I took a return visit to the local American vehicle workshop yesterday as there was a film crew shooting a documentary on the subject of American cars so the owner was kind enough to let me know that there would be a good opportunity to get some good photographs. There was some cars there that I had not seen before so out come the camera & tripod and off I went grabbing shots were I could.
Here is one of the trucks from yesterdays shoot.
I thought with todays shot I would post the before & after photographs of these various vehicles that have been half hidden by the grass. I was quite please how this shot came out as I find anything with long grass or trees in the frame can be a bit tricky due to the motion present between taking the 3 bracketed shots, lucky for me I must of timed it right as there isn’t too much motion blur present with the shot.
The -2 exposure
I fortunately did not have do that much with this photo apart from blend the 3 shots together, removed the noise, apply a smart blur filter to tidy up the edges, added a graduated blue filter for the top 2/3 of the shot then with the aid of a layer mask I brushed away the blue grad as to leave the blue on the sky. I used a slight ‘S’ curve on the levels to bring out the highlights and darken any shadows, finally I removed the overhead power lines from the background and cropped out the left & right obstructions.
Todays photo is a shot I took from my walkaround inside the workshop of United Muscle Cars of the inside of one of the trucks. As you can see from the photo there is a lot of polished chromework around which looks fantastic to look at and admire when your looking inside.
If you ever get a chance to look around an American classic car I would highly recommend it as there is so much attention to detail both the interior and the exterior of the vehicles.
I have a little collection of shots from the workshop so I will be posting some of them on my blogsite, dont worry I will try not to overdose you too much with them! 
Following on with the series of Muscle Car shots I took earlier in the week this as you can see is the engine of one of the cars, not only are they as powerful as hell they also are a work of art especially when they have been set up for showing. Everything inside is spotless and the chrome parts are so magically shiny and clinically clean.
With this shot I duplicated the layer and using silver efex created a blue’ish’ monotone effect to enhance the metalwork a little bit more and then created a layer mask on the monotoned layer and brushed through the individual cables, wires and pipework.
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Earlier this week I had the great opportunity of being granted permission to shoot some photographs at a local American muscle car workshop called United Muscle Cars. I really enjoyed having a look around and seeing all these fantastic powerful imported cars being restored and modified.
As you can see this particular truck which is a Chevrolet 1957 Apache it is currently being restored after what I must gather has had many hours of hard work invested in it.
With the processing on this one I have created the HDR with 3 bracketed shots merged with photomatix, using photoshop I created a duplicate background copy to make the out of focus black & white background layer, then a layer mask to brush through to reveal the main subject in full focus & colour.
I will be posting some further shots that I took around the workshop as I think these work really well with HDR.
A big thanks to the guys at United Muscle Cars for letting me take these photos !!
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On Friday I visited a place called Martinhole Woods in Laindon to visit this building which is officially called “Cash’s Well” or “Well No 5″ . Its quite hidden from view and more so when there is foliage around, so I was quite lucky as I didn’t have to spend too much time searching for it.
I have found a site giving a fair piece of information on the history on the well here which is quite interesting to read if you have a spare few minutes.
I took quite a few shots around and inside this well which I haven’t manage to process yet, so I will post a few more hopefully later on in the week.
This abandoned rotten old boat is located at the Wat Tyler country park I visited last week, I originally wasn’t going to post this as it did not really look that interesting but after persevering last night with it I thought the end result wasn’t too bad.
I have tried to get some information on the boat itself and why its been left there, the only info I could find was that it used to bring goods to the old explosives factory back in World War I, there is no access to the boat itself as there is wire fencing surrounding it. I’m thinking it might be worth getting access to it as I think some interesting photos could be achieved
Anyway today is Friday so have a good weekend and I hope for some decent weather over the weekend so I can get out and about with my camera.
Going back to when I went to The Strand area of Gillingham in Kent when I took this photo which was only a minutes walk along the path. I only got a few photos that day due to the bad weather.
This shot was a handheld set of 3 brackets through a set of metal railings as the boat compound was locked so I was quite pleased with the result of this one considering the difficulties.
Anyway hope your enjoying some if not all of my posts!
This particular shot was taken around the Wat Tyler country park in Basildon, I assume this is the emergency phone for any accidents they may unfortunately occur in the area.
I have processed this with the ‘selective colour’ technique,draining the colour out of the yellow of the body of the phone, and converting the leaves of the background to black & white using Silver Efex by Niksoft.
I have posted the original one for a comparison
On Friday I took a visit to a place called Wat Tyler country park, there really isnt a lot there other than a playground for kids and a few boats moored up in the creek. I had a quick walkabout to see what photographs I could come away with. I took a shot beneath this electricity pylon / transmission tower looking directly up into the sky.
The shot was taken with 3 brackets and merged into photomatix, there was only some minor adjustments made in photoshop to add some vibrance to the clouds.
I am think of returning and using my Lee 10 stop filter in this location to give a static focus point and capturing some motion in the clouds over a long exposure.
