fourpointedstar

I looked inside of this car and thought, “Did he have to pay someone to paint the engine parts to match the car? Or maybe he painted it all himself?”

I love the fact that this car’s owner has chosen red accents for his engine but left the dipstick blue. It’s perfect.

This engine sits flat underneath the Corvair’s “pickup” bed; making it even more of an oddity, not simply because it’s a van front end with a pickup back end.

I tend to capture the outside of cars at car shows; I’d say only 5% of my photos are of under the hood or inside the cabin. However, sometimes an engine is visually interesting – this engine is from a Cars & Coffee back in 2022.

Keith was the first Elgin photographer that I met. He’s a full time professional photographer, president of the Elgin Area Camera Club, & on the Board of Directors for Horses & Heroes. He has been a friend for more than 10 years, & I’m excited to talk about running a photo business and still enjoying photography.

During her interview, Lauri Novak showed us her photo project where she photographed shadows around the house – this photo is an homage to her project!

When we visited St Louis with the marching band in 2022, this was the view out of our hotel room. The night before, I wandered around near the Arch, and captured some fantastic photos, but in the morning this was our view – absolutely spectacular!

Sure, if you go to a classic car show, the mid-50’s Chevy BelAirs are almost as popular as the late 60’s Mustangs, but it’s for a reason. The BelAirs are simply rolling works of art … absolutely stunning, eye catching, and head turning.

Another wonderful photo from the Elgin History Museum’s annual Classic Car Show. Everyone knows what a 1957 Chevy Belair looks like, so it’s always challenging to find a unique take on this incredibly classic of the classic cars. But, if there’s a late 60’s muscle car with awesome rims next to it? Well, now that’s kinda unique.

I’m excited to interview Doug Hanson about his photography. Doug specializes in antique photography methods, and his enthusiasm and friendliness has helped many others learn about the history and techniques of analogue photography. Doug has presented his art at exhibitions throughout the Chicago area and around the world.

…someday I will learn to take a photo of the entire car, or at least of the tag with the car’s information at car shows, but the day that I photographed this car was not that day…

Earlier in the morning, before the Elgin History Museum’s Classic Car Show technically started, there were a few showers that rolled through. While most of the cars arrived after the rain or their owners cleaned the cars off, this dripping wet Thunderbird lent itself to some unique photos.

Lauri’s Abstract Architecture photos have captured my imagination since I first saw them. Her images of “Art in Cars” continue to challenge my interest in photographing cars. Lauri teaches others about seeing the world around them in its true beauty & capturing the world in a unique way. I’m honored to talk with Lauri about how she “Sees” the world with her own unique style.

I love photographing these little hoverflies; they’re so tiny and true to their name, tend to hover from location to location. This little one seemed to be waiting for the sun to reappear.

This was the perfect sunset sky interrupted by the perfect little sliver of the moon, so of course, I pulled over and took a few photos.

I’m thrilled to interview Ira Marcus as my next Photo Friend. Ira brings a passion and artistic taste to his work, no matter if it’s capturing a beautiful still life scene, pursuing nature photography, or using his photo skills to help a local nonprofit.

The day of the most recent solar eclipse was very sunny in southern Indiana, and this little hoverfly was taking full advantage of the sun and the spring flowers.

Last year, we began completely recreating our south-facing yard as a prairie with native plants. I have always loved the look of these and their gorgeous stringy mop of a hairdo!

Watching the ants crawl across the peonies is a special kinda of therapy; my goal when attempting to capture this photo was to get an ant in the photo. The ants, however, we’re very cooperative, so instead I captured a bit more abstract of an image.

I’m thrilled to interview an incredibly talented artist, Nick Mataragas about his various artistic pursuits including his street photography.

Once you’ve gone to your third car show, you’ve seen the “normal” cars – the 1994 and newer Mustangs, the 57 Chevys, and the brand new Corvettes. But every once in a while you see an unusual car like this one. Did I keep track of what car this was? No, of course not.

I’m certain that the goddess is holding something from greek or roman legend, but to me it looks like a discus or a small tire and made me chuckle.

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Who decided that a flying bird was the best emblem for this Ford’s hood ornament? What person walked into a business meeting and said “Yeah, I think a chicken looking bird is perfect!”

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Every time that I have been to the Wauconda Cruise Night, there is at least one Duesenberg at the end of the main street. They’re absolutely spectacular cars, and I love photographing them!

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When I purchased my Sony camera, I knew that I would want a macro lens (since my old one was for Nikon). I settled on the Laona 100mm f2.8 with manual focus – mostly because it was the least expensive 2x macro (by far). It can be exhausting to get the focus correct, but when it’s right, it’s absolutely lovely!

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There’s a certain delight in seeing the shag carpet look of this moth in the daylight. This beautiful insect just hung there for the entire hour that we were inside the butterfly house at Peggy Notebaert.

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For the past few years, Sarah and I have visited Peggy Notebaert Nature Museum in downtown Chicago; they have a wonderful year-round butterfly sanctuary/exhibit. In the winter, it’s a wonderful break from the cold and grey.
This winter it was way too busy, but we finally made it down there for our anniversary last weekend.

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Whenever I attend car shows, I try to take some time to walk through the spectator’s parking lot. This Mustang was just sitting there, looking angry, waiting for someone to take a photo.
While I was taking the photo, another Mustang owner parked right next to this car and asked me if it was my car – sadly no.

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This was an interesting concept, but poor execution. The idea was that the sparks from the steel wool would look like they were coming out of the tailpipe, but – well, you gotta have your angles right. And since that’s me spinning the steel wool, well, my camera angle was all wrong. Oh well, I still think it’s a cool shot of Keith on his bike.

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Over the past 10 years, the Elgin Area Camera Club has hosted a steel wool photography opportunity three times. This image is from our most recent outing, and I’m actually the one who is spinning the wool in this image – I set up my camera and someone else pushed the shutter, so this is more of a collaborative image, you might say.

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