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Woodies through the eyes of a baby
That is… Woodies through the eyes of a LensBaby
I had the great pleasure of making the drive over the hill to Santa Cruz early this morning to meet BeachBill for the Annual Woodies on the Wharf gathering at Santa Cruz California which featured over 200 woodies.
In addition to being an amazing photographer, BeachBill also sells a woodie calendar with his wonderful images!! He’s an expert at shooting these spectacular cars! On the other hand – I had no clue what to do and made my life even more difficult by shooting mainly with my new lensbaby even though I brought a bag of glass and an IR body.
Thank you so much for teaching me how to photograph woodies and for giving me a lesson in cars photography! These frames were all taken with my lensbaby composer with the double optic glass.
#1: Woodies at the Wharf. However, I have to disagree; Huntington Beach, CA is the Real Surf City, USA and not Santa Cruz, CA
*Bill’s words of wisdom -- Composition. Pay close attention to the background and use it for illustration. In case, frame the hood ornament against the wood
#2: Surfing against the wood
#3: Red, Green(ish) and Blue. I really liked how bending the lens created a very unique composition.
*Bill’s words of wisdom – Wait until the frame is clean of people. In my case, wait until almost clear and use the odd DOF to my advantage. Near the end, I took a few frames with my standard glass (and IR too), but I just wasn’t as happy with them. It was more difficult to get a clean frame without distractions due to people and other extraneous objects (trash cans, buildings, light poles, etc).
#4: Wood on Wood with Wood
*Bill’s words of wisdom – Pay attention to the details. Look at the color and the distinct markings
#5: Pontiac, I think. I could be wrong – I don’t know cars.
*Bill’s words of wisdom – Focus on the contrast between color and wood. Cars have textures, curves and lines.
#6: VW woodie! I didn’t know that a bug could be a woodie!
*Bill’s words of wisdom – License plates are very important. Cars owners are proud and show it!
#7: (Was a Tree) – now a car
*Bill’s words of wisdom – Don’t forget the inside of the car as well.
#8: Ford
#9: Beautiful Wooden Doors
#10: Woodies and surfing go hand in hand
*Bill’s words of wisdom – Reflections. Reflections. Reflections. They’re everywhere… pay attention, change eye level – look for them. The owners polish their beloved vehicles until they shine
#11: Woodie next to a woodie
*Bill’s words of wisdom – Even amid a group of showroom quality cars, there will be a few that are extra-special. Look for them!
#12: A Rolls Royce Woodie!
#13: Bill --- Thank you for spending the morning with me and teaching me how to photograph woodies! I couldn’t have done this without you.
Other words of wisdom from Bill
*Woodies look better in color rather than B&W; color matters (true!)
*Woodies do not look good in IR (surprisingly true!)
*Arrive early before the crowd. Otherwise, it’s difficult to get an uncluttered composition
*Shoot when the cars arrive
*Shoot when the cars leave
I’m very new to car photography and this was my first shoot with the lens baby. C&C welcome and appreciated. If you have any tips on using a lensbaby, please share! It’s not an easy lens to use and I was fighting the itty bitty piece of glass while I was on the wharf! If you ever get a chance to shoot a woodie, go!!!!!
The rest of the images can be found here I processed maingly two ways -- contrast or with an older antique sytling.
I had the great pleasure of making the drive over the hill to Santa Cruz early this morning to meet BeachBill for the Annual Woodies on the Wharf gathering at Santa Cruz California which featured over 200 woodies.
In addition to being an amazing photographer, BeachBill also sells a woodie calendar with his wonderful images!! He’s an expert at shooting these spectacular cars! On the other hand – I had no clue what to do and made my life even more difficult by shooting mainly with my new lensbaby even though I brought a bag of glass and an IR body.
Thank you so much for teaching me how to photograph woodies and for giving me a lesson in cars photography! These frames were all taken with my lensbaby composer with the double optic glass.
#1: Woodies at the Wharf. However, I have to disagree; Huntington Beach, CA is the Real Surf City, USA and not Santa Cruz, CA
*Bill’s words of wisdom -- Composition. Pay close attention to the background and use it for illustration. In case, frame the hood ornament against the wood
#2: Surfing against the wood
#3: Red, Green(ish) and Blue. I really liked how bending the lens created a very unique composition.
*Bill’s words of wisdom – Wait until the frame is clean of people. In my case, wait until almost clear and use the odd DOF to my advantage. Near the end, I took a few frames with my standard glass (and IR too), but I just wasn’t as happy with them. It was more difficult to get a clean frame without distractions due to people and other extraneous objects (trash cans, buildings, light poles, etc).
#4: Wood on Wood with Wood
*Bill’s words of wisdom – Pay attention to the details. Look at the color and the distinct markings
#5: Pontiac, I think. I could be wrong – I don’t know cars.
*Bill’s words of wisdom – Focus on the contrast between color and wood. Cars have textures, curves and lines.
#6: VW woodie! I didn’t know that a bug could be a woodie!
*Bill’s words of wisdom – License plates are very important. Cars owners are proud and show it!
#7: (Was a Tree) – now a car
*Bill’s words of wisdom – Don’t forget the inside of the car as well.
#8: Ford
#9: Beautiful Wooden Doors
#10: Woodies and surfing go hand in hand
*Bill’s words of wisdom – Reflections. Reflections. Reflections. They’re everywhere… pay attention, change eye level – look for them. The owners polish their beloved vehicles until they shine
#11: Woodie next to a woodie
*Bill’s words of wisdom – Even amid a group of showroom quality cars, there will be a few that are extra-special. Look for them!
#12: A Rolls Royce Woodie!
#13: Bill --- Thank you for spending the morning with me and teaching me how to photograph woodies! I couldn’t have done this without you.
Other words of wisdom from Bill
*Woodies look better in color rather than B&W; color matters (true!)
*Woodies do not look good in IR (surprisingly true!)
*Arrive early before the crowd. Otherwise, it’s difficult to get an uncluttered composition
*Shoot when the cars arrive
*Shoot when the cars leave
I’m very new to car photography and this was my first shoot with the lens baby. C&C welcome and appreciated. If you have any tips on using a lensbaby, please share! It’s not an easy lens to use and I was fighting the itty bitty piece of glass while I was on the wharf! If you ever get a chance to shoot a woodie, go!!!!!
The rest of the images can be found here I processed maingly two ways -- contrast or with an older antique sytling.
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Bill should get a lot of the credit; he passion for woodies is contagious and it rubbed off on me! And it's not hard focusing on the important details when you have an expert sharing the secret handshake.
It's really hard to use, especially since it's a manual focus. And when you add the tilt aspect to it, the brain can explode.
I thinking trying to shoot hockey with at T&S helped me with the LB.
Combo of luck, Bill and the LB.
I took a handful with my G9 with roughly the same composition....
G9 -- f/3.2. LB version shot f/4
And look how the LB cleaned up the background. Composition and framing really matters.
G9: Cars are beautiful, but the background - UGLY.
My lesson of the day: Sometimes, you don't need a bag full of glass/filters/toys. All you really need is a body, a single piece glass, and your eye.
This also makes me want to go shooting with you again ASAP!
Fantastic work, really! You made a line of cars on a busy pier turn into beautiful art.
Photos that don't suck / 365 / Film & Lomography
Excuse my ignorance but what is "LB"? Never mind (Lens Baby)
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Also I'm humbled by your comments about me. I'm glad you were able to get something out of all of my ramblings...
P.S. I see you remembered that I said the that hood ornament was a Pontiac but then I became confused because the car said it was a Chevrolet. Well, later that afternoon I heard the owner telling someone he had used a hood from Pontiac when restoring his Chevrolet!
And yes! We must shoot again with each other! We must! We must! We must!
That's exactly how i felt on the wharf -- i was given a crash course in car photography!
Oh baby! Selective focusing does work! I guess shooting hockey using at T&S has trained my eyes to look beyond the standard shot!
I know that you'll do fabulously with a lensbaby!
Yep -- Lensbaby! It isn't for everyone and it's a bit gimmicky, but I think it has it's place.
Thank you so much for showing me how to photography cars!
And a Pontiac hood ornament on a Chevy??? Why???
Did you post any of your photos?
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My dad sold Oldsmobile, Buick, Cadillac and GMC trucks for many years until his death in October of 1963 (just as the ’64s were to come out). I can remember that if you knew you parts you could save money making mechanical repairs by using some made for the others on a Cadillac! They did have different part numbers so you had to really know what you were looking for.
Also, at another time, he had a gal and her husband (she happened to have been my 6th grade teacher some years before) looking at Olds but liking a color she had seen at the local Pontiac dealer. They were the same color just named different for the different lines of GM cars! He was unable to convince her of that and lost that particular sale to them; although they did buy other times from him.
Then at the time I bought a ’78 Pontiac Grand Prix they were using Buick engines at the factory in that model of Pontiac!
Soooo I can see how in restoring an old vehicle a part from a different brand from the same “family” of cars might be used if the exact item can’t be found.
Jane B.
I never knew! Thank you so much for the insight! I learn something new everyday
I only had that lens for about 12 hours when I shot the woodies and I didn't know the power of that lens until I forced myself to use it.
I recently came across Mark Reis' current portfolio (the photos might change later on -- check it out now).
Amazing.... It's one of the best sport portraits that I've ever seen! It makes me want to go out and attempt this!
And they're shot with a lensbaby.
Hope to see more SmugMuggers out there this year.
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