Social Venture Partners is once again having their 8x10 Expose Potential show this November. I’ve been fortunate to have taken part in the last few events and this year a few of my photos were selected to take part in the auction.
The photo included in this post is one of the shots that was accepted. It’s a fairly old photograph; it was probably taken about 10 years ago. It was one of those nights where there was a crazy sunset (side note: I think sunsets are overrated, but blood red skies are neat) and I happened to have some slide film loaded in my camera at the time. I hardly shoot film at all, although I still have some Ilford FP4 and HP5 as well as Fuji Velvia in our freezer that I know I’ll use again at some point.
The show will be at The Tannery Event Centre which I’m pretty excited about. I’ve only been in the venue during off hours, never during an actual event. As always, on top of the art auction they’ll be having a number of inspiration speakers which are probably the highlight of the evening.
During the first weekend of September, my father-in-law and I went down to Watkins Glen International in Upstate New York. Years ago he used to do a bit of racing and to say it stayed in his blood is an understatement. Now he writes occasionally for car magazines, usually interviewing both former and current racers. We both had media passes so we more or less had free reign on where we could go for the weekend, including right up to the track. It was Vintage Weekend while we were there so most of the cars we saw were older, but maintained to racing condition. Long story short: they can still move.
Friday had a bit of a parade of a lot of the race cars down the main street in Watkins Glen. When this was over they parked them on the street and there was a car show, where I saw one of the most beautiful Ferraris I’ve ever seen: a black 1967 275 GTB4. The interior can be seen in the third photo of this gallery. I didn’t get a great overall shot of it because it was just in a parking lot with crowds of people around in okay light and I didn’t think a photo would do it much justice. Along side this was a Mercedes Benz 300SL Gullwing (picture 4 is the interior). Both were in mint condition and I think owned by the same person (who had even more on display there as well).
John (my father-in-law) can basically strike up a conversation with just about anyone, so he spent a lot of time talking and I spent a lot of time taking pictures. I spent a bit of time trying some panning which yielded, in my estimation, some pretty good results. I rented a tele extender for my telephoto lens so I could get even closer, and because I had a media pass I was able to rent an apron that gave me special privileges to walk right up to the track during the races. Seriously, an apron.
The rest of the weekend was spent wandering the paddock area, watching the mechanics fix up their cars, and, of course, actually seeing some races. The weather cooperated for the most part although the Friday that we got there was blistering hot (denim was a bad choice). Saturday was cold and bit rainy (I came prepared with rain gear), and Sunday was just right.
Doors Open is a yearly event that opens historic and significant buildings to the public. Here in Waterloo Region it is usually in early to mid-September. I’ve only gone a handful of times and this year I had the intention of going to a number of sites, but in the end I was only able to make it out to one. We’re a one-car family and I’ve just been overly busy over the last few months, so I was only able to make one stop.
Lucky for me, it was a place I have been dying to see the inside of for years: Airboss. Luckily the building is a mere 10 minute walk from our house. Airboss used to be Uniroyal Goodrich, which is where my dad worked for 30 years, so I’ve always had a soft spot for it. I remember years ago my dad brought myself and my four siblings in on a Saturday so we could see where he worked.
Uniroyal Goodrich, like Airboss, made its money in the rubber industry. Uniroyal made tires, Airboss makes just about anything with rubber. The plant is over 1,000,000 square feet, so suffice it to say, we didn’t see the whole plant. The building was designed by Albert Kahn who is famous for his auto factories found in Detroit, namely the Packard Plant and Ford’s Highland Park Plant.
We weren’t allowed to take photos inside although I was able to get some shots of the exterior that on any other day I would not be able to get (without jumping a barbed wire fence and getting charged with trespassing).
