1st European Hot Rod & Custom Show - Chimay - Photos

[Nick Grant]

Some shots going off to the mags but here's a few to get started, some video to come too. It was amazing on Friday, epic on Saturday and a wash out Sunday. Looking forward to the next one.


1st European Hot Rod & Custom Show - Chimay - Belgium001 by NickGrant.co.uk, on Flickr


1st European Hot Rod & Custom Show - Chimay - Belgium002 by NickGrant.co.uk, on Flickr


1st European Hot Rod & Custom Show - Chimay - Belgium003 by NickGrant.co.uk, on Flickr


1st European Hot Rod & Custom Show - Chimay - Belgium004 by NickGrant.co.uk, on Flickr


1st European Hot Rod & Custom Show - Chimay - Belgium005 by NickGrant.co.uk, on Flickr


1st European Hot Rod & Custom Show - Chimay - Belgium006 by NickGrant.co.uk, on Flickr


1st European Hot Rod & Custom Show - Chimay - Belgium007 by NickGrant.co.uk, on Flickr


1st European Hot Rod & Custom Show - Chimay - Belgium008 by NickGrant.co.uk, on Flickr


1st European Hot Rod & Custom Show - Chimay - Belgium009 by NickGrant.co.uk, on Flickr


1st European Hot Rod & Custom Show - Chimay - Belgium010 by NickGrant.co.uk, on Flickr

[Big_Dog]

Very cool. Thanks for posting those. Love car photos that convey movement.

[djsmith74]

Fantastic photos as usual!. I'm a real fan of your work, along with the subjects / culture that you capture, which you do so well.

Mind me asking what gear you use?...

[tim-b]

Great stuff as usual Nick. There's actually a surprising amount of americana in Europe, at least that I've seen in Germany, Holland, Belgium and especially the Scandinavian countries.

Is no.5 a double exposure, or just crazy dof on a rear-view mirror?

[Nick Grant]

djsmith74 said:

Fantastic photos as usual!. I'm a real fan of your work, along with the subjects / culture that you capture, which you do so well.

Mind me asking what gear you use?...

Thanks dude. This weekend I was using 5D MkI and 5D MkII, Canon 24-105L, 100-400L and 85 1.2 L. And Go Pro HD.

tim-b said:

Great stuff as usual Nick. There's actually a surprising amount of americana in Europe, at least that I've seen in Germany, Holland, Belgium and especially the Scandinavian countries.

Is no.5 a double exposure, or just crazy dof on a rear-view mirror?

Thanks the view I had in my mirror for most of the journey down, my mate's Corvair. Unsafe at any speed.

Here's a video, cruising round the site on Saturday...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y0GloSSh3oE&fea...

[flat-planedCrank]

Nick Grant said:

1st European Hot Rod & Custom Show - Chimay - Belgium001 by NickGrant.co.uk, on Flickr



1st European Hot Rod & Custom Show - Chimay - Belgium005 by NickGrant.co.uk, on Flickr

Love these^ 2nd one especially


Good to see that 85mm won't be gathering dust on a shelf

[Nick Grant]

Thanks dude

There's another video here...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kS5isElbHDY

And this is someone else's video but they have caught me, I'm right at the start...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SHwu8kiV8Jk

[anonymous-user]

Hi Nick,

Thanks for sharing these pics, I love your work.

Your photos from the Hot Rod Hayride are just sublime, I've looked through them a couple of times now. Fantastic

Couple of questions if that's ok?
I know you are a big fan of shallow depth of field in a lot of your photos, and I was wondering how often use your 85mm at the full fat 1.2 as oppose to closing it down a bit? It must be a wafer thin focal plane at F1.2! How do you cope with focus at that level with moving objects such as cars and people? I ask because I'm using a Nikon 50mm 1.8 for a lot of my shallow focus arty car stuff now, but sometimes I wish I could go even shallower...

Do you often get asked to shoot these 1950's and hot rod type events or is it just a pleasure of yours to turn up and just shoot for fun?

Thanks

[Simpo Two]

King of shallow DOF for sure. I vote for this one:

[Nick Grant]

Simpo Two said:

King of shallow DOF for sure. I vote for this one:

Cheers Simpo.

NinjaPower said:

Hi Nick,

Thanks for sharing these pics, I love your work.

Your photos from the Hot Rod Hayride are just sublime, I've looked through them a couple of times now. Fantastic

Couple of questions if that's ok?
I know you are a big fan of shallow depth of field in a lot of your photos, and I was wondering how often use your 85mm at the full fat 1.2 as oppose to closing it down a bit? It must be a wafer thin focal plane at F1.2! How do you cope with focus at that level with moving objects such as cars and people? I ask because I'm using a Nikon 50mm 1.8 for a lot of my shallow focus arty car stuff now, but sometimes I wish I could go even shallower...

Do you often get asked to shoot these 1950's and hot rod type events or is it just a pleasure of yours to turn up and just shoot for fun?

Thanks

Thanks dude.

I try and use the 1.2 wide open when possible (sometimes there is too much light). I use centre focus and AI servo and do not recompose after shooting, I will often recompose in photoshop later as I know how I want it to look but can't get it in camera due to the narrow DOF.

I would be going to these events anyway, but I do work with a number of magazines ( http://www.nickgrant.co.uk/content/?page_id=1406 ) This weekend I got a press pass but also got a VIP pass giving access to the free bar and food, Chimay has it's own brewery and turns out some fantastic beers I have to balance getting the shots I want and still enjoying the show and catching up with friends. I get massivley humbled when I am chatting to people about thier car and they ask who I am and then they go "On my god you're Nick Grant, I love your work man". Espescially as it happened with Brits, French, Germans and Belgiums at the weekend. It's a relativley small scene so people get to know who's who and what's what.

[anonymous-user]

Thanks for that, very interesting stuff

It's great to be able to shoot what you love, I can often be found snapping the Porsche shows/meetings and I'm now getting a few photos published in Porsche Post magazine regularly now, which is great.

I suspect the hot rod stuff is a little more 'colourful' at times than some of the Porsche meets, but I'm an air cooled fan so I concentrate on the cars rather than the people

I know what you mean about too much light wide open on a sunny or brighter day. I've had this problem a few times but I'm suffering less now that I've changed cameras. My new body can manage ISO 100 and 1/8000th whereas my old one was ISO200 and 1/4000th max so it's now easier for me to stay at 1.8 on the brightest of days.

[flat-planedCrank]

NinjaPower said:

... I was wondering how often use your 85mm at the full fat 1.2 as oppose to closing it down a bit?

Lens folklore says if you stop the 85mm f1.2 down too often it climbs back into the box and posts itself back to Canon

[anonymous-user]

I wish a Nikon 85mm 1.4 would climb in it's box and post itself to me!

That would save me about £1400 I reckon!

[flat-planedCrank]

NinjaPower said:

I wish a Nikon 85mm 1.4 would climb in it's box and post itself to me!

That would save me about £1400 I reckon!

Surprising how different the 85mm 1.2 is to other lenses in the Canon range actually, AF is slower than the (superfast) f1.8 version, and 'electro manual' rather than a mechanical connection. Just feels bespoke and specialised...

Used well it's capable of astonishing results, awesome bit of kit.

[anonymous-user]

It is also absolutely enormous for a non-tele prime lens isn't it?

I think someone once described it as 'the size of a grapefruit' which sounds pretty big to me!

No wonder they call the 50mm the 'nifty'... compared with that!