Willis Johnson Private Car Collection

All posts tagged Willis Johnson Private Car Collection

Tuesday ~ August 09, 2016

Posted by Dave Updegraff on August 9, 2016
Posted in: Daily Posts. Tagged: , , , .

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Happy Tuesday!

I have several images for you today from the Willis Johnson Garage and Classic Car display.  Inside the 47,000 square foot facility he has recreated small town America complete with a service station, Diner, Main Street store fronts and of course all the cars of that era.

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I shot about 700 images at the display, of course a lot of those are multiple images necessary for HDR (High Dynamic Range) because of the difficult lighting conditions.  I have no idea what kind of a vehicle this is and I don’t have the time available to research it.  🙂

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I do know that this is the front end of a 1955 Chevrolet.

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I am going to give a presentation of my photography both of Nashville and other images at Rotary tomorrow in Maquoketa.  I have about 160 images of eagles, landscapes, portraits, and of course some of the Nashville images.  It will be about a 20 minute program and I’m looking forward to it.

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That’s it for today.  Not too many more classic cars to show.  I do have a couple of Corvettes to show that I find interesting but that’s about it for the cars.

I went out shooting on Sunday and was interested in photographing some of the iconic landmarks around Dubuque.  I’m not thrilled with the results so I’ll decide if they see any time on the blog.  🙂

Thanks for stopping by the blog.  Enjoy your day and be careful.

 

Thursday ~ August 04, 2016

Posted by Dave Updegraff on August 4, 2016
Posted in: Daily Posts. Tagged: , , , , , , .

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Happy Thursday!

I have some images from the Willis Johnson private car collection to share with you today.  Images cannot accurately convey the awe of this place.  Row after row of shinning, spotless, vintage cars lined up side by side and only a very few people will ever get to see them.  Amazing!  Remember you can click on the images to reveal a larger more detailed image.

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This building is not air-conditioned and even though it rained a good deal of the time that we were there it was extremely hot and humid inside the building.  There are large fans attached to the roof and they do help move the air around a bit but it was sweat city the entire time we were there.  So you would set up your shot, wipe your brow, compose, wipe, shoot, wipe, etc.  🙂

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I have said earlier that I’m not really into old cars.  They are fun to photograph and I’ve done a fair amount of them over the years.  I’ve even taken lessons from Tim Wallace (well-known automobile photographer) on the best techniques for photographing automobiles.  These were difficult shooting conditions irrespective of the heat and humidity.  The multitude of fluorescent lights above the cars made getting a really good shot almost impossible.

I wasn’t happy with my results I was getting so I decided to shoot these images in HDR (High Dynamic Range) and feel like it gave me better results.

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Halfway through the shoot Joe McNally gave some tips on how to shoot an individual next to the cars.  The gentleman at the far left of the image (manager of the garage) was Joe’s subject and he took several images of him standing in an Austin Martin.  It was a great lesson.

That’s it for today.  Supposed to be hot and humid today in our part of the world.  Fortunately I’ll be inside where it will be cooler.  🙂

Thanks for stopping by.  Enjoy your day.  Be careful and stay cool.

Monday ~ August 01, 2016

Posted by Dave Updegraff on August 1, 2016
Posted in: Daily Posts. Tagged: , , , .

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Happy Monday!

I continue today with images from “Hot Rod Heaven” or in reality the Willis Johnson private car collection.  Jeanne said that I confused her (I’ve been doing that for 40 years) yesterday with the images from the diner while talking about the automobiles.  They are all together.  The first thing you see when you walk in the building is the diner I showed you yesterday.  The image above is actually taken standing in front of the stools of the diner.

I tried to document what I saw but in reality you just about have to see it in person to believe it.  Very few people actually get to see this collection and the reason we did is because of Ricky Skaggs’ relationship with Mr. Johnson.  This collection is not open to the public.

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The classic 1957 Chevrolet with a custom hood.  When I first saw the cars I thought they had been restored to their original condition.  Most had altered custom interiors and some other enhancements.  However I did not get a chance to look at all the cars.  There are just too many of them.

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Here is a shot with a 1968, 1969, and a 19 70 Chevy Impala, after that the image goes to out of focus and I don’t remember the final year of the car that was in this row.  I also shot a series of Chevelles from 1964 on.  I used to have a 1966 Chevelle SS396 so I was drawn to that vehicle.  He had a 66 Chevelle but it was not an SS396.  😦

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Another view of the entire collection.  I’m not a big fan of classic cars.  Don’t get me wrong I think they are great but I don’t really enjoy photographing them that much.  As you can see from the images I took it was almost impossible to control the lighting on the cars so it was very difficult to get quality images.

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This is the interior of one of the many Mustangs he has on display.  Remember you can click on an image to see it in a larger version and more detail.

I shot almost 500 images from the collection.  It was very hot in the building.  There are large ceiling fans but they do little for the humidity.  So with the combination of the fluorescent lights, the high humidity, and the heat I was more than ready to leave for the AC in the car.  🙂

I know, not the true spirit needed to push through and get great images.  I’ll stand out in 22 degree temperature with a 20 mph wind to photograph an eagle, but the heat is another thing for me.

That’s it for today.  Thanks for stopping by.  I will show other things besides cars but there were a lot of  cool things to see at the collection.

Thanks for stopping by the blog.  Enjoy your day and be careful.