what's up?

leafy

back in whittier after a week. haven't decided if i'll go to a show tomorrow or not. my arm would probably be ok. i don't think it will rain either, and probably there will still be some kick ass clouds.

i think the first time i used a camera to shoot classic cars seven or eight years ago, it was a cloudy, march day. those are still some of my favorite pictures.

pomona swap meet is tomorrow. hmm. hmm. maybe.

all those leaves on the ground, i should have checked inside the car, to see if it was full of leaves too.

out for a walk

walked uptown for breakfast/lunch. the last bunch of times that i'd been home and gone uptown, i'd get dizzy, because, ya, i was sick, and an inner ear thing probably didn't help.

today, i just got overheated, but that's because it's in the seventies weather-wise and i was wearing a hoodie. found it funny, when a sixty-plus year old woman drove past blasting usher's "yeah" song out her windows, so very loud. she just didn't look the type. then i don't look the type to be hanging out at car shows either, right?

noticing that my eyes seem to be more sensitive to the sunlight, and seem a bit blurry. that is a problem for someone who likes to be at car shows for several sunny hours, taking pics. hoping that clears up, and getting some new glasses too. doc says my vision is actually a little better, so the lenses may be the issue.

meanwhile, i guess if i do go out, i'll just go really early, as usual, or go in the evenings. it's been so long, i'll have to try to remember what i was doing with a camera. starting all over again.

still going through recent photos. here's a beauty from a blessing of the cars show out at the san gabriel mission. didn't know what to expect, as i'd never been there. inner courtyard/parking lot filled quickly with lovely cars, so i made quick use of my limited time that day. had to meet up with someone that day, who had bought one of my framed pics from the fair. should have gone back to the show, but had other places to be.

alls good

my dad's surgery went well yesterday. currently getting a pacemaker. they say he can go home tomorrow most likely. good news, right?

missing some good little shows while taking care of business, but enjoying other photographers' pictures from them.

loved this tovars' car. it drew a crowd when they drove up. family and friends took time to pose by it for pics. had to wait a while to catch it alone. shooting into the sun...screw the rules...screw the sensor on the camera. just take the picture already!

countdown

world series, game seven, playing in the background. my sister-in-law is a serious fan of the dodgers, and she's been terribly silent and avoiding the tv a lot this game. previous games have been a roller coaster, with her screaming and moaning, depending on which way the scoring was going.

fifth inning now. was uptown a little bit ago, and all the bars with any sense and tvs are packed—one bbq place uptown is absolutely empty...don't know if it's the food, the booze, the mangagement, or lack of a tv being the reason...i've never actually set foot in there. and they really are never busy...how do they stay open?

also now the countdown has begun for dad's date with destiny and a surgeon. got his first set of tests done yesterday, and a date for the first procedure coming up in a couple of weeks. after that, heart surgery of one sort or another.

my younger brother has been in town for almost a month, as he was here for his anniversary, then stayed on, expecting things to have gotten rolling much sooner. he's anxious to get home and see his kids, but now his wife is coming back to town next week, and is talking him into staying for at least another couple of weeks. basically, he's bored, and would rather be bored in his own house, with his kids and his dog.

told him i'm rearranging my schedule, so i can get dad where he needs to go for the next part.

i may need to get my gall bladder out, but that can wait...that doc wasn't seriously concerned about it. i'll see about that when i can't just ignore that ache any longer. more important stuff going on, and ain't nobody got time for dat.

seventy-sixers

antenna balls. could say he's got balls for the post title, but i've probably already used it before.

this car belongs to tj friends car club. they pretty much fill up this section of the elks lodge parking lot for these past couple of years. mostly convertibles, they were booked for last year's whittier uptown xmas parade, chauffering all the pretty, pretty princesses and bigwig city butts down greenleaf.

not sure if this car was there for the parade, but i probably already told the story about that day in another post.

owner of this car stopped for a quick chat at this show. asked me to shoot his car. i liked the back end the best, of course. so, there you go...

a surprise

so got my better half away for a night. didn't go very far away, but he got the rest he so much needed.

we were out in fullerton, picking up some breakfast/lunch at a northgate market before heading home. this particular location doesn't really have a dining area, and it was way too hot to sit in the car under a blazing sun.

so i suggested we stop over at the sonic around the corner, order drinks and just eat under the overhang. that, or go to a local park, or we wait to eat until we get home. we pull into the first spot, roll down the windows, and just order drinks.

roller girl waitress brings the drinks and goes away. we start eating our carnitas, listening to the music in the background. then better half notes that they don't seem to be able to select a song to play.

i'm looking in the rearview mirror, and note that there are two lowriders back there. figure that the sonic employees are playing more appropriate music for their customers, or are taking requests.

then i note that there are pop up tents, and i see a guy in a club shirt seeming to be setting up traffic cones in the lot, and carrying caution tape. i joke with the better half that i believe a car show has found us, and i don't have my cameras with me.

from my window, i ask the club guy if there is a car show today, and he explains, yes, he's the club president, he actually works at the establishment (he didn't use that word), and they're just setting up. hoping to get it to be a more regular show. maybe start with a flyer?

then a couple of viejitos cars pulls up. my better half is finding this all very humorous, as he starts thinking i'd planned it this way. come on, if i had, i would have brought the cameras! lol.

anyway, we get out and walk around. say hey to the viejito that i have met before. he said other guys were going to show up. the club president hosting the show said they expected up to seventy cars. i think that should always be taken with a grain of salt...it's more of a hope.

anyway, we tell them we are going home to fetch our gear, and we will be back.

i don't think they believed us, and better half said they seemed surprised to see us again when we showed up a couple hours later.

hmm. not so many cars as mentioned. no additional viejitos, or either of the other two clubs that had been mentioned.

oh well. we're there. we take some pictures.

found this one on the other side of the building. told the owner i'd post it. i want to say we've shot other cars from this club elsewhere. i think i may have even shot this one before...go look on my search page, type in 'one family'...i think it's the first one that pops up.

bucket

another one the owner hoped to see.

i had arrived early, parked in the designated lot, on the gift shop side of the mission. did not see any old cars. did not know where they were going to park them. sat in my car, listening to the radio.

then a big truck with a trailer pulls up in front of me, with this car on the trailer. i watched him unload it, and watched where he went with it, down an alley or was it a street?

shortly after, the los angeles bomb club cars drove in the lot, behind my car, and went down the alley as well.

i figured they must be between the buildings, but i didn't want to walk down the alley and around. so i wandered over to the church building, and down a small walkway past the cemetery. came up to what was a locked gate dead end, but a janitor had propped it open with a broom.

through that, around another building, and found the cars.

not a whole lot there early. the owner had parked his ford and was sitting with a guy who had brought in a military jeep.

i'd seen him watching me shoot some fleetlines, just out of the picture here. as i turned around and walked toward the green truck, he came over and inquired. told him i'd post a shot, so there you go...

get 'er done

i think i have at least a dozen pictures sitting in my drafts bin here. haven't had much to say lately, and not so much time to do so if i did. i used to be so good about getting a picture ready and doing a post the same evening for the longest time. now i pretty much can get a picture or two up on instagram, then i don't get around to posting them here until i'm down at my parents' house, with nothing better to do.

wonder how i used to be able to head to a show after work, shoot for a couple of hours, then go home and post a picture before bed. too much work and traffic...all work and no play, make jack a dull boy. guess you can call me jack.

ya, so my advice is basically go to my instagram first, pictures posted there first, and as an added bonus, you don't need to suffer reading my drivel about nothing. i've lost my whole point with this blog anyway, since i've been so distracted with everything going on around me. about that time i start talking about shutting down this blog again. but, my better half finds it an entertaining peek into my mind sometimes, and there are one or two others who do regularly read this for whatever reason. (still with me, jimbo?)

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this car belongs to the abraxas ltd car club. owner wondered what i did with my pictures. i put some of them here, and write something about the car, the show, the people i saw or things i heard, sometimes. mostly it's irrelevant to whatever picture is there, and more about my day, an observation, or random thoughts that pop into my head while i sit in traffic every day.

i'm a good fly on the wall, and sometimes things are better left unsaid. i really need to chat with more people at the shows and write down any specifics or history about the cars before i forget. better half usually does the talking, and has a memory for details. my memory just seems to be getting worse all the time.

beautiful car, btw. the sun was heading down, and was just catching the chrome and hitting the cars with a golden light about that time.

second shot

another day, another car. owner watched me shoot the picture to the right, and came over to ask me what i do with the pictures.

i'm sensing a theme. don't see people asking every photographer what they do with the pictures, though i'd always be curious to see them. who knows what they do with them. i know i enjoy mine every day, and share a few here and there.

i suppose it has to do with the tripod. i think the guy that's out there at shows, with the old film camera with the bellows gets the same thing. no idea if he posts his shots, as i've never actually spoken to him...too shy.

anyway, saw the car again, on my way back up the street toward home. shot it again. it's a little more interesting, just because there is more color later in the morning, and more angles going on.

i was heading home to get some suntan lotion, as i felt my skin cooking. ended up downloading pictures from the memory cards, chugging a bottle of water and laying down for an hour. a little too long to sit still...was so sore when i headed back out.

went out, intending to shoot a particular car at the far end of the street, if the owner closed the hood as promised, as well as anything else that may have shown up and i'd missed. there were a few. arrived at said car, but the owner was not there, so didn't bother. shot a few more pics, and went to get dinner and cool off again.

uptown show

went out at five-thirty am today, up the street to the car show. better half walked me uptown, and pulled my camera bag around for a while. sun was already coming up.

noticed a bunch of classic cars in the rite-aid parking lot. went to shoot them, but they soon started to move over to the main street—they were there to volunteer to help set the show up and direct move-in, in exchange for prime parking.

strangely, as compared to prior years, they weren't starting move in until eight-thirty. we're used to a zillion cars lined up down the street waiting. nope, not much there.

spent time shooting the cars that were there. then noticed cars showing up further down, and went off to get those.

really love to shoot at this time of day, prior to move-in. fewer people, cool, overcast, everyone happy with anticipation. i really took the majority of my pictures waiting for eight-thirty.

then the time came, and it went very slowly. not sure what was going on, but it seemed to take forever to get cars moving. i took the opportunity to get some bfast.

i'm starting off, not with my favorite, best pics, but with the cars of people who talked with me, or asked about what i'm doing with the pics, as usual.

this nova was owned by the first guy that really chatted us up, mainly my better half, of course.

he popped the hood to show us what was hiding there, in spite of me wearing my infamous hat. whatever. here's a shot of the engine. dare a cop to try to catch up with it.