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The SHELBY AMERICAN
Fall 2015 249
THE SHELBY AMERICAN COVER DO’S AND DON’T’S
SAAC members Tom Cotter and
Jim Maxwell put together a five-day,
thousand-mile tour every year for
original Cobras. They pick a different
area for each one; usually in the east-
ern half of the country. [
Sidenote:
Lynn Park and Drew Serb also organ-
ize a similar five-day, thousand-mile
rally in the western half of the country
each year.
] If you’re wondering how
you could have missed the announce-
ment for either of these events, don’t
lose any sleep over it. They are by in-
vitation only and typically include
about a dozen cars. The Cobras are
driven about 200-250 miles a day
through some of the most scenic land-
scape and over some of the most enjoy-
able roads the organizers can find.
Whiners are not tolerated (and cer-
tainly don’t get invited a second time).
Overnights are at top quality inns or
hotels and most meal stops are places
with memorable menus. The weather
is a non-issue: it is what it is.
This year’s event was dubbed the
“Yooper Tour” because it went around
Lake Michigan and through Michi-
gan’s Upper Peninsula (referred to by
the locals as “UP,” and they are called
“Yoopers.”) Jim Sfetko is a regular on
these tours in CSX2321 and this year
he emailed us the picture at the right
and suggested that the lighting was
just right and it would make a great
cover photo for
The Shelby American
.
The car is Cotter’s CSX2490 and the
shot was taken at Escanaba, Michi-
gan. Look at the picture and see if you
can tell why it didn’t make the cut.
When car owners and enthusiasts
take a picture of a car they love, it is
all they see in the viewfinder. They’re
not looking beyond the car. We have
observed this over the past forty years
and we have witnessed the results. Di-
rect your attention to CSX2490’s lug-
gage rack. What look like a pair of
single-loop chrome roll bars are actu-
ally the handholds of a ladder behind
the car that provides access to the
lake. The car is so stunning and the
lake and sky background so perfect
that Sfetko didn’t notice the distrac-
tion. It’s not the first time that has
happened and won’t be the last.
As long as we’re picking nits, the
picture would look better if the three
posts behind the car weren’t there.
That usually means positioning the
car differently, to one side or the other
if that’s possible. Bringing the camera
closer to the ground is one way to
make them disappear. These are all
“tricks” professional photographers
employ. It’s what separates them from
amateurs.
Other than that, Sfetko’s photo
was right on the money. For a cover
photo, the car needs to be in the bot-
tom half of the frame, so when we lay
the cover type across the top it doesn’t
land on the car.
Another common mistake is
standing too close to the car. For some
reason people seem to want to get as
close to the car as possible. This elim-
inates space on either side of the car
in the frame and that’s often neces-
sary to position the car in the center of
the picture. We enlarge or reduce the
size of the image to fit within the
frame. If the car’s fender or headlight
almost touches the edge of the frame
it makes the picture hard to use.
With only four covers a year, we
won’t waste one by using a substan-
dard photo—no matter how beautiful
the car, itself, is. We try to maintain
high standards.