hot day, hot rod

i missed the previous show at foothill ranch because i was out of town, and being they only do this one once-a-month thru october (i think), i didn't want to miss it again. turned out to be one of the hottest days of the year so far, and lack of a crowd reflected it. there were maybe about 10–12 cars, instead of the usual 20–30. half had the hoods up, and i walked right by those, which mostly were 56/57 chevys. too bad.

i only bothered shooting about 5 of the cars before sitting down in the shade to wait for it to cool off and see if anyone else was going to bother to show up. one of the organizers told me they were going to pack it up early because of the heat. don't know if they decided to hold the raffle prizes and trophies until the next show or not, because i didn't stay too long after hearing that.

anyway, whilst chillin' in the shade and packing up my gear, the owner of this '31 coupe stopped by to chat. he'd noticed me shooting his car, and was interested in what i was going to do with the pictures. gave him my card. i know he peeked at my blog, because he is one of the brave few who actually bothered to email me — thanks randy! hope you like it.

gumby!

just kidding. the color of this is a bit more turquoise than gumby, but i think of him anyway when i see this truck. so friendly and curvy and fun. and what the heck are those dingleberries hanging on the rearview mirror...they look like mexican pastries. why? why?

the owner of this truck is one of my favorite hecklers at this show at ruby's and also at spires. his truck also snuck into the picture here, with his ratty chair too. really he's nice enough. sometimes likes to pretend he's my middleman making a sale, running the price of a print up. come on man, you're gonna scare the straights.

gotta go...someone waiting for me >:)

wood you?

i think, were i not at a car show, that a guy asking me to "check out my woody," would cause at the very least a double-take if not a slap in the face. but of course i knew what he meant, so no worries.

this 1946(?) ford woodie wagon belongs to one of the group of guys that i've joked with the past couple of weeks at ruby's. i'd seen it before at the show at spires (or is it peris?) i'll call it spires, kinda the same way irvine meadows amphitheatre will always be irvine meadows to me, not verizon..., or its just "the forum," not great western...but i digress.

several of the guys are very interested on whether i shot their car, and can they see a print. i'm not usually all that jazzed by woodies for whatever reason...too cliché maybe; more likely because the wood distracts me from the nice curves of the front. so this owner had to ask me to take a picture of it. so here it is...what do you think?

and surprise, surprise, i only shot the hood ornament on it before. does it light up? at least he doesn't have the stereotypical unused surfboard stuck on it somewhere, that i find kinda lame, though i guess it does fit the theme. totally tubular, dude. cha.

ruby ruby

the owners of these first two front cars have been asking about the shots i took lately. "did you get my car?" answer is yes, probably. have i worked on them, answer is no, probably. not enough time lately, with late nights at work. and so many pictures to choose from, i really can't decide what to post when i have had time.

i thought this was an interesting shot, all around. and there weren't a lot of people there that evening, which is especially unbelievable up by the restaurant, where there are usually quite a few "look at me" cars and crowds of people. i think there was another show somewhere that night. well fine. i'm having a good time.

i was waiting for some people to show up; spent an hour taking pictures; put my gear in my car and grabbed something to eat, then walked back around the lot. was dark by then, and really should have gotten my camera back out. the lights had come on, reflections were different, some cars had lights turned on underneath that matched the paint themes...but i was tired and just didn't.

photo fin-ish

could they have put anything else on the back end of this car? it seems bizarre, but i love it. i've seen this car before, but he likes to back it into the parking spots, since the front of it is so awesome as well. fortunately, he (that's him on the right) parked it up against a sidewalk, on a beautiful blue-sky day. he tried to point out the "best shot," which i guess is higher up, and looking into the cockpit of this spaceship, showing the swivel seats, and the doors open. nice, but i think its probably been overdone that way.

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it was mentioned to me tonight, by a thoughtful car owner at one of the shows, that he enjoys reading my blog, even if i quite often label the cars by the wrong year, or even don't have the right make. i've said it before, so i'll say it again, use that little turquoise "post a comment" up above any and all pictures here, or even the send me an email on the sidebar, and for goodness sakes, let me know what they are when i'm wrong! in the time since this blog hatched, only two of youze guyz have bothered to correct me—ya, it was their own car—and also, one guy at a show just told me outright. i quickly revised the label and any reference to the car, so thanks very much.

i really love taking the pictures of your cars, but i don't know diddly about what they are specifically if they aren't obviously noted. my brothers would probably know. my dad would know, and i could ask him, if he'd stay awake long enough to peruse my blog and tell me what they are, but that's too much trouble and he's busy. i do my best to research them on the web, to find similar images of the car in question, but those are obviously not always right, and i'm doing my best to get more familiar. so i'll just keep shooting your little darlings, and not worry about how right or wrong i am naming them.

hot rod lincoln

my best guess is that this a 55–56 lincoln of some kind. just not finding one with exactly the same bumper set up. guess i should've asked the owner — i think he was the guy who asked me "what is it you've been doing all these weeks here?" my answer was, "having fun," but maybe i should have been a smartass and stated the obvious answer, "taking pictures." nah, he was curious enough to ask, so i didn't feel the need. anyway, i handed the guy my card, so i hope he sees his car, if it is indeed his.

nice pinstripe job, and interesting paint. didn't quite overhear the whole story, so i'm not sure if he was saying he painted the car himself in his garage, or he took it somewhere. its kind of a matte finish, which is a little unusual when its not primer, but then this car was a bit unusual, and i don't have another one like it in my files.

i also think i've seen that guy in the doorway...i think he owns this hot rod, and is also currently selling an old cadillac.

night vision

this beauty was just sitting there by itself, mostly being ignored by everyone at bob's last week. maybe it had just got there and no one noticed, or maybe everyone was caught up with all the cars coming into the main lot. i don't know. i only know that for night shots with long exposures, no one walking into my shot is a good thing. it isn't perfect – at full resolution you'd see the dust spots and blown out highlights – but i like it anyway. pretty much captures what i saw, the reflections, the traffic speeding by, the colors...cool.

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on another note, i've been working some 12+ hour days, which leave me very little time/energy to post, though i really am missing it. probably will do a few this week as well, so apologies for being negligent here...i'm having posting withdrawals. i've purposely left earlier on a couple of days to hit a couple of shows, to get my butt out of the chair at work...was at ruby's the other day with prints for some people that actually paid for the them beforehand, but hey, there was another show somewhere, and i was 0 for 4 on delivery. makes it difficult when i don't have a contact number, or they don't have a computer, or they send an email, but my response bounces back for whatever reason, to figure out what images they will want or when they will be there to pick them up. well, i think one of them was sick maybe...guess i'll just carry stuff around with me until i run into them again.

i did get to show some people a very nice, big print of the dodge – i went ahead and ran one in full color (because that's the way i like them and they really do look awesome on the paper i get them printed on), though they will probably want it with the background all grayed out, so i'll have to order another for them. thinking about someday soon having a show at a local gallery, and figure i'll start printing out some of my favs as i can afford it. i have so many to choose from, but that's not a bad thing, now is it?

coming at you

well, i'm spent. full weekend spent trying to get that one image that the owners will want to have hanging on their wall for years to come. should have taken more shots. more different angles...just more to choose from for me. live and learn.

to the three owners who wanted pictures of their cars, i've had fun working on these, but really hope that you'll love them when they're printed. please email me which picture(s) you want, (note which one is yours, of course!). if you let me know by tomorrow, i can get them back to you in time for friday's ruby's show. otherwise, i'll bring a small proof for you to see, then worry about a better print later.

for the guy that wanted his larger, i can make it up to 20 to 24 inches on the long edge, and it should still look quite good. let me know if you had something smaller in mind.

i like this shot, so i've posted it big instead of a small shot on the previous posting of the car.

gonna be busy at work this week, but i think i've done my share of posting anyway. i'll attempt to hit a few shows after work, always on the look out for something different to shoot.

it's a chevy

ahh, the third car, second chevy for today...it was pretty nice, except for the hairline crack in the windshield, which you really can't see here unless you look for it. i didn't emphasize it.

so i've posted what i'd said i would, now i'll work on a another option for them to choose from. hopefully, that will be good enough. i'd have to reshoot on a different day, different location, different lighting for something better...send me an email to let me know.

chevy baby

so, this is the second of three cars from my captive weekend deadline. missing several car shows this morning, and hoping to get to at least one this evening by the time i'm done with these.

this picture is going to be a gift for someone. hope they like it, and i'll order a nice print.