I am a big fan of going to car shows, but they are always a challenge to photograph due to how close cars are parked together, and of course people walking all around them. For that reason, I usually bring a 50mm lens and focus on getting detail shots. This time, I decided to bring my new Sony 24mm f/1.4 G Master lens so I could still get wide shots, but also shallow depth of field to make the busy car show background start to disappear. Like everything I have used this lens for, I really liked the results. The Park in the Park Car Show in Rio Rancho was celebrating its 20th anniversary with over 300 cars, all of which had to be 35 years or older, which is just fine with me as anything newer than that is not classic in mind.
The BMW Car Club New Mexico Chapter got invited to a very unique car show right at the top of a mountain at Santa Fe Ski Resort! We actually drove from the Sanat Fe BMW dealership on to the foot of the ski slope itself! Yes, that means my M3 along with a host of other sports cars and classic cars actually went off road. This could not have been a more stunning setting and a fantastic day overall. It felt like a whole different world up there. We capped the day with a hike up to the summit of the mountain, some 11,000+ feet of elevation! To top it all off, they had great veggie burgers grilled right before us with green chili and homemade cookies. In a side note, from the photo below you can see that Jessica and I are living in two totally different temperature zones!
For regular readers of this photography website, I often say when I go to car shows I usually focus on detail shots of cars because getting good, full shots are nearly impossible due to lots of people around, other cars parked too closely, and often bad light. There were not so many people around this classic Cadillac Coupe deVille, but I still mostly focused on the details because they were so interesting to me. What kind of car has two hood emblems? When is the B-pillar all the was in the back and emblazoned with yet another badge? Then what I am pretty sure did not come from the factory, how often do you see a skull floating in the cabin?
Going for details with car show photography in Albuquerque
To my surprise the car show featured at Albuquerque Summerfest 2019 was much bigger than I expected. As with most car shows, get photos of entire cars is a challenge due to people walking all around the cars, so as is my usual custom, I focus on getting detail shots, this time with my trusty 50mm f/1.8 lens. In the lead photo I cleaned up the background removing a few people to leave a clean shot of the front of a powerful yellow 427 balanced by the double center white line passing through the bottom of the frame. I look for contrasting lines, with the double white and then the black stripe on the car.
At car shows it is hard to get a great shot of a complete car due to lack of space, lots of people, and lots of reflections in the sparkling paint jobs on display. That’s why I often focus on details and bring either my macro lens or my 50mm lens to show off one particular feature of a car that catches my eye. I really like the dashboards of classic cars so I always get some of those shots. This time what stood out to me most was the largest convertible hard top I have ever seen frozen in motion (see above). Or maybe it was the 1950s car seat??? (see below) What stands out the most to you from the 35th Annual NMCCC Museum Car Show?
Car shows are in fact, a very hard place to actually photograph cars in. That’s why when I go to them, I often just bring my 50mm lens, or in this case my Tamron 90mm macro lens. For the SuperNationals Custom Car Show 2019 in Albuquerque I guessed it would be crowded, people walking into potential photos from all directions, and the cars would be bunched in close together and often roped off. All this was the case so I was glad I decided to focus on getting details shots of the custom cars there with my macro lens.
This rat rod style hot rod at a small car show in Rio Rancho caught my eye for where it was parked, as well as how it looked. I cannot say I had ever seen a parking space marked "SENIOR ADULT" before. Does that mean there must be a junior adult or a senior child space somewhere in the world? This hot rod was about as ratty as they can come, and I mean no offense by that! It looked awesome and make me think I needed a tetanus shot just for standing next to it!
