Two burnt out cars to photograph in a week no wonder I have been grinning from ear to ear and singing happy songs all weekend. This year the dumped cars have been very thin on the ground with only five up to last weekend, its not a real problem because I have only just released my new catalogue (soon to be uploaded onto my website – now that’s putting the pressure on) and I have many many stock photos. But, its great to have the opportunity to get some fresh metal to work on.
Friday morning my brother saw this 4 x 4 while taking a short cut through the back roads of Earlswood on the way home from work. Earlswood is due south of the city boundary of Birmingham and famous locally for some excellent fishing at Earlswood Lakes. After heavy rain during the night I had to negotiate the flooded country roads and then stand in cold mud while I took the photographs. I decided not to let Sally the dog out of my car because the mixture of the mud and the remains of the fire all over the area did not make a good recipe for my car being clean on the journey home. Sally was not pleased.
The timing of the find was superb because it was very bright and sunny certainly one of the best days for taking close up often macro photos, I can also use the strong sunlight directed at different angles on the metal to produce some very creative effects.
As I was working the events of the burn out began to unfold: this chap lives on a canal boat and parks his car here just off the canal bridge at the entrance to the field, at 3pm on Thursday the farmer came running and shouting to the boat to get him to move his car which was right next to burning car 4 x 4 he managed to pull Ford Escort clear without any damage, being very selfish it’s a pity because I would have had 3 cars in one week which therefore would of set a new record for me.
The farmer who had been delivering a lorry load of manure to his field was then trapped in the field by the 4 x 4, fire engines and police vehicles.
I couldn’t at first understand why the burn out had these slash marks all over until I was told that the fire was originally up close to the gate and they got a tractor to move it. The fire had also damaged the box associated with the communications aerial in the field and after the battery power was used up the signal went down in the early evening.
All afternoon we played musical cars as this little picturesque country lane got more and more congested.
First I parked up – to take my photos
Then boat man to go home,
Then the man to inspect the aerial.
Then the police came to try and find some vehicle identification (no luck)
Then a visitor to the caravan site over the bridge.
Backwards and forwards came the farmer with his muck lorry, I don’t know what smelt worse the manure or the fumes from his diesel engine.
It was chaos. And don’t forget the traffic taking the short cut along the lane and even the joggers take no prisoners along the country lanes.
After about 3 hours of taking shots the recovery truck arrived but before they took my beautiful model away I managed to get some final pictures.
The lads took a break while I finished off.
I had taken as much as I could from the vehicle and by now the light was deteriorating
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