Automotive fine artist Tom Hale has made a career out of capturing the way that light and images reflect off of the chrome and painted surfaces of cars. Hale’s signature style has been widely imitated, but he’s still the master at it. I take thousands of photographs of cars at car shows and I never considered reflections until I discovered that I had shot a perfect side view of a piano black Hispano Suiza town car which I could not use because on a door panel there was a mirror image of a chubby guy in bicycle spandex taking a photograph (I had ridden my bike to events that day).
More recently, I was editing photos from this year’s Concours of America at St. John’s and the distorted image of an early 1960s Jensen that was sweeping across the curves of a Franay-bodied Bentley caught my eye. Inspired by Hale, I decided to crop more photos that had reflected images.
See if you can tell what car is being reflected and what car is doing the reflecting. I tried to crop the reflections rather tightly to make it more of a challenge.
Ronnie Schreiber edits Cars In Depth, a realistic perspective on cars & car culture and the original 3D car site. If you found this post worthwhile, you can get a parallax view at Cars In Depth. If the 3D thing freaks you out, don’t worry, all the photo and video players in use at the site have mono options. Thanks for reading – RJS
Please don’t do this with any new Nissan product unless you first mail us Dramamine.
BTW, is that you in the mime shirt?
I’m the guy in the fedora with a camera rig in front of my face in the first photo in the gallery.
there’s multiple shots of a Rolls-Royce Camargue and a Testarossa (obviously)
the camargue has always intrigued me as an example of ‘why?’
who wants this? i can see a place for the arnage or maybe even a corniche… perhaps these cars are just before their time when Wraiths and Continental GTs are accepted
I didn’t think anybody would bother bringing a Camargue to a car show!
Silver Spirit, Phantom, some Bentley like an Azure or a Turbo R, yes. Camargue, no.
There are only 530 of them for starters.
http://www.carbuzz.com/news/2013/4/16/Expensive-Failures-Rolls-Royce-Camargue-7713862/
I’m glad there are so few of that ghastly disco relic! But I get your point about the Maybach RE: unique item. I wouldn’t have one, but ya know some people just have no taste.
@Corey
Fun fact, the MY07 Maybach 57 still fetches a $100K price despite being a warmed over S-class, and two 62 models *both* went for 140K even though one of the two has 40K more miles (54080 vs 9,636)
I thought that Camargue was a Volvo 144 until I looked a bit more closely.
The red car doing the reflecting has to be a Tucker torpedo.
I think I can make out a 1957 Pontiac Bonneville reflected in the Tucker Torpedo. Also, it could be a Mercedes Benz 220SE reflected in the Franay Bentley MK VI.
You’re right on the Bentley! I was going to say Delahaye 165.
http://onlytruecars.com/data_images/gallery/01/delahaye-165/delahaye-165-06.jpg
mmm
Back in the day, if you had the money you could buy a chassis from a manufacturer and then have it bodied by a coach-builder. Often times the chassis, wheels, fenders, radiator shell, hood, lights and cowl would all come from the manufacturer. The coach-builder would just build the passenger and luggage compartments, and in many different styles and configurations. Other times, the coach-builder would do their own fenders, hood, cowl, wheels, etc… In the case of this Bentley and this Delahaye, the common element is the coach-builder, and they sold the same style body to customers who chose different chassis suppliers.
I’ve been thinking about it for a while now, and it is vexing me. What is the red car reflected in the fender of the Fiat 8V?
Please… PLEASE post the Suiza pic with the chubby spandex guy in the reflection.
There’s a blue AM Lagonda reflecting a Countach!
Never seen a Lagonda up close. I’d love to.
It was a treat seeing a Lagonda in person. It was part of a “supercars of the 1980s” class. It’s also interesting to see how though it’s regarded as a “folded paper” design, none of the panels on the AML are actually flat. In a related note, the Lancia Stratos is often regarded as one of the maximum wedge designs, and it is, but it’s also kind of rotund.
If you get a chance to go to Amelia Island, Pebble Beach or St. John’s, you really should. You’ll see many cars you would otherwise only see in photographs.
The shot of that AML could almost pass for 1987 Caprice Classic – even the color would be similar! The Stratos is a weird thing, I’d love to see one of those too, but they’ve got to be even considerably more rare than the Lagonda.
I’d be going to St. Johns if anywhere, as the other two are too far away unless part of a bigger trip.
Vintage 911 reflecting a Mondial?
I’d call it a 930 reflecting a Berlinetta-Boxer.
Diablo reflecting MP4-12C?