Day 7, Austin Martin at LA Auto Show

Astin Martin at LA Auto Show, originally uploaded by solostandfound.

It is that time of year again, the LA Auto Show. I have loved to go here for years. When I first started playing with digital SLR cameras I started to learn what I was doing. I got a couple of my favorite shots of all time at the LA Auto Show. I got it because Porsche had set up a classic spider in a dim lit display. It was off the main grouping of cars that were blazing with spot lights. I went black and white and then played with the contrast to make it darker so the glare would go down.  As I look back at it now, I wish I had retouched the glare spots.  Well, I can still do that.

So a show like this is really hard to use for great shots. The lighting is so harsh and the glare off of these highly polished cars makes it tough to get what you think you can. That makes it essential to change things up. Point of view becomes a highly important part of setting up the shot. The lights are all overhead, making the glare tough from a normal standing position. I have found that if you will get low, you can get some fantastic shots. The next obstacle is all of the people. Getting low can help here too since you can use the car to block them out. Other tricks to shooting shows? Macro shots, detail shots and careful use of aperture.  Here are some other shots from the shot this year.  Things to look for can include, models (not too many this year), signs, emblems, wheels, and engine details.  Others like to find the top 10 whatever, concept, whacky, orange, powerful, convertible, ...  

This year I went with some good friends and it was his son's first time out with the guys.  He and I shot all of these images together as I was his merit badge counselor.  The credit for the Bentley Wheel and the Shelby Decal is for him, Jacob Meza, he did a good job and payed attention to figure out a good shot.

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Austin Martin

Camera:	Canon EOS Digital Rebel XTi
Exposure:	0.017 sec (1/60)
Aperture:	f/5
Focal Length:	18 mm
ISO Speed:	400
Exposure Bias:	0/3 EV

Porsche Spyder 1

Camera:	Canon EOS Digital Rebel
Exposure:	0.02 sec (1/50)
Aperture:	f/5
Focal Length:	39 mm
ISO Speed:	100
Exposure Bias:	0 EV

Porsche Spyder 2

Camera:	Canon EOS Digital Rebel
Exposure:	0.025 sec (1/40)
Aperture:	f/4.5
Focal Length:	28 mm
ISO Speed:	100
Exposure Bias:	0 EV