This blog is in its least productive phase ever - I have not been posting for several weeks. But maybe today's contribution is the restart for more regular publications.
Although I am loosing interest in carcolor subjects, I just cannot stop seeing and capturing such photographs. Even when I set out with an altogether different idea, I may discover and end up photographing distorted reflections on shiny cars. This happened last weekend, on a rare photo outing in my neighbourhood.
Although I have not been posting regularly recently, maybe you would like to check out the carcolor gallery and have a look at some of the older carcolor compositions?
Today's carcolor photograph is the first that does not feature a shiny car body, but rather the dull, grey, scratched tarpaulin of a truck. Isn't it amazing what a blue sky and side view can do to such a boring motive? For comparison, the frontal view of the exact same truck, captured at the same time, is shown at the bottom.
I still have a few more carcolor compositions ready to be shown, but I am loosing interest in this topic. The project has certainly passed its most creative phase and it now seems rather like adding to a collection. Although I am still heading out to search for interesting carcolor reflections sometimes, it is more a habit, mostly because I know where to look for these subjects. On a recent such outing, I had a unique experience: For the first time ever I have almost been beaten by the owner of a car I tried to photograph - he told me that I was violating his privacy (the car was parked in a street, probably on a no parking spot). Shocking, isn't it? The guy was completely beyond reason, but luckily, a young couple just passed by and the resolute young woman prevented the attack. I must admit, that I do not take such events lightly; they shake me up and keep me troubled for a while. However, now, I am mostly amazed at how angry and full of hate the lives of some people apparently are.
Enough negative vibes - I will of course not show a photograph with such an unfavourable association (it was not good anyway). The example shown here is much more interesting - as are the other examples shown in the carcolor gallery (and nobody complained the capture of any of these photographs).
I haven't been writing for this blog for a few weeks - we have been on holiday and I am, photographically, in a rather unproductive phase. Not really a kind of photographers block, but a lack of motivation and/or dedication.
This carcolor composition is, hopefully, the restart for more regular posting. It features a high-rise office building in Zurich, but it is really the particularly bent and shaped engine hood of the car that was photographed here, which is solely responsible for all the interesting effects (unjustly, the surface itself is almost invisible). The undulated surface triplicated the reflections - there is only one building - and two dents created strange distortion effects in the foremost reflection.
If you are interested, many more carcolor reflections and distortions are found here.
The Beehive - the Executive Wing of the New Zealand Parliament in Wellington - reflected on the trunk and rear window of a car. You may think that the photograph should be turned 90° to the left and I guess this would work just fine. However, I have composed this carcolor just like this, in portrait format, and this is why I cannot look at it in landscape mode. If you want, have a look at the carcolors gallery with many more examples of reflections and distortions on shiny car bodies.
The Leutschentower is a nearby building that I regularly visit on my photo bike rides. The colorful and patterned facade often creates attractive reflections and distortions on shiny cars. For example, the same building also gave rise to the carcolor composition 32.
In 2013, I have been pursuing my carcolors theme enthusiastically. The more I delved into this topic, the more fascinatingly distorted reflections I discovered on the shiny bodies of cars. Becoming aware and conscious of these motives opened an entirely new and unique look at cars. However, it reached a point where I perceived my environment almost exclusively through carcolor reflections. It became like an obsession and I thus imposed a carcolor break on myself in 2014. Last year, I have thus hardly created any carcolor photograph at all (there were a few relapses), but the year of carcolor abstinence proofed that I really enjoy and miss discovering my surrounding through carcolor reflections. I am thus happy to recommence creating and showing carcolors. The yellow windscreen carcolor composition shown here has been created recently, at a nearby building, where I have already found an interesting carcolor reflection earlier.
What an exciting two weeks have just passed! I have started an interesting new job and my first exhibition is over. I was awaiting both events with great impatience, somewhat anxiously, and hopeful. The carcolor exhibition was much more stressful for me than I had originally anticipated. After the set-up of the photographs my tension abated and I was looking forward to the opening evening. But as it happens to me so often, it was different from what I imagined and I did not like it at all. There were so many people that it was hard to even move around. I felt like a water molecule in an ocean - an environment that is not at all conducive to my character.
Carcolors out in the public!
Photo14 is, in my opinion, better thought of as an event than a photo exhibition. The concept is interesting and quite different from other exhibitions I have seen so far. First of all, it takes place in former manufacturing halls - huge rooms! The photographs are not shown hanging on walls, but lying on styrofoam cubes (4 x 1x 0.5 m). Every photographer who was selected obtained one such cube - altogether there were 125 photographers. For five days, one
of the 125 cubes was "mine" and exposed nine of my carcolor compositions to, according to the organizers,
22'000 people! To me, roaming the halls of photo14 was nothing like quietly enjoying an art gallery or a museum, but rather a real-world experience of something like Flickr or the like. But it was certainly an interesting and worthwhile experience nevertheless!
Click on the link or on the cover above for a
preview of the entire book (full screen mode is also available).
To duly celebrate and mark my first exhibition, I have prepared a portfolio "blurb" book with 25 of my most preferred carcolor compositions. A finale furioso - at least temporarily - of my carcolor photography! I have made two versions of the book; a large format (30 x 30 cm) book printed on "proline" photo paper and a smaller (18 x 18 cm) book printed on premium lustre paper. The large book on the proline paper is really nice and I am highly satisfied with the result. The paper is thick, glossy and shiny, with very slightly structured surface - the nicest paper that I have seen in such kinds of books yet. However, this quality (and size) also comes at a price; the book is quite expensive. The smaller book is more economical and the lustre paper is absolutely fine too (only slightly thinner and completely smooth, since several years we print our yearly family photo books on this paper). Except for the size and paper, the two books are identical. Each of the 25 carcolor photographs is accompanied by a short text and sometimes a second, small photograph highlights alternative compositions. It even contains two photographs that were not shown here on this blog or anywhere else (the two last ones). Please have a look at the book preview (also available in full-screen mode), I think it is really nice!
If you want, you can even buy the book at cost - the prices for the large and small book are 91.86 and 24.90 Euros, respectively. This is exactly the same price that I am paying too. However, if you like the book or this website and would like to remunerate me, you are welcome to use the new "donate" button on the left side on my blog. On the other hand, if you really like the carcolor photographs (or any other photograph), you may also be interested in a print - these, I have adjusted and printed myself and are even better than the book - I think. Have a nice weekend!
This is my carcolor composition number 40 (it is the 41st photograph, because there are two versions of Carcolors 30) and for the time being it is the last one to be shown. The building reflected here is close to where I live and it has served as the template for several carcolor photographs (only one was shown; Carcolors 19). However, this particular (expensive) type of car is a new addition to the carcolors series. I like the apparent symmetry of this photograph, which is not at all perfect: If you look carefully, you immediately see the windscreen wiper, the rear mirrors, or the reflection of the sun, which disrupt the symmetry. How many suns do you see?
If you would like to have a look at the preceding 11 carcolor compositions, please follow THIS LINK. All 40 carcolor photographs are in the extended gallery and you are also welcome to check out my earlier carcolor posts. Thanks for visiting!
I have also just "officially" printed the first nine carcolor photographs, because they will be exhibited at the photo14 in Zurich (from January 10-14 in the Maag Event Hall). If you are in Zurich, please consider visiting!
The December prints have just been completed - it is not one monthly print, but nine! The photographs printed this month are nine carcolor compositions taken during 2013. The nine photographs will be shown, matted and framed, in the upcoming photo14 exposition! I am very happy that my carcolor photographs have been selected and I look forward to the exhibition (I have never shown "real" photographs anywhere ever before). I hope that it will be an interesting experience and a worthy (temporary) conclusion of my carcolor project. If you happen to be in Zurich between January 9th-14th, consider visiting photo14 and please stop by my stand!
As always, let me know if there is any photograph (that has not been printed yet) that you would like to receive a print of - I will print it for you in January (and you will receive it for free).
The building being reflected and bent in crazy ways (it is perfectly straight in reality) is a new office building in Zurich Oerlikon that has just been completed. This is another example of a reflection of a reflection. However, the whitish blue is the sky - either being directly reflected in the car (on the top) or as the reflection of the reflection from the glass facade. The building that served as the template for this reflection features a dark glass facade interspersed with white
blinds, which are visible as white bars, sometimes bent and distorted, in the middle ground of the photograph. If you are interested, you can find many more carcolor compositions in my carcolors gallery and in earlier carcolor posts.
As a contrast to last week's carcolor composition, I am showing you here a very colorful example of red, blue and white carcolor circles. The composition resembles Carcolor 23 and was indeed taken at the same car dealer in Geneva. It has a fancy roof with red metal beams that are reflected and distorted in this car body. In the photograph above I quite like the two circles (they are rather ellipses than circles, actually) that face each other as if they were each others mirror image. Even more carcolors are exhibited in my carcolors gallery and in all the earlier carcolor posts.
Today's carcolor example is also kept in a harmonious shade of color. In contrast to last week's composition, it is a carcolor landscape in grey, not in blue. The photograph above is particular, because it has been taken when the sun had already set and when there were no contrasty lights and shadows to be reflected on a car body. But isn't it amazing that a uniform, regularly patterned, grey facade is the template for such an intricate and complex assortment of reflections? This is another wall I regularly pass, but hardly ever there is a suitable car displaying interesting reflections. In this particular case, a dark and shiny specimen of my preferred type of reflecting car was waiting for me. To meet other cars that distorted interesting reflections for me, have a look at my earlier carcolor posts or at my carcolors gallery.
This week's carcolor photograph is all blue. I have had an eye on this particular blue wall for a while, but it was missing the "correct" car in front of it. This is another example that comprises the template and the reflection, although it may not be obvious how the two patterns are linked. In my opinion, this carcolor composition perfectly illustrates the distortive and transformative power of a shiny car. If you are interested in more carcolors, there are 35 other examples in my carcolors gallery as well as earlier carcolor posts.
This is a seasonal carcolor composition: It is not the regular patterns of a building that are reflected and distorted, but the golden-yellow fall foliage of maple trees (with little distortion). The photograph is also different from all other carcolor photograph inasfar that it is a four-carcolor photograph (usually you get to see only one car at a time). I like the autumnal colors and the zigzag line of windshield whipers that leads across the image. The only fly in the ointment is the fact that I did not get this composition "right" on site. I had originally included more of the first car in the foreground, but I like this cropped version much better. I hope you still enjoy my carcolor photographs - more examples are found in my carcolors gallery or in earlier carcolor posts.
Today's carcolor composition is a close-up view. Bumps and convolutions of car bodies distort reflections in fascinating and unexpected ways. The particular detail shown above is the bump that (I assume) hides the articulation of the back door of this particular type of car. The yellowish-orange pattern is the reflection of a building, the dark bottom is the rear window, and the tiny blue spot is the reflection of the sky.
I thank you for visiting and hope you enjoy! If you are interested, more carcolor examples are found in my carcolors gallery or in earlier carcolor posts.
This is only the second carcolor composition that I have taken outside of Switzerland (Carcolors 9 was the first one) - Carcolors is definitely a nearby theme. Before we went on holiday this summer, I envisioned a carcolor composition of the Golden Gate Bridge or of the Space Needle. While the conditions in San Francisco were not very favorable (it was foggy and cold), Seattle welcomed us with blue sky and sunshine. A small parking lot is conveniently localized at the base of the Space Needle and several nice and shiny cars were waiting for their drivers (who were probably enjoying a dinner with a view). How many "copies" of Space Needle do you recognize? Other carcolor examples are shown in the carcolors gallery or the previous carcolor posts.
A tripartite carcolor composition that I have discovered nearby. This photograph illustrates the different focal planes of the reflection and the actual car surface. I focused on the reflection, which was far "behind" the car body. In the photograph above I really like the colors and the hidden details that you can discover by looking carefully. The car body, the building and the reflection are obvious, but you can also recognize a few features of the car interior and even look through the window of the car at the building behind. As in the earlier shown Carcolor 29, I like how the reflection fuses into the actual feature that is being reflected. If you have not done so yet, have look at the carcolors gallery or the previous carcolor posts.
This headlight seems to stare, almost as if this expensive, shiny car was actually the wild animal whose name it bears. I am rather indifferent to the price and name of cars and only interested in the colors, reflections and distortions that I discover in/on shiny car surfaces. I often photograph at a nearby car dealer because of the reflected towers of the Quadro building complex. These skyscrapers were already featured in earlier blog posts (and are of course also nearby photo subjects for me). If you want to see other photographs of the Quadro towers have a look HERE, THERE or THERE. Many more carcolors from different locations were shown in previous blog posts.
This carcolor composition is meant to illustrate how profoundly a tiny camera movement can alter carcolor reflections. If everything works as intended, you can see a very similar composition as the one above by placing the mouse over the image (this may not work if you obtain this blog post via a feed reader, but I am not sure). The two photographs have been taken from exactly the same point, but the camera was moved a little bit (downward, if I remember correctly). These carcolor photographs shows the reflection of a clear blue sky behind bars - the car was standing inside a garage that has grid walls. Please also check out the other different carcolor compositions that were presented already in my carcolors series or visit my carcolors gallery.
In this scene, I was fascinated how the corrugated facade in the back seamlessly fades to its reflection on the car roof. The reflections in the side windows remind me of zebras. I have taken this photograph on a recent evening photo bike ride. I had been cycling around for a while without creating any photograph and nothing seemed to really catch my interest until in discovered this car. There were two cars next to each other, but this model had a larger and flatter roof with a much more impressive reflection. I also like the black lower right corner formed by the trunk of this particular car. If you want, have a look at the other blog posts in my carcolors series or visit my carcolors gallery.
