Sam’s Volvo Build

Sam's Passion Black and White HDR version
Sam’s Passion Black and White HDR version

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This photo of my friend Sam was taken when he was building a Volvo streetrod in 2013. Sam is an incredibly talented car builder with several cars to his name. He usually chooses cars that other folks ignore for one reason or another. His past projects include a Ford Anglia, Nash Rambler, 53 Willys Hardtop, 60 Ford Falcon and a 60s Studebaker Lark. His reputation for sound construction has people lining up to buy his creations even before they are finished. Sam likes them “loud and nasty” and he usually manages to stuff a V-8 into these small cars.

Sam’s passion is chassis engineering and he likes to work with unibody cars. This Volvo was the latest one to roll out his shop door and like all most of his previous builds it was sold in a matter of days. I always enjoy a visit to his garage because I never know what he’s going to tackle next. The night I shot this image he was totally engrossed in what he was working on and that gave me a chance to shoot without his knowing what I was shooting.

This image is a black and white conversion of a color HDR image that I converted using Aperture 3. All adjustments were done with the tools in Aperture 3 which is still my favorite image editing software. I entered it last night in the Louisville Photographic Society monthly competition for “People Working” and it took First Prize.

Sam's Passion Color HDR Version
Sam’s Passion Color HDR Version

Click on the image to enlarge it in a separate window.

I am including the color HDR version that I used to show the difference that the two processes have on the same image. This image is from a three frame bracket set of +2, 0 and -2 EV exposures that I merged using NIK HDR Efex Pro 2 and completed in Aperture 3.

Sam at work on his Volvo Project.
Sam at work on his Volvo Project.

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Sam's Garage in Black and White
Sam’s Garage in Black and White

Click on the image to enlarge it in a separate window.

I’ll finish this post with another color HDR image that I processed as a black and white using a preset in NIK HDR Efex Pro 2 that I adjusted to my taste. One thing to notice is the way that HDR allowed me to expose for the shadows in the garage and also expose another frame that allowed the fence and the outdoors to render in the final image.

7 thoughts on “Sam’s Volvo Build

  1. One of my most favorite cars of all time 3/4 size 47 Ford.
    544 – Nice! Love the upgrade to a little more HP.
    Nice images.
    Ron

    1. That is the same thing I think about these cars Ron. When I first saw them I was about 10 years old and my Dad took me and my sister to see sports car races. I kept wondering how they shrank those Fords down to that size!

        1. If you see it you’ll know it by it’s stance. When I last saw it it was a suede green that was almost black. It sits on 5 spoke 15″ chrome mags Cragars I think.

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