For those looking only for the photo gallery, you can reach it directly here: 2012 World of Wheels Show

It’s that time again, the first post of the new show season and as usual I’m going to start with the World of Wheels show at the David Lawrence Center in downtown Pittsburgh, PA.

This is the third year that I’ve shot the show, and as always it was brimming over with a large variety of cars and exhibits to enjoy. Last year, I only had a short amount of time to shoot due to the weather and the AFC Championship, but this year the weather was fantastic and the Steelers weren’t, so I was able to make it to both levels. Needless to say, the extra work was worth it.

With any show, there’s always a mix of old and new, and World of Wheels is no different. As you go through the photos, you’ll see more than a fair share of return vehicles on display. That’s OK I think; I like seeing the repeats and many times they’ve been updated in some form or another, so it can be fun to follow that progress. On the flipside, shows this early also have a higher chance of fresh metal showing up for their first outing, so it’s exciting and fun to see what projects were under wraps through the winter and are just now coming into the light. It’s also fun that people love to talk about said new projects. After all, they’ve put in a lot of time and sweat, so it’s only natural to be excited to share that with the world.

With that said, I’ve included below some of the new rides I came across from the first batch of photos uploaded tonight. With big shows like WOW and the Cleveland Autorama, it’s easier to upload photos in smaller batches as I process them than to wait and post them all at once. This way I can get photos up earlier to share than I could if I waited to post them all at once. That’s better for the viewers and fans of the show, and also for me as it takes some of the pressure off of getting images out in the public eye. In any case, definitely hop on over to the gallery to see this first batch, while in the meantime I’ll also post a few faves below just to whet your appetite in case you don’t have the time to view the gallery now. Thanks as always for looking, enjoy!

First up, this incredible Corvette-themed trike. Unlike a ‘Vette, no fiberglass was used – it’s all hand formed aluminum instead. Powered by a ’69 Camaro 6 cylinder engine, I think it’s an amazing scratch-built vehicle, and it’s owner/builder should be proud.

Adding to the fresh metal, how about this beautiful vintage Vega funny car? If you keep your eye out for it you may see it run at a track near you this year.

And for something really unique, check out this custom bike made entirely of Knex. Yeah, it’s not a legit ride, but the amount of time and design that went into it is pretty impressive. Plus, I’ve never seen anything like it before at any show ever. In fact, the whole display was a real standout.

Nice mini-mural on the tail of this very clean Mustang.

Speaking of Mustangs, how about this pink beauty? I was told by the owner that this was an original limited edition color given to Playboy Bunnies. Dealers only got six cars – 2 vinyl tops, 2 std. hardtops, and 2 convertibles, and that was it. This one has has been in the family since its purchase.

And finally, a nice 5.0, just because.

Managed to go to the Three Rivers Art Festival in downtown Pittsburgh today. It was completely by coincidence that we found out about it because we were actually in the area for a different reason altogether. I knew about the fest and roughly when it was going to take place from sometime before, but since I wasn’t participating the date just slipped my mind until a friend jogged it today while we were out. It’s times like this that having an “everywhere camera” is a good policy.

That said, I put my G12 to good use and decided to take candids for the most part, though I took some general overall snaps as well. Usually, when I attend an event like this, I tend to shoot it photojournalistically with the emphasis on telling the story of the event. This time though, I put that aside and did the candid street photo thing just because it forces me to consider a different method of working that can be very useful, plus it changes and puts perspective onto my typical compositional style as these are shot sans viewfinder and from the hip, and then culled later for images that I find striking in some way. The compositions tend to be somewhat looser than I would normally shoot if actually framing each shot, so when deciding what photos I want as my finals I’m forced to consider not only the framing, but also the value of the content as well. This of course seems like a “No shit!” basic concept, and in truth I already have considered all this as a matter of process when shooting and editing up to now, but the randomness of composition achieved by shooting from the hip forces me to look at what I consider good composition with a wider eye and perspective by giving me some fresh views to work with, so it’s a very useful way to increase my compositional vocabulary and it’s a relatively relaxing way to shoot as well.

Got all that?

Good, so let’s look at the pics. Aside from the people pics, I’ve thrown in a few architectural details that caught my eye as well for variety.

These last two have nothing to do with the Art Fest, but are a couple that I took over the last week or so that haven’t been posted yet , so I’ll tag them onto here. First is a candid from waiting for breakfast, and the other a scene from a local park that caught my eye.

Looks like I’m on a roll with Japanese titled posts this week. Today’s title Hamatteiru, is the Japanese word for “being addicted to something” or “infatuated with something”. It’s often a term the Japanese use when they’ve got a strong interest in something that consumes a greater amount of their time than usual. I use it here because that’s how I’ve been about the Ricoh GR-D III I picked up recently.

Why so crazy about it you ask? Hmm, good question. Mostly because it’s a camera that I’ve wanted for a long time now, and now that I have one I want to learn about and use it as much as I possibly can. I’m sure you know the feeling and have experienced it with something on your own, so it’s not such an odd reaction. In my case, it’s something that I frequently do with a variety of things. It’s the Jack-Of-All-Trades syndrome and I’ve had it in spades ever since I was a kid.

Getting back to the camera, one of the things I wanted to try with it was some street photography. The reason for this is that the camera is amazingly well-suited for it in a number of ways – the low-key design avoids attention; it’s very small; the lens is wider than average (28mm) and very fast too (f1.9); it has a snap-focus feature that makes for almost instant shooting, and the output at high ISOs is very usable and has a good amount of character. Together, these add up to a very able camera for off-the-cuff shooting. Further proof can be found in the fact that the famous Japanese street photographer, Daido Moriyama (森山大道) uses it regularly for his work, as well as a fair number of other very loyal pro and amateur photographers around the world.

With that in mind, this past Saturday I had a chance to give it a go when we went down to the Pittsburgh Strip District for lunch and some shopping. Always lively on a Saturday, it was the perfect environment with lots of opportunities. For shooting technique, I tried using Moriyama’s style of minimal framing and frequent stealth shooting from the hip. I didn’t want to copy him as much as simply try a technique that’s atypical for me and looked interesting and possibly useful. Results-wise, it was pretty fruitful I must say, and a relatively refreshing way to shoot that was very free, easy, flowing and candid. No one knew I shot their picture and often I was very close, maybe only a yard or two away. And while I admit I’m not a street shooter in general, it was good day’s shooting and I got some excellent photos.

With that, the proof’s in the pudding. My absolute favorite shot is the opening shot above, where the emotion of the subject just couldn’t have been captured better, bringing a big smile to me when I saw it. The rest are presented below, and while some are better than others for sure, all carry a good feeling of the atmosphere of the location. I hope you enjoy them as well. Cheers!

First up, a few B&W abstracts for fun:

And a nifty selfie with help from some exhibit at the museum:

The Ape gettin’ his digital freak on:

Someone famous ^_^:

Mr. Rogers’ Lobby:

Strip District:

And . . . . a Bitchin’ Camaro!

Highlights from this batch are below – the amazing Mercedes SLS AMG.

Highlights from this batch feature the new Hyundai Elantra:

Posting up the first installment of photos I took from the recent 2011 Pittsburgh International Auto Show at the David Lawrence Center in downtown Pittsburgh, PA. For those that want to jump straight to the gallery, here’s the link: 2011 Pittsburgh International Auto Show

The show ran from February 10th – 13th and I took all of these on the opening day, 180+ photos in total. This is the fourth year in a row that I’ve seriously tried to cover the show in detail, though earlier I’d been going as a regular spectator for fun.

One good thing that I can say about the show is that it is very consistent. Every year it has more or less the same look and feel, a similar layout and design, and a large number of manufacturers present. If you take the time to browse through the galleries from prior years, I think you’ll see what I mean pretty clearly. This is a professionally run show and that’s very apparent on all levels.

One thing that does seem to be changing over the years is the number of “eye candy” displays as I call them. These are things like displays of exotic cars and the like that are more simply there for people to ogle as auto porn than anything else. In years past, you frequently had cars displayed from Bentley, Ferrari, Lamborghini and more in addition to assorted racing and public service vehicles present as well. Lately that’s changed though, and there were none really to speak of that I saw this time around. Perhaps that’s due to the economy and such, but that’d be only a guess. Too bad though, as they added a lot of color and flair to the show beyond the everyday displays that are the norm. If any of the show promoters read this, my suggestion is to bring back more eye candy. For many people, auto shows like this are the only real opportunity to view the exotics for any extended length of time.

As for the standard displays present, this year like all the others had a good strong showing by all the major manufacturers that most people are insterested in. No Pontiac of course, and no Hummer either, but those are sad stories for another time. Of the manufacturers that were present, however, there was a nice mix of current as well as newly introduced vehicles. Off the top of my head – Kia had the new Optima on show, Hyundai the new Elantra and Sonata Hybrid; Chevy had the Volt and the tiny Sonic; Nissan was showing its Leaf, and Ford had the new Focus and a sweet Mustang Boss 302; Mazda, the new 2, and Saab with the new 95. There were a few more, but those are the ones that come to mind at the moment. Oh, wait! – Mercedes had the SLS AMG there too, and Audi had the R8 convertible.

Attendance was good from what I saw, with definitely more people there than I expected. So good in fact, that it took me a fair time longer to shoot than usual because of waiting for opportunities for photos with zero to none of the visitors included. Even then, I still had to shoot some shots with spectators in them or I would have never got a shot of the vehicle otherwise. That’s the way it rolls though, and the show’s really there for the guests anyway, so it was good to see them in numbers and enjoying the displays and vehicles.

There you have it then, if you went to the show then this should all be familiar to you and you can revisit the cars you saw through the photos. If you didn’t go, then this should be the next best thing, though I should say upfront that I didn’t get every last vehicle or manufacturer displayed as time was limited. Towards the end I shot only the standout vehicles in a booth if they were any I felt needed to be shared. It’s a judgement call ultimately, and since I shoot this for personal satisfaction and to share, and not for any compensation, there’s a bit of leeway in how much I can cover given the time I have. Still, I hope you enjoy what I’ve got, and I finish today with some shots of the Audi R8 convertible that was on display (a beautiful car!). Otherwise, the remainder of the photos will go up in a few more batches over the rest of the week, so check back often!

Lots of fine cars this year in attendance, including some new entries that I haven’t come across before at any show. The show also took up two floors this year compared to last year’s, which meant even more quality rides to see, as well as vendors, etc. Unfortunately, because my time was limited, it also meant I couldn’t cover the entire show this time, so I stayed on the lower level pretty much and shot that. Truth be told, most of the really interesting stuff (to me at least) was down there anyway, plus there were almost as many cars on that level alone as there were in the whole show last year, so it wasn’t like I was hurting for good camera fodder. Besides, the top floor was mostly trailer queens, and while I do truly appreciate the exceptional artistry and craftsmanship that those cars demonstrate, I dunno, ultimately they leave me flat. They’re too perfect, and in some ways kind of clichéd too. If ya can’t drive it after all, who the hell really cares?

As for some personal favorites from the show, or the part of the show I shot I should say, there were a number of cars that caught my eye, and those I’ve included below. The main gallery itself is located here: 2011 Pittsburgh World of Wheels, so please have a look and pick up a print or Facebook file if you see something you like or your own car even. The next event I’m planning to cover will be the 2011 Pittsburgh International Auto Show, February 10-13 at the David Lawrence Center, and the next custom car event will be the Cleveland Autorama, March 18-20.

My faves, in no particular order:

And for a bit more extreme tastes . . .

Probably the best vendor booth in the whole building . . .

Mighty fine stripin’ . . .

And finally, because I love track/race cars . . .

In case you haven’t noticed already, got a chance to go to the 2010 Steeltown Shakedown at the Twin Hi-Way Drive-In in Pittsburgh on 9/11/10. Great show and one I’d been looking forward to for most of the year. For me, it’s a first time; I found out about it via the World of Wheels show because some of the Drifters CC members had a display there and had cards. I’m a big fan of the whole retro/rat rod style of hotrod, so when I found out about the show, I knew I had to go. Another thing I knew is that I wanted to try shooting it with film and a vintage camera as I thought it would give it a real authentic feel to the photos and make them stand out a bit form what most people would take. To that end, I took my 70′s Canon Canonet rangefinder and a Kodak Brownie from 1957, along with a few rolls of B&W film for each. The bulk of my shooting was with the Canonet, but for the vehicles that really stood out, I also snapped them with the Brownie. I only had 16 shots total for the Brownie, so I had to make them count.

The show itself was a blast. A bit of a hot day, but the weather was great. I loved the cars that I saw, and mixed with the music, location, and overall vintage feel to the show, I’d say it was a blast. Too bad I couldn’t stay for the flick, “Invasion of the Saucer-Men”, but getting a chance to see the cars I did was more than enough. That, plus I’m very satisfied with the way the pics turned out, though I’m still waiting on the Brownie pics as I have to find the time to develop them myself. For yourself, have a look at the full gallery here; the few photos here are ones I think had the most retro feel.