Hood Ornaments and Macro Shots

My first few car shows, I rarely took any other pictures besides full shots, with a few detail shots sprinkled throughout. But that quickly became old hat and I was getting bored of it. My dad suggested I try hood ornaments, as there is so many different ones out there. It was one thing he did a lot of when he did photography, so that's what I started to do. There isn't that great of a variety at standard car shows, but by taking hood ornament pictures I think I really developed my eye for closeups, reflections and angles. I can take multiple pictures of the same ornament on different cars, but they can all be different for the most part. And with my new DSLR and now my macro lens filters, I am able to try a lot more. So now, a foray into my hood ornament and macro car shots.



One of my earliest hood ornament shots was also one of my first black and white shots, and is still one of my favorite pictures, even though it suffers from a pretty big flaw.


I have a few other favorite ornaments. I don't have that many ornament shots I like from my point & shoot, not after what I've seen I can do with my new DSLR, but here is a few that I really like.


The Pontiac Chief is another classic that I love. There is just too many angles you can do that face. Plus they have some of the best detail of any of the era.


I swear this is a chicken, my dad claims otherwise, but it will always be the chicken ornament for me. I've set out to take as best of pictures as I can of this one, since my dad had admitted he had trouble with it.


Being one of the most ornate cars of the era, of course Packard will have a really ornate hood ornament. I really like that the background isn't in focus for once, something my point & shoot never seemed to do, but did this time.


Another Pontiac. It was a conscious effort by me to get the light to shine the right way through the head, the first time I've really played with light while taking pictures.


I don't like this shot, but I'm posting it here to show the perils of shiny chrome, a bright sunny day, and not planning shots well.


Hand made ornaments are always a welcome sight, as are non-chrome ornaments, as they make things a bit easier with light and reflections

That's the end of my point and shot ornaments, there is a lot more than what I've showed, just go search for hood ornaments on my flickr page and you'll see.

What I love about my new Nikon D40 is the ability to manually focus, something I couldn't do with my point and shoot. And while I've discovered that the autofocus is actually really good on the D40, I still like having manual there just in case.


I could never get the medallions like this on '60s Fords with the point and shoot, as they'd tend to get washed out or blury. But now I'm able to capture them perfectly, and what a great thing that is, as they are some of the neatest to do closeups of.


I don't like when car owners have the hoods of their cars open, as it ruins the cars shape, though there is some benefits. One is if they have a really cool engine, ripe for photography, the other is getting underside shots of hood ornaments. It especially works for Plymouths like this, because it's a boat, or for the eagle on Chevrolets or the rocket on Oldsmobiles.


Custom ornaments make my time fun, as they are so different. This one is quite popular among the people on Flickr who view my photos.


I really like this custom one too, and no its not because I'm biased towards the red whiskers. *strokes beard*

Now on my most recent car show outing, I brought my macro filters (for the non-photographers, a macro filter is basically a magnifying glass that attaches to the end of the lens), I have a 3x, 2x, and 1x which of course can be combined to also create 4x, 5x and 6x. Having the macro filters really gave me a different view and mission while taking shots, especially of ornaments. I also went into other things like nameplates too.


This Packard's ornament's face was quite detailed for what it was, and the macro really helped bring that out. Though my arms are really unsteady at vertical shots, hence it being crooked. I need to improve that.


This one was extremely hard to capture. I couldn't get the angle right, light wasn't working to my advantage. I'm still not that happy with the result, but it's still a good macro example.


This is my favorite result from the macro stuff. I was amazed at how close I was able to get. You can see the dust and chips on the chrome, and that was only using 5x. I could've added the 1x and made it 6.


I never bothered with these "ornaments" before, as I always though they were just valves and didn't see the ornate dressing around the edge, until I got close and took this shot.


Another Ford Medallion, this time really close. It's probably extremely hard keeping these clean and free of scratches, rocks must aim directly for it.


Birds and ladies, thats what the old cars were about. This one isn't macro, I just really like the angle of the goose coming in for a landing.

And here is some non-hood ornament macro stuff.


I wanted to bring the details of the bird's head in closer, as it looked like little hearts cut out.


This one is a little too blurry for my taste, but the light on the shiny red details is great.


I love the Superbee logo, it's such a great character with a good design.

And that's my showcase of hood ornaments and macro shots. I'm really looking forward to doing more of these. I eventually want to get an actual macro lens, but those things are pricey. I think I may aim for a 10x filter first. I'll definitely be trying to perfect my technique with these shots. Expect to see more.