# Bristol Tennessee Car Show



## Gawain (Aug 13, 2011)

The AACA Car Show is this weekend in Bristol, Tennessee. Main street was closed off yesterday evening (Friday) in order to get the event rolling. I have just started to work on my 300 photographs I took last night with my Canon T2i and 18-55mm is Kit Lens. This was photo number 1 of my set and once I cropped it I thought you all might enjoy checking it out. I've not changed the photo at all except for the crop-job. The light last night was awesome as the sun was setting. I'll post more of these car photos if you approve and you'll see I obtained some very interesting and beautiful light and shadow work on these.  Well, enuff verbiage.       --Gawain









edit:  So, I'm not going after a photo competition here, I want to tell a story.   --Gawain


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## Gawain (Aug 13, 2011)

This is not a particularly good photograph, but it shows what the event looked and felt like. See the foreground shadows, one is of my shadow. Oh, I've had my DSLR maybe 3 months, so I'm a rank amateur.  Actually, not ranked.. LOL.    --Gawain


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## Gawain (Aug 13, 2011)

There was an unexpected boon with this shot. You can see my reflection in the bumper of this car.     --Gawain


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## Gawain (Aug 13, 2011)

A beautiful car and a beautiful girl. The car is not mine, the girl is, she is my daughter. I posted this so you could see the difficult light I was working with. I worked on this with Lightroom but it was beyond me to fix it much, except to tone down the exposure a little bit. I'm OK with it because it helps to tell the story and shows the light conditions which I used for some good shots I'll post a bit later.     --Gawain


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## Gawain (Aug 13, 2011)

Oh, I like this. I've not done anything with this photograph except crop. Beginner's luck.    --Gawain






edit:  I love my redhead!


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## manaheim (Aug 13, 2011)

Mostly snapshots, but nice cars.


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## Gawain (Aug 13, 2011)

Again, I've not edited this photo except to crop out unnecessary landscape (including a beer belly or two). Good light can make an amateur look good IMHO.    --Gawain






edit:  I guess some credit should go to the car owner. Man, that red POPS!


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## Gawain (Aug 13, 2011)

Manaheim said: "Mostly snapshots, but nice cars."


Well ya, but I explained that.  Are you suggesting I should not post these photos (snap shots) here?  (fine, I'm outta here)
That attitude is why I don't last long on photography forums Manaheim. My 'expertise' is carving corners in mountainous terrain with my sportbike (motorcycle). If you just began to ride and you came along with me, I'd take it slow and help you out, not criticize your inexperience.

--Gawain

edit: AND, in another photography forum I had frequented, it was all about your lightroom and photoshop technique, which is a long long way from 35mm photography where the composition was the art, not digital manipulation. Well, I enjoy my snapshots. I'd like to see you try and keep up with me on a motorcycle in the mountains of Tennessee.  I really feel that comment was uncalled for. How did you contribute?


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## MSnowy (Aug 13, 2011)

When I first looked at your set I thought the same thing as manaheim,snapshots. That was the reaction I got on some of my first posts over a year ago. You just have to hang in here and wait for some of the more knowledgeable photographers to explain why they look like snapshots and how you can improve for the next shoot.


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## Johnboy2978 (Aug 13, 2011)

Welcome neighbor.  I'm just across the state line in Bristol VA!  Small world.  It's kind of hard to come away from an event like this with much more than a snap shot sometimes.  You don't have any control over the placement, venue, lighting etc.  Basically, you get what you get.  One way of adding some interest in these though is to come away with really tight shots of interesting lines, details and angles.   You've captured the car itself in situ, but doing something artsy and interesting takes a different slant.  The third shot has most interest to me.  Next time maybe a tight shot of the grill, the hood emblem, lights, dials, whatever.  Look through some high quality car magazines and see what they focus on.  

Lastly, don't give up so quickly.  I've found a long time ago that photography/art is very subjective.  Shoot what you like as long as it pleases you.  If you are going to post or ask others realize that everyone isn't going to see it the same way.  It's like looking at a pic of your kids.  You and your family are going to have an emotional attachment to it and overlook any flaws in composition, lighting, focus, etc.  Where as a stranger might say "meh".  Folks on here aren't going to have an attachment to what you post and are going to tell you instead of the merit of the photo itself.  That is, did you take any time in composing it?  Did you focus well?  Did you use proper lighting or wait for just the right moment for the ambient light before you actuated the shutter, etc.  

Keep shooting and only ask opinions when you want the good and bad.


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## Gawain (Aug 13, 2011)

Ya, thanks Johnboy. I understand and I would not have reacted the way I had, had I not explained myself as an amateur and I was just trying to tell a story. I guess this isn't the best place for something like that. I was proud of my snapshots tho and I was getting to the more artsy shots, I just wanted to establish the atmosphere, light, mood, etc. first. I never plan on becoming a professional photographer. Can you suggest a place where I can post pictures and receive constructive comments like you provided instead of flippant off-hand remarks? I want to improve my hobby, I welcome any comments towards that aim.  Manaheim's was the first reply I received in this forum, and of course I judged this place by that reply... LOL  I'll never give up photography, I've been shooting snapshots since my days in the U.S. Navy in 1972. I've read, and understand composition, lighting, digital manipulation. I work in both lightroom and photoshop. Heck, I'm a computer weenie.... LOL

Thanks for your kind words Johnboy.  We sure live in a beautiful part of the world, do we not?

--Gawain (Craig Bryant)








Johnboy2978 said:


> Welcome neighbor.  I'm just across the state line in Bristol VA!  Small world.  It's kind of hard to come away from an event like this with much more than a snap shot sometimes.  You don't have any control over the placement, venue, lighting etc.  Basically, you get what you get.  One way of adding some interest in these though is to come away with really tight shots of interesting lines, details and angles.   You've captured the car itself in situ, but doing something artsy and interesting takes a different slant.  The third shot has most interest to me.  Next time maybe a tight shot of the grill, the hood emblem, lights, dials, whatever.  Look through some high quality car magazines and see what they focus on.
> 
> Lastly, don't give up so quickly.  I've found a long time ago that photography/art is very subjective.  Shoot what you like as long as it pleases you.  If you are going to post or ask others realize that everyone isn't going to see it the same way.  It's like looking at a pic of your kids.  You and your family are going to have an emotional attachment to it and overlook any flaws in composition, lighting, focus, etc.  Where as a stranger might say "meh".  Folks on here aren't going to have an attachment to what you post and are going to tell you instead of the merit of the photo itself.  That is, did you take any time in composing it?  Did you focus well?  Did you use proper lighting or wait for just the right moment for the ambient light before you actuated the shutter, etc.
> 
> Keep shooting and only ask opinions when you want the good and bad.


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## Johnboy2978 (Aug 13, 2011)

You'll get more mileage and more constructive comments on this forum when you post single pictures and direct the viewer what type of comments you're looking for (e.g., composition, lighting, crop, etc).  The more pics you display in a single post the harder it is to get thoughtful comments and instead you tend to get more general ones.  Like in that last shot, it would've been improved by more attention to the composition.  Squaring up the emblem and lettering and a tighter crop would've improved it in my opinion.  Again, given the event, you don't really have time to sit up a tripod and take a lot of time, so you kind of have to have some idea what you're going for and then shoot  quickly.  

I like this part of the country.  I've lived here most of my life.


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## manaheim (Aug 13, 2011)

Gawain said:


> Manaheim said: "Mostly snapshots, but nice cars."
> Well ya, but I explained that.



You did?  Tell me where in your original post you said "These are just snapshots, I'm not trying to be artistic here, just sharing a moment", because I'm not seeing anything even close to that.



Gawain said:


> Are you suggesting I should not post these photos (snap shots) here? (fine, I'm outta here)
> That attitude is why I don't last long on photography forums Manaheim. My 'expertise' is carving corners in mountainous terrain with my sportbike (motorcycle). If you just began to ride and you came along with me, I'd take it slow and help you out, not criticize your inexperience.



Oh whah.  Cry me a river.  You're gonna leave because I called your stuff snapshots?  Fine.  There's the door.  The last thing this forum needs is another person who flips out when they get anything short of an "attaboy".



Gawain said:


> edit: AND, in another photography forum I had frequented, it was all about your lightroom and photoshop technique, which is a long long way from 35mm photography where the composition was the art, not digital manipulation.



And this is relevant how?



Gawain said:


> Well, I enjoy my snapshots.



And how did I suggest you should do otherwise?  I  have plenty of snapshots and I quite enjoy them.  I don't go posting them on photography forums, however.



Gawain said:


> I'd like to see you try and keep up with me on a motorcycle in the mountains of Tennessee.



If this were a motorcycle forum, I'm sure we'd all be duly impressed.  However, since this is in fact a _photography forum_, I don't quite see how beating your chest in this manner is accomplishing very much.



Gawain said:


> I really feel that comment was uncalled for. How did you contribute?



You may well feel whatever you like, but it doesn't change the reality of things.

I called your pictures what they are.  You CLAIM to be fine with them being snapshots, yet you bristled ridiculously at me calling them that. Seems a bit odd, don't you think.  If you had a pie in your hands and I called it a pie, would you flip out in the same manner?

Here's the thing.  This is a photography forum, and as such, people expect you to post pictures of some photographic worth OR to make it very clear when you post them that they're just for fun... and, btw, there are sections on this forum for just that sort of picture.  This isn't that section.

If, however, you're getting defensive because you really were trying to be artisitc here, then I suggest you thicken up that skin because there's no way in hell you're going to learn anything if you're going to bluster at anyone that says anything other than "attaboy".


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## manaheim (Aug 16, 2011)

^^^  wtf?


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