Historic Springfield Main Street Car Cruise

I haven’t been a car enthusiast since my high school days.  I happened on this event last summer when my good friend and photographer Woody Huband told me about a car cruise on Main Street in the historic Springfield community.  The Cruise is held the 4th Saturday of each month and depending on weather there’s no telling the variety of vintage cars you might see.

Last summer when I photographed the Cruise I didn’t know what to expect but gained some knowledge so I could hopefully capture some different images this year. The Main Street strip is probably a 1/2 mile four lane street with a median.  Cars cruise up one side and down the other.  The cars also park in the empty lots so the spectators can view them up close.  This year when I went on a Saturday, June 22, it was the first year anniversary of the cruise.  Spectators tailgate along the strip, there is usually a live band playing, and the restaurants are open.

All of the cars are not vintage as seen above.  But, you will see everything from Model T’s to Jeeps, Vans, hot rods, etc.  Some cars even display elaborate sound systems.

This year I wanted to do something different with the night time photos. Woody and I figured that if we could set up multiple flashes we might be able to make the cars stand out a little better in the dark.

After the sun set ( not much of a sun since it rained all day) I set up a flash on the ground across the street so it would backlight the cars.  To help fill in the front of the car I set up another flash on the curb slightly in front.  I used a Pocket Wizard TT1 transmitter with a AC3 Controller to trigger both flashes that had Pocket Wizard TT5 receivers.  I set both flashes on manual at about 1/2 power which helped save battery power.  I was able to control the output of each flash from the AC3 Controller on my camera.  My camera was a Canon 5D Mark 3 which was a perfect fit as it got completely dark and I had to ramp up the ISO to 3200.  At 3200 iso there was very little noise.

If you’re in the area on the 4th Saturday of the month you might want to travel over to the Springfield district on Main Street around 6pm.  Bring a lounge chair, cooler and walking shoes because you will want to walk around and get a close up look.  The owners are very gracious in letting you look at their pride and joys up close.

I never was a car enthusiast, but a night out at the Springfield Cruise will leave you drooling for more.

Hope you enjoyed the photos.

Gray

5D Mark III and Rugby

Rugby is a brutal sport.  I decided to go out and shoot our local Rugby League, the Jacksonville Axemen.  This was a self project as I wanted to experiment a little with my Canon 5D Mark 3 camera.  The 5D3 was linked up to a Canon 400mm L, IS, 2.8 lens.  The combination proved to be very effective.  I think what I was really looking for was to see if I wanted to add the Canon 1DX to my equipment for my sports work.  The 1DX is a 5D3 on steroids but with a cost of near $7k and that is money on steroids.  This is not my first outing with this combination as I shot the Jaguars and FSU last year with it.  The Rugby photos have some huge crops, more than I might normally do, but I needed to see how the files would hold up.  Here are some images from the match:

I haven’t shot Rugby since the mid 80’s but I figured if I can shoot American football and soccer this shouldn’t be too difficult.  This comes under the category of ice hockey for me, I just don’t understand all the rules.

What I did figure out was that when a player is tackled the defensive player tries to hold the runner down on the ground as long as he can and by any means he can until his defensive players get back in position.  A finger to the eyes/face seems routine as seen in above photo.

These guys aren’t small either.  That’s a big dude in the above photo and there are three defensive players trying to take him down.

I had a lot of photos with the runners and closed eyes.  I guess that is to protect the eyes since there are no helmets or facemasks.

Most every play is a running play except when they punt.  They get 6 downs but a punt before the 6th down is like a pass.  If the punt goes forward and out-of-bounds the offensive team get to move up to where it went out, but if it gets intercepted before the punt goes out-of-bounds then that is a turnover.  I could be wrong but that is the way I figured it.  Every running play starts usually with a lateral or series of laterals to running backs.  No whistles stop the play when a player goes down so the action is constant.

Like I mentioned earlier these photos have some pretty heavy crops and from what I can tell the file holds up pretty well.  I just need to get a 1DX in my hands for comparison.

I plan to study the rules a little more before the next outing so I do a better job of anticipating the action. Hope you enjoy the photos of a sport I really know nothing about.

You can view the full gallery at www.grayquettiphotography.com.

Gray Quetti