Avoiding Black Friday with a Buick



Yesterday was "Black Friday" the kickoff to the Christmas shopping season and to celebrate the day I avoided the malls. Instead I did the routine maintenance to my 1972 Buick Centurion. Of course once it was spiffed up, fresh oil etc., I had to go for a drive and make sure there were no "cobwebs" in the old gal's pipes. I am happy to report - there weren't any, in fact this troll in an Trans Am was quite surprised when I cleared out her pipes by opening the 4 barrel on the near empty freeway.

Maybe it's the "Pasadena Senior Center" sticker in the rear window from the original owner that makes people think the car has no huevos. Hah! The only thing better than the rumble of a big block with the 4 barrel opened up is the look of shock as some poser-muscle-car troll's face when he realizes I can best him and not break a sweat. Sweet. So after the quick run through the gears we settled down for a nice cruise.

Of course I had to stop in a park and do some pictures. This time around I shot with 2 reasons in mind. Primary is I wanted to experiment more with cars as a subject, done with HDR moving more to the surreal. The other to document the condition for someone who expressed interest in purchasing the "Bu".

Anyway, I sought to give the surreal edge in varying degrees to put the car in a semi-real setting like a manicured park and then romanticise it a bit. Even went towards the ad illustrators surreal better than life direction. As always shot 3 frames bracketed +/- 2 stops, HDR generation and tonemapping in Photomatix then on to final post processing with Virtual Photographer.

Now, I need some better and more varied cars to work with. Not to be a pest but a location where I can clear out the extraneous or use it to my advantage would be nice. Thinks like signs and light poles are a real pain in the arse when you have a 5,000LB + subject to jockey around!