Alfa Romeo – Redmond

16. August 2012 · Comments Off on Alfa Romeo – Redmond · Categories: Image a Day · Tags: ,

When you go to these car shows it’s pretty hard to get a nice picture.  Firstly there are hundreds of people there and they ALWAYS walk directly in front of you every time you try to take a shot.  Secondly, these shows are never held just before sunset or just after sunrise, so there is usually direct sunlight on the car.  So the cars are surrounded by people and the exposure is horrible (lots of blown out parts of the picture).

So here I was at the Redmond Exotics Car show and I found this bright red Alfa with nobody around it.  The bodywork color just popped against the green bushes and trees behind, so I jumped at a shot.  To try and get over the terrible lighting conditions, I took 5 bracketed pictures each one with a different exposure.  Then I HDR’d the images together in Photomatix to get the picture below.

People were starting to approach so I didn’t have much time, ideally I would have looked for another angle to showcase the car, but in reality I’m just pleased I got the shot.  I tilted the camera to give the image a little “interest” but I may have over done it haha, but what the hell, I really like the picture.

Usually I try to tell you what model the car is but there was nothing on the car to tell me and the owner wasn’t around (I sometimes ask).  But this time no info, so you are just going to have to enjoy the nameless red Alfa convertible.

Tonight I found the guys fighting over a very dangerous toy!  At least I think that’s what they were doing.

Chevy Truck – Redmond

12. August 2012 · Comments Off on Chevy Truck – Redmond · Categories: Image a Day · Tags: ,

This weekend I went back to the Redmond Exotic’s car show with Regan (my nephew visiting from the UK).  They didn’t have a theme this week and in truth there weren’t that many cars there but we did find this really cool old Chevy Truck.  Now I have no idea what year and model this was, the owner wasn’t around, but I thought it looked great.

Add to that, my brother-in-law (Craig, Regan’s dad) is refurbishing an old Chevy Truck, so Craig, this one’s for you.

There’s a show I love to watch on TV (from the UK) called Wheeler Dealers where two guys (Mike and Ed) refurbish old cars and in season 8 they did a Chevy 3100, they did a great job and this truck reminded me of the show, so if you like cars (and trucks) check out Wheeler Dealers.

It was very very hot when I took this and the sun was pretty much over head.  Two things that (for me) don’t produce that great of a picture.  So the fact that this came out and looked ok was pretty lucky.  There are though a lot of hot spots in the picture where the sun blew out the color and detail, but I don’t think it ruins the image.

Carter got the chance to visit his first Sonic today.  He enjoyed a footlong quarter pounder coney hotdog, and a chocolate shake!

Ford Truck – Redmond

07. August 2012 · Comments Off on Ford Truck – Redmond · Categories: Image a Day · Tags: , ,

It’s funny what you see as you’re driving around, every now and then you see something cool and think “that’ll make a nice pic”.  This happened the other day on the way home, I was driving the back way home and I saw this old truck.  It was quite far away from the road but I thought it might make a nice posting.  Next to the property that had the truck was a road with a white picket fence, so I drove down the road, and jumped out to get the shot.

I hand held the camera to take the image as I was concerned that someone may come out and tell me to move on, so I rested the camera on the picket fence on the middle horizontal plank.  From a distance I wasn’t sure if the truck was road worthy or just there for show, but when I got closer, it looked like it was in need of some work and probably wasn’t running.

It was really sunny when I got the shot and you can see the reflection of the fence in the truck’s door.  I have no idea what year and model this is but it had Ford on the hood so I knew the make.  I loved the white walled tires and the running boards.  The grass on the back kind of looked cool too and when I got home I was really pleased with the image.

I used a good lens and managed to get a nice depth of field so the barn behind is starting to fall out of focus.  Ideally the truck would have been further away from the barn and the barn would have been pretty blurred but unfortunately they were quite close together – but then there’s not much you can do about that.

I’ve learnt now that when I see these opportunities I stop and take the picture (if I have the camera with me of course), as if I think “I’ll get it later on the way back” I never get the chance again.  With my luck the truck would have been towed away that afternoon.  But this one I got and I think it looks great.

Today the Halo guys decided to hold their own medal ceremony, where the winner got a gold Cadbury medal.  Somehow Carter won!

Old Ford – Maui

22. July 2012 · Comments Off on Old Ford – Maui · Categories: Image a Day · Tags: , ,

The other day we visited Maui’s Tropical Plantation, it is a working plantation in the middle of the island.  The reason for the trip was that the family wanted to go ziplining and this was the location for Maui Ziplines who let you zip across the plantation.

Lisa, James and Abi are not really that comfortable with heights so it was a big thing for them to do this.  But they all went for it and had a blast.  There were 5 lines they had to go down, each one taking you across different crops in the plantation and I got loads of shots of them in the air flying high.

The plantation also offers tours where you can take a tram around the 60 acre plantation and see all sorts of local crops grow.  So what do they grow?  Well pretty much everything you can imagine that you would want in Hawaii.  They have sugarcane, coconut, vanda orchids, star fruit, coffee, avocado, macadamia nuts, and the list goes on and on.

As we walked into the plantation we saw this cool old Ford car.  I don’t think they used it and to be honest the paintwork wasn’t that great, it had clearly been sitting outside for a long time.

But I thought it looked cool with the palm trees behind it and the plantation in the distance.  I had to take loads of shots of this and I almost gave up.  Every time I composed a picture someone would walk into frame.  Lisa and the kids thought it was hysterical.  In the end I finally got this shot on the way out when we left, the only down side was that the sun had moved to a position in the sky where it caught the car’s hood so it was totally blown out.

That aside I was pleased with the image so it’s my posting tonight.

Tonight the guys got out their surf boards and hit the beach.

MG J2 – Redmond

13. July 2012 · 1 comment · Categories: Image a Day · Tags: ,

I figured that as I went to the Redmond Exotic’s Car show and the theme was British cars, I should post something from the UK.  Ironically most of my favorite British cars weren’t there (no idea why), but there were a few interesting models.  For example there was this MG J2.

The J2 was a two-seater roadster that came out in 1933.  It had a top speed of 65 miles an hour (and that was a lot for a commercial car) and cost a whopping £199 (that’s around $310).  The car had no roof and was pretty open to the elements – tiny doors and a little windscreen.  But it looked cool – especially the front of the car as it had a lot of chrome on the car.

I wanted to get a good composition but there were loads of people walking behind the car and were in shot.  The car was partially in shade and it was the front of the car with the yellow grill that caught my attention.  So I thought I’d try to capture a picture of that.  So I went to the front of the car and lied down on the floor and took the shot below.  My friend Chris who was there with me taking pictures thought I was nuts, people were walking round me as I laid in front of the car.  But I’m kind of immune to funny looks these days, so I don’t care.

Anyway considering the conditions I’m pretty pleased with the shot, I think the car came out well and there aren’t too many distractions around the car.

Tonight the guys started packing for tomorrows trip to Maui.

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