Tuesday, January 8, 2013

ABC Wednesday - Z is for Zephyr




I am participating in the ABC Wednesday Round 11 meme.


This week the letter is Z. I am curious to see what everyone posts. Z is a hard letter. My post is Zephyr. In 1936 Lincoln introduced the Zephyr, named and styled after the streamlined Burlington Zephyr express train. Several years ago I spent a lot of time manipulating photos to look like paintings. One of the photo/paintings was of a 1939 Lincoln Zephyr

39 Zephyr
1939 LINCOLN ZEPHYR

My Daddy has a used car lot, and has always had a number of old cars. That has given me lots of cars to photograph. I have a number of other old car photo/paintings. This one is of a 1942 Desoto. The most distinguishing feature of the 1942 DeSoto was its "Airfoil" headlights. Squarish doors hid the lamps until an underdash lever rotated the covers upward and turned on the lights. Though hidden headlights had been used on 1936-1937 Cords, they were still very much a novel idea in 1942.

42 Desoto
1942 DESOTO

The Coupe deVille was introduced by Cadillac late in the 1949 model year. Part of the Cadillac Series 62 line, it was a closed, two-door coupé, Cadillac's first pillarless hardtop. Intended as a prestige model, at $3,497 it was one of the most expensive models of the Series 62 line. It was luxuriously trimmed, with leather upholstery and chrome 'bows' in the headliner to simulate the ribs of a convertible top. The first-year Coupe deVille sold 2,150 units, but 1950 sales were more than double

50 Coupe de ville
1950 CADILLAC COUPE DE VILLE

The 1938 Graham was introduced with the slogan "Spirit of Motion". The car looked like it was in motion when standing still. The fenders, wheel openings and grille all appeared to be moving forward. The design was widely praised in the American press and by American designers. It also won the prestigious Concours D'Elegance in Paris, France. Its cut-back grille later gained the car the name "sharknose",

Shark Nose
1938 SHARKNOSE GRAHAM

The Edsel is most famous for being a marketing disaster. Indeed, the name Edsel came to be synonymous with commercial failure. The main reason the Edsel's failure is so famous was that it flopped despite Ford’s investment of $400,000,000 in its development. There is no single reason why the Edsel failed, and failed so spectacularly. Popular culture often faults the car’s styling. Marketing experts hold the Edsel up as a supreme example of corporate America’s failure to understand the nature of the American consumer. The Edsel was "the wrong car at the wrong time."

Edsel
1959 EDSEL

All of these cars belonged to my Daddy and were photographed and digitally manipulated by me.

27 comments:

  1. Fabulous photos! Haven't seen you here for a while, but hope you're back to stay!

    Leslie
    abcw team

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  2. Fantastic idea for Z and I love your visuals. Carver, ABC Wed. Team

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  3. Oh my goodness, we had a 1941 Desota when I was growing up. Great pictures. Great post for Z.

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  4. those are STYLIN' cars. Welcome back!
    ROG, ABC Wednesday team

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  5. Great technique and that Cadillac is terrific.
    Love the old stylish cars.

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  6. Very clever to change photos into paintings! The cars look very romantic like this!

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  7. When my husband wakes up I know he'll enjoy your photos and accounts...he's a car man.

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  8. Love those images! That Zephyr is a keeper, for sure! I love the lines of old cars. So graceful and elegant. A far cry from the 'juice boxes' that are now available.

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  9. Creative photos and great post for 'Z' ~ Wonderful!

    (A Creative Harbor) aka ArtMuseDog and Carol ^_^

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  10. Great Z word. I used zephyr once, but not as the name of a car. Hmmm. Gives me an idea of where to look for other unusual words.

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  11. A beautiful Lincoln Zypher.

    Z is for...
    Rose, ABC Wednesday Team

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  12. Nice, creative photos.

    My big adventure when I was in 5th grade in Price, Utah was getting on the California Zephyr and riding it to Chicago as the first leg on a trip to spend Christmas with my grandparents in Connecticut.

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  13. Ahh, that was a good year - 1939 the Lincoln Zephyr came out and so did I!

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  14. It's great to learn something new. Manipulating photos to look like paintings sounds like a nice hobby. I love your work on the Lincoln Zephyr. I really thought it was a painting before I read your post.

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  15. ZEN for the letter Z

    My Dad had a 57 Olds I simply loved. It had a lot of chrome and drove like a tank. The car was also well insulated and the seats were soft and warm. I wish I still had it.

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  16. I am not a car fan, but I admire your photo manipulations ! Beautiful results !

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  17. Love those 'paintings"; cars of that era were so individual.

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  18. I love your car "paintings"! I'm not a fan of today's cars, but I loved the gems of my childhood and into my early adulthood. Then you could tell at a glance what make the car was.

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  19. OOOoooo I love old cars, sometimes extremely expensive though. I think Jay Leno the other night said he had a Zephyr. Great transformations.
    Ann

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  20. Love the cars and nice woork on the Photoshops! I love how the first one looks like it is being seen on a very rainy day through an old windowpane.

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  21. Fab photos that offer us the spirit of vintage cars.

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  22. Your photos are incredible, gorgeous. I enjoy seeing these vehicles at car shows.

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  23. What beautiful images! You have an eye for cars! Your "z" word is perfect. Thanks for stopping by my place and my sorry attempt at the letter "z".

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