Just how lucky can one (old) boy get? This line out of a song by Cliff Richard from his early sixties repertoire jumps into my mind, when I look behind me. And see all those mesmerising curves, a feast to the eye on this rainy and sky clouded day. An array of colors is brightly contrasting with the dull grey skies, the bleak mountain pastures and the dark green patches of forrest on steep mountain slopes. The road has come to a sudden end. Walking or travelling on horseback are two of the few options left to venture further in this valley. Two parking lots on different levels form a cul-de-sac, so traffic is enabled to make a U-turn. The view from the terraces of the pittoreskly situated hotel must be almost pre-birth like near sunset on a sunny day. Behind the parking swirls a twenty meter or so wide bed of a mountain brook. At present only a small stream is running, along and around grey and brown stoney patches in the brookbed.
For a 'Kutschenfahrt' an old men and his two horses in front of an open coach stand soaking wet between the brook and the higher parking lot, awaiting tourists. Here one enters the regional, natural park. Eng Alm, that is the name of this outpost in the Austrian Alps, in the Tirol district. The scenery is breathtaking!
And I am choking too from mere excitement aroused by the exotic car beauty, I am gazing at. For by good fortune we have arrived on one of the ralley stops of the German event for exotic 'Supercars am Tegernsee 2007'!
Henny and a couple of friends of ours have fallen for a cappuccino with Apfelstrudel on one of the terraces. I pospone this Bavarian treat, because of the sudden downpour of rain. Come again,what is that? you wonder. Have I fallen a victim to mountain sickness? Well, no.
I press my baseballcap firmly onto my head and then turn my collar to the wind. Most other visitors at this venue run and hide to find dry sanctuary, and that brings a big smile to my face.
I am happy too, that my breathing has turned to almost normal again. Confident and with my E1 Olympus dslr ready to shoot, I cross the road to the parking. Straight at the blue and white Maserati MC12. Wow, what a sportscar! one of two young man utters in German, while both motionlessly admire the exotic supersportscar, water dripping from their chins. Stunned and agreeing in silence, I am stopped in my tracks by this scene.
The other young man mumbles something like 'mehr als eine Million Euro'. Too much - I think, when framing the view with my glasses - for I want the Maserati MC12 and leave out the two guys.
I am creating more space between myself and the scene to get an overview. Because, while lost in my thoughts, a newly arrived bus has dumped its payload of tourists. Those people
are now shortcutting their way to the sheltering terraces, and walk in front of and right through the herd of neatly aligned exotic cars. In a quick glance I have noticed quite a number Italian stallions and some bulls amongst them. The next moment the sudden downpour turns into a drizzle.
My E1 almost soundlessly stores this scene on to its memorycard. You will probably be able to recognise the various makes of sportscars. I am not, I have to admit. The different types of Ferraris are too many for me to distinguish them flawlessly (yet). Have you already spotted your favourite?
Moving backwards to put some space between the spectacle and myself, gives me air again and that eases my nerves and my mind as well. I become conscious of the special setting of this event and this spot on our earth. This is what is imposed on me, or to put it more correctly, this is what has been presented to me. And by experience I know, that it is much more than my initial appreciation. To fully grab the possibilities, I have to open my minds' window further, stick my head out and savour the atmosphere. Just pull away from the viewfinder of my E1 and use all my senses till 'it' takes over. For one's feeling is smarter than one's wits. Or to put it even better: your feeling guides your brains! The feeling I get is enacted by the great impression nature enforces upon man and by the impressingly great carbrands and by the great contrast between the both.
It is time for Calimero! is my conclusion. I shall turn into that little black chicken with half of his eggshell still on his head. For the smaller I am, the more that adds to the objective greatness before my eyes. That stands to reason!
So now I do the opposite to what I have done. Not back and up, but closer and down to chicken level. People cannot see me and what is more important: I do not see them. My problems with faces and bodyparts in my viewfinder have dissipated. The exotics are prominent and stunning backgrounds come in place, completing the picture in a special way. You want proof?
The first is a pic of a dark yellow Lamborghini Gallardo nearly blocking a light green specimen. Excitingly curved lines dominate a contrasting background and you know where you are instantly. Normally, I am afraid focussing bulls and especially from behind: that part of space is off limits with real life animals.
The following proof is a pic featuring the Yes! Roadster in an enigmatic mix of both dark and light tones and gleaming wetness. On the Autogespot.com site this sportscar is rarely spotted or few forummembers have caught it long enough in their viewfinders. This is an additional reason for a pic of this exotic.
The next proof in this sequence of exotic car portraits is my personal favourite, as a pic and because of the drama it has captured. The sun manages to peep a couple of rays through the clouds into the valley and throw a shining gleam on the exotics' wet back. Is it persperation? Are those fumes above its back the result of a 'tour de force' laid upon him and is he now allowed to recover from it? There is truth in the saying that a picture tells more than a story of a thousand words. For this one easily takes my phantasy adrift.
It's a Bugatti EB110 GT, my neighbour states. Smack, I just fell off of the cloud, where my daydreaming has taken me. And now I find myself back in reality. Off course, his barren dry statement is correct. But I want more, just as the car-owner wants more out of life. And enter the world of Bugatti. Why settle for just one world, if you can have both? Even if the virtual is built of images and to most of us will always stay a myth.
The last pic, I like to share with you on this beautiful rainy day in Tirol, features the majestic
blue and white Maserati MC12 shoulder to shoulder with a row of rain stained Ferrari stallions with their unique red color. Fiercely clashing with the colors of nature on the Alp in late summer. Apparently there is a pause, before the next round in their bout starts. Any moment now these hotblooded thoroughbreads will buck and snorting stand on two leggs.
And then joined by the raging bulls, will continue their quest into these mountains.
Hey, what is up? ... our dayplan has been changed. We are leaving in ten minutes to the Achensee: that site is more touristic and so there will be more excitement to experience(?) ... a travel companion promisses.
Achensee? No ...ahh ,well, a number of exotics are leaving the scene already. And my camera has stored a reasonable number of ravishing pics, so I must not complain. In the time left, I take some shots of the overwhelming nature and then hasten toward the terraces, where I left Henny and friends. Their third cappuccino with tiramisu is just being served and I am invited to join in.
When our bus turns and we leave the alm, my soaked cap is a witness of the downpours outside. I am glad that the seals against dust and rain of my camera have permitted me to keep on shooting. While others have had to run for shelter or put theirs in a photobag. It has been an envigorating morning. And I thank Lady Luck for she has been really generous to me. Most pleasing to me is to have pressed the release bottom of my Olympus E1 at the moments when my 'cup runneth over...'.
I am back in the Netherlands now and... yep, it is raining. So it is a good time to write out this english version at special request of family and friends overseas. Hopefully this report and my pics in some way will help you to share my encounter with exotics on that beautiful rainy day on the Eng Alm in Tirol, too.
All the best!
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