
I went to the Mecum old-car auction again this year. It was my seventh straight year — and also my last. The number of cars available to photograph has dropped sharply over the past few years, and the once open atmosphere is now tightly controlled. And it now costs $30 to get in. It was $20 the last couple years, and just $10 before that. The price went up in inverse proportion to the fun. So I’m done.
I did get some satisfying photographs with my Pentax ME and my 50mm f/1.4 SMC Pentax-M lens. I shot Kodak Tri-X. This shot is my favorite from the day, of a 1937 Packard hood ornament. I never know just what I’m going to get when I shoot inside under the wonky light of an agricultural building on the Indiana State Fairgrounds. I compose and expose as best I can, and release the outcome to the fates. The fates smiled on me for this photograph.