autofantasia's photos

I like to think I'm pretty open minded about car modification. I mean even when I see something that doesn't appeal to me I'll remind myself that it isn't my car. However, every so often I see something that just makes me keep saying "Why" over and over!

Here's another tidy Bug for all you Beetle lovers out there!

Found this old thing parked away from the crowds. Not the cleanest I've seen by a way, but I thought it had a certain charm about it.

Once again, a bit of a messy background, but I felt it worthy of an upload. This was possibly the tidiest of all the Type 3 models on show. Interestingly, although manufactured in 1971 this one wasn't actually registered until 1973.

Not the best car shot I've ever taken and the background is a bit cluttered. However, I felt it worthy of an upload if only because you don't see that many of these old things knocking around these days.

Since visiting the water tower located at Lovesome Hill for a recent shoot, I've discovered that it actually features in a track by Rebekah Findlay: a singer songwriter based in North Yorkshire. The song, not surprisinly, is entitled "Lovesome Hill" and appears on her second album "Improvising Around The Sun". It's a rather sinister tale, which apparently takes its inspiration from a rumour that a murderer did actually live at Lovesome Hill for many years before being caught. I don't know how true this is, but he was apparently known as 'The Mechanic' and it's also claimed his ghost can often be seen stood by or even atop the tower. Not sure I'll go back up there again! Now, if I've not scared you off with that tale and you want to know more ... This creation was produced for The Sunday Challenge and published on 26 October to try and satisfy the theme of Spooky/Halloween . www.ipernity.com/group/305069 Apparently, when Rebekah was recording her first album she would pass this place every time on the way to the studio. The actual song "Lovesome Hill" was written behind the steering wheel developing over a few months of journeys back and forth. www.rebekahfindlay.co.uk The main image of the tower as seen in the shot was taken by me. However, I deleted the grey sky, which surrounded it that day as I wanted something a little more dramatic. I also flipped the tower horizontally and repositioned it somewhat to give me a little more space above. Here's the original image pretty much as it came out the camera. The only changes being that I've resized it and added my watermark and a fine line border. www.ipernity.com/doc/autofantasia/35625607 The lightning background I've used to gve the scene a sense of drama was taken by Mathias Krumbholz. Entitled "Thunderstorm near Pritzerbe (Germany)" it needs to be attributed as: "Lightning Pritzerbe 01 (MK)" by Mathias Krumbholz - Own work. Licensed under Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 via Wikimedia Commons - commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Lightning_Pritzerbe_01_(MK).jpg#mediaviewer/File:Lightning_Pritzerbe_01_(MK).jpg You can see more of his work by following the link below: commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Photos_by_Leviathan1983 Finally, the rain texture was developed by me from an image I found online entitled "misc rain element png by dbszabo1". Check it out here ... dbszabo1.deviantart.com/art/misc-rain-element-png-309954950 I took his original work and produced a new image using several copies of it merged together, but smaller in size and with another layer produced going in the other direction to give the effect of a blustery night. And there you go, that's how it was done. What's that you say, what about 'The Mechanic' ... well all I can say is he wasn't on the shot when I uploaded it!

Here's the original image which was used as a basis for Beware The Mechanic pretty much as it came out the camera. The only changes being that I've resized it and added my watermark and a fine line border. You can see the final creation in the notes or click through by using the link below: www.ipernity.com/doc/autofantasia/35620327

Another detail shot of the little red Polo as seen at CumbriaVAG .

Like I said earlier, spare a thought for the poor old pheasant!

Found this rather nice, albeit not that old, VW Polo tucked away in a quiet corner. Spare a thought for the pheasant!

Here's another of several shots I took of The Northern Echo Arena, again intended, but not actually used, for a recent Sunday Challenge , which had the theme of grey . For those that don't know this is the home of Darlington Mowden Park RFC and it is situated on the outskirts of the town close to the A66.

Well okay, not quite. This is actually one of several shots I took of The Northern Echo Arena, which is home of Darlington Mowden Park RFC and situated on the outskirts of the town. So not a space station, but I did think some of the shots I took of the structure had that feel to them. It was intended, but not actually used, for a recent Sunday Challenge , which had the theme of grey .

I took this shot in Darlington last week after I'd dropped my wife off at the railway station. I was going to use it for the recent Sunday Challenge , which had the theme of grey , but in the end opted for one of the shots I took at Lovesome Hill. This bit of urban art was at the entrance to a locked area across from the railway station and is obviously based on one of the characters from Pac-Man . Pac-Man is an arcade game that was developed by Namco and first released in Japan on May 22, 1980. Immensely popular from its original release to the present day, it is considered one of the classics of the medium, virtually synonymous with video games, and an icon of 1980s popular culture. The player controls Pac-Man through a blue maze, eating pac-dots (also called pellets) and fruit. When all pac-dots are eaten, Pac-Man is taken to the next stage. However, four enemies (Blinky, Pinky, Inky and Clyde) roam the maze, trying to catch Pac-Man. Source: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pac-Man

Here's another shot of the strange looking water tower located at Lovesome Hill on the outskirts of Northallerton. This was taken for the recent Sunday Challenge , which had the theme of grey , but in the end I opted for a different shot.

This week's Sunday Challenge was the colour grey/gray. I took it that it was okay to have some colour in the shot as long as either the subject was grey or the overall look of the image as a whole was grey, hence the fact that there's some green in the foreground of the shot I decided to use. This tower is somewhat of a mystery, to me at least. It stands in a field just a few hundred yards away from the A167 between Northallerton and Darlington, but I have no idea what it is. I've often passed it whilst driving, but from the road you can only see the top third or so of it and it is quite difficult to judge the scale of it. However, as you can see from this shot it is rather large and the fact that there's a door on the far side and windows on the central structure would suggest that access to the top is possible, most likely via a spiral staircase. And it appears to be made from almost entirely concrete, hence the predominantly grey tones, but as I say I've absolutely no idea what its purpose is. EDIT: Now identified as the Lovesome Hill water tower ... thanks Ann!

This is something I created a few weeks ago when the theme for The Sunday Challenge was abstract with red . Given my interests and how it looks most of you will have guessed that it was based around a car tail light. It was just a bit of fun, me trying to create an orb or at least something similar to an orb for the first time, but I like how it turned out.

Every so often you see a car at a show that makes you think "I could live with that" and for me this Golf was one of those. Yes, it's been lowered somewhat, but that helps draw attention to the lovely G60 steel wheels. However, it's the beautiful red paint and exceptionally clean bodywork that really makes it, for me at least, something rather special.

Well, who'd have thought it, here's me running late (again) for The Sunday Challenge . The challenge this week was simply books so I decided to combine a shot of William, who is evidently our most intelligent bear, seemingly reading a book from my James Patterson collection. Only problem was that most of them, even the paperback copies, are a little on the large side for William to handle easily. So I set about creating a miniature version of the one I wanted to use, which is entitled "Cross Country". To help me do this I scanned separately both covers and then the spine. These three images were then combined in Microsoft Publisher and printed out on photo paper to create a mini dust jacket for Williams book. I then used this to cover an old pocket diary before going through the same process to create an internal page to make it look, even to the most eagle eyed onlooker, as if it was a genuine book he was reading. Finally, I got to the relatively easy bit .... taking the actual photograph!