autofantasia's photos

The front view of that old Bug was just as cute, but for very different reasons!

Manufactured in 1964, but not actually registered until February 1st, 1965.

Here's another shot I took of my little robotic friend for a recent Sunday Challenge , which had the theme of forced perspective . I struggled to reproduce the processing I ran over the earlier shot I submitted into the main TSC group pool. Guess that'll teach me to make proper notes! Despite that I still like this one. There's a copy of the earlier shot in the Notes above for anyone who perhaps didn't see it and who would care to check it out. Worth pointing out too that this little fellow is actually only about 8 inches tall yet that fence I've tried to make him tower above is actually about as tall as me, so nearly 6 feet in height.

So this week's Sunday Challenge had the theme of legs: table, chair or otherwise. Now, as nobody would really want to see my old legs and my wife wasn't up for letting me take a photo of hers that left me with somewhat of a dilemma. I must admit I struggled to come up with an alternative trying things like shopping trolleys, but to no avail. In the end I settled for shooting an electrical pylon located between Northallerton and Osmotherley, which was fairly easy to access from the roadside. Some might say I should have shown more of the legs, but that would have brought the surrounding countryside into the frame and made the sign that my title refers to more difficult to read. So, I settled for this particular shot from the many I took. Admittedly, it has been processed somewhat, but that was to create a darker and more sombre atmosphere than a sunny Sunday afternoon could offer. Give it large for best effect! ;)

Young surfer dude in the making spotted meticulously cleaning that old Type 3 ... no doubt thinking: " one day this will be mine "!

Another light blue Golf, this time a Mk3, and also with colour coded wheels like the Mk1 from earlier. I have to say though this is much less to my taste, but then that doesn't really matter as it isn't mine!

Two very lovely examples of VW design sat side by side, but with around 20 years between them. In the background a pale-yellow Type 3, much loved by the air-cooled fraternity, whilst in the foreground, a slightly modified Mk2 Golf representing the 'dark side' that is the water-cooled world.

Here's a shot of that powder blue Golf in its entirety for those that like their old VWs water-cooled. Must say I liked the colour and stance on this one very much indeed. The colour coordinated wheels were a nice touch too!

The Beetle convertible from earlier parked up next to a lovely Mk1 Golf.

This week, the Sunday Challenge was forced perspective a technique that attempts to manipulate our sense of perception to make us believe something is smaller and/or larger than it actually is. The old horror films used to use forced perspective and more recently Peter Jackson's Lord of the Rings trilogy took the technique to new levels. Now, as I had no desire to appear in my photograph and no willing volunteers were forthcoming I had to go down the model route. This toy robot, purchased from Boyes in Northallerton specifically for the challenge, is only about 8 inches tall, but I've tried to create the illusion that he is much, much larger. I set up a small table in my back garden and positioned it about 10 feet away from one of our boundary fences. Then I covered it in fine gravel and added a few small stones before positioning my little intergalactic friend on a piece of wood hidden behind the larger of the stones. I secured my camera on a tripod and zoomed out to get the smallest focal length possible on my stock lens, as this apparently helps you achieve maximum depth of field. I also tried to ensure I squeezed every inch of DOF possible by using Apperture Priority and selecting f22. Then I moved the camera and tripod as close as I could get to the table whilst still being able to focus making sure that I was looking up at the model to make him look as big as I could. I opted to use this shot as I'd positioned everything so as to get the gable end of our neighbour's house into the frame, which I thought that would aid the illusion. This was the first time I've tried working with forced perspective so I'm fairly pleased with the results and am fairly confident I'll try experimenting with it more in the future.

I saw this absolutely beautiful Ford pick-up truck earlier this year at Ripon Old Cars and fell in love with it instantly. This was one that nearly got submitted for TSC when the theme was low point of view , hence the PDP watermark as opposed to autofantasia.

Found this gorgeous Golf Rallye tucked away in the corner of the showground. Would have preferred it with the bonnet down, but the owner wasn't around so I just had to make do.

Back to sunny Cumbria again and yet another nice looking Beetle, this time a convertible.

This gorgeous Audi Coupé passed me yesterday whilst I was out on my bike in Northallerton. Luckily, it parked up in one of the nearby streets so I was able to get some decent photos of it. Better still, I got to talk to the owner, a lovely old chap who it turns out has had this car from new. It has less than 72,000 miles on the clock and, as hopefully the photos show, it is in superb condition for a car that's now over 21 years old. Paint is actually pearlescent white, which was an optional extra back in 1993 that added around £1,200 to the price of the car. I did ask if he might ever sell it, but apparently his grandson has eyes on it and so will most likely be staying in the family when the owner finally stops driving.

This gorgeous Audi Coupé passed me yesterday whilst I was out on my bike in Northallerton. Luckily, it parked up in one of the nearby streets so I was able to get some decent photos of it. Better still, I got to talk to the owner, a lovely old chap who it turns out has had this car from new. It has less than 72,000 miles on the clock and, as hopefully the photos show, it is in superb condition for a car that's now over 21 years old. Paint is actually pearlescent white, which was an optional extra back in 1993 that added around £1,200 to the price of the car. I did ask if he might ever sell it, but apparently his grandson has eyes on it and so will most likely be staying in the family when the owner finally stops driving.

This gorgeous Audi Coupé passed me yesterday whilst I was out on my bike in Northallerton. Luckily, it parked up in one of the nearby streets so I was able to get some decent photos of it. Better still, I got to talk to the owner, a lovely old chap called Peter who it turns out has had this car from new. It has less than 72,000 miles on the clock and, as hopefully the photos show, it is in superb condition for a car that's now over 21 years old. Paint is actually pearlescent white, which was an optional extra back in 1993 that added around £1,200 to the price of the car. I did ask if he might ever sell it, but apparently his grandson has eyes on it and so will most likely be staying in the family when the owner finally stops driving.

This gorgeous Audi Coupé passed me yesterday whilst I was out on my bike in Northallerton. Luckily, it parked up in one of the nearby streets so I was able to get some decent photos of it. Better still, I got to talk to the owner, a lovely old chap who it turns out has had this car from new. It has less than 72,000 miles on the clock and, as hopefully the photos show, it is in superb condition for a car that's now over 21 years old. Paint is actually pearlescent white, which was an optional extra back in 1993 that added around £1,200 to the price of the car. I did ask if he might ever sell it, but apparently his grandson has eyes on it and so will most likely be staying in the family when the owner finally stops driving.

So, our orders this week from the Mistress Wendi, who rules over The Sunday Challenge with a wand of steel, was simple: Get outside and do something: show us some water, a lake, a river, an ocean, a waterfall, a water drop on a flower .. your drink on the table. Apparently, the possibilities were endless and so they were. Sadly, though the weather conspired against me somewhat. Strong winds and showers meant that any thoughts I had of trying to capture some silky waterfalls went out the window. And despite my best efforts in the back garden to try and capture water droplets on flowers the weather won again ... even using umbrellas and various other props failed to keep the ghastly breeze at bay. So, my thoughts then turned to things that would be less inclined to blow about ... things like the keys to my old Scirocco. The only problem was where on earth did I put them .... oh, there they are!