2007 PHR Reader Photo Contest - Photo Finish

Danielle Crooks' late-model V-6 Camaro might not be tearing up the drag strip, but thanks to plenty of styling mods (like stripes, spoilers, emblems, ground effects, hood, wheels, and grille), she manages to turn plenty of heads anyway. Lots of color, a great location, an eye for composition, and lots of hard work sets this shot apart from the others.

The photos of David Patterson's '72 Cutlass make us really want one bad. They look great on their own, but David's photo really does the shape justice. David entered his '72 in our 2005 photo contest, and it looks like he's sharpened his photo skills even more, trying his hand with a graduated rose-colored filter.

Herb Spanheimer has owned this car since new, originally purchasing it at Walden Pontiac in St. Petersburg, Fla. It's got 141,000 original miles, and the only parts that have changed are the color (originally red, now black) and the period-correct Cragar S/S wheels. We liked the photo for its ambiance. We can easily picture it in the exact same spot 40 years ago. Don't let the total cost invested fool you. Most of that $10,000 is in 1965 dollars!

Airports are great places to shoot car photos, and Susan Reynolds lucked out on a beautiful sunset at the municipal airport in Lincoln, Calif. In the process of shooting, Susan discovered how difficult it is to get the true color to stand out (it's actually Blue Onyx, not black or dark green). That's OK, because even the most highly paid pros have a hard time with correct color in low light. Susan is the sister-in-law of both owners, and also helped with much of the restoration.

Chris Wells spent so much time and effort packaging his entry in a fancy notebook that he forgot to fill out the entry form. Luckily, he included car owner Don Hosler's phone number, and we got it straight from the proverbial horse's mouth. Don regularly autocrosses his Camaro, and it's packed with the goods needed to crank through those corners. It's fast, too, with a best e.t. of 13.40/101. Our favorite shot (shown) wasn't Chris's favorite, but he'll get over it.

Action shots are difficult, especially if you really want to capture the motion, and Ken Hawkins captured the feel of driving a Mustang convertible on a summer day perfectly. The only downside is it's not him behind the wheel, because he was the photographer. To get the shot, Ken mounted his Nikon SLR to the back of the photo vehicle via a Sticky Pod suction cup. A 24mm wide-angle lens is perfect for showing the swirl of the surrounding countryside.

Thankfully, the Mopar crowd didn't completely boycott our photo contest. Our single Mope this year was plenty nice to put it solidly in the top 20, and it's a killer car, too. Thor Harland originally bought the '69 Barracuda for his son, Ron Johnson, who used it as a daily driver for several years before doing this sweet rodification. If we were going to build an A-body g-Machine, this is pretty much exactly how we'd do it!

There's no mistaking the lines of a '67 Chevelle, and Brian Froslie captured those on his Malibu flawlessly. We've been preaching about shooting in the afterglow of sunset for years, and Brian found the perfect spot at the perfect time of day. A freshly paved stretch of asphalt and just the right angle to reflect the horizon line shows that it really isn't that hard to shoot a black car-provided you're paying attention to the contest instructions like Brian did.

Shooting inside an aircraft hangar isn't the easiest thing in a post-9/11 world, but Jason Wyrick pulled it off. The only problem with his shot was he forgot to turn off the hangar lights, so there are hot spots all over it, which would be a deal-breaker for a regular PHR feature shoot. (Rookie mistake.) But standing on a 15-foot ladder to get the shot couldn't have been easy, so we give Jason an "A" for effort. Jason did all the work on his Camaro himself (except the paint), and he says a 427 big-block is waiting in the wings.