Vintage Car Photography: Photographing a Vintage American Ford V8 in Kendal
02 Aug 2021
byPaul Holland
Last year I was asked if I would create some photos of a vintage car. The owner, Dave, lives in Kendal, Cumbria and we arranged a date and time for me to photograph his car near his home.
The weather was perfect for an outdoor photo shoot but the car was just amazing! Dave had shown me a few photos of the car on his phone when he had called in to the studio but I wasn't prepared for just how stunning it looked. The car is a classic American 1938 Ford V8 Business Coupe and there it was parked at the roadside with gleaming black paintwork, whitewall tyres and lots of shiny chrome detail. It definitely has the wow factor and is a very stylish example of pure Americana Art Deco.
I wanted to show the classic lines of the car and it really looked great from every angle so I took a lot of exterior and interior photos. This image shows some of the period detail in the interior.
I loved the symmetry of the front grille too so I chose to isolate that detail in my image. You can see the classic V8 shape picked out in chrome.
With the wide road and beautiful parkland behind, I thought the location suited the car well however I also wanted to show the black coachwork and bright chrome and I knew a plain black background would be perfect so I took a photograph of the front of the car taking care to make sure it was exactly centred. Using Photoshop, I removed all of the parkland and houses from the photograph and added a black background and I think the result really shows off the car. What do you think of it?
Perhaps you have met Dave or seen his car at a vintage car rally or show? Maybe you were there with your own vintage car? I would love to hear your comments and if you would like to contact the studio, you can find the
contact details here. The V8 grille photo is available as wall art in the
online shop and it goes well with the other automotive photographs I have for sale including a detail shot of a
vintage MG car front grille and the
Harley Davidson motorcycles that I photographed on a ride out on Highgate in Kendal.
