On a recent rural land real estate photo trip to Las Cruces I returned to an area I was in just six weeks earlier. Reaching that rural land property was some of the hardest offroad driving I have had to do in New Mexico. Checking the maps I knew the recent property would require the exact same troublesome washed out, dirt road. However, the desert is an ever changing landscape and this time the road was totally different. Gone were the washed out foot wide gaps, filled in by a chalky sand. This became its own hazard as the chalky sand was inches deep and I had to switch to “sand” traction mode to get through the deeper sections!
First time shooting for Bonhams Auction House in Santa Fe
I got a sudden call from Bonhams Auction House to photograph a beautiful Alfa Romeo Spider Veloce up in Santa Fe this week. This was a very nice surprise! I contacted the owner and arranged a time to bring my camera and tripod to make auction style photographs of the car. Shooting a car for auction photographs means shooting it from every single angle to start, then if it is a convertible like this Alfa Romeo is, repeating that with the top down! My favorite part of the shoot is being freed from the tripod to walk around the car with my macro lens on looking for unique details of the car. I finish with using off camera flash to make the interior shots.
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?
I have now had my Jeep Renegade Trailhawk for one year. It has become as integral a part of my photography business as anything in my camera bag. I put almost exactly 20,000 miles on it in that year’s time! I regularly travel to all corners of New Mexico for photography work, often with the last few miles of each of those trips being off road. Switching from a compact sedan to a Jeep has allowed me to do more photo work without having to rush to get a rental vehicle back so when I am at these remote places, I can add on a visit to places like City of Rocks. In this past year the Jeep has also taken me through Monument Valley, Durango, Colorado, Phoenix, Arizona, and more! No matter where I have driven it, and what I have driven it over and through, the Renegade has not let me down!
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!
Those that know me, know that I love cars, well, special cars. Not all have to be as special as my beloved Aston Martin Vanquish (some day!), but even just the ability to go anywhere, do anything is enough. Getting serious speed in a car is not that affordable, especially for newer models. However, getting serious offroad ability is. When I traded in my faithful and much loved Mazda3 sedan in March for the Jeep Renegade Trailhawk you see here, I was giving up great, affordable on road driving dynamics for the ability to drive offroad anywhere a stock vehicle could.
