My day was a photographic success

"JGrabowMSt" (jgrabowmst)
09/20/2014 at 23:45 • Filed to: carsandcoffee

So I'll leave you with some teasers, and let you all know that I have Weekend Wallpaper images ready to get you all through the cold season.

Here's how some of my day went (because I will not give you just any teasers of my WW pictures)

I went to my local Cars & Coffee (Cars & Croissants NJ) and it was a great morning show. The only car that really didn't cut the mustard was a Ferrari 355 that actually managed to completely shear off a lower control arm from the passenger side.

Some #mebait. I'm not BMW fan, but oh lawd jesus a 2002 will get me every time. Add a snail, and I wont walk away.

#datasssunbait

Check out this gem. This is a Ford! Called a Intermeccanica Italia. You all have your homework assignment now! There was another interesting Ford that showed up later too...

#JBHbait. Oh the #JBHbait that arrived today. You'd think he was in heaven.

And then after a couple hours spent fixing the arm rest and the trunk power outlet in the 600, I moved it's hard top to a new place. After that was all said and done, I embarked on a journey to another car show.

I could have sworn I saw MountainCommand on my way out there too. Flyin down rt15 right past the sparta PD building.

So I arrive at the Chatterbox, detail the 600 for the third time today (it's black), and got to talking with some guys there. Here's the other mystery Ford that showed up. Here's a challenge for anyone who thinks they know Cobras (even I learned something today).

Anyone know about this gem? I learned a lot about it, let's see what Oppo can figure out.

I also spotted a few other cars, though nearly every single one I had seen before at least once, so I didn't take too many pictures other than padding the folder of Weekend Wallpaper submissions again.

DISCUSSION (9)

ttyymmnn > JGrabowMSt
09/20/2014 at 23:58

Beautiful photos. Great light, great focus, great composition. What are you shooting with?

JGrabowMSt > ttyymmnn
09/21/2014 at 00:09

Thank you!

I have a Canon 7D and use either a Sigma 50mm f1.4 or Sigma 10-20 f3.5 at car shows.

CounterTorqueSteer > JGrabowMSt
09/21/2014 at 00:12

Great shots. I shot a cars and coffee today for the first time in a while.

JGrabowMSt > CounterTorqueSteer
09/21/2014 at 00:14

Thanks!

Did you already post your pics? I haven't been on oppo all day, I have a lot to catch up on.

CounterTorqueSteer > JGrabowMSt
09/21/2014 at 00:17

I posted just a few. Check them out if you'd like. http://oppositelock.jalopnik.com/goodnight-oppo…

ttyymmnn > JGrabowMSt
09/21/2014 at 00:22

My brother shoots Canon and has that Sigma 1.4. He speaks very highly of it. For what I do, which is mostly sports and aviation, I use zooms. But I might have to look into that 1.4. I particularly like the Cobra dash shot.

JGrabowMSt > ttyymmnn
09/21/2014 at 00:33

I don't often shoot with it at 1.4, but it looks incredible no matter what. People who get overly technical about it complain that it's "a little soft at F1.4." F1.4, and you're complaining about "softness?" No. It's F1.4, it's fricken soft no matter what, the focal plane isn't wide enough to be much other than soft, considering how compact the lens really is.

But at F1.8, it's sharper than the 50mm F1.8 lens, somewhat significantly.

Overall though, it's my grab and go lens. Because I'm shooting on crop sensor, it's more like a 70mm(ish) lens, but it doesn't bother me. The results are fantastic.

I'm slightly biased to Sigma lenses though. My first lens on my T1i was my Sigma 28-70mm f2.8, and I was so happy with the results the lens gave me that I have never ever bothered with any other brand of lens (sort of). I have Lensbaby and Holga toys, but all my serious glass is Sigma. The quality and durability of the lenses is completely unmatched. My 10-20mm got dropped. The glass was not cracked, but it took a beating (concrete). One day I'd like to send it in to get repaired, but I don't have the money at the moment, and from the pictures, you'd never know. Not sure I would trust another brand of lens to take that abuse and still keep working.

ttyymmnn > JGrabowMSt
09/21/2014 at 00:40

I've been shooting Tamron (Canon 20D, 40D, 50D). I've got their 17-50 f/2.8 and the 70-200 f/2.8. Both of them are fantastic. I've had little experience with Sigma, but I've heard many great things, and the proof is in the pudding. It's all about what you do with it. Did you do any post processing with these?

JGrabowMSt > ttyymmnn
09/21/2014 at 00:53

I do, but nothing particularly intense. The 7D gives great results, but I shoot raw only because in many (not all, just many) cases, the jpeg looks bad no matter what the settings are. I just use Adobe Camera Raw to tweak the same settings that would apply to the jpeg, just with greater precision and quality. Then with Photoshop CS6 I resize and/or crop nearly every picture to screen resolutions based on the composition. 2560x1600, 1920x1080, 1680x1050 or 1280x800. For pictures that are just posted to show them, 900x600. Saves bandwidth for me, because I have slow crappy internet, so I don't want to upload big pictures of things that aren't particularly significant to me. I also hit just about every picture with the unsharp mask. Since most pictures are at ISO100, I don't bother with noise reduction, there's not much to begin with. I also avoid in-camera jpeg compression because to me, it looks bad. If life were easy enough to shoot in jpeg all the time, I would just need a re-sizing program.

For some reason, every time I open any of the images in Camera raw, the white balance is always just a little bit off from what the camera is set to. I shoot in daylight, so I set it to 5600k. I open Camera Raw, 5650K, +8 tint. WTF. Every. Single. Picture.