Chris Palmer: Reformed Carspotter

Two of my favorite Ferraris featured in this years Pebble Beach Concours: on the left a 1957 4.9 Superfast and on the right a 1967 412P.

For most of the nearly two decades I’ve invested into car culture I could be described by a fairly recently coined term: a carspotter.

For those not aware of this phenomenon, a carspotter is someone who goes out of their way to find and photograph rare, exotic, and expensive cars on the streets. I would hang out in ritzy locales, camera in tow, in hopes of catching the latest and greatest supercars on offer. The newer the better, as bragging rights and views went to those who got the first “spot” of each new supercar.

Being increasingly important in the world of spotters, photography became a second passion integrally linked with my love of cars. At first any photo of a car would do, but inspiration both by professional automotive photographers and other spotters led my own photographic standards north with every passing year.

Today I still partake in a bit of car spotting, especially during the famous Monterey Car Week, but my focus now leans more toward photo quality than photo subject. This renders quite a bit of frustration on instances I do try to get a worthwhile photo of a rare “street spot”.

Which brings me to my reason for starting this blog. Instagram has its uses for sharing photographs, but between compression and an ever confusing algorithm I have felt the need for another avenue for sharing photos – one that facilitated larger photo sets, a story here and there as I’m compelled, and greater personal voice.

I will share some photos I post on my Instagram on this blog, but my intent is to use this to share photos and stories that for a variety of reasons I haven’t or wouldn’t share on Instagram.

Being my first venture into blogging of any sort, I fully expect the scope and focus to shift slightly as I find my voice, but you can always expect my own photos of (hopefully) interesting, unique, and historically significant cars and a little commentary on the side.

With that, I’ll leave you with a few photos from Monterey this year and a promise that more is to come.

Singer 911 and (original) 427 Cobra at Bernardus Lodge in Carmel Valley. Anticipating your inevitable question the Cobra’s license plate reads “NOKIT”.

Ferrari’s 70th Anniversary display at Pebble included these unparalleled greats: a 250 GTO and 250 GT California Spyder.