Atlanta Dream Cars – 1955 Chrysler Streamline X Gilda by GHIA is Turbine Aero Ideal

Man, when your iPhone comes home with better photos than your Nikon — you know you were in the wrong settings.

Very, very strict photo protocols were in place at the Atlanta High Museum of Art’s Dream Cars installation — which is a shame, really.

It turns out, after speaking with the very kind, smart and helpful media liaison upon my return to Charleston Monday morning — that the concern was not about photos of the cars at all.

No one told he gestapo of hourly blue-coats, however, who were incredibly irritating.

In fact, the entire photo ban was to protect against up-close photos of the framed sketches and other two-dimensional work. (Aka, the stuff no one would ever want to photograph.)

All this crap was behind glass – making flash photos obviously not ideal, even if you wanted to snap pics of some tiny old sketches.

But the rigor of the flash ban for all cameras means I had to cover up the Nikon’s mini light that comes on pre-photo. This is IR autofocus function light.

While I am griping, the dark blue walls of this exhibit make everything inside much, much too dark. Gloss white, please.

It turns out – shocker – that this mini light is a critical part of the auto-focus function of the camera.

Every time I change the settings of this thing, I come home with garbage photos.

Why do I not ‘proof’ preview as I shoot?

Ummmm, my D5000’s buttons are all filled with beach sand. So they are all permanently pressed in.

So shameful, as a purported professional auto editor…

Especially because the 1955 Chrysler Gilda by GHIA of Italy is, arguably, the true lynchpin of this masterful exhibit.

It brings old and new together. It is the nucleus of many of these ideas. It is lovely, huge, and totally unfeasible for production.

But that makes it even more lovely, somehow.