fourpointedstar

When I first saw this hood ornament, I immediately was taken with how fragile and sharp the front piece was. I was then taken with the luster of the copper color of the animal (perhaps a pegasus?). The copper color and the animal’s shape reminded me of the decorations on the Ishtar Gate, and placing that hood ornament with the rich blue backdrop really completed the enchantment.

As I walked north through the Concours, I passed by the painter; so I made a point to stop by and say hi on the way back south. John Paul is from California and was just in Illinois for an art collaboration, and chose to come to the Concours to paint a car or two. Also, the blue Cadillac in the painting was detailed by a friend’s dad’s friend; life really is only 6 degrees of separation from painter to the artist who created the subject of the painting.

If you take a beginners’ photography class, your instructor is likely to bring up leading lines, rule of thirds, and removing items that aren’t needed as some of the keys to a great photo. I’d like to think that those are the reasons that I love this photo, but it’s probably only because I love the color red combined with the yellow hints in the center-line trim work.

I have mentioned more than a few times that the Geneva Concours can be crowded and those crowds limit the photos that you can capture. In addition to the crowds though is the venue; the somewhat narrow street and shops and businesses also often provide a very cluttered backdrop for photos and the Concours. Which is why I’m thrilled with the simple nature of this photos; the red really brings out the shine of the chrome.

Since many of the cars were crowded or muddy, I had to come up with a different strategy for photographing at Sonny Acres Farm. So I turned to the iconic nameplates that showed up, including the embossed Porsche on this 928.

ChiTown Exotic Car Club hosted a car show at Sonny Acres Farm. It may have been the oddest site that I’ve been to for a car show; and it had been rainy recently, so it was very muddy. Overall, I did see quite a few rare cars, but it was very difficult to capture interesting photos due to the large crowd and the fact that the cars were so tightly packed.

I looked inside of this car and thought, “Did he have to pay someone to paint the engine parts to match the car? Or maybe he painted it all himself?”

I love the fact that this car’s owner has chosen red accents for his engine but left the dipstick blue. It’s perfect.

This engine sits flat underneath the Corvair’s “pickup” bed; making it even more of an oddity, not simply because it’s a van front end with a pickup back end.

I tend to capture the outside of cars at car shows; I’d say only 5% of my photos are of under the hood or inside the cabin. However, sometimes an engine is visually interesting – this engine is from a Cars & Coffee back in 2022.

Sure, if you go to a classic car show, the mid-50’s Chevy BelAirs are almost as popular as the late 60’s Mustangs, but it’s for a reason. The BelAirs are simply rolling works of art … absolutely stunning, eye catching, and head turning.

Another wonderful photo from the Elgin History Museum’s annual Classic Car Show. Everyone knows what a 1957 Chevy Belair looks like, so it’s always challenging to find a unique take on this incredibly classic of the classic cars. But, if there’s a late 60’s muscle car with awesome rims next to it? Well, now that’s kinda unique.

…someday I will learn to take a photo of the entire car, or at least of the tag with the car’s information at car shows, but the day that I photographed this car was not that day…

Earlier in the morning, before the Elgin History Museum’s Classic Car Show technically started, there were a few showers that rolled through. While most of the cars arrived after the rain or their owners cleaned the cars off, this dripping wet Thunderbird lent itself to some unique photos.