Well I’d say you hit the mark if those are all mixed together. If they were all cropped / shapped the same I bet it would be nearly impossible to tell.
A few historical shots of the car... This first one is a shot of the car as Brad bought it: And here's a few in-progress shots of the car at Tardel's shop:
As a graphic artist and as a person that try's to shoot photography in a manner not often seen, let me say that this particular cool hot rod, checks a lot of boxes for me. That choice of colors, that balance of black and chocolate brown, is excellent. Brown isn't a color that does well on dam near anything, but in this case, its perfect!
These are reallly good. I really dig the shot of the coupe out of focus in the background and the close up of the leaf and branch. I dunno why. It is just cool.
OK... Everything attached was shot with a Leica M7 and a 35mm Summilux. Film is Portra 160 shot at box speed... handheld.
And everything attached to this post was shot with a modded FujiFilm GFX 50R with a Mamiya 645 80mm 1.9 Cinema Lens and a Mamiya 645 45mm 2.8 Cinema Lens using a Portra 160 emulation recipe that I developed. Tripod for most shots. So these are the digital shots.
I think my favorite shot of the bunch is this one: But hell, I’ve stared at them so long they’ve all gone sideways on me. I put so much blood and brainpower into that damn camera... tuning the panoramic setup, chasing the aspect ratio... and in the end, I’m not even sure I used it right. I keep telling myself to think cinematically, but the instinct to put the car front and center always takes over. Old habits, hardwired. I’ll step away for a few weeks, clear the static, make some prints, and see if they start to make sense again. One thing I do know... no hesitation, no doubt... I*****ing love that car.
The combination of the paint tones of the car and the tones in the photo just really pair well together and give it an immediate nostalgia reading. granted I think all film or film appearing photos feel that way to some extent but this has got such a cool late 70’s feel to me. The only thing that snaps me out of it is the big v band clamps on the new exhaust. really great stuff, I’ve come back to them several times already.
Our first spot was across the river, and man, it was perfect. The sun hit at just the right angle, the water caught the light like glass, and there were two trees actually turning color... Bright orange, full fall glory, which is rarer than mercy in this godforsaken stretch of Texas. It would’ve been magic. Colors, reflections, everything ya want.... But no… Lucy had other plans.
BTW, I know only one or two of you are even the slightest bit interested in the camera nerd*****, but here's how the thing looks when****embled: I had to replace the stock baseplate because I needed more room in the body after shifting the sensor down. I did the design work in Fusion 360 and then had it machined by PCB Way. I added a side plate, annodized it all black and then used my laser to brand it. The lens adapter is a mash up of a readily available one and a custom machined ring. I'm calling it the TX-1 Panovision 80.... a play off the Panavision 70 and the Fuji TX-1 panoramic camera. Full nerd stop.
Camera nerd stuff is really cool but it’s a rabbit hole that I don’t dare venture into. I knew a guy who was a camera guy, he had a machine shop in the Brooklyn Navy Yard NYC. He designed and made an adapter to mount an inexpensive but highly desirable lens onto a camera that was common but the lens choices were super expensive and limited. Not sure if that makes any sense but he made a killing selling that one adapter. I thought that was pretty interesting at the time.
That must have been a while back... Lens adapting is a huge industry now and the primary reason I'm into this silly*****. I absolutely love shooting vintage lenses on modern hardware. You really get the best of both worlds in that way. Plus, it just feels cool to shoot an old car with old glass. Vintage lenses are also the main reason I'm into Leica cameras. The lens mount hasn't changed since 1954. In fact, my main portrait lens for hot rods is a 90mm Summarit that once belonged to Eric Rickman. He used it on a Leica M3 and I use it on both my Leica M7 film camera and my Leica M11 digital camera.
The Jalopy Journal
