Rules were mean to be broken.

Spotted on walkabout in San Francisco the other day.

G1, kit lens at 16mm

Sort of like a red rag to a bull. OK, pink in this case.

And our hand is in your pocket.

A pithy little bit of editorial from one of San Francisco’s citizens who isn’t buying it.

G1, kit lens at 31mm

A fine work.

Another example of the fine architecture to be found in the central California Old Town section of Salinas, an area much pictured by Depression Era photographers like Walker Evans and Dorothea Lange. Opened in November, 1921, it was designed by A. W. Cornelius and is mercifully undergoing a complete renovation, no wrecking ball in sight.

G1, 40mm, 1/200, f/8, ISO100

Processed in LR2 with perspective correction in PS CS2.

Not always where you expect to find then.

Mostly I have found that sensuous curves predominate in women, often beautifully clad in couture designs.

Sometimes, however, steel and chrome come close.

5D, 100mm macro at f/5.6, ISO250, ring flash, Helicon Focus

A splendid day!

The height of any gear head’s year has to be the paddock for the Historic car races at Laguna Seca in mid-August.

This year I went with my technique perfected and confidence high. I had my backdrop rolled up on a long PVC pipe and was thoroughly comfortable with the use of Helicon Focus to confer massive depth of field where there otherwise is none. Gear was my standard close-up outfit. Canon 5D, Canon 100mm EF Macro, a ring flash and a monopod. While a tripod is best when stitching of multiple images is called for, I already had enough to carry, so made do with just a monopod and a QR plate on the ball and socket head. It seems to have worked out well. Willing – if somewhat surprised – bystanders were put to work holding the backdrop, where needed, and all in all it was a ton of fun. Aperture was f/5.6 throughout, the Macro’s sweet spot, with ISO set at 250 – grainless with the 5D’s outstanding full frame sensor.

1911 10.5 litre Cottin – Des Gouttes – composite of 4 images

1927 6.5 litre Bentley – 3 images

1935 4.2 litre Railton – 6 images

1958 1.6 litre Porsche Speedster – 6 images

1958 Ferrari 4.1 litre 335 Sport – 3 images

Clearing out last year’s snaps from the garage a few months back, a friend asked for the one of the MG bonnet as he knew the owner. Imagine then my surprise, as I was making my way through the paddock, to see my picture next to the car portrayed – Jim Weissenborn’s 1959 Byers-Special MGA – one of the prettiest cars there.

Fame at last – Jim displays my snap from the 2008 meet

Here’s the original:

MG special. 5D, 100mm macro, ringflash.