Cars, cars and more: Concours d’Elegance at Ironstone Vineyards

I have been to car shows, but not one had this many vintage vehicles! I’ve been to Ironstone Vineyards in Murphys before to photograph flowers and the grounds. That alone took most of the day! But there were cars and trailers all over, including an amphibian car that I missed!

We stayed until about 1 p.m. (got there at 10 a.m.) but had to leave after lunch. I would have liked to have gone back to shoot the flowers, but I needed to get to my son and daughter-in-law’s house warming. The drive each way is 2 hours. However, I did get to photograph most of the cars. No, I’m not going to show you all of them! But, this will be a 2-part post.

While editing these photos, I came upon a dilemma. I come from a journalistic background, and as a non-fiction writer, we did not embellish our stories in any way. We basically wrote the facts in an interesting and readable way. Photographing this car show is basically telling a non-fiction story through photographs. So, do I do some image altering edits, or stick to the basics. Most are basic edits, but I did add some filters to some to make them look older. What do you think?

Let’s begin with hood ornaments which were straight edits. I do like to get up close and some were beautiful.

Now for some of the scenery and full or mostly full images of the vehicles. If I had my way there would be greater separation between cars and only me at the show! I can dream, but I truly don’t mind crowds. I just make the people part of the image.

An unexpected surprise: Rosie the Riveter Museum, Richmond, California

Did you ever go somewhere expecting not much, but were totally surprised and delighted when you got there? Our visit to the Rosie the Riveter Museum had that effect on me. It was as if this museum was designed with photographers in mind. In the small museum and Visitor Center building, all photos were not behind glass, but on boards. It was easy to shoot them without glare.

Not only did we learn about the history of women during World War II, we learned how the war changed the city of Richmond. Richmond became the Kaiser shipyard home, where ships were built. These vessels would help defeat our World War II enemies.

Located in a National Historic Park, the museum is just the beginning. There were many things to take up our day, but we basically visited three out of the 10 suggested by the Ranger in the visitor center. We visited the museum, looked into the empty Ford Assembly Plant, had lunch in Point Richmond, toured the SS Red Oak Victory ship and found our way back to the Rosie the Riveter Memorial.

I’m sure you guessed that this will be a two-part post. I will be going back to see all we didn’t have time for. This definitely was an unexpected surprise.