I love both old cars and old cameras, and when I’m among the former, I usually bring one of the latter loaded with film. I made no exception on our visit to the museums in Auburn, Indiana, earlier this month. I got a number of delightful black-and-white photos that day with one of my old film cameras, including the snout of this Auburn 654, which rests upstairs in the Auburn-Cord-Duesenberg museum.
We take for granted that our smartphones can take usable photographs in every lighting condition except darkness. Getting good available-light photos with film takes some finesse, however. That’s why I chose my 1968 Yashica Lynx 14e. Its super-fast f/1.4 lens lets in gobs and gobs of light. I also chose a moderately fast film: Arista Premium 400, a 400 ISO black-and-white film rumored to be repackaged Kodak Tri-X. I’ve used this combination successfully in available light before.
And then the light in these museums moved frequently and quickly between bright areas and deep shadows. That’s what photographers publicly call “difficult light” — and privately curse. I knew getting good exposure would be tricky. All day, I framed shots and hoped for the best. This photograph of an Auburn wheel, taken in the National Auto & Truck Museum, escaped Photoshop retouching; none others did.
Light blasting in from intermittent skylights left deep dark areas in what had once been the Auburn factory really confused my poor Lynx. It did the best it could with a pair of step-down Hudsons.
Despite the difficult light hiding many of this Hudson’s details, I like the mood that lighting creates here.
Dim, even lights in the National Auto & Truck Museum basement meant wide-open exposures and difficult focusing, but with care I made some of the photos work. Here’s a 1952 Chevrolet.
The light cooperated in some parts of the old factory, as in this shot of a Dodge Charger’s chrome teeth.
I lingered over this wine-colored Nash Healey, the first one built. It captivated my girlfriend, too; she brought it up again and again the rest of the day.
Inside the neighboring Auburn-Cord-Duesenberg museum, shooting away from the enormous plate-glass windows gave the best chance for good exposure. Always a contrarian, I tried a few shots facing them. This was the best of them; the rest could not be salvaged.
Getting down and close worked a lot better.
As did shooting with the windows at my back.
I knew I’d be getting shallow depth of field when I moved in close. Sometimes I missed. I tried to focus on the hood ornament, but it fell just behind the in-focus patch.
Sometimes I take a photo with both my digital camera and my film camera to see how they compare. This Cord prototype’s nose got that treatment. If you look back in this post, you’ll find the digital version in color.
I took about a hundred photos with my digital camera in the museums. I’d love to share them with you, too, but I don’t want to hog the Auburn storytelling. So I uploaded the best of my Auburn photos to Flickr and created an album of them. Click here to see the photos.
The black and white really works with the 30’s vintage cars, it makes me want to go into a Sam Spade mode and start calling all the women in the office “dames” while an unfiltered Lucky dangles from my bottom lip.
Back when cigarettes and steak were part of a healthy breakfast. 🙂
These pictures are beautiful and go well with the double scotch I’m drinking right now. Love the Nash Healey. I wish I had pictures of the one my dad brought home from the Nash dealership where he was working in the 50’s. As a little kid, it was a real thrill to ride in that very special car. I haven’t been to these two museums in many years; you guys sure make me want to make a return visit.
You should see the Auburn corporate offices they have recreated upstairs.
Nice photos.
But the Buick LaSabre is a 1960 🙂
I find it interesting how many automobile enthusiast I know are also into vintage cameras. These black and white photos are awesome, but I like your color shots the best by far. I think of all the family photos I have of my grandparents, great grandparents and great-great grandparents that I wish I knew what the colors were in the photos. Color is very important to me in almost everything.
> I think of all the family photos I have of my grandparents, great grandparents and great-great grandparents that I wish I knew what the colors were in the photos.
There was no colour. The world was still black and white back then. 😉
http://calvin-and-hobbes-comic-strips.blogspot.ca/2011/11/calvin-asks-dad-about-old-black-and.html
Once up on a time, not really too long ago I had an f/1 lens which I sold and bought a new camera with. Then I bought a replacement lens for the f/1. Am sort of thinking of selling the film camera as I find the digital pictures are very good and much easier to use.
The car pictures are very good. You must have transferred them to digital somehow.
I had the processor scan the negatives. It’s a common thing to have done.
Really great photos. Great composition, depth of field, exposure, all of it. Did you crop the photos at all? I’m also a photography nerd. I use a Fujifilm x100 and a Nikon FE.
There is some cropping here and there. I embrace cropping when it helps the composition. Additionally, the Lynx’s viewfinder isn’t 100% accurate up close despite onboard parallax correction, so with close shots I usually need to crop to get to what I was going after.
Thanks, great pictures, when you said Kodak Tri-X, I remember pushing it to 1,200 ISA/ASA, what a great film.
Don’t change a thing on the Hudson pix. They look like they’re right out of a film noir warehouse at night, where Humphrey Bogart goes to meet the stoolie that is shot just as he’s about to tell Bogie what the big mystery is about.
These pictures are works of art.
I dig that “Duesenberg” shadow on the fender.
Do you do your own dark room work?
Naw. I’ve thought about processing my own film to save money and get negs faster (it takes a week or two to get them back when I send them out mail order to be processed). But I would struggle to make time to do the processing. It’s fast and easy to just drop film into the mail.
Coffin Nose and 4 door Hudson are my faves.
Very nice results.
The Charger grill, and the 2nd Hudson are my favorites.
Very glamorous in black and white. Like something from a `30s musical or screwball comedy. Really captures the art deco inspired designs from this era. Depression or not, these are beautiful cars, works of art on wheels. I have to visit this museum before I die.
Terrific. And thanks for putting up the rest on your Flickr page; now I can peruse them in greater leisure than the first time.
I am a sucker for B&W photography, and yours is excellent, as always. Agree with some others that cars of this vintage seem to be better than average subjects for this medium.
I don’t dare hit your Flikr page just yet, too much other stuff to do that will not get done if I get sucked into your great pictures.
Beautifully composed shots. I agree with others that shooting B&W really works well with these cars.
One thing I find interesting with the last shot of the Cord is that, if you showed it to someone that isn’t familiar with those cars, they may not even recognize that it is a car.
Nice shots. Though I now shoot primarily digital, I still have my old film cameras (a Canon EX and a Nikon FE), and some film in the freezer. Time to dust ’em off….