Today’s Post by Joe Farace
It’s a never ending battle of making your cars better and also trying to be better yourself. —Dale Earnhardt
I originally photographed this classic Nissan Skyline GTR for Modified magazine at Red Rocks Park located outside of Denver.
Super Street magazine once had this to say about the magazine: “Modified was the ultimate auto magazine, where all the cars have a focus on function over fads. The brand covers tech and how-to performance tuning articles; project cars, engine builds, and suspension, tire, wheel, and other upgrades; extensive event coverage and 100’s of photos; and product buyers guides.” It was shuttered years ago due to the vagaries of the magazine business.
Skyline at Red Rocks
The Nissan Skyline GTR is/was/always be the ultimate cult car and when any of them show up at Cars & Coffee or car shows, they’re invariably crowded by people who grew up playing video games soaking up this amazing automobile that was never officially brought into the US. Now that the 25-year rule can be applied to these right-hand drive JDM (Japan Domestic Market) cars, many are coming to America. When I made this image, these cars were a rare sight on American roads. At the time, this car particular was one of two Skylines in Colorado but now, while they may not be common, there are many more of them showing up at local car shows..The current model Nissan GT-R may be the spiritual successor to the Skyline and while it is an amazing cars in it’s own right, to me, it lacks the same soul as the original skylines.
How I made this photograph: Red Rocks Park is a mountain park in Jefferson County, Colorado that is owned and maintained by the city of Denver as part of the Denver Mountain Parks system. The park is known for its large red sandstone outcrops. The above image was shot with a Canon EOS-1D Mark II N with the EF 100-300mm f/4.5-5.6 USM lens (at 108mm) with an exposure of 1/500 sec at f/10 and ISO 200.
Photographically the most interesting part of this story—to me and maybe to you because it addresses the old JPEG vs. RAW controversy—is what Modified’s Art Director told me when giving the assignment. “Just shoot JPEG’s for most of the shots but for any you think would make a good double-page spread, shoot in RAW.” I did what he asked but the photo he used for the magazine (the above image) and spread across across two pages was shot as a JPEG.
Along with photographer Barry Staver, I’m co-author of Better Available Light Digital Photography that’s available from Amazon for $21.88 prices with used copies selling at the giveaway price of two bucks, as I write this, less than you next Venti coffee at Starbucks.