Hanging On By A Thread
Over the weekend, fellow photographer Don Rosenberger and I visited a “car farm” in Martinsville, Virginia. We had scheduled to meet at an adjoining RV park around 5pm on Saturday, shoot until dark and call it a day. As I got closer, I could see thunderstorms over the area and by the time we each arrived the rain was pouring down. Luckily, the rain didn’t last long but it did help cool things down from a humid 85F.
We made a quick walk-through scouting shots, pulled out the gear and set to work. Most of the cars in the lot were Cadillacs and Buicks from the 1950s & 60s, with the exception of a 1980s Honda stuck right in the middle (I have no idea how that got there!). Cars from this era were covered in large swathes of chrome and elaborate hood ornaments so keeping my reflection out of the shots soon became an interesting challenge.
We continued to shoot until it was almost dark when Don pulled a bag of flashlights out of his truck and setup to do some light painting. I had only seen this done in videos and was completely taken with the entire process. This is something that’s definitely going on my “to do” list for this year!
This was also my first outing with my Induro ball head tripod which had only arrived the day before. I have never owned a ball head and I have to say that now I know what all the fuss is about!
Camera settings: Canon 60D
Processing: Adobe Lightroom 3
Sounds like a great location. I like the rusty texture in this image. Nice!
Curt, I absolutely love this image. The colorful shades of rust, the detail in the chrome and that perfectly preserved and tilting headlight make this an image that you have to scan from corner to corner. Even the little vine on the right seems to say that “I’ll protect you when you fall”. Wonderful, compelling image!
Rust never looked so Good!! Great image Curt!!
Awesome shot! Sounds like a great adventure. Love the details and textures in this image.
So much personality in this shot. Fantastic!
Great shot! Love those textures! Glad the new tripod is working out
That car farm sounds great. Would love to do that one.
Nice capture, Curt.
Sounds like a really awesome place to photograph. Great shot, I look forward to seeing more from here!
A car farm? Now that sounds like fun.
Love this kind of shot, really well done, love the exposure and processing
Wow – no kidding, this puppy is almost gone for good. Great shot!
Nice work Curt..New tripod seems to be serving you well. My only complaint is I need an l bracket for mine!
Makes me feel like this car has just one eye left… kind of a sad feeling really. Nice composition!