1950 pontiac
ya, ya. i had this picture ready a week ago. i got busy, places to go, people to see. forgot.
just getting back to sifting though pics, before i have to run off to my mom’s house. going south again to have mothers’ day dinner with my bro and his wife and friends. really not looking forward to sitting in traffic.
nice car. red. does this look red to you? bane of my existence. red cars are a hassle for my camera. does this look a tad orange to you? my eyes are getting old and tired.
1935 plymouth
better half and i spent last week in san diego.
busted our asses at work, for the weeks leading up to time off, lots of overtime and stress. it’s almost like we shouldn’t bother taking any time off, as we’ve already made up the week and then some by the time we go. same when we come back. we’re both getting burned out, and were so ready for time away.
should change our titles to design jugglers.
anyway, our mini vacation really started about six in the morning on a saturday, with chicano park day. first in-person show in a couple of years. heard they might limit the number of cars to something ridiculous like one-hundred and fifty. by the time we left around eleven, there was at least twice that, a hot sun, and thousands of people.
didn’t even get to shoot the cars up by the majestics’ house…just too many people. walking in front of the camera, almost knocking over our tripods, bumping into the lens…and it got so hot out. day before, and the days after…all ten degrees cooler. figures.
the illegales car club includes the car above. i’ve been acquanted with the owner for several years now, and i found him later in the day, over in the grass field surrounded by cars, and chatting with some people, as usual. i butted in to say hello.
known as el abuelo, he had two of his cars there that morning. i think he said he arrived at four a.m., and always seems to get spots by the freeway on-ramp.
here’s another shot of it from a different angle. the sun was coming up, and there is some lens flare, that sort of bugs me here.
feeling generous, so here are some other random pictures i shot until i find some time to work up some other cars to share, starting with the few people that did chat with me, or my better half.
the street was full, the lawn around the playground was full; the grass near the basketball courts, had very few cars, which was odd. i know there were plenty of cars driving round trying to get in, but either didn’t have registration or just showed up too late. just weird. all the space available is usually just crammed with cars and bikes.
also, for chuckleberries, i found us in the crowd of the headline pic in this article, better half talking with someone about his lens collection, in front of the chevy truck, in the sea of people.
drove up to a small fundraiser by the vintage ladies last week, memorial for jerry shepard.
added to the donation box, sorry for their loss. could have had the food they were serving in exchange, but we had come for the cars.
better half bought himself a camera online, and wanted to see if it worked. told him about the show, and decided to head up. got there about eleven.
he was having fun shooting cars, trying to avoid getting in my shots, mostly failing, as it was just a small lot, and he was usually on the car next to what i was working on.
in between, he was chatting with folks and handing out my cards, as he hasn’t gotten around to printing up more of his own.
i stopped to wait for my better half to finish shooting the car next to this pontiac—that’s his tripod sticking out behind the kids.
i had a conversation with the owner, seeing that he was taking pictures as well. asked if he’d gotten any good shots. he said something to the effect that he wouldn’t know a good shot if it bit him. i handed him one of my cards, if he was interested in seeing my pictures. then he asked me to take a picture of his kids in front of his car.
i knew this wouldn’t be the best shot of my life.
kids don’t like to pose for strangers, and i’m most strange.
i wasn’t really set up to shoot a portrait.
avoiding my better half’s shot, here i am on the wrong side of the car, shooting into the big fireball in the sky, hence that big ass lens flare on the tire.
did not shoot the same picture with and without the kids in it, to fix any mistakes in exposure.
i should have waited and moved them to the other side of the car, but then they’d be squinting into the sun and have my shadow on them. or just plant them in front of the car, but i’m kinda partial the three-quarter view. and i love pontiac indian hoodies.
it’s an ok picture of a moment in time, of brothers, who seemed already bored to be there, especially the younger two.
like the little dude’s avenger shoes, with iron man on them.
been working ten to twelve hour days this past week. deadlines piling up. it’s not sustainable, but there are others that can help me out. they’ll make it up to me with a day off at some point, but probably not until next month.
so i’m a little bit slow posting pics from last week, or any other week for that matter. patience, grasshopper. never is enough time.
1956 pontiac safari wagon
this one is far from perfect, but it’s a perfectly fine car.
i love the crustiness of the paint, the imperfections all over. the beat to hell ornament. i wonder if it still lights up?
i think it fits in with the surroundings far better than the perfectly shiny impala to the side there. oh it’s difficult to choose one over the other.
i’m enjoying the gloom outside the window. more rain coming. i’m bundled up and feeling sleepy, but it’s too early for bed. i guess i’ll watch some random television until a more proper time to sleep. back to the grind tomorrow, at least for half a day. we’ll see if i’m feeling up to a full day of work yet.
still coughing up some bitter lung butter.
here’s a brief selection of images from the riverside show and go last weekend. started with friday evening cruising around several blocks of downtown riverside, followed by more of the same and competitions on saturday. i have a few more pics, i or my better half promised to upload…as soon as i can get the time.
compared to the last time i went, this show had more than expected. lots of cars that i was interested in, to balance out the newer cars and hot rods that i could care less about. saturday’s cars overflowed the streets. i think they may have actually sold out, with six hundred cars cruising and parked along the route.
since we stayed at a local hotel, we were able to come and go as we wanted. it also allowed me to skip the sunrise shooting i’d typically want to get, since we’d gotten the sunset pics the night before.
better half ended up staying in the hotel on saturday while i went out, as he’d hurt his back. he literally couldn’t move without searing pain. figured it was best to just let me go and get my ya yas out, before it got too hot. he waited for the ibuprofen to kick in, but it really didn’t help. think he has a slipped disc.
we took it easy for the afternoon, when it really got too hot for me to deal with at the show.
got up early on sunday, and out of the parking garage, just before the gate guard got there…free parking for the weekend! yippee. and off to see a doctor…
1939 pontiac silver streak
long exposures, streaky freaky lights. that’s what happens.
some you can fix, mostly, why bother. they are kinda cool sometimes.
down low, trying to hide the people or some other odd thing behind the car. it is what it is.
1942 chevy special deluxe
i’ve shot this car before. it’s really a beautiful car. owner has a long story about the paint color if you ask, but it ends up being some year of honda and some year of nissan greens, with a bit of pearlescent thrown in. really catches the light.
as i listened to him telling the tale of the paint to another random photographer/spectator and myself, the sun hit it just so, and it really was glowing.
unfortunately, i was busy listening, and not set up to take a shot then.
i’d already been by and found it earlier (above), and it just isn’t doing it justice. i mean i like the angle, the sky, the everything…it just isn’t catching the color. maybe the yellow car next to it is reflecting too much, and i’m on the shady side, (he was parked under the overpass but you can’t tell from this angle) but it just isn’t there.
oh well. posting this, and hoping maybe i’ll see it again sometime this summer. there’s always next year at chicano park…
the hood ornament off of one of my favorite cars...a fifty-six pontiac wagon from the old times car club. sort of futuristic, and vaguely reminds me of the logo my dad had for his business back in the day.
————-
only took a day before the effects of twelve hours in a petri dish, known as an airplane, became apparent. yep, as typical, i caught a cold of sorts. and the bitch of it is that i have no more sick time, and am in negative numbers on that now.
so i’ve gone to work, mostly keeping to myself, tired af, and trying to avoid talking so i don’t go into a coughing fit. my usual colds, don’t give me a fever, so i mostly sound deathly, but otherwise feel ok. i think now that it’s friday, i relaxed a bit, and i’m really feeling it heading into the weekend. i just want to sleep!
had already been evacuated from the house in whittier...suggested, not forced...for better half’s mother’s health.
seems she caught something anyway, and i was called back to help take her to a doctor. stayed for a night and am again staying away, so maybe my better half doesn’t catch it too.
kid is out of town with her dog and the new boy toy, so i’m hiding out in my own house. not much of my stuff here, and not a whole lot of furniture either. never started up cable for her, so really there’s nothing between me and the bed and that sleep time i’ve dreamt of all week, except this here ipad and me flicking my fingers across the screen.
hoping i feel much better tomorrow. still haven’t seen my dad since i got back from vacation. i want to get back to doing a car show once a week at least. and i still haven’t been home long enough to sift through vacation pics, that invariably will never get seen. well, better half wants to see...his vicarious means of going on a vacation by imagining what i saw via photos, video clips and tv documentaries to fill in details that i won’t tell him. no doubt when he asks about the trip, i’ll just say it was “ok.”
pontiac
this vacation has been fun, and it has been hell. fun, because we’ve seen so many things and places i’d only ever seen in art history books and documentaries. wonder if my old professors are still kicking...now i’d understand more of what they blathered on about.
hell, because this has basically been a french/italian boot camp—going from zero miles a day to ten or more, when moving to a new location also with suitcase strapped to my back like a backpack, and bag of cameras in my hand.
all of it is winding down. two more nights. one more time to pack the bag. my inner clock is confused, as i still find myself waking at two a.m. here, which is about dinnertime back home. work will suck on monday, if i can stay awake.
will be nice to see my better half. and my dad, who has been in hospital/medical facilities since before i left, and has provided my mother a few scares that i know of.
old pontiac from a bbq meetup at legg lake. the other side of the park, which i’d never been to, or i’d have planned better for parking and arrival time.
wonder if they will go for a full restoration and paint job or call it a day in this primal glory.
is it a good vacation when you can’t remember what day it is? good thing cell phones keep track of the day and time shift or we’d be screwed.
it’s saturday here in positano, italy, and i’m taking a day off to do laundry and rest. sooooo tired, and i have an earache. everyone else went back down the hill, which is really all this place is, to the beach to rent a boat for a couple of hours. kid never drove a boat before, but doesn’t plan on going out very far, just far enough to jump in the ocean, and knowing him, he’ll probably pee in it.
if you’ve seen my pics on instagram, we’re in an airbnb halfway up this mountain. great view. hell of a walk and too many stairs. couple of days ago, we climbed both the duomo and the bell tower of an old church. four-hundred plus stairs in each, i really was only psyched up for the dome, and just couldn’t quite make the top level in the bell tower. better view in the duomo anyway. tight stairs to climb in both, as they were never meant to be open to the public.
so, my legs are not really wanting to climb up or down this hill very far today. fortunately, there is a breakfast place just down around a bend, and pizza not far up for later. a few shops if i want to venture out, but i’ll probably just take a nap.
not posting a lot from here, since we are limited to one gig of wifi data a day between the four of us. not sure what we are doing tomorrow. i think the kid mentioned capri and a grotto. hopefully i’m up for that...we’ll see.
another pontiac ornament. i don’t post enough hoodies, and pontiacs are a fav.
