Foto

On Saturday, 87 vintage cars that had traveled across country from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania to San Rafael, California finished what is called the National Guard Great Race of 2006. The organizers of San Rafael's welcoming party extended an invitation to local owners of cars brought to market before 1961 to display their vehicles as part of festivities. I stopped by early in the day to check out the older cars, camera in hand, of course.

I know from past experience, that most TE members are underwhelmed by cars and tend not to pay too much attention to photos of same. As I've suggested before, to understand Americans, it is important to have some appreciation for our love affair with the automobile, as misguided as that infatuation may be. Thousands of people came to downtown San Rafael to look at cars. With three cars for every four persons in the United States, we own forty percent of all the vehicles on the planet. And despite dramatic increases in fuel prices, there seems no diminishment in our enthusiasm for our cars.

Here we have a number of vintage automobiles, most built in the 1930's and 1940's. I still find them beautiful to look at and great fun to photograph. Here I play with the lense's bokeh, focusing on hood of the car in the foreground while leaving the rest of the image slightly blurred. Perhaps you'll enjoy this simple photo as well.