The rust never sleeps. Photographing the natural beauty and patina of old cars.

 As an automotive photographer , I'm often taking images of spectacular collector cars and hot rods with perfect paint, chrome and body work. These cars, designed and built by amazing artisans,  are absolute automotive perfection.

At the other end of the spectrum are the survivors, unfinished projects and abandoned vehicles. The wonderful thing about these cars is that they can be found almost anywhere and often have great stories behind the image.

At art shows, people often ask how do I know where to find these scenes.
 Many of my best selling and most popular images are found along rural two lane roads all over the country. I'll share a few tips and stories behind the images in this post.

•  Be willing to explore and get away from the interstates. The Dodge Charger was found off a two lane road about 20 miles out of Billings, Montana.
• Talk to people. I often find great scenes by striking up a conversation at the local store or town café. Even if I don't find something, I often meet very interesting people. The Chevy truck on jack stands was a tip from a local highway patrolman I met at a gas station in Pecos, New Mexico. It was less than a quarter mile from the station, but I would have missed it entirely. I have some oversize post cards with one of my photographs on one side and contact info and website on the back. I hand these out to start the conversation. These are a great ice breaker.
• Get off of main street. In the smaller towns, I'll take the time to drive up and down each street and often the alleys. I drive a basic grid looking for old cars as well as great old buildings. Some of my best finds have been on that last street at the edge of town.
• Sometimes great images are closer than you think.  Your home town as well as local swap meets and auctions often turn up some wonderful images. The 32 Ford above was parked one street away from a local car show. The Dodge truck wheel with the shredded tire was found at a swap meet, and the Oldsmobile trunk was found lined up at a local auction.
• Go to the light. Picking the subjects is really a combination of an initial emotional response to the scene, and understanding what the light is doing. Often you hear photographers say you need to shoot early or late in the day. Those are my favorite times as well, but if you take the time to observe the light and work with it good photographs can be taken at any time. Every photograph on this post was taken between 10:00am and 4:00pm except for the Dodge wheel that was taken early in the morning. As I've noted in other posts, experiment with a number of exposures and effects. Digital allows us to take far more images and explore options, so be bold and go for it.

I find that the images of the survivors and abandoned tell great stories with the passage time. I hope this was helpful. Let me know what works for you or feel free to share your images, I'd love to see them.
Michael

The images on this post are available at my website: www.stillslife.net