Texas All British Car Day 2010

This weekend, I attended the Texas All British Car Day. It was a wonderful outdoor display of British cars, both modern, antique, and everything in between.

The weather was fantastic again this year. For some reason, they always seem to have the best weather for this car show, and this year was no exception. It was very cloudy and overcast at the start, I’m sorry I missed that bit, I was home prepping and the like, getting the flash memory ready and rounding up camera bits that I needed. By the time I got there, the sun had come out and any chance of rain was long since gone. I didn’t want the sun, but it was ok for the shoot, since a lot of the cars are parked under the trees anyway. It was a bit hot when I first arrived but then this wonderful welcome breeze kicked up and cooled things down a bit.

My favorite cars of the bunch have to be the smiley face Sprites followed closely by the brightly colored Lotus flying machines. Those are incredible and, this year, we had only one bright yellow Lotus, but I still shot it a lot. It’s like an abstraction waiting for a canvas to happen, that Lotus is. I shot a lot of Aston Martin’s this year, way more than in prior years, and some of the old luxury stuff, like the Rolls, Bentley, etc. that were out on display.

Over the course of attending this show over the years, I’ve found that, by shooting straight on, a flat perspective like I have in this shot, it gives the cars an unusual look–I like the grill work as presented this way on the luxury vehicles while some of the more modern cars, with all the sporty brightly colored fronts and such, look downright menacing.

I like these sort of “full frontal” car shots and I continued to do this sort of graphical inspired work. I guess you would have to say I’m a grill photographer when it comes to cars but I try to do a lot of abstracts too. I was inspired to shoot some engines and other bits of cars I had not shot in years past, look for some of those shots to be posted and to come along soon. 

I’m still having issues with my old camera, and it’s taken to eating some flash memory, so not sure how many shots I’ll get out of this round, but I did manage to salvage some. With the camera trouble, I switched back to my 50mm (aka the “nifty fifty”) lens and used that, rather than my preferred longer macro lens. I had wanted to stick to the abstract graphical work with the longer macro, but the camera gear was not cooperating. I’m very used to shooting with a 50mm though, as that’s what everybody learns on, so it was possibly the next best thing. I can’t say it killed me to shoot on the 50 mil for a day or so, though I do want to get all of this camera foof behind me, settled, and the like, so that I can move on and do lots more shooting, especially now that autumn is fast approaching, the weather’s going cooler, and such.

All in all, it was a fun day, I really loved the cars, and the weather was nice. I hope you enjoy the shots. Look for most posts and cars in the days ahead and please send any specific requests my way if you’ve got them.

Until next time…

3 Comments

  1. mythopolis
    Author
    September 28, 2010 / 7:45 pm

    I love your car shots! My fav cars are not so exotic. I like to see vintage 40's-50's era American cars nicely restored. My dad had a '51 Kaiser Frazier. I can't even remember the last time I saw one of those on the road!I would give my eye teeth to come across an old Kaiser

  2. Janice / Dancing with Sunflowers
    Author
    September 29, 2010 / 6:39 pm

    That is a fab shot Carol!

  3. Carol
    Author
    September 30, 2010 / 1:48 pm

    Thanks! I love going to the car show. They always seem to have the nicest weather.

    I'll be on the lookout for a Kaiser, Mythopolis. If I see one, I promise, it's so *yours* :~)

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