NMCA Makes History

Member photos of this event are on the Photos section of this website.

Sunday October 24th was simply a beautiful day in Albuquerque, NM. A few wispy clouds, warm temperature and quite calm. Sunday October 24th was also a milestone, historic day for the New Mexico Corvette Association. Why? Because after 7 months of effort, our members gathered in droves to be involved in the club photo shoot. So why is that a big deal you ask. This was a big deal because our group photo will be the cover photo for NCCC Blue Bars magazine in 2022. And that's a big deal! And why now? Because in 2022, NMCA turned 60 years young!

NMCA gathered 46 Corvettes - C-1 through C-8, onto a grassy field for a united outcome - our photo. Not only a club photo, but a record for NMCA Corvettes gathered at one time - ever.

And history does not end with the club photo - oh no - NMCA was able to capture a C-1 through C-8 generational photo. This is most certainly a first for New Mexico as well.

Now for a look at how we got to the photo shoot.

I (Phil Ellison) had begun work on this project in early April 2022. The first checkbox was the photo location. We all felt the photo should provide a true New Mexican flavor. I went through all the Blue Bars cover shots from throughout the years (online), and discovered that while some club photos were spectacular, those clubs also had hundreds of members and Corvettes to create their design. Most of the fancier covers had the number 50, 45, 25, 10, etc. spelled out with Corvettes. The rest of the cover photos were actually quite boring, except for a nice collection of shiny Corvettes. Circles, lines, hodge-podge, etc. And except for 3 cover photos, you couldn't identify where the photo was taken. We (NMCA) had already decided that our photo should project a true New Mexico flavor. Between April and September, I solicited input from members on what they had in mind for our photo location. Many good suggestions were made, and I examined each and every one. I had already thought of the red rocks location on the way to Jemez, and a few others had the same idea. A great location, but simply too far out of town. From my personal experience in setting up previous club photos, I knew that the further away from town, the fewer Corvettes we'd have to work with. All the other suggested locations did not meet the criteria we were after. I scouted and took pictures within the balloon field (a city park) and this seemed perfect - lots of green grass and our signature Sandias as a backdrop. When I tried to secure this field, I learned that the Balloon Fiesta folks had the field reserved from September 1 to October 31. I figured they really didn't need the field until mid-September, so I began trying to see how we could gain access to the field in early September. Despite talking to many folks, this simply wasn't going to happen, primarily due to the fact that the Balloon Fiesta officially "owned" the field, and if NMCA were to come onto the field liability insurance began to stop. I worked at this trying to have our NMCA NCCC insurance) become first in line, but these conversations went nowhere in a hurry.

During the NMCA picnic on October 3rd, I made the announcement that I had secured the front cover of NCCC Blue Bars magazine for the 2022 winter edition (this was the last opportunity for 2022). The picnic had a great number of members, and when the suggestion was made to take the photo sooner rather than later, the real effort began. Balloon Field was still off limits, however the city parks folks recommended Vista del Norte Park which supposedly is the 2nd largest park, with Balloon Field being #1.

I examined Vista del Norte Park, and found this to be a great location, and we could still capture the Sandias as our backdrop. I submitted the application to the city parks department, except, in no uncertain terms, no vehicles were allowed onto the grass. I talked with the contact at the city parks department, explained what we needed, and though a combination of sweet-talk and begging, she got on board with this whole idea. But she had to take our application to higher ups and convince them about the no parking on grass issue. I had discussed the 24th as an alternate date, but was advised we could only apply with one date. She also advised that she would be on vacation soon, and that if we did want the 24th, to please wait for her return, as she was the one who could get the "parking on the grass" part passed again. We got approved around October 8th for use of the park on October 17th - our original photo date. Over the next several days it became apparent that the 17th was too close, and many members could not make it. I then started the process of a new application to city parks. My contact was still on vacation. Time was not on my/our side. I simply didn't mention this small snag to anyone, and pressed ahead, often wringing my hands about approval.

With members signed up and a drone photographer secured - I only had three hurdles to clear. One was the weather - so that hurdle wasn't truly cleared until that Sunday morning when we all awoke to a clear blue sunny sky. The second hurdle was what the photo layout would look like. And the third and biggest, the park approval (which I did not received until the 21st!)

As for the layout, multiple members suggested the Zia symbol, but figuring we'd only get 20 Corvettes to show up, we wouldn't have enough Corvettes to make a Zia symbol. 10 days before the shoot, we were up to 30 Corvettes, and the Zia symbol was now possible. Not only the Zia symbol, but the NMCA logo was now possible, which as you all know is a slight variation of the Zia symbol.

At this point I enlisted the help of Larry English and Joe Garcia - as I needed input on the logistics part of this event, and car positioning. After many conversations and email drawings flowed between us we set an in-person meeting to finalize plans. A huge shout out to Larry who really excelled with scale drawings, which were ever changing due to more and more Corvettes wanting in. And we didn't have an accurate list of what color each Corvette was - which was very important so as to try and separate colors as best as possible prior to the 24th. Larry presented Joe and myself with layout updates frequently in the final days leading up to the 24th. The final version was printed at 9am on October 24th. At that point we had 41 Corvettes signed up. Well, 46 Corvettes showed up - so even our plans which were only 4 hours old became dated.

On Saturday the 23rd as I was going through my checklist, I discovered that I had not yet arranged for the park gate to be unlocked! Crap. I immediately began thinking about how I could build a ramp to by-pass the gate. Luckily after some research, I located a "weekend" phone number. This process took almost an hour, but I was finally able to scratch that item off my list - and wondered how many other elements that I may have overlooked!

Sunday October 24th arrives and a lot of behind-the-scenes activity takes place well before the 1pm arrival for Corvettes. Despite a well laid out plan to get Corvettes signed in and assigned placement numbers, we got to a point where Corvettes were backed up trying to get into the park, and we now know that 4 members showed up, unannounced, and were somehow overlooked - and did not get properly signed in. Larry rolled with the developing Corvette count, and we simply extend the long part of our logo. Also shortly after 1pm our photographer arrived and accessed the shoot. He popped his drone up and reported to me that in order to get the sandias as a backdrop, out Corvette layout would need to change substantially. Our layout would compress the logo so much that it would no longer be a viable photo (or representation of our logo). A decision was quickly made to shoot the photo from directly overhead, which meant we'd lose the Sandias as our signature backdrop. Actually, a direct overhead position was already on the list as an alternative, and I knew that after the photo we'd be editing in our club logo, which would tie in extremely well with out club logo created with Corvettes.

I had informed members ahead of time that this photo shoot would take 3 hours. And what do you know - we concluded the shoot at 4pm - 3 hours into it! This entire project was ripe with potential to fall apart many times over. The fact that we sweated out park approval, sweated out weather and dealt with more Corvettes than we had planned for - I personally believe we (the members present) did one hell of a job making this a success. My hat is off to each of you for showing up, and your patience even when we had to move a few rows of Corvettes after initial placement. On October 24th NMCA history was made. Happy Birthday to NMCA, and thank you to all who made this idea become reality!

Source:Phil Ellison - NMCA

Posted 10/29/21