Long And Low At The Hot Rod Show

I sometimes forget just what North America was like - the tennis fans in the hotel at breakfast have reminded me of certain accents that I had as lief forgot. This morning's visit to the hot rod show in Melbourne showed me what I never saw -the amazing lengths to which the North American car designers went to make luxury cars.

Observe the Lincoln Continental. Not the longest one there for that matter but certainly the lowest Lincoln in the land. Those wheels and tires look as if they were taken off a tram, but that is a fashion in the modern kustom world. I should like to see it go over the railway lines...

 Another observation for the day was the number of can't-see-um cameras in use by the rest of the punters. Full glare and peering into an LCD screen. Folks, buy a Fuji X Series or a Canon G 16 or a Leica M! You get a free optical or electronic viewfinder in every box...You can actually see what it is you are photographing before you get it home.

I counted photographers there and compared how many were using fill flash or booster flash in the hall-roughly 2% of people with cameras that were fitted with flashes. I was pleased that they did, and I suspect they will be too.  Victoria was experiencing sunshine and they would have benefitted from the reduction in contrast obtainable by this method. One brave individual had an Olympus Trip 35 in operation and he was busy doing what they rest of us were doing but he wasn't chimping after each shot. Neither was I, I hasten to add - I have enough confidence in my Fuji X camera to know that if I am hitting below the waterline at the start the good shooting will continue. The end review confirmed this. I can say that hot rods and kustoms do help with the photos as they are either colourful or spectacular. If you can outwait the cow-like meanderings of the crowd and get a clear shot at the car you want it can be very rewarding. I found myself resorting to sending negative waves to shift them. At one point I found myself whistling " Scotland The Brave " off-key to drive one pest away. If I was writing a novel I couldn't make this stuff up...