autofantasia's photos

Just in case anyone was starting to think in between shooting cars at these shows I spent all my time stalking pretty young girls, here's a shot of a young guy ... also eagerly cleaning his pride and joy. You see, nobody is safe from my prying lens ... I just love to try and capture all aspects of what these shows involve.

Here's another shot of that hot, that hot ... erm, that hot Beetle from earlier!

The eagle-eyed amongst you might just conclude that the prefix on this Beetle's registration plate summed up perfectly more than just the car and the weather we enjoyed that day!

Well, who'd have thought it ... yet another Beetle from 1972.

Not just another cool Beetle, but another from 1972 ... it must have been a good year!

Bright yellow Beetle looked good parked in the shade at CumbriaVAG , despite the Transformer sticker on the hood!

Spotted in Northallerton, this is a bit of a mystery car as far as I'm concerned. It sat like this to my knowledge for nearly two years, but recently it disappeared. The badge says Lotus and it looks kind of 'Espritesque', but I'm pretty sure it's a kit car. Anyone out there know for sure what it is? UPDATE: 18/09/14: Now identified as a Lotus Eclat!

Spotted in Northallerton, this is a bit of a mystery car as far as I'm concerned. It sat like this to my knowledge for nearly two years, but recently it disappeared. The badge says Lotus and it looks kind of 'Espritesque', but I'm pretty sure it's a kit car. Anyone out there know for sure what it is? UPDATE: 18/09/14: Now identified as a Lotus Eclat!

Yet another bear selectively lit with a previous Sunday Challenge in mind. This little ceramic bear is actually designed to take potpourri, not that it ever gets used for that. Now, what with the bears, the ice cubes and the Elvis buckle I really need to get outside into the fresh air ... I'm starting to look a little pale!

This week's Sunday Challenge was to shoot something personal with the added twist of having to combine it with a previous technical challenge. So, I decided to use this old enamelled belt buckle I bought many years ago and to give it the selective lighting treatment. Throughout my own life I've been a huge fan of Elvis Presley and as a young man I used to love wearing thick belts with large buckles like the one you see here. This one is rather special though as it was a limited edition produced by the American Legends Foundry to mark the life of the King of Rock 'n' Roll. I really felt it would be ideal for the selective lighting treatment. My only concern was that I wanted to bring out the vibrant blue enamel that forms the background to the design and so had to be careful with how I positioned the Maglite torch that was my only light source. In the end I think I got it just about right.

This was another of the themes I had in mind for the recent Sunday Challenge , which had the theme of low light. I created these ice cubes using plain water infused with blue food colouring. The shot was taken in total darkness, with the only light source coming from a small torch I placed to the lower right hand side of the glass. In the end I opted to post the little bear with the heart in the group proper, but really liked how this turned out and thought it worth sharing. It kind of reminds me of my earlier wet and red phase!

Detail shot of that gorgeous Beetle from earlier!

The standard of finish and attention to detail on this old ragtop, as seen at CumbriaVAG 2011 ,was exceptional.

Yet another challenging, no pun intended, week as far as The Sunday Challenge was concerned. The theme this week was selective lighting, meaning as I understood it a situation where the photographer controls the light. So I came up with a few ideas, one of which resulted in me spilling a tray full of Coca-Cola over my workstation. I hasten to add that was not part of the plan and no photographs were taken! Anyway, of the three themes I came up with, I've decided to use this little lady here for the main challenge entry. We've had her for many years and she’s stating to show her age with a couple of pieces from her derrière missing completely, but from the front sat on our kitchen window sill I think she’s still rather cute. I took this shot with my macro lens, which I have something of a love hate relationship with and with manual focus … a thing I rarely do with any great success. To give you an idea of scale the little bear is just over 5cm tall: 2 inches in old money. I had it sat on my desk with a piece of black card serving as an infinity curve. It was late at night so the room was in total darkness. Lighting was provided from the left with a small Maglite torch and from the right via an even smaller Cyba-lite, which I had shining down a piece of cardboard tubing in the guise of a home-made snoot. That’s the joy of TSC , it pushes you to try new things: to tackle new subjects and to push yourself beyond your comfort zone. I mean, this time last week I didn't even know what a snoot was - lol.

Not quite what I was expecting to see at a VW show, but it was a welcome sight all the same.

This neat looking Mk1 Golf was parked up next to old 'Rusty'.

Here's a close-up shot of 'Rusty' from earlier for those who like their Beetles with added patina.

This beautiful looking classic convertible is actually a kit car, namely a Chesil Speedster. Apparently, according to the company website, it is "a replica of a famous 2-seater sports car from the 1950s, and closely resembles the 1957 model year". Now then, I wonder which company they're going out of their way not to mention - lol. Find out more about the Chesil Speedster by following the link below: www.chesil.biz