so my better half is always telling me to post something bigger. we're not in a pissing match or anything, but sometimes its fun to compare shots of the same thing.

he's six-foot-five-ish, triple-x-sized, with delusions of being on the ten-foot high ambercrombie & fitch posters in san fran. he makes me laugh, though he'd probably say i'm the one that makes him laugh. i don't think anyone else could possibly come close to understanding me, but he kind of gets me, though he mostly can't understand a word i'm saying on any given day.

i'm about five-six, unless i put on some heels, which are inconvenient to wear at a car show, and more so due to my tweaked foot, much to his disappointment. anyway, the difference in height, our abstract backgrounds, and/or my being a girl, albeit, more of a tomboy, leads to some interesting perspectives on the same subject or what we see or don't see at any given location.

i really like hood ornaments. i gave out a book of them for christmas gifts this year. click the link for a perfectly arbitrary display of a few of the pages.

pontiacs are always fun. i don't think this one is an original, it's too perfect, and the seams from the mold are too obvious. but i didn't find any of the original, crackled, ravaged, aged beauties the other evening at ruby's.

i shoot my close-ups with a newer 100mm lens. with all the new technology and lens coatings, i don't think it stands up to my original secret handshake lens that he bought me several years ago, but sadly crapped out on me last year. i used the hell out of a twenty-seven-year old lens, and then some; a little internal plastic thing broke, and it became more tempramental on whether it would work or not, whether it would focus or not. i wanted something that was reliable.

my better half would borrow it sometimes, and has borrowed the new one a few times. i always wonder if i'll be able to get it back from him, he goes so ape shit over it. i guess it would only be fair, as since he let me start borrowing his equipment, he has had to replace each item, because he doesn't get it back. strange that he keeps offering to let me try out his new camera, huh?

well, he pulled the handshake out of the drawer not too long ago, and it's temporarily behaving, so he's been out using it. he thinks it works just great.

so schweetie, here's a big one. how does it compare to yours?

another from riverside. first day. this belongs to gary, who of course when he saw me, exclaimed, "the hood's down!!!"

i took a couple of shots of it that evening. i like this one best—it hides the port-a-potties he always seems to park in front of. i suppose that might be convenient, but they do ruin a shot.

good thing i got these pictures, though. he was there the third day, but his car wasn't; said it wouldn't start so he left it at home. bummer, dude.

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i skipped a show yesterday, and then we'd intended to go to riverside today, to the phil braybrook show, but my better half has been putting in too many hours at work, and was so tired. alarm went off at four a.m. i figured if i got up and drove out there, he'd feel obligated to go, so i stayed home and we slept some more.

instead, i went to a couple of small, local shows later, at nearby high schools. just a few cars i bothered with at both. and some confusion with my better half, who was still sleepy on the couch when i left. he didn't realize i left, and the rest of the day has been kind of 'off.' maybe after a good night's sleep, things will fall back in place.

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i've posted this one up here several times before. keep trying to get the stripey, random airbrush paint job right. lo and behold, there it was in with a small contingent of cars from orange county down at chicano park, hiding in a corner. 

as i've said before, it's fun to find a car over and over, and then to find it some new environment. typically, i find it on a hot, sunny day, sitting on hot asphalt in a parking lot. things get more blown out that way.

here i found it again, in the shade of the bridge overpass, sitting pretty on the grass. surrounded by hundreds of other remarkable cars, i found it without a crowd around it for a change.

so i like old chevys better than the rest. been a while, so i'm posting one.

saw this one last night when i gimped around the ruby's show in whittier—hadn't been since last year. i saw it cruise past me fairly silently while i was shooting another chevy. they went down the aisle and under the caution tape...sadly thought they were leaving, then realized they were just taking a shortcut to another aisle.

i've learned that if i really want to shoot a car, i need to go find it pretty quickly, in case they decide to drive away again. so i headed over the two rows to where they'd parked. it had hydraulics in it, so here it is dropped down a bit. later, i got my better half to come over and admire it. he'd upped the front end by then for some reason, but i took that one too. didn't think that one was so interesting, so here's my favorite of the few i took.

it was mostly overcast, so the sky here is almost as silvery as the car, but the sunset was still peeking through here and there. there weren't so many cars as i'd usually see here, and my foot was starting to ache, so we didn't stay until full sunset. 

the owner did come over to ask about where he might see the pictures. said he goes to lots of shows, but i don't recall ever seeing this one before. hope i see it again, in another setting, and without my foot distracting me from getting a good shot.

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best time to go to a big show is before it is supposed to start, the earlier the better. especially a show out in riverside, where the daytime temperature can shoot to over a hundred degrees on a cool day. wasn't the case this year, as it was unseasonably overcast and cloudy, but i still only managed to go out early in the morning and later in the evening. stupid foot was bugging me. still is. i'll give it a few weeks then go back to the doc.

this belonged to a couple who spent the night nearby in a motorhome. poor things. really roughing it. not. he found me out behind another motorhome shooting a little pink coupe, and he headed over to uncover his car. i had no idea what was hiding behind door number three, but i was pretty happy with what was revealed. 

sun coming up, trees, and few people and cars passing by, so i was free to take whatever angle i liked.

i have one more promised car to do, if i can decide i like any of the shots. then it'll be time to get back to a nice old chevy.

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working eight hour days, but they feel like twelve. my foot still cramping my style. i went to the broiler tonight—first time in a couple of months—really going down the drain there. got there later, and still not much in the lot, so i took a few shots, chatted with my buddy angel and his friend, and left.

i still have a couple more cars i promised before i get back to my favs. 

this one was just different than the typical hot rod. mainly the checkered paint job on the radiator and inside the engine compartment. otherwise, pretty standard hep cat.

wonder what that guy in the doorway is thinking...or the zombie to his right. neither is looking at me, nor the car. must be something driving by out of the shot.

i spied this one driving around the circuit on the last day in riverside. i hoped i would be able to find it parked somewhere before i left.

i was across the street shooting the rambler i posted yesterday, when i spied it here across the street on the corner. i was trying to hurry from the rambler so i could get to it before they possibly took off again, but the owner of the rambler was busy telling me her story. then i watched as the owner of the car popped the hood for a crowd of guys, and i kinda slowed down. why, why?

i took a couple of shots of the rambler and headed over to this one anyway. the group had mostly left, and the guy sitting with it saw me trying to shoot the hood ornament, and offered to close the hood for me. even better i said.

his story was that the car belonged to his father-in-law, and he had fixed it up. i thought it was pretty stunning and asked if he thought it had won anything. he said, no way, there were much better cars there in his opinion. dude, this one is a beauty, have some confidence. and thanks for closing the hood.

i was shooting this one because i'd never seen one before. the owner came over and asked the usual questions. then told me her hubbie had bought this for her fifty-seventh birthday. not sure if the rebel part relates to her personality, but she was very nice.

wonder what age i'd choose to be to get an age-appropriate car. i'm thinking i'm due for a chevy bomb about now...

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this is bob's pontiac. i'd seen it parked off the street in this side lot for the last couple of years that i'd been to this show. finally had the time and inclination to go over and have a look. initially, there was another car parked on this side, and i was just shooting the hood ornament. he came over and apologized that it wasn't a better ornament—said there was more to it, but someone had snapped the other pieces off at some point in the past.

then, the car next to him took off, so i had space to shoot the car. happily, he moved the dust mop thing off the hood. 

the car is showing its age, but that's fine with me. imperfections just make it that much more interesting, so don't apologize when you're car is less than perfect.

so, i'll get back to riverside in a couple of days, but i wanted to put one of this beauty up before i forget. my better half talked the owner into closing it up later that afternoon.

i basically stare at cars with their hoods open if i really want to shoot it, and hope the owner notices and offers to close it. i've only asked owners to close it a couple of times because it was too good not to get it, and most typically will just walk past a few times and hope to see it again some day.

of course, i took advantage of the hood closed, and took several more shots. but i thought i'd share this one, just to show that i sometimes break my own rule. i think my better half mentioned that it's rare to see one in such immaculate condition, but if memory serves, d, there was about five of them in a row down at chicano park, each just as delicious as this one. but i did skip most of those, since they had one side up and one side down.

ok, this one had a nice engine, so i guess that was part of the reason i went ahead and took this shot. my better half liked this one better than the others i did, so maybe that's why i'll share it with you.

out of town tomorrow, so riversiders, hold your breath until wednesday. unless i go to big boy...

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