lighthouse

today was our eighth anniversary. made it past the seven year itch. (just keep scratching it😜)

better half was on call for work, and i had to drive out to pick up my daughter at the airport, so we spent several hours apart.

was over a hundred degrees outside, so no point going anywhere not air conditioned in the middle of the day. we did manage to walk uptown in the evening for dinner. still nice to find stuff to talk about after this many years.

letting my daughter borrow my car for the weekend...i hope to see it again on monday.

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this truck was at the legends show at point fermin. nice spot near the lighthouse. not sure why there weren't as many cars parked there, aside from not being out where the majority of people will pass by. this is nice near the tree, and without all the electrical wires that show from other viewpoints of the house.

i can't decide which i like best--this show or chicano park--both get a crap ton of cars and are fun to make a weekend getaway. point fermin is literally on a cliffside by the ocean in san pedro, so some years it stays cool and overcast in the morning and through the day, gets a good breeze.

chicano park is good for a roadtrip or train ride weekend.

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getting up early for the dia de los muertos show down the street in uptown. it's grown quite a bit since the first year, with maybe ten cars and a short row of vendor booths. now it's an equal part full on car show and art show with some vendors in between, all decorated with skulls and shrines for the celebration.

out early and mostly done by ten, when it heats up, people start showing up and the show officially starts.

a family

i was minding my own business, walking through the park at point fermin, looking for something interesting to shoot. cars were moving in by this point, and being directed left or right when they reached the lighthouse.

queue the random guy to come over and tell me to take pictures of his family's cars. all of them together, then individually. like i'm there taking orders. sure, i'll take them, gave me something to do. kinda doubt he'll buy prints; most guys like that just don't.

i could be totally wrong, but that's just how it came across.

nice set of chevys, then he said the ford at the end was also part of the group. they had that pop up over the truck, until the guy told the other guys to move it back. didn't ask what was so special about that one in particular.

anyway, did as i was told/asked, and got on with my life.

turn off the light

got up before the sun and out to point fermin yesterday. clear sky and a full moon, we ran around trying to catch some pictures of the legends' cars that were already in the park.

don't realize how quick it fades from night to day until you're hauling a camera bag and tripod across grassy fields, to get to cars with the promise of a better point of view. still wouldn't trade it for a point and shoot camera. i'll use my phone camera for quick shots to instagram, but they're more of a documentation of stuff i saw quickly or where i've been--they're the throw aways.

i've shot this car before, and he always seems to park here every year. you don't know how much i wish bad things on that scrawny palm tree, whose pathetic trunk snakes up between the car and the lighthouse. ruins the shot, and i'm not going to waste time photoshopping it out...it was there, so there it will stay.

it was dark, so of course the park lights were on. do they get some sort of discount for those horrid yellow-tinged light bulbs i wonder? the blackness of night inherently sucks the color out of stuff and neutralizes it, but with that light dropping its mandarine light down on the car, everything getting hit by it just gets whacked to an orange spectrum. would have been so nice with just the moon and stars shining down.

posted the color version here too, because despite it burning my eyes, it's sort of ok, because that's how i saw it.

a went back a little later to try and get the same shot as last year, about the same time in the morning, but the sunrise just wasn't as spectacular, and every sunrise is a different experience, to be enjoyed in that moment. maybe next year...

doesn't fall far from the tree

been sitting on my ass all week. too much work, not enough time. and watching my kid's dog again a couple days a week. didn't even realize its a holiday weekend, so i've promised some deadlines that i still hope to be able to make, even with one less day.

better half has to work all weekend. he told them he's busy in the morning tomorrow, so we can head out early to pomona tomorrow for a few hours. i'm hoping for some new cars to shoot, and it seems to be a great place to find them.

there also seems to be an art show at the lowdown in uptown this evening. walked past the store at lunch time, and they seem like they better hurry up if they plan on hanging stuff before five. they did have five of their cars parked outside, though. i shot'em with my crap cell phone and stuck them on my instagram at #randomcarsuptown. thinking/hoping other cars show up later. gonna wander down the street with my camera and check it out. or it's saturday; ususally stuff further down by the cigar bar.

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looking back through shots from legends' san pedro, car show by the sea show. latin gents' cars were all parked near the street, under the trees. shade is good, but i'd be worried about birds. if you know what i mean.

screaming meemies

i don't know why i shot this car or more, why i'm bothering to post it. no idea for sure what it is. it has some ford looking headlights and grille, but it's had some over the top cosmetic surgery.

i think what i enjoyed more than taking a picture of this thing, was the elderly asian couple that had been taking pictures of each other in front of various cars, this one included. suddenly, the old guy started screaming at the wife loudly in whichever language they spoke. kinda like a car wreck, i stared for a while, facinated like watching foreign soap operas on cable.

at this point, i can't remember if the old lady gave as good as she got, or if she just ignored him. i suspect the former.

they were still yelling when i left the area. maybe she didn't get his good side.

good day, sunshine

here's another for the day. from legend's san pedro show. i was there before the sun came up. they can't keep you out of the park. so there i was dodging the cars as they were bringing them in. actually, i'm pretty good at staying out of the way. i can move on, and come back later.

here, the sun is just coming up, the light still purple. makes it worth the effort of getting out of a nice warm bed—you just can't get this light at high noon.

in your face

“Since I’m inarticulate, I express myself with images.”
- Helen Levitt

saw this quote on some photography blog somewhere. i think it fits me pretty well too. i can show you what i saw and loved better with a picture, rather than trying to tell you about it.

ask my brother what i thought about our trip to london six years ago. he was so unsure if i had fun, he called my better half to ask if i said anything. of course, i hadn't said much at the time more than, "it was ok." but i took a ton of pictures.

and now if i see stuff about london on tv, its, "oh, i saw that."

bigger wallflower would be hard to find.

quite the opposite of this buick. all that chrome coming at you. big bullets. lots of teeth in that smile. and a shine you could use as a mirror. even in the shade.

tricicleta

don't know why i'm posting this one. i didn't give them a card.

this kind of bugged me. not the bike. not the kid(s). not the music he was blaring out of the box tied on the back of his trike, at least in a different setting. he/they kinda held still long enough for my shot.

the thing was the rap/crap he was blaring was blabbering on about fuckin', asses, eff yah, shit, etc.

that doesn't bother me. i love throwing out f-bombs all day, every day. it wouldn't be my first choice in music, but that isn't it.

i think it's that, how old is that kid? he can't be older than ten, right? why the fuck doesn't it bother his mother/father that he's listening to that shit, much less blaring it at the show? i know, he/they think its cool and hip. part of the car culture? gimme angel baby oldies any day. kids don't need that crap at that age. actually, the grown ups don't need it either. it's crap. sounds stoooopid. but whatever.

the kid isn't smiling. that music isn't the kind to be happy with. not even to be bored by. gotta look tough. cuz somehow by extension, you're gangsta cuz ur listening to tuff muzak. have you really listened to the words? idiotic most of the time. you're so fly. <ending rant>

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i heard a kid arguing with his mother/guardian/whoever yesterday at pollo loco. teenager. full of angst. wanted to drop out of school. argued he could get a job, the usual kid think. it's so easy. didn't want to do the work at school.

wanted to go slap him silly. dumbass. i've known the type...old relatives. he'll end up working his ass off harder then he ever would have doing homework, if not just sitting on his ass all day, living off everyone around him.

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ya, ya. neither situation is my business. must be the hormones...wait...holy crap...i'm turning into my mother!!! aaaaaaahhhhhh!!!!!!!!!!!

wrong photographer

my better half mentioned that he'd received an email from someone looking for pictures of his truck. said my better half had taken pictures of it at this show in gardena, and he wanted a copy cuz he's selling it or something.

there's been a few back and forths about it, and it didn't sound like a happy ending in their exchange.

for one thing. my better half has never gone to a show in gardena. that'd be me. twice now. don't know how he got the email address in that case. 

there's always that second consideration my better half mentions a lot. a lot. he thinks they're scared to ask me. he's my middleman. he's my cheery side. i'm dark and twisty. he compares me to wednesday on the addams family...i wanna be perky...but i'll scare the other kids if i smile too fake-like.

he gets random requests like this once in a while. and most of the time, when he mentions it to me, ya, it was me they should be asking.

so from what he told me, i think it's this truck. i have a back end view of it too, but it was pretty tight, so it looks a mile long. it looks too green on my monitor. not how i remember it. guess i'll have to tweak it and tone it down.

so, boo.

training

riding on amtrak to san diego right now. haven't been on a train trip since my kids were little and we'd go visit relatives in ventura. double decker surfliner, top level, so that's fun. better half working at the office down there until tuesday, so i'm gonna stay overnight and enjoy his air conditioned hotel room. too hot today. ugh.

no cameras with me, so that feels strange. almost naked. nothing to hide behind. and i'll be on my own while he works; i have no idea what i'll do or where i'll go. and he will worry...

didn't get going as early as planned. got a message that my daughter's borrowed car was making strange sounds, and that her dad wanted to just go look at new or used cars for her. she burned out the engine on her old one. probably ignored the evil red light on her dashboard too long.

first, though, had to pick up dry cleaning for my better half and lunch for my mother-in-law. squeezed in breakfast around eleven. thinking of hitting the cafe car now...almost six. nah, i'll eat when i get there. got those errands done, then off to the apartment.

stop at a car wash on the way, where the code i had, was about to expire on. great, only one of the two bays open. stuck in that line for half an hour. just pulled up to the code box, when the douche of a station owner opens the other line. thanks for that.

ended up waiting at her new apartment, in the bit of shade by the door, only to find they were still moving stuff in...so i helped with that when they arrived after half an hour. no air conditioning...melting inside the place. overhead fan didn't really move the air much. didn't want to think about cars after that. her dad decided the borrowed car only needed power steering fluid for now. don't want to make a quick decision on a car anyway. dealers always bend you over and make you take it in the pants too.

took off from there, and headed to my mom's. niece's bday today. she's staying there while she goes to school. she was in the shower and my parents were sleeping. they're old. they can. i had a train to catch, so just left a gift on the table.

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saw several pontiacs at the san pedro show. not so familiar with models and years on them; just know i have to shoot the hood ornaments when i see them. liked the overall car for this one, as well.

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oooohhhh i see the ocean now...ttfn.