'14 Sonoma Historic Motorsports Festival

[John Z Goriup]

A perfect day weather wise, but unfortunately more participants than paid spectators, with few notable exceptions ( posted below ) an ever smaller and less worthwhile number of cars, the disappearance of vendors including all the chefs and wineries that were heavily involved in the sponsorship of the whole affair and once had a high-profile, enjoyable presence at the track. With the reduced attendance and the lower number of cars I can't help thinking that this cherished event will soon be gone and forgotten.

It's a shame, because for many years it was something to genuinely look forward to.

I'm trying something different his time around: black & white photos exclusively. There is only one color shot, of a Tangerine Ferrari 360, the first Blut Orange Ferrari I've ever seen, the rest of the images are all b&w. I have been doing film black & white for over fifty years and love the look of monochrome photos, but when I switched to digital I shot only in color, but started to very much miss the intimate involvement with the picture-taking process that black & white requires. I find that b & w lends an entirely different, more engaging and interesting dimension to photography, and given today's digital equipment, superior optics, and the availability of appropriate software for the conversion to monochrome and the final processing, I can indulge my passion and affection for this kind of photography.

I hope you enjoy.

JZG

PS: The first set shows the best restored Iso-Rivolta I've ever seen, and a few old-style hot-rods, which were prominently displayed along with a huge number of '50s, '60s and '70s Nascar racers. The '32 Ford Roadster had an extremely neat, innovative detail in the form of a home-made, swing-out glass back window built into the canvas top.

[John Z Goriup]

….another set.

[John Z Goriup]

An entire set devoted to one car, a 908 Porsche with its skirt hiked up enabling a peek at all the good stuff. You might note the view past the steering wheel and the position of the driver's feet - remember this car was built well before the sanctioning bodies changed the rules and specified that the drivers feet had to be behind the front-wheel centerline.

[72targa]

More, John...more!

[John Z Goriup]

Another set covering one car only, but what a treat it was to see and hear this jewel.

Porsche 917-016. One of 37 'Endurance Model' 917s built, and one of seven sent to J.W. ( John Wyer) Automotive. The only 917 still with its original chassis and original serial number. Perdro Rodriguez won three races in this car in '70, and insisted that this car was to be kept as the T-car and used as a reference for setting up all his 917 race-cars during the '71 season.

[John Z Goriup]

Another set, and the orange Ferrari - I believe it would really come to life with a set of the famous & traditional yellow 'shields' with the black cavallino on the front fenders……..but it's not my car.

[John Z Goriup]

…..and another set.

[John Z Goriup]

The last set, including a a b&w shot of the two new Mclarens which are posted in full lurid color in the 'Other Cars' thread for comparison.

Thanks for looking in,

JZG

[Flieger]

The McLarens look worse in black and white I think. The looks have grown on me, but mostly the back of the P1. The front is still odd. I like it better than the La Ferrari though.

My monitor must be lacking, because that Ferrari 360 looks like the standard red color that most of them come in. Too bad there wasn't a red one to compare to.

[Nine17]

It appears from my vantage point that there were some very worthy cars in attendance. Give me quality over quantity any day -- I almost wish that I hadn't been in the PNW this week!

Love the experiment with B&W! Could be that I'm looking at the images on an iPhone 5, but you might want to back off on the contrast, perhaps add sepia tones and bring down the white balance to mimic the "warmth" of old-school negative-to-paper printing. Of course, some of them, like the Iso-Rivolta and the 908/3, deserve to show off their colors (just one man's opinion).

-- David