Cars and Cameras

Cool old cars are always something to write about.  I was a car buff when I was a teen, as I'm sure most red blooded Americans were, and I've grown out of it, as so many other have.  The term "Stock" replaced "Modified" whenever a car became the topic of discussion, and that's the way I like them today.  When it comes to photographs, stock or modified doesn't matter, as long as the vehicle has style.  This portrait was taken with a Hasselblad medium format camera and 60mm lens.  A quick note for those not too familiar with Medium format yet, 80mm is a Standard lens, as a 50mm is Standard for a 35mm format camera.  So, 60mm in Medium format is a wide angle lens, whereas a 60mm in 35mm camera format would be a telephoto.  The negative itself is 2 1/4 inches by 2 1/4 inches square.  That's 6 centimeters by 6 centimeters, shortened to "6x6".  They also make a 6x4.5, 6x7, 6x9.  No, you can not turn your 35mm into a Medium format, don't try it.

This little car here was in the parking garage near the hotel I stayed at in Paris.  I didn't bother to get the make or model off it, I really didn't care, it was just a cool car.  I put the Hassy on the ground for this shot and just angled it up a little bit to catch everything in the viewfinder.  I had to be careful as there was a pidgeon in the rafter above me, watching, and waiting, but I got the shot before he could do anything nasty to me.  I think it came out pretty darn good.  There was another car there in the garage I got a picture of, looked like an old Citreon, but again, I didn't bother to find out, I just took the picture.  The film for this one was Ilford Pan F Plus.  The other was shot with Rollei Pan 25.  Also on this trip I caught a Masarati next to the Eiffel Tower, and back in Germany I caught a Ferrari in Nurnberg.  Beautiful cars with style.