Bodie California

Here are a few shots from Bodie a ghost town east of the Sierras. 

AGS Auto Parts

When I saw this auto parts store in Cottage Grove Oregon I thought it would be perfect for HDR. It seemed like a very small place to have an engine rebuilt, but I imagine most of the is in the back of the store.

Broke Down In Bodie

I found what is left of this car outside a house in Bodie State Historic Park. 

1959 - 1960 Chevy Impala

This second generation 1959 -1960 Chevy Impala convertible was at the 2014 Summer Fest in Antioch.

Down But Not Forgotten

This shot is part of an idea I had when I saw this gorge full of discarded cars and trash. I went on a hike with my daughter and saw this gorge but did not have my camera with me. The next year we returned with plans of crossing the river but the run off from Lake Chelan was quite intense compared to the same time the year before. The year before we could have walked across the river to get to the gorge. The images below show what we were up against, I had to come up with another idea if I wanted to get there. So as I left with an unsuccessful attempt to get to the gorge I kept my eyes open and noticed a piece of property on the other side of the river with a dirt road leading to it. So the next day we searched for the road and hiked down the river bank on large boulders not sure if we could even get there. As I hiked I kept in mind our safety and hoped we could hike without causing an avalanche. When we got there and I was shooting my leg sunk into the rocks causing my foot to get buried and scraped the side of my ankle. I had an idea of shooting up the gorge and making the cars look like a modern art sculpture but that idea did not work. I have a few more shots I am working on from this shoot.

This is a shot from the hike on the first day. The year before we could have walked across the river.

Everything including the kitchen sink. I can not imagine seeing this view and thinking this would be a great place to dump my trash. 

Cowboy Car

I saw this 1936 Chevrolet Standard at the 2014 Summer Fest in Antioch. With the guns and skull with horns made me think of Roy Rogers     Pontiac Bonneville customized by Nudie Cohn.

69 Chevy Camaro

I always liked the Chevy Camaro my favorite was the 1967 SS the first year and very similar to this 1969. One of my favorite parts was the look of the cowel induction hood along with the sleek body lines. I saw this at Summer Fest 2014 in Antioch.

Kellogg's Diamond T California Adventure

This Kellogg's truck is a 1930's model Diamond T I have previously photographed one in the post Diamond T Truck while in Toppenish Washington. This one was located in California Adventure and restored to its former glory.

1957 Pontiac Safari

I was shooting a truck at Bob's Christmas tree lot when this car pulled up. I planned to link this to the truck post but I realized I have not posted that yet, I will post the truck soon. When I talked to the owner of the Pontiac Safari he said his wife got angry when he brought this home. The floor boards were rusted out and now that it is restored she loves it. 

UPDATE: I was told by Val Ramsey that this is actually a 1957 Pontiac Safari.

Cars Land California Adventure

This is Cars Land at California Adventure my favorite thing about Cars Land is the details like the flowers that are made out of taillights and the pots are tires in the first image. Disney did a good job making you feel like you are in Cars Land everything down to the traffic light blinking slower every third time.

George Carlin played Fillmore in the Cars movie and I still regret not taking the time to go see his comedy act. 

37 Nash LaFayette

This is a 1937 Nash LaFayette in 1937 Nash acquired LaFayette Motors. I was told about this for about this car for two months and made one prior attempt to photograph it, but there was a car parked right in front of it. I am glad I shot it the day I did the owner moved and covered it with a car cover the day after I shot it. The city told him to move it. It is for sale I forgot the though owners name (I failed to write it down) his phone number is (925) 687-6024. He was out by the time I shot the second series of images and we talked for about half an hour. He has three of the hub caps but removed them after one was stolen. He has owned it for 12 years. If he sold this from this post it would not be the first car I helped sell. I have helped sell some of the cars that were in the wrecking yard just outside Toppenish Washington.

I had planned to put a slight sepia tone on the images because I thought the car and the house look like the are both from the same time period. It is a good thing because of the significant amount of chromatic aberration that HDR Effex Pro 2 produces where the dark foliage meets the sky. I have talked to Nik about size of loupe for chromatic aberration, it is very small I have a 25" screen and 1-2 inch loupe seems ridiculous given the real estate on my screen. I shot the image with a Canon 17-40mm lens at 17mm which creates barrel distortion. This is not the only image I have had trouble with I tried for over an hour to adjust for the chromatic aberration and it seems that when you adjust for one portion of the image another part has a problem. If I wanted to keep this image in color I would have to spend a considerable amount of time removing the fringing. I am going to work this image up in Photomatix and see if I have any better luck with this type of image. I shot the image at ƒ/11 and the article on the link about fringing says you can reduce the chances of fringing by shooting three stops from wide open most often somewhere around ƒ/5.6 or ƒ/8. I will also try adjusting my aperture and see if that remedies the problem although that affects the depth of field and will be a problem especially on landscape images.

Old Truck Town of Chelan

 I have been going to Chelan, Washington almost once a year for most of my life and there is one thing I have noticed on the way to and from Chelan. When a truck no longer needed it does not go away it becomes part of the farm or orchard, I guess it's a way to pay homage to the old work horse, just like putting an old horse out to pasture.

McDonald's Old Style

This is the  McDonald's in Yakima Washington it is strait out of the 1950's. This how McDonald's looked when they were franchised in May of 1953 the second McDonald's was opened in Phoenix, Arizona by Neil Fox an executive at Occidental Petroleum. Under the single arch located up on the roof is the original McDonald's mascot Speedee, he was later replaced by Ronald McDonald. Inside they have a McDonald's themed motorcycle, a 1959 Cadillac Eldorado Biarritz you can eat in along with a 1957 Chevy Bel Air. They also have a Rockola jukebox and the interior of the building is decorated with pictures of 1950's icon's from Rock and Roll to Hollywood movie stars.