There are not many occasions where an already promising situation you’ve been planning and hoping for takes an unexpected twist and elevates affairs to a whole other level, blowing your mind along the way.

One of the last sunny days of the autumn past I was hiking at the Arboretum. Where else, right? (I have a membership and it’s my favorite place to go hiking. If you’ve seen my blog, you already know.) Looking for that perfect evening golden hour shot in the maple grove on the East side. There is a nice and very photogenic spot where the winding road juxtaposes nicely against the mature maples. The lighting was perfect, warm and soft; the leaves were at their peak of color, full of gold, but not yet dropped too much, thanks to lack of rain or wind.

So, as I decide on the composition and line up my shot, patiently waiting for the cars to pass by and the ever-present Instagram-obsessed, selfie stick-wielding couples finally walked out of the scene, I started quickly fiddling with my camera settings. And, as my eyes darted back towards the scene, this historic artifact appeared, lazily rolling down the road towards me. Rooftop down, and an elderly couple of guys waved at me and gave me a smile. This was one of those once in a lifetime situations. Perfect season, perfect light, perfect colors, and all adorned with a creamy off-white-colored masterpiece of a vehicle, gorgeously restored and in pristine condition. I’m no expert in this field, but I think it may be a British MG, the “Midget”, manufactured some time in the 1950s. Beautiful car.

As The Dude in the Big Lebowski said: “It really tied the room together…”

P.S.:
It’s not all rosy, and even the best looking diamonds sometimes have blemishes. So, as luck would have it, while I took the shot, another car rolled in round the corner and completely photo bombed the scene. Usually, I would let this slide and just keep it in the picture, but a !@#$%^&* Toyota Prius!?
Nope…
That one received a blemish removal treatment it deserved and was painstakingly edited out, with vengeance. I have nothing against efficient vehicles and respect people who drive them, but for me personally, Priuses and Cybertrucks belong in a graveyard of car design experiments gone wrong. I guess I just have a different view on what real beauty looks like. And a Prius ain’t it…
It’s a shame, really, that a car from 1950s looks better than a car designed half a century later. And that comes from a guy who prefers the looks of modern vehicles, more so than old vintage ones.

I am starting to wonder, if the manufacturers are now just getting lazy and not being interested in a functional and aesthetically pleasing design which is easily manufactured at a large scale. It says a lot about the state of car manufacturing. They’ve run out of ideas or good designers. Or both…