Chrome and Color: The Mercury Classic

While photographing a beautifully restored gas station in Quincy, Florida, the manager invited me to an upcoming antique car show that would be held there in a few weeks. I hadn’t photographed a car show in years, but I happily accepted the invitation. I’m not exactly a car enthusiast—my spending tends to lean toward cameras and travel rather than cars. Still, if money were no object, I’d love to own a classic British two-seater, like an Austin-Healey 3000 or an MGB. But I know better than to tempt myself!

For this shoot, I used the Sigma SD1 Merrill with its 46MP Foveon X3 APS-C CMOS sensor. I still own two of these bodies and several lenses. Although I eventually switched to Fujifilm mirrorless—tired of Sigma’s clunky RAW processing and unpredictable color smearing—I kept the cameras for in-studio abstract art photography because of their stunning color palette. Today, I process Sigma files through Adobe Lightroom, my preferred post-processing software. The lens used here was the beautiful Sigma 35mm f/1.4 DG HSM Art.

The morning of the car show was pleasant, though the Florida sun was already blazing by 11 a.m. Full-length shots of the collector automobiles proved challenging without capturing crowds, other cars, and the general bustle of the parking lot. Still, it was a treat to see all the classic cars from an era when automobiles were brimming with chrome, curves, and character.