•THE TOOLS•
Canon 5D Mark 2, 24-105mm 1:4 lens, polarizing filter
Mac Pro with Photoshop CS5 and Wacom Tablet

•THE STORY•
Back in May of 2005, Rudy Sage got some sad news in an email from a lawyer in California. “Please be informed that your aunt Ester Peterson died early this morning in Valencia”, it read. Rudy and his wife Helen lived in Lynchburg Tennessee, and he had to think about it for a couple of minutes before he could recall this distant family relative on the west coast. The email went on to say “as her only living heir, your presence at the reading of her will on May 17 at 2:00 P.M. in my office in Valencia is requested. Rudy wasn’t very good at remembering names, but he could recall in great detail any interaction involving money. He recalled meeting aunt Ester when he was seven years old when she gave him five dollars and an orange and white toy car. He remembered her saying, “If you set a little something aside, someday you’ll have a real car just like this one”.
So Rudy and Helen set out for California and what they hoped would be a nice inheritance. It turned out that Ester had a little farm with a 100 acre orange grove just a couple of miles east of town, and it all was to be turned over to Rudy. Along with the deed to the property, Esters lawyer handed Rudy an orange envelope with a key inside and a note that read “I kept this just for you”.
As Rudy and Helen drove out to the farm they were buzzing with speculation about what the note meant. There were rumors in town that Ester was a hoarder, and that she stashed cash in mason jars around the house. Just as the anticipation reach a fevered pitch the car pulled into the dirt road leading up to the farm. As a dilapidated house and several out buildings came into view you could sense all the wind going out of Rudy’s sails. As they opened the squeaky screen door to the kitchen, the treasure hoard they speculated about only minutes ago turned out to be more like the discarded leftovers from a storage locker auction. There were plenty of mason jars, but most were full of buttons and baubles, and no cash. But what about the orange envelope and the mysterious key? A search of the out buildings wasn’t leading to any answers either, but while digging through a pile in a little shed next to the barn Rudy uncovered some old orange crate labels that had a picture of the little car that Ester gave him as a boy. Through the window of the shed you could see the last remaining building on the property. It was a barn in the same condition as the rest of the place, but Rudy’s eyes zeroed in on a big padlock on the sliding front door. He and Helen dashed over and with nervous shaky hands worked the key into the lock. It fit! They pushed the door down it’s rusty track and entered the cobweb filled darkness. With no windows, the only light came through the cracks in the boards of the walls. All you could see was a pile of orange crates, but as Rudy walked closer a mirror-like flash of light flickered through an opening in the pile. He pushed aside about a dozen crates and there it was, an orange and white 1956 Lincoln Premiere Coupe. Inside the car a note on the steering wheel read “ I kept this for you”. The odometer read only 10 miles, and the car was never driven.
In 2007 Rudy would sell the Lincoln at the Barret Jackson Auto Auction in Scottsdale Arizona where it yielded 3.5 million dollars, the highest price ever paid for a Lincoln.

•THE PROCESS•
I shot this car in very bright morning sunlight, which cast very strong shadows. This was a challenge on the front of the car where the shadow concealed details. In Photoshop I opened adjustment> shadows and highlights and opened up the detail. While bringing the desired detail to the front end, the rest of the car got a little washed out looking. I remedied that by adjusting the brightness and contrast. The Shadows and Highlights feature can save a lot of bad photos if you know how to use it. You have to play with the levels to get a sense of how it works.