Cormorant hood ornament
Pentax ME, 50mm f/1.4 SMC Pentax-M
Kodak Tri-X 400 (at EI 200 by mistake)
2016
Early Packard automobiles had an array of stunning hood ornaments. You might think this bird is a swan, but you’d be wrong; it’s a cormorant. You’d find cormorant hood ornaments on the finest Packards.
If I had not shot this at EI 200 by mistake, I might not have gotten just this perfect look.
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This is a lovely shot Jim. The out-of-focus higlights (I hesitate to use the term “bokeh balls” :) ) in the background really add to the image.
Oh thank you. This is one of my favorite shots of all time.
Moody and beautiful. This is one of your best! Not to mention, I’ve never seen a hood ornament quite like this one. :)
Thank you! I really love this one. The hood ornament is off a Packard, which had many different and equally lovely hood ornaments in its day.
There’s a Packard Museum in Dayton that I’ve been meaning to visit. Now I want to go just to look at hood ornaments. Lol.
Wonderful 👍
Thank you!
Brilliant Jim, as I’ve probably said before I think your classic car images are your best photos I’ve seen.
I seem to recall that in the 60s many cars over here had these kind of figurines – Rolls Royce and Jaguar being amongst the best known. I also seem to remember that due to some health and safety law they were banned on new cars due to potential damage to pedestrians in the case of impact.
There has been a lot of redesign of car front ends to minimize harm to pedestrians on impact! It’s radically changed car design, actually; it’s part of why cars have such high sills now and therefore smaller windows on the sides.
Ah I see. I have a Seat Altea, which has pretty high doors, with less glass than you’d expect, I think this is what you’re talking about. I need the Seat “jacked up” quite high to be able to see clearly out the side windows.
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