Roam at Night

Another in the Roam at Night series were we head out into town, picking some random area, no rhyme or reasons to it all and search out interesting subjects to photograph after dark. Here, it’s two vintage rides we found, one as old as your author and part of an artwork project, the other what appears to be simply an oldie, one that hearkens back to a most tacky era, that miraculously is still on the road.

Car one is a 1963 Pontiac (Strato Chief – thanks readers). It’s plated and parked on the street, so presumably it can be driven, but that big drum/starburst thing might be a bit of a hindrance. It looks like it could be removed, however. This one was found in the eclectic community of Sunnyside just across the river from downtown Calgary. We were testing a new (to us) camera and shot handheld to see how they’d turn out. To gauge how it handled slow shutter speeds and high ISOs. It did pretty good I’d say (1/8 sec, 3200 and 6400).

Car two was found only a few blocks from BIGDoer HQ (Rosscarock Community) interestingly and is a 1972 Ford Country Squire Station Wagon. Green paint and fake wood panels…that’s oh so stylish for the era, but probably seen as almost cringe-worthy today (but we like it). This one of those super wagons with a huge gas guzzling engine (but it didn’t matter) and three rows of seating with room for eight. The last row was two single seats facing inward towards each other – other makes had a back facing bench there usually with room for three. All but the front bench could be folded down so cargo could be carried.

The tailgate was unique in that it could drop down like one on a truck or swing out like a big barn door. It probably has power everything. This one seems to move from time to time, so it must be road worthy. While worn and weathered, it doesn’t seem in that bad a shape. If it’s your ride take us for a spin – we’ll go to the drive in, our treat. Would love to know more about it.

Stay tuned for more posts like these. We do them strictly for fun and to practice our in-the-city night shooting skills (still horribly wanting) and hope you like them.

After dark…
Sunalta – an iconic Sandstone school attended by your author.
Hyperbolic Paraboloid – strange ’60s architecture.
Canada88.com – a closed computer shop in an old service station.

Short Subjects: reports that for any number of reasons are brief in nature. They might be updates to older articles, previews of posts planned or not yet published, brief snippets of things that don’t fit in anywhere else or subjects that are so obscure that information on them can’t be found. Or sometimes we just ramble on about Lord knows what.

If you need any more information on what we talked about here, by all means contact us!

Date of adventure: September, 2018.
Location: Calgary, AB.

In the Sunnyside community, this strange car.

Artwork and a 1963 Pontiac.

Near BIGDoer HQ, this old wagon.

It’s an early ’70s Ford Country Squire.