Brit Euro Car Show 2018

Into it’s 3^rd year the annual Brit Euro Car show held at Lloyd Elsmore Park, Pakurang;  is an event which  is showing great signs of growth. In 2016 there where approx.  250 cars, today just short of 800 classic and modern vehicles on show.

Cars can pose a series of interesting challenges when photographing. The most common one is reflection and even more so on some of the much older cars where chrome played a pivotal part in adding to the appearance.

The conditions where slightly overcast to start with so I decided to include a polariser on one of the lenses.  I had my trusty Canon 7D equipped with a 28-300mm L Lens, and as backup a Canon 700D with the EFS 10-18mm wide angle.

Having two cameras’ with different lenses provided the variation I required.

As expected the public where out in force so you need to be patient. There are many car enthusiasts who love to get close and personal and this in itself can provide plenty of additional opportunities.

As the show was familiar to me, I knew in advance what to expect and therefore new what I wanted to try and achieve. My goals for today;

 (1)      Close-up shots of key features of the cars

 (2)      Capture the cars in motion as they left the venue.

 (3)      Focus on elements for use in a digital composition project.

First up close-ups. This I predominantly used my 7D with a Canon 28-300m L series Lens. This gave me good reach and provided shallow depth of field (F4.5) to soften or blur some of the background.  

My first shot was of an old dashboard from a Bentley. I decided to shoot this in black and white with only a few minor tweaks in Photoshop. The photo is ok but struggled to get a good angle due to so many objects around. Perhaps I should have gone with my Wide angle?

F7.1 iso200, 1/120sec -1ev, 200mm

f4, iso200, 1/100, 135mm

Next up, capturing cars leaving the venue. I think this was the easiest part. I knew where to sit and decided to work towards capturing a little more motion. This meant a slower shutter speed and focus on tracking the vehicle.

f7, ISO200, 1/80, 70mm

I like the results, not to sharp but just enough softness to give the effect of motion. Besides most of these classic cars are driven with the care and attention they deserve so no high-speed hoons here.

I’m always mindful when capturing photos of general public and where possible I try to make myself known that I am photographing. The following shot shows a group of old car enthusiast obviously talking about the good old days very natural and I like the connection with the car.

f16, ISO200, 1/80, 135mm

In contrast just over the way, a new budding enthusiast admiring a car which must look like a space ship to him.

f8, ISO100, 1/100, 200mm

My last challenge will be revealed in a few weeks, but I can tell you I did find a great subject and will be working towards creating a digital composition for show and tell.

Will be the subject of my Composition

So no real issues in terms of shooting conditions. ISO ratings pretty steady staying between 100 and 200 mark. Exposure needed to be tweaked on a few occasions (-1ev) where I faced semi-in direct sunlight or heavy glare. My shutter speeds tended sit around 1/120 as I shot mostly using my AV setting.

The only thing I did consider midway through the day was adjust my white balance from Cloudy to Sun.

So only a small amount of photography today, 240 shots, and thus turned out to be a nice easy relaxing day photographing some wonderful cars.

Enjoy and keep on clicking.