the insurance man's doubts (or the power of the glamour glow effect)

Luke

Legend
Location
Milwaukee, WI USA
Name
Luke
My auto insurance policy came due and I decided to look for a lower rate for the "classic" I bought last summer that doesn't get driven very much. Part of the online application asked for a photo of the car. I was at work and the only photo I had available was on flickr and was given a nice warm glamour glow from the Nik efx suite. Today, I received a call from the underwriter who just wanted to verify that I wasn't using some stock photo I found on the internet. Was that actually my car?

I explained the Golden Hour to him and that I also fancied myself a fairly decent amateur photographer (and nothing more) and that if he wanted me to, I could send him a couple more less processed photos, but that it was indeed my car. He said I'm insured and to drive it carefully and enjoy the ride. Now if I could just figure out why it was spraying engine coolant all over the pavement the other day :mad:, I'd be all set for summer.

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1970 Buick Estate Wagon by Luke Lavin, on Flickr
 
Well if it were to be an ad, I'd need to get rid of the those trash cans in the background (and might as well get rid of that garage back there that is falling down). ;)

True about the trash cans and all, but she is a lovely brown beauty! I really must get back into post processing via Lightroom... Always loved Glamour Glow.

Perhaps you should call Click and Clack @ Car Talk: Home of Click & Clack and Car Advice about that spraying coolant issuer?
 
I am a big fan of GlamGlo Luke. I use it on house shots for an estate agent. Have you tried combining it with Detail Extractor? Doesn't always work, but when it does....it looks real good. You have to mess around with settings for both.

Pete
 
Today, I received a call from the underwriter who just wanted to verify that I wasn't using some stock photo I found on the internet. Was that actually my car?

haha!! That is awesome.

Also, that car is a beauty. You know what it reminds me of? It reminds me of the golden days when I was a kid watching "Eight Is Enough" during its first run on TV. I think they drove a station wagon similar to this one, it certainly had wood panels on them, sort of like this one.

Did I just reveal my age? In other news, midlife crisis.
 
Ha... I hadn't thought about the Bradford family in awhile. We watched that one pretty regularly at our house. I come from a family of six and I think my mom identified a bit with the craziness of a big family.

But that doesn't really reveal your age, James. Since the "kids" in that show ranged in age from 8-23.

And the car is somewhat similar.... the one in the show I believe was a mid 70s Ford Country Squire....same size... a bit more squared off. Still had the third row seat so they called it an 8 (or 9) passenger vehicle.
 
soon as everything is operating as it should, I may take her out for a long weekend roadtrip. It's so relaxing driving that floating living room down the highway. It clears my mind (and drains my credit card). :D
 
Many people talk about how big American cars of the 1950s and 60s used to be. But the absolute zenith of length and width was only acheived in the 1970s, in the years leading up to the first Arab oil embargo in 1973 and running for a few years after that - maybe 1975-76. Full-sized (as the industry called them) automobiles from GM, Ford and Chrysler were simply huge. I was standing with a friend on a sidewalk in the tiny Jersey Shore community of Farmingdale yesterday when we spotted a early 70s Pontiac convertible driving by. I swear it looked like an aircraft carrier! Still cool in its own way, however. http://www.gmphotostore.com/images/53217175_pr.jpg
 
You got it Steve. Not to say that the 50s and 60s cars are compact....they're big. But at the beginning of the 70s they got quite LONG. Mine is 227 inches long. For comparison, the newer and bigger Outback wagons are 189 inches long. It's a very good thing that I'm great at parallel parking. Frankly, it barely fits in my garage.

Oh yeah, it's a heavy beast, too. At 5,400 lbs (curb weight), it is heavier than the Buick Limited limousines of the late 30s (!). Contrast that to the current Outback at 3423 lbs.... yup.....an additional TON of Detroit steel.
 
The Smart would certainly write it off, and probably the Fiat rather than vice versa. Those things are built strong, rather than with crumple-zones, because they are so small (look up NCAP crash testing) there is no room in them to crumple. A Smart is basically a solid cage covered by plastic panels. It would have the same effect at speed on a car from the '70's as a wrecking ball...
 
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