the chief

1949 pontiac chieftan (?) | went to the garden grove main street car show for the first time last month. i think it was the first one of the season, and it grew and grew...had to be more than a hundred cars by the time i left and there were still more coming in that friday night. it overflowed from their oldtown main street into a nearby parking lot. took so many pictures i ran out of memory space. this one was cool, but someone drove behind me during the exposures, so it captured my tripod/camera set up shadow in the headlights on the right hand side. oh well. i have to go back again, now that the time has changed and take more while the sun is still out.

ford flambé

ok, it was pretty, but a little over the top for a classic. but it made a nice picture. really didn't need to do much to it - really was this color. a real "look at me, look at me" car.

mad nomad

1957 chevy nomad | found this one in front of the san juan capistrano family classic cars. they were hosting a classic car show, very different from the typical that i've been to. small lot. lots of people, but they were all in the building. turns out they were serving wine and food, had some type of games (not saying it was gambling, since i didn't look that closely), a few vendors of various sorts, and a smallish museum of classic cars, as well as the storage facility. catering to an upper crust crowd, and did i feel out of place. anyway, i had to fold up my tripod inside so i wouldn't accidently trip someone with their plate of food and glass of booze, or bump a car. i like the stuff outside better anyway, i like the natural light.

oh the fins! [59 buick]

drove out to lakewood/woodruff last saturday for their weekly show. lots of cars jammed into the front lot of the shopping center, where the crowds were, but around back of the lot were several real gems. this one was superb - very clean, mint condition.

56 chevy

not even half as many cars this week in downey. guess people didn't notice it wasn't raining, and wasn't likely to rain any time soon. stupid weather guys can't seem to predictably predict the weather.

anyways, this nice, clean chevy is there every week according to the owner, who attends with his brother. they even moved their chairs out of the way so i could snap this shot. strange to bring the car to the show back it up against a wall and then sit in front of it.

beautiful bel air

this one i've seen at a couple of shows now, but here it was in downey. i just like the back fins from this angle.

always wanted a big wheel

so as i was trying to make my escape from the bob's big boy show in downey, the guys hanging with the owner of the slammed cadillac all wanted a shot of their rides. never did a cycle before, but i think this one turned out rather well considering.

could it be any lower?

i'd never been to the car show at the bob's big boy in downey until the other day. took my nephew and let him use the other camera while i did my usual ground crawl with the tripod. never had so many people ask me if i was taking pics for a magazine or if i sell them, but everyone was so nice! this car was the first i saw when we drove into the lot, and it was one that was specifically asked about just before we were leaving by the owner, who had seen me shooting it earlier.

holy hot rod batman!

this was the last picture i took that night. it was getting cold, and people had already started leaving. the owner of this car seemed very interested in what i was doing, how i was doing it, and even knew what bracketing was. he says about the only original thing on this is the 1927 ford radiator, but it's still such a cool car.  i think it is one of the more interesting shots, even with the lens flares from the overhead lighting. anyway, he's my first paying customer - he wants a print!