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Multiple Skills

February 11, 2018 In Photography No Comment

So the new skill that I’m adding to my list of skills is Real Estate photography. And this might be the toughest one yet. My photography enlightenment started when I was photographing my watches and going to car shows with my parents. A small Canon point-n-shoot I borrowed from my friend and my venture into photography began. I was lucky enough to have a co-worker that was very studied in photography and mentored me along my way. Years later he’d even give me his 35mm Canon Elan IIe camera when he left for Seattle. I tried to learn as much as I could from him but it was mostly how photography worked. Not much on the creative side because that’s learned on your own. You learn your style, your eye and you develop that over years and hours of practice.

I wish I would have picked up photography back in Jr. High when I was offered the option of taking the class. My family, not having a lot, I didn’t pursue it but looking back now as much as my Dad spent on all the film he shot, I should have. So I didn’t get into photography until 2003 with this small Canon camera, the a80, which I still have. Once people saw my images from car shows, they wanted me to take pictures of their cars. So in late 2005, I had my first photo shoot with a few of my VW friends and my new Canon Rebel 300D. That’s where I began photographing my friend’s rides and scouting out locations to shoot and learning my style. So many of those locations are no longer around. But it was a blast and I made several lifelong friends and connections. My first publication was in May of 2008 with my friend Ross’ VW GTI in EuroTuner. After that came out, I start honing my skills and adding on more shoots. Later in the year, I photographed my first wedding and that was stressful! I’d never shot a wedding before and wasn’t sure what I needed to do. So I focused on what I what I wanted to see and I got some amazing images. I even had to learn quickly how to use an external flash before the wedding. Another skill that I’ve had to really learn how to use and has helped me produce some of my most famous images.

I never shied away from learning something new, I read books and blogs and asked questions about skills that I wanted to learn. I was never scared to try something and practice it till I got it right. Since painting with light was a new thing to me, I knew that I had to learn how to use light to make the picture. I was laid off from my full-time job in November of 2007. I was still paid until the end of the year and even received a really nice severance paycheck at the end of the year. So I didn’t need to find a job quickly and I focused my time on photography and looking for a job in the field. It wasn’t until May that I was hired on at Lifetouch, photographing Seniors for their yearbooks. I loved the job and did it for two seasons. I learned so much about how to use light to make an image. I learned all the different lighting styles and my photography took another step up, another skill added to my list. I applied my knowledge to my car photos, wedding photos, and portraits that I started doing outside of my job and advanced my skills further. I’ve learned photography is about 60% knowledge and 40% creativity. You’ve got to know how to produce the image you envisioned. You have to know how the light is going to act in the bright sun, the dark nights and how to apply it to get the results that you want. A creative eye isn’t enough to produce a great photo. When driving downtown around noon, you get to see these rays of light beaming down on the ground. It’s the perfect light. It’s soft but bright and sometimes it has an amazing color to it. It’s sunlight bouncing off the skyscraper windows. Every time I see them I wish I had a camera and a subject to photograph. And I’ve done it before. In several of my car photos rolling through the streets and even in some model portraits that I’ve done. You don’t have to have the equipment to produce the light you just need to know where to look for it.

Now that I’m adding Real Estate photography to my skills, I’ve learned it’s a very precise art form. If you take a photo that is 1/2 a degree off, the human eye can see it. So you have to make sure that you have everything perfect. Which is something I’ve never really done on my other types of shoots. I’m hoping that learning this now, I can apply it to my other shoots and better my photography overall. All other photos are loose, they don’t have to be as ridged. I’ve only been at it for 3 weeks now and I’ve got myself watching my angels and camera positioning while on shoots. There are certain positions that you’re supposed to photograph a car or model so you get the best view of them. And trying to make an image perfect isn’t the best way to make your subjects look best. So learning a new skill and learning when to apply it, is two skills in one. So half of your learning is learning the skill and half is when and where to use it. So never stop learning and every mistake is a lesson and a chance to learn the right way to do something.

“Once you stop learning, you start dying.” Albert Einstein (March 14, 1879 – April 18, 1955)

What a way to start the new year!

January 29, 2018 In Photography No Comment

There are a lot of cars that I’d love to have in front of my lens. The Ferrari F40 has always been an amazing car to me and I’ve never lusted after a Ferrari until the 458 came out. But photographing the F40 last night really made you appreciate what it is. It’s an icon in the car world and one of the first Super Cars that started the Super Car realm. It’s an absolute beast from what Scott the owner tells me. It is a carbon fiber tub with an engine in the rear and for fat tires sticking it to the ground.

The owner of the car is someone I worked with before. EVO UK magazine contacted me a few years back and asked if I could photograph a collection of cars here in Dallas. What photographer would turn down such a job? We got everything setup and scheduled the day with Scott, Jake and myself. The day came and went and Jake and I never really saw the images come up from the shoot. I started thinking about photographing and F40 and thought about Scott and wondered if had imported his yet. He said he had and was interested in getting some photos done. So, Win, Win! We check our calendars and get a day and a location scheduled.

I show up at Scott’s house and see the side garage open and the tail of the F40, so gorgeous and simple. I go to the front door and ring the doorbell with no answer. But I hear the engine of a car startup. And what a sound it was. I make my way over to the garage and just listen to it rumble. It takes several minutes to get settled and then he starts backing it out. Parks it in his front drive and lets it warm up some more. We shake hands and say our greetings and then he tells me it’s been a while since it’s been started and ran. We look it over and let it do its thing. We plan a route because the car is low and we don’t want to ruin the nose before it’s close up. We make our way down the road and all I’m doing is watching the road for bumps and debris. I found a location not too far away that he said would be good. We arrived in about 6-7 minutes and set the car up. We chatted more about the car and what we had been up to. I got my gear ready as he looked over the car to see if there was anything that needed to be cleaned. The sun was behind the car and within minutes it was going to be setting behind the building. So lighting was going to be perfect.

I got to work shooting the car while still talking to Scott about what cars he had. I asked him if he kept the MacLaren 675S that they lent when we did our first shoot. He said he did and now he has 3 of them, even the new 720. (Scott, we’ll schedule a shoot in Montana one day for that.) Scott gets out his camera and starts shooting some images as well. We shoot for about an hour and a half and it’s time for him to head out. We wrap up everything and he’s on his way. I let the images finish uploading to my tablet to look them over. I showed him a few while I was still shooting and he was in love. I looked over the images before I left and was amazed how well so many of them turned out. I was only able to use my FotodioX 12×80 softbox for a few photos because the wind kept pushing it around. So I ditched it and just used straight flash, which turned out great. I thought I’d have to fight with the light bouncing off the surface of the car but it did realy well. I had to do little, light removal in post.

I edited a few and sent them to Scott and he loved them. All night I was thinking of the images and was eager to edit them, so as soon as I could I completed them and finished the gallery. These will probably be the best images that I will ever take. I shot bracketing and captured several images but when I started editing, I found that my settings during the shoot I didn’t need the extra images. I’m super happy that I had this opportunity to photograph this car and to produce such great images. I hope I’m ablw to work with Scott again and hopefully make more connections like this. I’d like more exotic cars in my portfolio and I think this is the year. I mean, my first publication was 10 years ago.

To continue?

January 5, 2018 In Photography News No Comment

It’s not what you think…I’ll never quit photography. Nah I’m debating on continuing my 2nd site, www.jakebmiller.smugmug.com. I’ve had it for several years and the setup cost me $150 a year. I’m not getting as many sales off the site as I’d like. So I’m not sure if I should keep the expense. I have printed several images off the site and the images are amazing. This is the site I host my galleries for shoots that I do, which I can build my own but SmugMug makes it very easy. The galleries can be secured, I have unlimited space and it’s easy to email all the info to clients. There are so many benefits but I feel as if I’m not getting my money out of it.

On the hand, I’m thinking that I need to advertise more to get more sales out of it. Which means spending more money and right now I don’t have the income to do so. And advertising isn’t cheap either. If I was able to secure an extra $500 a month just for shooting, then I’d spend that on marketing the work. But do I advertise to sell prints or get more clients to photograph? Been roasting this over for a while now and I’ve got to come to a conclusion soon.

If I leave the site up would you buy prints? Or should I invest the money elsewhere?

And that’s a finish

December 30, 2017 In Life No Comment

Happy New Year out there you photo crazed people. Man what a year, a tough one at that too, on the personal side. But things are already looking up and it isn’t even 2018 yet. I worked until September this year and haven’t since. So I’m ready to start working with a new, young and local company and gain some new skills in my career. I start working for Full Package Media as a real estate photographer in the next few days. I’ve never photographed real estate, besides for a few friends’ houses. In the 4 shoots that I’ve been on so far, I’ve learned a ton. I will also be adding video and drone work to my skillset. I have to complete my training and get my pilot license before I can start working with the drones but it’ll be awesome to add that to my skills. Being out of work for so long has made me really thirst for work and I’m super happy that I’ll be doing photography as my primary job. This job will give me flexibility as well to keep shooting on my own.

A few weeks ago, my friend Jeremiah and I were talking and I told him that I wanted to photograph a local artist. That I need someone with some style. I also told him that I had a spot that I wanted to shoot that no one has ever shot at before. Or at least I’d never seen photos of the location. We met up, had drinks and went to the location. It’s a mural just down the road of a space scene with the word CREATE in bold white letters. He said he wanted to produce a video for me of me working so we teamed up with his Nephew and did a shoot. I photographed Devin while Jeremiah shot me. It was a blast and Devin worked perfectly for the background. All of us worked perfectly for that mural. We all love to create and I think that’s the spark within artist that makes them sacrifice so much for their art. The night was amazing and we captured some awesome images. Hopefully, I can work with some more local artists soon and start sharing our love for what we do. I have photoed a few other artist and it’s always been fun to make art with them.

New years resolutions… None. Just goals. One of them is to find a location that I build out and start a car studio. It’s burning in my soul to do it so I’m going to seek out others to see if they’d like to start a business. Upgrade equipment year. This year I’ve got to get some new gear. My Canon 60D has traveled many miles with me and it’s time to move to a full frame camera. There are so many options now and I’m not sure which route to go. I’ve been with Canon for years and my money is invested in Canon glass, so not sure what to do. Reseach is all I can do for now. Big money coming our way this year so hopefully, I can jump ship and upgrade.

I wish yall all well and a great year. I hope that you’re able to achieve all that you desire and make the world a more awesome place. Cheers to 2018!!

To Build or Not To…?

December 11, 2017 In Photography 2 Comments

So a lot of my clients are individuals that are looking to capture images of their car before anything happens to it or they are selling it. I have so many contacting me, that I’ve been thinking about renting a location and building a studio to draw in more clients. I have had several people ask me if I have a studio and I have to let them know that I rent one and we can shoot there. Which is me spending some money on the rental which cuts into my profit. But it would be nice to have my own place to shoot and display my work. To do this though I’d have to spend at least $2000 a month on running it. Advertising would have to be turned up and start marketing that I’m a Studio and not just a photographer. Putting in that much money and hoping to get enough clients to cover the cost is really risky. There are a few locations that do fine art car photography in the US and I’d love to be the one in the middle of the US. I could continue to work the magazines and actually do more work with them since there are so many rides around here that are magazine worthy. And having it listed with the magazines, that would be a way to bring in more money to cover the cost of running and renting a studio.

Shooting more with my large 12×80 softbox and loving the results. So If I were to move into a studio I’d have to build something larger which would really turn up the quality of my work. So I guess what I’d have to do is see about getting a business loan. I’m guessing I’d have to get about $100,000 to get it all started. Again, just guessing but I guess I need to do a bit more research. I’ve known several people that have started their business from nothing and are doing well, but it’s a lot on top of running one to make a living. I think the toughest part would finding the right location to build out what I needed. I’ll have to find a large enough location to fit two large sweeps. One white and one black, I don’t want to be painting every weekend to shoot what I want. Then to design the studio layout and figure out what equipment I’d work with. Cameras, Lighting, Boxes, Dollies, Computers and all the materials to run that. In the long run, once I get it running I could rent it out to other photographers. The largest investment I think would be advertising. I have to get the word out that the Best Photography Shop in Dallas just opened.

How do you calculate all this and create a business plan. The old adage, Build it and they will come, isn’t the best way to start a business. But there are so many that tell me that is probably what will happen. Once people see that there is a location that they could bring their car to get photographed in a high-end studio, we could start charging whatever we want. But the quality of work will definitely draw in the money and since there are expensive cars everywhere in Dallas I just have to tap on the shoulders of the money makers. And since I’m already connected to some really nice wealthy people, that shouldn’t be hard.

Off to the dreamboard and start producing a list of what I’ll need, how much everything cost and read about businesses and asking for money. One of the other large items that I think would take up a lot of money would be insurance. I’d have to Insure my equipment, locatoin and possible get insurance just in case I’m driving a car or hauling it to my studio. Makes me sick thinking about anything like happeneing but that is the risk of running a business. Planning, Planning, Planning. Stick around and see what comes of my future.

Speechless

November 21, 2017 In Life No Comment

Doing research for rankings and SEO for my site and I started searching for hashtags. I searched for Lee Iacocca on my Instagram to see if could find any photos that I took of the 45th anniversary Mustang out there. I found some photos that someone else recently took and the caption mentioned selling it. So I searched online and I see it listed on one site for sale and then I find it at the most recent Leake Auto Auction sold for $43,000. ONLY $43,000!!! My heart sunk for Robert the owner that I shot it for and for my story and my buddy Cesar that hooked me up with the Robert.

My friend Cesar was a car nut. I meet him through Volkswagens as I did with so many of my friends. You couldn’t find a more loving and caring guy in our crowd. And he knew a lot about cars. He texted me one day with some photos of this crazy looking Mustang. And asked if I’d see anything like it. Which I hadn’t. It was really sleek looking and you could see a few things were different on it from a regular 2009 Mustang GT. I asked him if he could get the owners info and I’ll see if I can photograph it. My buddy scores the contact info and I make contact with Robert. Robert and I start talking about doing a shoot and possibly getting it into one of the Mustang magazines. Months pass and Robert and I finally get a date set. While waiting to do the shoot my friend Cesar passes away. So this means even more to me now. I told myself when I get the check from the article I’m going to give it to his family. Robert and I start talking over the details and I start writing the article. I get a lot of info from Robert and I start digging more into this car.

It’s a Lee Iacocca 45th anniversary Mustang GT built by Gaffoglio Family Metalcrafters and designed by Michael Leone. This is a really special car. There are only 45 of them built. But it has a bit of odd past. Robert tells me that he purchased this from someone that bought it from Hardcore Pawn Store show. The shop bought it from a guy that won it at some casino. The Pawn Shop had it listed for $175k and then, $135,000. Robert never said how much he got it for. Now it’s sold at auction for only $43,000?! It’s insane how many Mustang enthusiast are out there and none of them are making these worth more. With less than 300 miles on the clock and maybe 3 owners, I’m so confused. I’m not sure if it’s just this one or if it’s all of them. Trust me I’d steal this thing if I could right now for $43k and make sure my dad enjoyed it when he retires at the end of the year. And where are all the other ones? Are they in hiding? Does anyone have one of these in a museum? Is this really how the Mustang people are going to treat the man that created their beloved car?!

It’s a beautiful ride and I hate to see these cars go down in history as the worst selling custom car ever. The roofline ends and it slopes all the way down to the end of the car. The front lights aren’t covered in plastic but are like a 67s, recessed back into the fenders. The interior styling is a style like you’re seeing in today’s high-end cars.

I never heard back from the editor and so my article never was published. I’ve held on to these photos long enough and I think it was one of my best shoots. I even produced my first published book for the client. So enjoy the images in honor of the Father of the Mustang and my buddy Cesar.

45th Anniversary Password ‘mustang’

ALL PROCEDES OF ANY PHOTOS PURCHASED FROM THIS GALLERY WILL GO TO CESAR’S FAMILY

Greatest show on Earth!!

November 12, 2017 In Photography No Comment

The 16th annual Pistons and Paint show was huge this year!! There were so many cars and trucks at the show and so many new rides that I’d never seen. Troy and I met up at Whataburger for breakfast and then headed down to the street to the North Texas State Fair Grounds where the show has been held for years. We arrive about 10:30 am and the visitor parking lot is already pretty full so we know it’s going to be a great show. Walk up to the gates and get our tickets and stop to admire how many cars are there. Usually, there are just enough cars there to where you can look at both sides of the aisle but this year there is way too much to look at.

There were so many great looks cars this year, so many finished cars. In the past, there were a lot of Rat Rods and Hot Rods but this show had it all. The Nomads had a huge showing and so did the C10 Chevy pickups. Troy and I made our way through the cars and telling stories about cars we’d seen or had had in the past. We talked to several owners and loved hearing their stories about their car and how they built them. That is one of the greatest parts of a show like this, the community. Everyone is there because they love cars, they love talking about them, building them and photographing them.

We made it about halfway through and were close to the vendors so I had to stop by and say hi to Brian Bass. I’ve been wanting to meet him for quite a while and wasn’t sure if I’d be able to with the GMG show just releasing only a few days before. But he was there and ready to greet anyone that came up. I chatted with him for a bit and finally got me a Bass Kustom shirt. At this point, we started getting stopped by several people and being asked who we were shooting for and a few people I couldn’t wait to meet. I finally got to meet Jeff Sharer of Copperhead Kustoms in Van Alstyne TX. We’ve been trying to get a photo shoot of his rides for years now and we may have finally done so. It’s great to meet new people at shows and talk with old friends as well. So many great people out there in the Hot Rod community. I even got to meet the creators of Rust Bucket Resurrections magazine, Timm and Tammy Lucher.

So I have (in pieces) a 60s era Chevy Pickup and this year at the show I think all of them showed up at once. There were so many of them out there and in all sorts of shapes. There were fully built and polished ones, even a 4×4 version which I’d never seen. There was also one that someone slammed and shoved a diesel engine under the hood. Then there was David Gallardo’s gorgeous 1964 Chevy short bed. We talked to David for a bit and got some details on it. He said he completed the build in about 4 months and did most of the work himself. I joking said I’ll give him mine and let him finish it for me. We talked about getting some photos done, so you should see more of his here in the near future.

There were a lot of out of towners too! It’s great to see the show reaching further and further out each year. This is the 6th year that I’ve gone to the show and the green 32 above is one of the first cars I photographed at the 2011 show. It’s nice to see so many local cars return year after year and to see them evolve or even be completed over the years. I really liked seeing a lot of custom cars this year. It’s nice to see the show grow and receive more local support. And as always, we’re all ready for next year’s show. Can’t wait to see how many cars show up next year.

It’s focus time

November 8, 2017 In Photography No Comment

Things have been flipped on their head around here. We’ve moved back to Oak Cliff and it’s time for me to get to work on finding clients. Surrounded by so many small businesses that I would love to work with. So it’s time to focus on how to present and sell my services, just like the businesses I’m looking to work with. How to convince them that they need me to photograph their products. There are only so many articles or blogs that you can read on the subject before you get burned out. I’ve even taken a few classes in marketing to learn as much as I can about marketing your work. The market is saturated with photographers and new technology that make it very difficult to convince a small business to spend money on a photographer. Some say it is the quality of the work that sells itself but I don’t think that’s all. The new client needs to understand the value of great photography and what it can do for their business.

There are several shows on TV that teach the value of spending money on your business. One of the new ones is Richard Rawling’s Garage Rehab. He finds these shops and re-conditions them to start making money and how to run a great business. Most of these shop owners don’t want to spend the money to keep their shops nice and clean. But that is the first thing a new customer notice. And if your shop doesn’t look good then the quality of your work probably isn’t much better. So before a new customer gets to judge your work, make sure that they are seeing the best of what you do. Walking up to a local taco shop and the photos look like they were done with a disposal camera in 1998, doesn’t make me really want anything out the kitchen. If the owner would spend some money or sometimes you can trade with a photographer, you’d present your wares in a better light and entice more sales. When you look at something and it is photographed very well, you don’t need to tell them anything about the item. Your work will show and threw a great photo that will show. If you have produced a great looking product but the but is horribly lit, your work won’t shine.

I have photographed a lot of cars for Michael Grubbs of Grubbs Collision in Garland over the years. One car that I photographed for him was this gorgeous blue 1969 Chevy Camaro. Everything was perfect for this shoot. The sun was just coming up and I had me new MagMod diffuser and focused on capturing this amazing car. Weeks after I photographed it and went back to shoot another car, Mike told me that only hours after the photos were posted of the car, a guy called him from Oklahoma and said he was on his way to buy it. He hadn’t even seen the car in person but he said that the photos were so awesome, he had to have the car. I just smiled and said to Mike, “That’s why I do what I do. And do it to the best of my ability.” I was hired to do a job and my knowledge and talent and it showed when someone drove hundreds of miles to spend a few thousand to by a car he’d never seen in person.

When you look in a magazine or watching a commercial on tv and the product looks amazing, do you not wonder how it all was done? I worked on a commercial for Ford a few years back and it was an eye-opening experience for me. It was amazing to see how many people went into making a 2-minute commercial and all the work that went into it. It takes a lot of money to get it all done. Someone told me that they spent about 2 million dollars just to film it. And it came out amazing, Drop Everything That’s what all business should understand and desire, to look amazing. So I’m gearing up and reaching out to local business and pitching my work. I’m really looking forward to connecting with local businesses and producing some great work for them.

I’m ready for my close up!

October 17, 2017 In Photography No Comment

I don’t know if it’s the studios that are dictating how things should be done or if it’s the Director’s request or just the knowledge of the Cinematographer, but the lighting in Movies and TV shows are horrible these days. I’m not saying all of them but most of them. In any environment, the Actors are side lit! Like they are getting their Senior portraits taken. Why?! Does everyone just own lamps on tables for lighting these days? Where are the overhead lights that everyone owns? I know it’s used for dramatic effect a lot of times but there are so many more ways to do that than just lighting someone from the side.

I worked for 2 years in a portrait studio and talk about an eye-opening experience. It was exactly what I needed at that time in my photography career pursuit. A crash course in how to use lights, how many lights you should have and the different styles of lighting. Then we worked our butts off trying to perfect those and then how to change them to paint a picture. There are your basic 5-6 styles for your professional portrait styles and then there are about 4-5 more to create a mood or look. Learning the basic styles and what they are used for can take some time but once you get them down you’re able to setup your lights quickly and then do some fine tuning with your subject in place.

There are many great articles about lighting out there and several variations of the styles but practice is needed to get down your style. One of my favorite places to learn or discover new ways of doing things is to search CreativeLive and see what others have posted. There are so many tutorials and other inputs on the site that you can spend days surfing. Here is a great example of a series that will teach the basic of Portrait Photography by Lindsay Adler.

These are some suggestions if you’re just learning about photography and lighting and haven’t been through any formal training. And you can always look for local photographers online and see if they have classes or would be your mentor. I mention these options because I’m curious about those that are doing all the lighting in the shows and wonder if they ever learned any of this. And if you really want to be inspired go and watch the classic movies and look at the classic Hollywood actors portraits to see truly amazing portrait photography.

I recently went to see the new Blade Runner 2049 and it didn’t inspire me like the original did. There were elements used in the new one to make us connect with the old one but that was about it. I didn’t have its own life. I can’t blame anyone because I don’t know who wanted it to look like it did. Was the Director, the Studio or Producers, who knows. But the original will always be one of the most beautifully lit movies of cinematic history. Most of the scenes in Deckharts loft were inspired by the classic 20s and 30s photographers like George Hurrell, John Engstead, Scotty Welbourne and Clarence Sinclair Bull. Photos they took, set the mark for all glamor photography and are rarely met with such craft. Jordan Cronenweth did an amazing job on Blade Runner in setting the mood with how he lit the future world if it was him that did it. It could have been Chris Franco that is listed as the lighting technician.

So to those that are in the film industry, do better work. Don’t half-ass it! Make great films and continue to inspire the future filmmakers.

Hand-Me-Downs

October 1, 2017 In Life No Comment

I hear and read stories about families that have had items or cars in their family for generations. Then those items are passed on to other family members or sold to people or collectors. And I’m always curious about the person that purchased or found the item or car. Did they know or plan for it to be passed down through the family? Did they not even think about that or just bought it for themselves? Are you thinking about holding on to your new phone to hand down to your great-grandchildren? I know the word ‘collectible’ is used a lot these days but it’s used for everything now. That being said it makes things less valuable because people are already planning on holding onto it. It’s not a ‘Hey I like this item so I’m going to keep it because I like it.’ It’s a, ‘I’m going to keep this because I could possibly make money off it one day.’ And that takes away the value in my mind.

I have several items that I’m collecting, for both reasons. I’ve got 400+ Hot Wheels that I’ve held onto since the 90s because I like them and also to one day sale them to make money off of them. Or possibly hand them down to my children. Then there are some things that have been in my family for generations. And I think those hold more sentimental value, that’s why they have stayed around. I have some old cameras in my collection that are from my family and some that purchased because I like them. So I’m always curious to why others collect things, do they intend to pass them down?

I wrote a story years ago about a father that passed away and left his car collection to his son. The story was about the prize car that was left behind, a 1967 Ford Shelby GT500. A very beautiful ride that his dad had built in the 70s and kept up with it. It was the car everyone wanted and it won many awards at shows. Johnny’s legacy was preserved in these cars that he had and handed them down to his family when he passed. It wasn’t cause he knew these cars were going to be worth hundreds of thousands of dollars one day, it was because he loved them and wanted to hold on to great cars of our culture. And that is why I write this, what am I passing on to my kids?

I have a daughter and hope to have at least one more child. She is my first born and I’m my parents first born. Tomorrow marks the last time that I talked, hugged or kissed my mom, 3 years ago. It’s still hard to believe it’s only been three years because it’s passed in the blink of an eye. There are far more hand-me-downs on her side of the family than there are on my Dad’s side. My Dad’s Dad is the only paternal grandparent I have left and they never really held onto things from our family heritage. Unless other parts of my family have it and I have never met them. But we do have a lot of things from my Mother’s side. We have a lot of furniture from them and old magazines and household items. So it makes me wonder, were things just passed down when a member of the family passed away or when someone moved and needed something. You’ve got to remember that the Great Depression was only 90 years ago and that is when people held on to things that they need and not things that they wanted. Some were smart enough or strong enough to hold on to certain things and that’s why we have antiques today.

One of my favorite shows is Chasing Classic Cars with Wayne Carini and another one is American Pickers. I love seeing what Wayne wants in his collection and what cars he really loves to just see. To look over all the details and explain why things were built a certain way with very beautiful and rare cars. And a lot of his stories are about cars that have been in someone’s family for a long time. They have decided to sale them because they are no longer are able to take care of them or drive them. You see these stories of cars being handed down and you see photos of these families enjoying them and it makes wonder about the person it all started with. Did they think ahead and say ‘This will be an awesome sale one day.’ or ‘I want my family to enjoy this.’ Majority of the time it’s about the family enjoying it.

Then there is Mike and Frank of American Pickers. These guys and Danielle find some amazing history all over the US. Just like Wayne, they are contacted by families about collections that they want to sale. Some of them have whole towns built of old collectibles from decades of a family member collecting things either because they know one day that it will have value or because they really love the stuff. It is nice to see when they find a location that has a ton of stuff that has been hidden from eyes for decades. And then get go through it and show us all these awesome things that we’d never get to see if it wasn’t for them. And for the families to allow them to go in and pick things that hold sentimental value to them or doesn’t. Depends on how long it’s been in the family.

In a world where products are created to be thrown away after only a few years, few months or even one-time use, it’s nice to see things from yesteryear that are still around. And they are still here because we took pride in what we had then and built it to last for years. We weren’t a throwaway society decades ago, we understood that there were limited resources. We knew and figured out ways to reuse stuff. I remember in 4th or 5th grade hearing about recycling and electric public buses and solar panels. And I’m confused why it has taken so many years for these items to barely become mainstream, now?! What took so damn long?! We had this stuff 30 years ago and now it’s just getting popular?! I have hope for the future but it needs to get here fast or everything we have will be trashed and gone before we know we had it. I mean we’re really not taking care of our planet and one of my main goals in life is to teach my children that you leave things the way you found them, if not better. Make sure you’re handing down your own collectibles and your knowledge to your children. They need to understand that there was a time not too long ago that your family didn’t have very much. That at one time that all your families possessions could fit in the back of a covered wagon or Model A if your family were so fortunate.

There is no Planet B…