After what seemed like years of trying, I FINALLY made it to a Houston Coffee and Cars event. They’d always been beconing to me, but the 7 a.m. start time always seemed to come and go, despite the constant protest of my blaring alarm clock. This time, however, I was determined to go! With 3 alarm clocks set for 6 a.m. and strict Friday night bedtime of 10 p.m. I was ready to go.
Admittedly exhausted, I rose the next morning in a zombie-like trance and headed out the door. With dawn having just passed, the sky was filled with a soft, warm, pleasant light that would surely soon give way to the oppressing heat that has enveloped Houston for the past few months. Driving 290 on the way to Vintage Park, it became obvious that other attendees were also en route. Peppered in the stream of traffic amongst the cars of mere mortals, the bright red paint of a Lamborghini Superleggera flashed in and out of my field of vision, its exhaust shrieking with every downshift.
I arrived at Vintage Park at 7 a.m. on the nose and was surprised at how few cars had arrived. With a generous amount of parking still available, I found a spot and got the camera ready. For today, I brought the D700 and the 80-200 2.8 along with the 50mm 1.8 for potential interior shots. I wanted the separation that the 80-200 could offer since I wanted to try making some composite shots from the images later.
I began to walk around while my lovely girlfriend offered to wait in the massive line snaking out of the one and only Starbucks on the property. Iced latte, stat! As the parking lot slowly started to fill, it became obvious that there was a very rich diversity in the cars that would be on display. There were 50’s classics, rat rods, and japanese imports seated next to fire-breathing Porsche 911 GT3s, Lamborghini Murciélagos and Ferrari 360 Stradales. With all this eye candy around, the focal point of the meet so far seemed to be set on a bright red Tesla Roadster sitting alongside two twin DeLoreans. The owner, a very nice guy by the name of Richard Thompson was fielding all the questions thrown at him. Born in a Lotus factory then sent to California for finishing, Richard’s Tesla was purchased in Colorado as there are currently no Tesla dealers in the state of Texas. He spoke very highly of their personalized service, saying that they send mechanics right away in the event of anything going wrong with the car.
Both Ashleigh and I remarked that despite no formal chart for makes and models to park, they somehow gravitated towards eachother, popping up in small camps around the huge parking lot. Corvettes and Ferraris soon became a dime a dozen and I now realize that I have barely an photos of the two!
I took two shots of cars that I thought would do well for composites due to their unique look. One was a rat rod, rusty with an exposed engine, and the other was a classic sedan with bright blue paint, flecked with gold and wonderful pin-striping. The original photos were nothing special:
In post, I removed the cars from their backgrounds using the pen tool. A laborious process, you must ensure that you keep the lines tight so that they don’t appear to “glow” when the background is removed. After that, I airbrushed off some of the distracting reflections using the paint brush and gradient tool. I added fake floor reflections as well to give the photos a bit of the studio look. Each photo took about an hour to complete.
The completed images:
At 8:30 it was already approaching 90 degrees, and I was losing my will to carry my brick of a camera around in the heat. I grabbed a few interior shots and macros and put the camera up, shortly departing afterward.
Coffee and Cars is a great event, and I am definitely kicking myself for not going sooner! The sheer amound of vehicles (probably close to 500 at this particular event) and people is pretty amazing. Everyone is friendly and has a great time swapping stories and taking photos. I’ll definitely be there next month!
On to the photos!
