A Guest Post by PBA Don Barone
Buckle up, this is weird.
I’m a car guy.
Old cars, fast old cars, 1960’s muscle.
So around here, I get invited to car shows to take pictures. I love it and always say yes unless the grandkids are here.
I've gone to dozens of shows over the years and have never taken shots of an entire car/truck yet, and will never.
Every shot is up close.
So, when I get the invite, this is how I show up: G.T.O. by Ronny & The Daytonas on level 8 blasting through my headphones. Canon 5D Mark III with an EF25 Extension Tube connected to a 100mm Macro lens with the whole rig then attached to a 62-inch monopod.
That’s it.
I don’t do portraits of people or cars. I zoom in on life and metal. There’s art in a headlight, a mirror, a fender…and yes…even rust. Whenever possible, I prefer rust.
Rust tells a story. Rust is the ancestor of all things shiny; it never fails that when I shoot the rusty truck instead of the shiny Corvette, I’m tapped on the shoulder and hear, “She’s a beauty, huh? It's a farm truck, you know, been with us since I was a kid, learned to drive in that truck.”
And that is where the story begins. “You know this car here, me and the Misses, our first date was in this car,” or “My father loved this car, he was a Ford guy, you know, Ford guy worked the late shift 3rd line at the Ford plant, you know.”
Every car comes with a memory, every car comes with a story; it is not a transportation show, it’s a heritage show. History among the ages and paste wax.
If you find yourself taking photos at a car show, some advice:
Always…ALWAYS ask if you can take a photo of the car. Now, of course, the show is open to the public and many times on public property, and you have every right to take a photo, but it is the ASK that brings out the story of the car.
If I take a photo of a car, I always hand the owner of the car my business card, and I tell them to reach out to me in a week or so if they would like a photo of the car. And I never charge the owner for a photo of their car.
That’s right, I never charge the owner for the photo, but I do ask that if someone else wants the photo, if I have their permission to sell the image. No one has ever said I couldn’t sell the photo.
A car show is not an assignment to me; it is something I love to do. I love the rows of Classic Automobiles and dig the people who restore and care for them. A couple of free photos are well worth the gig to me.
One other big tip:
When you shoot close, the cars are very clean. Clean enough for reflections. Can’t tell you how many times this has happened to me.
And then there’s this:
A couple summers ago at a local car show I took a photo through a car window of a steering wheel. I've done it dozens of times. A couple months later, that photo ends up in a Smithsonian story.
True Story.
