Life in Pictures – Old Cars

When I was a teenager, car styles changed every year. There was almost always a distinct difference in both the body style, and the interior in American cars every year. I don’t think that Japanese or European cars had the same sweeping change year to year – but, back in the 1950’s there were not very many European or Asian cars on the streets of the USA.

It was about 2016 or 2017 and I went to a car show in Lampasas, Texas, with my father in law, John Harlan. He was always willing to go with me to a car show, because he shared that same love for old machines (from two wheelers to dump trucks, and bulldozers – stories for another day). In 1963, Chevrolet introduced the new Corvette with a split rear window. Critics hated it at the time, and in 1964, the split was gone. Here is the rare split window Corvette from 1963.

I took one of my favorite film cameras, a Nikon F3 HP from the mid-80’s. It was loaded with a roll of expired color film. One of the typical characteristics of expired film is that colors may be faded, resulting in a desaturated image. Or colors that are a little off from what you remember seeing when you took the picture.

One of my favorite photo subjects is cars, especially old, classic cars. I grew up in the 1950’s and 60’s. I remember seeing cars from the 1930’s and thinking how old they were. I was almost in awe of how those cars could still be starting and rolling down the road with modern cars. Now over 60 years have gone by and I still see cars from 1920 to 1940 – still running. And I see many cars that were built during my lifetime, still running. Amazing.

When I got the film/negatives back I picked a few that retained the saturation better than the others and that is what I am posting today. The images are grainy but that is one of the characteristics of film. People that shoot with digital cameras often use presets to get that grainy, filmic look.

Click on any image in the gallery below to open the full, expanded picture.

That’s my photo memories for today. Come back often if you like to look at car pictures. I take more pictures of cars, trains and planes than any other subject. Have a great day!