Week 21, Local Car Show

So my hometown has a car show once a month on the 3rd Wednesday during the ‘nice weather’ season (April-Sept), but the April show got cancelled because we had so much rain.  Thus the May event was the first they held this year.  Most towns and cities in New England have a common area we call a ‘green’, and this is where the car show is held.  When I was younger, it was held at a local roadside diner, but it has since outgrown that location.

They limit the participants to those cars built before 1987, with a few special exceptions.  The biggest car dealership in my town was a Chevy dealer, so you can guess what marque dominates the local show, but we get cars from all over the region.  I myself took my Triumph TR-6 there when I was younger, and hopeful later this summer will bring my BMW 2002.  But mostly it is domestic (USA) cars, Chevys, Fords, Pontiacs, Dodge, the odd Plymouth or Studebaker, with a few British cars, MGs or Triumphs and a smattering of Volvos.  Last year there was even an honest to goodness GT40.  Not a kit car, but a 1966 Ford GT40.  If you are not a car person, let’s just say it is almost like seeing a first year Leica or Hasselblad.

As a younger man, I oogled the Mustangs, Camaros, Trans Ams, Chevelles and GTOs, but as I’ve gotten older, I find myself drawn more towards the Model A and 1940s Hot Rods, plus the full restorations where the owners really try to get all the details as accurate as possible.

So anyway, I went armed with my Canon EOS 3, with a Canon 28-135mm/f4.5-5.5 lens, half a roll of Kodak Ultramax 400 (the rest was full of Spring flowers), and a full roll of Ilford SFX 200.  The latter I developed using Ilford Ilfosol 3, 6 mins @ 20C.  I pulled it out of the developing tanks and held them up to the light (does that ever get old?) and thought “damn, there are 30 or so really nice shots on this 36 shot roll”.  That doesn’t happen every week.  Other than a UV filter, I just shot at box speed, and developed according to recommendations.  The color shots will have to wait for a different posting on my blog, so here goes the B&W.

Shade-tree engineering.

Shade-tree engineering.

Ford Model A

Ford Model A

Wanna Race?

Wanna Race?

Row of curved metal

Row of curved metal

Corvette Cockpit

Corvette Cockpit

Dodge Superbee

Dodge Superbee

Release the Hound!

Release the Hound!

Ichabod Crane's Nightmare

Ichabod Crane’s Nightmare

Glittering Chrome

Glittering Chrome

Not a straight line in sight

Not a straight line in sight

Waiting...

Waiting…

The eyeglasses have it.

The eyeglasses have it.

Part of the Show

Part of the Show

Local icon

Local icon

11 thoughts on “Week 21, Local Car Show

    • Thanks Alex, they really turned out good. I had only shot SFX once before and did not like the results, but with a different developer and no filter, it is nice.

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  1. I can understand why you were so happy about this roll. Absolutely great shots! The “Wanna race?” one is my favourite. I love cars like that.

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  2. Whilst cars are photogenic it is difficult to take original shots of a car show – SFX is certainly original!

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