On this special day, I would like to wish all of you a Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays to all of you who have taken this little blog to your heart. In a few weeks it will have been our twelth year of operation and while the site is not as active as it once  I wanted to thank each and every one of you who takes the time to visit the blog and our sister photography how-to blog/website.

Caption: Photograph of me and my daily driver and brand-new 1971 Porsche 1.8 liter 914 was made by my friend Bob Geldmacher when we were out driving around in the snowy Maryland countryside back in the day.

There is no doubt that 2023 was a challenge for all of us automobile enthusiasts with a volatile new and used car marketplace that seemingly defied all previous trends. That may have contributed to my personal lack of wheels. It has a challenging one for me to even keep up with crating, writing and photographing twice a week posts. Hopefully 2024 will offer more opportunities to participate in more car related activities in the coming year.

So on behalf of myself and Mary we would like to wish you all the merriest of holidays and as Tiny Tim once said…

“God bless us one and all.”

By the late 1960s, Porsche was looking for a replacement for their entry-level 912 and at the same time Volkswagen wanted a new sports coupe to replace its Karmann Ghia. Ferdinand Piëch, who was in charge of research and development at Porsche, was put in charge of the 914 project.

Originally intending to sell the vehicle with a flat six-cylinder engine as a Porsche and with a flat four-cylinder engine as a Volkswagen, Porsche decided during development that having Volkswagen and Porsche models sharing the same body would be risky for business in America and convinced Volkswagen to allow them to sell both versions as Porsches in North America. That’s why European models in addition to having a two color (white-yellow) turn signal light on the front fender also had both Porsche and VW logos on the back of the car.

My brand new 1971 Porsche 1.7 liter four-cylinder model (shown above with a much younger me) in a contemporary photograph, cost me somewhere around $3700. By contrast, the six cylinder 914/6 cost only a bit less than the 911T, which at the time was Porsche’s next lowest price car. The 914/6 sold quite poorly while the much less expensive 914/4 became Porsche’s top seller during its run, outselling the 911 by a wide margin with over 118,000 units sold worldwide.

As you can see I had a lot of fun with the car. Except for…one Thanksgiving night I went to bed and was sleeping peacefully only to be awakened by the sound of crashing metal. I quickly sat up in bed and said “somebody hit my car.” And sure enough, the car parked in front of my house and been clobbered from the back and was pushed into a utility pole just a few feet in front of it.

After 55 days in the car hospital my Porsche 914 came back but she was never quite the same Irish Green beauty as it was before the crash. I ultimately sold it and purchased an Ossi Blue 1968 Porsche 912 that turned out to be the car that has meant more to me than (almost) any other. You can read about that experience here.

If you want to know more about this wonderful car, pick up a copy of Richard Gooding’s book Porsche 914: An Enthusiast’s Guide. As I write this, new copies are available on Amazon for $20.52 with used copies starting around eighteen bucks. The Kindle version available for $16.99 for those preferring a digital format.

The basic techniques that are required to cover a motorsports event can essentially be broken down into four categories: panning, head-on, three-quarter and close-ups.

Panning photos with visual impact require a blurred background and spinning wheels but with a sharp point of focus. This is achieved by firing your camera while smoothly following the subject as it goes by. The photographer must start to follow the subject and rotate smoothly while simultaneously pressing the shutter button. When I shoot panned photos from a specific location, I start with a higher shutter speed of perhaps 1/500 sec and will gradually slow it down to as low as 1/30 sec. This process could be considered warming up in a similar fashion to what athletes or entertainers might do. Zoom lenses such as a 70-200mm are ideal for panning as you can zoom out to possibly include more than one vehicle, or zoom in to try and get a closer image of a driver in an open cockpit racecar.

For many years I did not utilize aperture priority as I did not feel that it was necessary. However, when I am shooting head-on images, I switch to aperture priority and set the aperture to the largest opening. The camera will then determine the fastest shutter speed possible given the lighting conditions and your specified ISO. This combination will usually result in a shallow depth-of-field and a blurred background. The longest lens that you can get your hands on is the best for these photos. Remember that this technique can also be used to take photos from behind your subject!

Three-quarter photos are usually of your subject as they are entering or exiting a corner. A successful three-quarter shot will contain a sharpness in the middle with blurred action or piece of track in front of, and behind, your subject. Given the variables of speed, location and angle of corners it is not possible to provide a specific shutter speed recommendation. The best method is to simply go out and try it and experiment with various settings. I would recommend a zoom lens such as a 70-200mm for this type of photo also as it allows for varying image cropping and location within a corner.

Most, but not all, venues will allow photographers to wander around the paddock area where the cars are prepared by their teams. This allows you to get close to your subject. Given this is the case a wide-angle lens will allow you to include more of a car within the frame or possibly some interior photos. I have started to use my Fuji S1 bridge camera with the fish-eye filter to achieve interesting perspectives.

Please note that the images accompanying this blog were taken without any media credentials.

John Larsen is this blog’s Senior International Travel Correspondent, whose website is www.photograffics.com.

If I had to pick a favorite car from all of those that I have owned over the years, the winner would be my Ossi Blue 1968 Porsche 912. 1973 was a time of change for many people in the enthusiast world and many Porsche owners had gone from using them as cars to collecting them and “wrapping them up and kissing them goodnight.” At the time, I was living in Baltimore and drove that 912 to work every day just like it was a Toyota Corolla.

The drive to work could be a challenge in the winter and it was hard seeing through frosty and fogged windows due to the car’s inadequate heating and ventilation idiosyncrasies. You can call’em problems if you like but this car cost me $2500 (that’s right, there’s no missing zeros) in 1973 and unlike leaky more modern 911’s—to me that’s a problem—with a car that cost lots more than my 912 did.

What made me smile each day was driving home after working all day for a Great Metropolitan Telephone company. Shortly after turning right off of US 40 onto a neighborhood street I drove into Baltimore’s Leakin Park and was surrounded by trees while navigating a winding road that followed a creek driving the 912 through the twisty Wetheredsville Road to my home in Dickeyville. Just thinking about that drive makes me smile even today. The 912 wasn’t all that fast but had impeccable road manners and there was a litheness that I find so lacking in overweight, overprotected modern cars that, while they may have wonderful heating and ventilation controls, lack the spirit of a real sports car like the Porsche 912.

While I enjoyed that drive home each day another drive sticks in my head that I can’t forget. After being diagnosed with Hodgkin’s lymphoma, I spent 18 days in St. Agnes Hospital and many more days at home recovering. It was the holiday season and when the docs decided that I was strong enough to drive, I drove the 912 the short distance from my home to a nearby mall to do some Christmas shopping. Driving it produced a feeling of elation and freedom that even the newest Ferrari would not have produced.

I’ve driven a new Mustang convertible down the Pacific Coast Highway with the top down and while that was the most beautiful drive I’ve ever made, the short trip to the mall in my 1968 Porsche 912 was the most memorable.

Amazingly enough I could not find a single photograph that I made of a car that I dearly loved. The photo above is by Rizzo (Own work) [GFDL (http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/fdl.html) or CC-BY-SA-3.0. If I can find an old print or slide, I will update this post.

One way to add color to a monochrome image is to start with a black and white photograph and paint in the colors on separate layers. Using Photoshop or any image-editing program that lets you work with layers; you can simulate this hand-coloring technique from the 1950s. It’s not only faster to accomplish digitally but can be immediately fixed using the program’s History palette to go back before you made that error. After you’ve completed a masterpiece, you can fix any nagging miscues or even change a color by deleting a color layer, adding a new one and painting in the new color. Instead of just any black and white image, we’re going to use one that was captured in digital infrared.

The reference image of a classic Porsche Speedster was photographed using a Canon EOS 50D converted for infrared capture by Life Pixel using an exposure of 1/100 sec and f/16 at ISO 200. It was captured as an RAW file and opened in Adobe Camera RAW.

The original RAW file was converted into monochrome using Adobe Camera RAW and opened in Adobe Photoshop where it was dust spotted and tweaked. I used the clone stamp tool to remove the two guys who were standing behind the car in the background. Tip: When hand coloring a monochrome file, you should work with an RGB or CMYK file. You cannot work with a grayscale image, so you have to change the image’s Mode (Image > Mode > Color RGB.)

Start by adding a Color Layer (Layer > New > Layer > Color) and then select Color from the Layer palette’s Mode pop-up menu. Once you have a Color Layer, you can paint directly on top of your image using Photoshop’s brush tool while leaving the background layer untouched. To apply the Brush tool for this specific image I worked with a mouse instead of a graphics tablet and stylus because that’s what I’m used to but if you like using a tablet and stylus and are good at it, the process should go smoother and faster.

Next, select an airbrush from Photoshop’s Tool Bar. You can use the bracket keys on your keyboard to make the brush smaller (left bracket) or larger (right bracket). I picked a color by clicking on the Foreground/background colors at the bottom of the tool bar. This pops up a color picker and I chose a blue that reminded me of my old 1966 Mustang convertible. You can also choose any color from the Swatches Palette (Window > Swatches) simply by clicking on a color. After painting, you can fine-tune the chosen color by reducing the Opacity of the Color Layer or by adjusting the colors in Color Balance (Image > Adjustments > Color Balance).

When hand coloring, the Eraser tool is your best friend. Even if you use a graphics tablet and stylus it’s impossible (for me anyway) to paint around small details, so don’t try. Just paint and then use the Eraser tool with the image set at a high magnification so you can see those small details and erase the blue or whatever color in case you “go outside the lines.” I also used the Eraser tool to remove the blue color from the car’s trim areas such as chrome strip, rocker panel moldings, and logos. This process requires a small brush and patience but makes for more finished looking job.

You can keep adding additional layers, one for each different color, until you think you’re finished. In this case, I used a pale yellow on the wheels and while dedicated Porschephiles will probably cringe at this color scheme on a classic Speedster, I thought it added an element of fun. You can use whatever colors that make you smile. A little tweak with Curves to bump of the contrast and cropping to remove some of the grass at the bottom of photo and you’re finished.

Life Pixel does a great job with IR conversions and have done most of my Canon DSLRs and all of my Panasonic Lumix G-series cameras. This is not a paid or sponsored endorsement, just my experience.

My book, The Complete Guide to Digital Infrared Photography is available from Amazon for $47.99  with used copies starting around ten bucks as I write this. Creative Digital Monochrome Effects has a chapter on IR photography and is available from Amazon for $20 with used copies starting at around ten bucks.

Personal Note: As some of you know, I had surgery on my right hand in July. Having gone through three successive casts/braces I’m on my final one that with any luck at all, will be removed on August 20, depending on what the surgeon decides. I’ll be posting something on Instagram (follow me at @joefarace) that day to tell you know how it goes…

How I made this shot: To me the best part of attending car shows is meeting and talking with the car’s owners. I had a lovely chat with the owner of this immaculate 1950’s era Porsche 356A. Olympus Pen F with M.14-42mm f/3.5-5.6 II R lens at 42mm with an exposure of 1/250 sec at f/10 and ISO 200.

In addition to physical therapy, I decided to give myself some photo therapy during the time when I have the final version of a brace on my index—yes, it’s my shutter release—finger and get the rest of my fingers used to working the way they used to. The subject I chose was cars* and the camera I selected for this therapy was an Olympus Pen F.

At 15.3 oz, the Pen F is far from lightweight; Olympus’s E-M5 mirrorless camera weighs in at 14.99 oz, so it’s lighter than the Pen F. But the compact form factor (OK and style) of the Pen F was the deciding factor(s.)

I would have liked to gone all Cartier-Bresson and use the M.Zuiko Digital 25mm f/1.8 lens but because I am a thrifty shopper it quickly sold out on Oly’s reconditioned lens Web page so I’m waiting for my ship to come it to be able to buy one. In it’s place, I used the uninspired M.Zuiko Digital 14-42mm f/3.5-5.6 II R lens that came with my E-M5. It’s main selling point for this application was its form factor and it weighs just four ounces.

How I made this shot: You don’t often get to see a 1956 Lincoln Continental Mark II and this one was pulling into the show as I was leaving. I could see that it was going to be driving behind this Ford hot rod, so I waited and just had a second or two to get them both in the same frame. I shot one frame with my Olympus Pen F and 14-42mm f/3.5-5.6 II R lens at 42mm with a Program mode exposure of 1/160 sec at f/7.1 and ISO 200.

While I later made a few photographs at the Parker, Colorado Cars & Coffee (see my Instagram account) these images featured were all made at the Chenango Car show and for once, I was able to get to the show early. But like all car shows this time of year, the time of day does not produce the best quality light and shooting at car shows has become a challenge for me, especially when you don’t have ten functioning fingers, but I tried, as Chief Dan George said in The Outlaw Jose Wales, to “endeavor to persevere.”

*To help with my rehab, I am also looking for a female model to work with me with some larger cameras and lighting gear in my home studio. If you or maybe you know a woman who might be interested and would like to help a photog out, please click the Contact button and let me know. No experience is necessary and I promise, we’ll have fun and make some beautiful photographs together.

If you enjoyed today’s blog post and would like to treat me to a cup of Earl Grey tea ($2.50), please click here. And if you do, thanks so much.

When I was a kid I was sure that in the near future we would all be driving cars that would not only look like rocket ships but could fly. In the early ‘80s, Ridley Scott’s film Blade Runner (set in 2020) showed flying police cars but by this point in my life I not so sure that we would see this happen in my lifetime.

Today’s post asks the question: What’s happened to automotive innovation? Sure, ABS and air bags are technical advances but today’s cars are powered by the same kind of engine my Uncle Harry’s 1948 Buick convertible used.

During the 1950’s, Chrysler built limited edition gas turbine cars for several years. Only two are left and Jay Leno has one. Legendary automotive journalist, the late Tom McCahill was sure we would be driving these kinds of cars in the near future too but it never happened. In the sixties, Mazda licensed German NSU’s patents for the Wankel engine and both companies built rotary engine-powered cars, at least for a while, but not anymore. On June 22, 2012, the last Mazda RX8 was built with a Wankel engine.

Furing the seventies, Diesel-power was hyped as the way to get us out from under the thumb of mid-East oil cartels but poorly conceived products like GM’s converted diesel engines never caught on with American buyers. Up until recently, diesel cars seemed popular—diesel trucks have always been popular— even though here in the USA the higher cost of the fuel seems to offset the better fuel economy. It’s one of the reasons I sold my diesel-powered Mercedes Benz ML320. Yeah, I know diesel fuel cheaper now but will it stay that way? And now VW’s Dieselgate scandal may have driven the spike in the heart of these engines.

By the time the eighties got here, auto engineers seemed to had given up on real innovations. The Dodge Viper was powered by a V-10 truck engine! (There is some dispute about this.) Sure it’s fast, but Enzo Ferrari must be spinning in his grave at the thought of that engine in a sports car. Instead of radically changing the powerplants of our cars, automotive engineers seem to have fallen in love with electronics and gadgets, like in-dash Navigation systems and goofy automatic transmission controls like the one in my now departed Range Rover Evoque. Electric cars? Until it takes as long to charge a car as it takes to fill an ICE powered car with gas, in my opinion, it’s not going to become economically and socially viable.

And finally, am I the only person that thinks having computer-controlled internal combustion engines is like having laser-guided buggy whips. One of the appeals of the engines in classic sports cars, like my old Porsche 924, was its simple engine design—OK, it was an Audi truck engine—that’s not only powerful (enough) but easily passed this state’s emissions tests.

Chrysler turbine car photo: By Karrmann (Own work) [GFDL (http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/fdl.html) or CC-BY-SA-3.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/)], via Wikimedia Commons

If you enjoyed today’s blog post and because it’s Ice Cream Sandwich Day would like to treat Joe to one ($2.50) to cheer him up, click here.

Along with photographer Barry Staver, Joe is co-author of Better Available Light Digital Photograph that’s now out-of-print but new copies are available from Amazon for $21.88 with used copies selling for four bucks. For some reason, the Kindle price is really high.

As I continue my quest for a new project car, the cost of cars is always on my mind. You can hear me talk about my search on this video. Update: For a short time I was chasing a Mitsubishi 3000GT and found a nice one price-wise but it had too many miles (186,000) and had led a hard, hard life.

And so I am left with this question: When did cars get so expensive? In 1970 my Fiat 850 Spyder cost a little over two thousand bucks but after a year of it’s idiosyncrasies, I traded it for a brand-new 1971 Irish Green Porsche 914-4 (shown above) that cost less than $4000. Two years later when someone crashed into the car while it was parked in front of my house, I went looking for another Porsche and was able to purchase a clean used 1968 912 for under $3000. Try that today.

Even more than the cost of the car itself is the ratio between income and car prices. At the time, the cost of my 914 represented twenty percent of my annual income. By comparison, a 1968 Dodge Charger cost $2860 when the average family income was $8630. Today with average family incomes at $60,336, the base price of a new Charger is $29,470 and that’s not an RT or Hellcat ($65,795) model. Today a new base model Charger represents 49% of a family’s income, versus 33% in 1968, so somebody in the family is going to have to do without something.

Porsches are truly wonderful sports cars but the average person’s ’s income has not kept up with their price increases as well as the prices of the few remaining sports cars that are availble. What about the Mazda Miata? Starting at $25,730 it’s not that expensive and you shouldn’t have to take out a second mortgage to own one but even used Miata prices—and used car prices in general— seem higher than in the past.

The point of this post isn’t just about money. I also believe it’s important to drive the kind of car you really want (and hopefully can ford.) Let me explain:

Back when I lived in Maryland, my friend John always wanted to own a Porsche and although he could afford one he didn’t want to spend “all that money” to actually buy a 911. Instead, he drove a series of Volkswagens. One day, when returning home from a road trip after seeing a friend in Pennsylvania, he received a phone call from his friend’s wife. She told him, “Bill had a heart attack and died the day after you left.” The next day, John went out and bought a new Porsche. Life, as they say, is much too short.

If you enjoyed today’s blog post and would like to treat Joe to a cup of Earl Grey tea ($2.50), click here. And if you do, many thanks.

One of the most enjoyable aspects of any Cars & Coffee events is the unpredictability of what kinds of cars show up. Take f’rinstance the venerable Nissan GTR. There were a dozen of these Godzilla cars at December’s event at the vehicle vault in Park, CO. Then there was the gaggle of Ducati motorcycles that showed up to widen this event’s perspective.

And while the young people hovered excitedly around exotics, like the Gold AMG GT or the many Lamborghini’s in attendance, I enjoyed looking at some of the other cars like the Porsche 968 cabriolet, a car my wife Mary has always wanted, and the two Toyota MR2’s that were there—one from the first generation and the other form the second— both in mint or near mint conditions. I really wanted to talk to the owners but they were not hovering around their cars the way most people do; my guess is they were out gawking at the many high end exotics, including a McLaren that was in attendance.

This time of year, shooting the cars can be a challenge and I’m not talking about the challenge of people walking in around the cars you’re trying to photograph. Tip: Be patient and keep shooting. Nope. It’s the light. This time of the year, during the hours of the show, the sun is lower in the horizon and as you can see in these images produces contrasty photographs. Tip: Shoot low angles. If your camera has a flip out screen, use it and keep going lower shooting as you go and then come up unto you get the angle you think looks best. Remember: You are the one that gets to decide what look best.

One thing that I did notice is that many of the most interesting cars arrive early, well before the official 9:00AM start time (so they get a good spot, I guess) but also leave early opening spots for the latecomers. So tip to the wise: Arrive early and hang around while the “shift changes.”

In 2018 be sure to join us at the Second Tuesday Cars and Coffee that are sponsored by the Vehicle Vault and held in Parker, CO. The next one is this Saturday January 13, 2018 and we hope to see you there. Be sure to say Hi.

• Starts: 9:00 am
• Ends: – 12:00 pm
• Location: Vehicle Vault 18301 Lincoln Meadows Parkway Parker, Colorado 8013

On March 8, SEMA President Chris Kersting praised congressional members for their introduction of a bipartisan (wow, something these people will actually agree on) bill that would protect thousands of American racers from EPA regulations.

The language in H.R. 4715 makes clear Congress’ intent to exclude competition-only cars from the scope of the Clean Air Act, including converted street vehicles. The bill was introduced by representatives Patrick McHenry (R-NC), Henry Cuellar (D-TX), Richard Hudson (R-NC), Bill Posey (R-FL) and Lee Zeldin (R-NY) to ensure that converting street vehicles to racecars used exclusively in competition does not violate the Clean Air Act. The practice was unquestioned until last year when the EPA published draft regulations that would make vehicle and engine conversions illegal and subject to the law’s tampering penalties.

Motorsports competition involves tens of thousands of participants and vehicle owners each year, both amateur and professional. Retail sales of racing products make up a $1.4 billion market annually. According to the National Speedway Directory, there are over 1,300 racetracks operating across the U.S., including oval, road, track and off-road racetracks. If the EPA regulations were to be finalized, the impact on racers, racetracks and businesses that cater to the racer community would be substantial.  The RPM Act has been assigned to the House Energy and Commerce Committee for consideration.  The EPA proposed regulations are scheduled to be finalized this summer.

Supporters of this legislation to overturn the EPA regulation may contact their member of Congress and urge them to support the RPM Act by clicking here.