, which is when I should be in the market for a new car.

Just one more photo, this one from a window display in Union Square (I can't remember which store though, but I think it's Shreve & Co.).

On the way back, we stopped at Aardvark Books on Church street to pick up the last calendar (shopping hint, they sell next year's calendars and datebooks for ~$5 starting in November). And three TPB's to add to the growing mess.

LA Autoshow

The photos from the LA Autoshow are up. Skipped the SF show this year and went to LA's instead. More show cars, more cars, more walking, but more fun. The lighting was good enough that the D3 didn't go to ISO3200 that often. The crowd was thick though, which meant some waiting to get a clean shot if possible. The turntables need to rotate just a bit faster...

Being LA, the Dub (who else!) GS with the Bentley front end shouldn't come as a surprise.

The wireframe Lexus LF-A was a nice touch. Lexus had a big presence at the show, showing off the LF-Ch proto with two Nikon cameras that you could use to take photos of the car and view on a large touch screen tv.