“Royal Blue Sky”
August 27th, 2024
Tagged: auto show
Since many of the cars were crowded or muddy, I had to come up with a different strategy for photographing at Sonny Acres Farm. So I turned to the iconic nameplates that showed up, including the embossed Porsche on this 928.
ChiTown Exotic Car Club hosted a car show at Sonny Acres Farm. It may have been the oddest site that I’ve been to for a car show; and it had been rainy recently, so it was very muddy. Overall, I did see quite a few rare cars, but it was very difficult to capture interesting photos due to the large crowd and the fact that the cars were so tightly packed.
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.
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.
…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…
If you attend too many car shows, you may begin to get bored of all of the late 60’s Mustangs. Don’t get me wrong, their a beautiful car, but after you’ve seen the 400th, you may want to photograph literally anything else.
Unless you see the perfect shade of blue with perfect chrome accents… In that case, it may rekindle your joy in photographing Ford’s wonderful muscle car.
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.
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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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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At nearly every car show or meet, it’s difficult to get a great photo of a “cool” car. However, capturing an iconic detail is often a matter of patience.
Everyone has seen a photograph of a Lamborghini which makes photographing a Lamborghini in a unique way an interesting challenge. How can I photograph this famous supercar in a way that is familiar but also new and interesting? The direct sunlight helped so much in this photo, bringing out the shine in the rim and the paint job, but I am also fond of the double point in the nose of the car.
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A month ago at photo club, we had a group of photographers edit various photos so that the club could see various styles and choices. I submitted a few “bad” photos to the group of editors and one of my friends took my bad photo of this 918 Spyder and created an image similar to my edit above. I was amazed at how he’d taken a photo that I’d written off and created something gorgeous!
…to be clear, the image above is my recreation of his edit…
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I think most boys who grew up in the 1980s had a poster of the Countach on their wall, or they at least had a friend who had that poster on their bedroom wall. So it came as a surprise to see an obviously-not-from-the-80’s Countach at the Auto Show. As it turns out, Lamborghini sold a hybrid supercar and in honor of the 50th Anniversary of the original Countach, they gave this new hypercar that classic name. The styling is reminiscent of the original, and the new Countach looks even cooler in person!
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I love taking photos of cars, but I’m not that much of a mechanical car guy; however, I do recognize the “Lingenfelter” name and was happy to talk with the owner of this beautiful Camaro with a very unique paint color.
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2025 Ford Mustang GTD, 2024 Chicago Auto Show
According to my notes, this was my 8th trip to the Chicago Auto Show to take photos. The show is much smaller than in previous years, but there’s always cool lines to photograph!
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What’s cooler than a fully tricked out hot rod?
Wauconda Cruise In always puts on a good show, and this year, I was able to attend in both July and August.
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