The Wrong Era

This is quite literally "street" photography, but I wanted to capture a moment as my dear colleague and I traveled back to our offices in the midst of horrendous traffic in rain (note the spray and general fogginess) and in our terrible near-continuous power cuts currently in South Africa.

We both drive old (1960s) Mercedes-Benz cars, and derive great enjoyment from them. It's a wonderful experience driving to and from our clients, discussing matters both work and personal, life, art, abstraction, and of course photography.


"The Wrong Era"

Technical:
Canon EOS 1D MkII N, RAW, ISO 100, and EF 50mm f/1.2L lens wide open.

Tis is one of those quick "snapshots" that, for me, worked out. I know that "grey" monochrome images are usually very uninteresting, but this image purposefully has a very soft nature - maybe to reflect a kind of softness within.

Hi Dawid,

What did you focus on? It seems it was the dash board? If so try sharpening that more and adding a contrast S-curve just for the inside of the car so its in sharp contrast to the road ahead. I'd also evaluate trimming the lower 0.5" at the bottom. That makes the interior the solid base for examining the road ahead. I think it might serve as a metaphor for a lot of thought about the future or consequences.

Thanks for sharing!

Keep that car repaired at its good for 200,000 miles!

Asher

Hi Asher,

Thank you for your comments! The single focal point of the image is the Mercedes star. Surely, at f/1.2, if I had focused on the dashboard, the star would not even be visible! (as you very well know, since I am using your favourite lens here

I think, with a shot like this, I would have only wanted to have two extremes - absolutely everything in focus (which would be rather uninteresting in this case) or, here, to diffuse as much as possible, with everything else only providing a hint of the atmosphere and surroundings as we travel in the old Mercedes.
My intent was not to include any detail on the inside of the car, so that your suggestions would only serve to dilute the effect of the MB star being the only concrete object in the image.

This car (my colleague's) is in a beautiful state of repair. Mine (the 1959-1963 model W111) is currently part of a slow restoration process (I used to drive it daily for a couple of years), hopefully to be concluded before the end of this year!