Jaguar

click photo to enlarge

The fascination that many men and some women have for expensive sports cars is lost on me. Where they see luxury I see inconvenience - how do you fit in people and a week's shopping? Where they see a driving experience I see danger and destruction - why do I need to accelerate from 0-60 mph in 6 seconds, all the while spewing out far more carbon dioxide than is necessary? Where, maybe, they see a car that tells the world about their character, and place in society, I see a car that says different things to different people - not all of them complimentary!

Now some sports car lovers reading these words will immediately brand me as a tree-hugging, envious, kill-joy. However, I've never hugged a tree in my life, though I have planted a few, and chopped down several! And I'm not envious of people who have these cars: when I've been searching for a vehicle I've passed them by and always settled on an economical hatchback or an estate car. As for being a kill-joy - well, read a few blog entries and make your own judgement. My objection to sports cars is similar to my problem with 4X4s - they are much less efficient at their primary task of transporting people and their stuff, on roads, from A to B, than standard hatchbacks and saloons. Furthermore, they are more dangerous than other cars - both to those using them, and to other road users. Put all that together, and you'll see why I don't share the fascination with these kinds of vehicles.

So why, I hear you say, have you photographed the emblem of a 2.4 litre Jaguar, a luxury sports saloon car that epitomises something you claim to dislike? Well, I'm not averse to a bit of interesting styling, and Jaguar have certainly come up with that over the years. However, it wasn't only the styling that caused me to take this photograph of the car as it was parked on display with several other older vehicles. What grabbed my photographer's eye was the delicious juxtaposition of that small dot of the bright red badge against the chrome, green, grey and blue of the car and stormy sky.

photograph & text (c) T. Boughen

Camera: Olympus E510
Mode: Aperture Priority
Focal Length: 22mm (44mm/35mm equiv.)
F No: f7.1
Shutter Speed: 1/125
ISO: 100
Exposure Compensation: -0.7 EV
Image Stabilisation: On