I've blogged many times on the joys of First Fridays in the Kansas City Crossroads art district. September was a particularly good month. Every gallery I walked into had strong exhibits, the weather was nice and there was plenty of good people watching. To top it all off, I was treated to an impromptu car show!
Imagine this: you've just watched a graffiti wall going up on a gallery front and it is 10:30 at night. As you begin the trek to the parked car (a boring but efficient Prius), you hear the characteristic roar of a hyped up VW engine and see a dune buggy popping a wheelie at an intersection.
Welcome, my friends, to Dwayne's fantasy world!
This was a club run for KC Buggies taking advantage of the nice weather for a cruise. They stopped at the Kansas City Star parking lot to regroup and help fix mechanical issues with one of the modified VW bugs. Of course I had to take photos and had a nice chat with the current leader of the pack. She had one of the buggies that's all roll cage and engine.
The buggy below is a wheelie specialist. Minus passengers, the front end can be lifted with one hand.
The light show is a nice addition. If you are going to cruise the city in an open machine, you might as well do it in style!
The original bugs look really choice stripped to their bare essentials and then pimped to within an inch of their lives.
For car and street shooter geek me, this was a great end to an awesome evening of wandering around. I started in the West Bottoms hunting cool junk and ended with colorful buggies. It's all good!
In case you are wondering, all photos were taken with a Canon 60d with a Canon EF 50mm f1.4 lens at ISO 1600. There is no Instagram trickery. The Star parking lot is surrounded by a brick wall with intentional gaps. I framed some of the vehicles through the gaps to get the Polaroid look without resorting to digital effects.
Bonus shots: here is the aforementioned graffiti mural in progress. I can't wait to see the result.
Not only is this a legal mural, but at least one of the artists was actually wearing a respirator.
About the pesky thing known as Copyright: I, Dwayne F., own these bits of digital intellectual and creative properties. These photos may not be used, altered or posted without attribution. The photos may not be used for commercial purposes of any manner without my express written permission. Yeah, copyright is so last century. I suppose you could buy your own equipment and wander the streets for hours looking for interesting things to shoot. Just sayin".
