Category Archives: Photography

There are lots of great car museums in the world, and I’ve visited more than a few. However, the majority are difficult or impossible to photograph, unless you’re a “down in the details” sort of photographer, which I’m definitely not.

The honourable exception is the Museo Dell’Automobile “Carlo Biscaretti Di Ruffia” in Turin, Italy. Here the curators have given the cars something they almost never have in other museums: space. The result is a beautifully lit environment for the equally beautiful exhibits, and when I visited last year I managed to make several images I’m very happy with. Visit my portfolio, and see whether you agree.

(PS – according to their website, the Museo Dell’Automobile is currently closed for restoration works, so please check the website before you visit.)

Here’s a picture from my Swiss trip last year. I was a little disappointed with my shots from Montreux – it’s such a compact town it’s very difficult to isolate the buildings and features from one another. However, I’m reasonably pleased with this one. The palette’s great: everything the same yellow and red, with the rest almost monochrome (I haven’t made any adjustments apart from a slight overall saturation boost). Of course, if I’d been taking a commercial shot with the hotel’s permission I’d have tried to get all the blinds deployed to the same length, but I didn’t have that control. Still, I think it’s balanced enough to work.

Let me know what you think.

Gordon Lewis at Shutterfinger recently posted bemoaning how Image Stabilisation technology doesn’t work in some circumstances, especially when the camera’s on a tripod. This has caused me a number of jagged fireworks pictures, and others, over the years. Regular readers will recall my suggestion in What I Want In My Next DSLR that it would be easy for camera design to include automatic detection of “tripod mode”, and simply turn IS off, or at least visually warn the user.

Camera manufacturers have made enormous strides in very difficult technology areas, but current DSLRs fall down in so many simple usability areas. Why?