quick post...got things to do, places to go, people to see.
found this at the senior center in mission viejo, where the boy scouts were hosting a pancake breakfast. i think it might be the same car i'd shot before, but i'm not sure.
anyway, the owner looked like santa when he drove up and jumped out. white beard and hair, though not quite as jolly as he should be. maybe because the holidays are stressful.
so, did your mother ever insist that you write thank you notes when you receive something? ya, mine did.
and i almost always respond to an email quickly. someone took the time from their busy day to care enough to type out a few words, and should be answered back just the same.
well, i got an email not long ago. it was a very nice email, kind words on my photos and blog. i do remember reading it, but i was also sick at the time, and had put off answering at that moment. then life got busy again, and answering it went itching to the back of my mind – i still intended to write back.
so i found myself at the broiler, running into the owner of this car, whom i'd met a month earlier over at the deli show in paramount. here he was, asking if i'd gotten his email, the self-same email i'd neglected to answer in kind. fumbled with the excuse that perhaps it had gone to the junk mail.
no, i found it—a month back—but, yes, i do remember reading it.
i know i hadn't taken a shot of his car at the previous show. i know it was already late by the time i'd arrived and they were already giving out awards. i think, perhaps, that his car was up too close to the crowd for me to get a shot. i only took a few shots of cars on the fringes. then several people chose to chat about photography, and i lost the sunset and stopped taking pictures.
anyway, he was so very nice again at this show. happened to be parked in a convenient spot, with an empty space beside it, so i took this shot for him.
hope you like it, and i'm sorry i didn't answer your email promptly. shhhh. don't tell my mom.
pns 2.0: **sniff**sniff** smells like a midlife crisis here. something about these kind of cars just makes me think the guy is compensating for something. i can't help but laugh, but not in front of the guy. hope it gets him whatever it is he is looking for.
well, hey, it got me to take a picture of it. but i'm just in one of those moods, so i better bite my lip now.
oooh wait, reminds me of the model cars my bros used to put together. ah the smell of the testors model glue...ok, i'll stop.
so i stopped at bob's last month and saw this woodie sitting there. usually don't care about them, but i liked the paint detail on the spare cover. so i just took this one shot of the car just to catch it. the coconuts in the trees are little tiki heads.
the owner came over and asked what i was doing. i'm up fairly close to the car with the wide angle, and they always think i'm just doing a detail shot. nope, when i want the detail, i use my other camera with the macro lens, like i did for the air filter cover here. he opened the hood, said i had to see it.
not sure if he knew about my aversion to what's under the hood, but he insisted i check it out, and i admit, this one was pretty cool. clean engine compartment too.
must have looked up my blog; he found me at the halloween show at ruby's the following week. wanted me to take pics of his car, but i got there too late and for some reason he didn't have it at the show or had already taken it home.
guess i'll try to get to bob's again sometime. better chance to get nice sunset shots since the time changed. just gotta start carrying my cameras with me again, and stopping at shows after work.
this owner was one of only a couple that bothered to talk to me at the day of the dead show. while i told him that i'm not a professional photographer and he walked away pretty quickly, i threw a card into the window, so maybe he'll see it anyway. assuming he kept it, and that he was persistent enough to keep checking to see if i posted it.
i took several shots, and though the front shots are pretty good, right now, i'm liking this view of it. always like an interesting backend—pretty sure a lot of you guys can relate.
i saw this hot rod several times at the pep boys show before they put an end to it. it was always parked too close to other cars and often the owners were all sitting around in front of it, so i never really got a shot i liked of it. i did get an ok shot of the hood ornament once.
found it this time over at the buena park elks lodge. i think the show only started a few weeks ago. i'd never been there, so i pulled into the lot and parked near the entrance in an unmarked spot. there were the typical reserved spots at an elks lodge, like one for "knights" and such.
i got out of my car, opened the trunk and started getting my camera set up. loading batteries and cards, cleaning the lenses. finally pulled my bag and tripod out, closed the trunk and was ready to go.
then from across the lot, one of the grand poobahs asked, "are you an elk?" took all that i had not to come back with a "do i look like an elk?" type answer. i told him no, and then he advised that the parking lot was for elks only, i'd have to move to the street. would help if they'd put up a sign at the driveway. way to roll out the welcome mat, oh holy moly one. might as well have told me to piss off.
so, i heaved all my gear back into my trunk and moved the car. almost considered giving this show the finger, but figured i'd already wasted time and gas finding it, so i might as well take a quick turn around the lot. fortunately, i got there early enough, there was plenty of space right across the street. unfortunately, i got there early enough, there wasn't much to see. kinda disappointing. several cars that used to go to the garden grove main street show, a couple i see at cypress, and only a few i've never seen. one guy i spoke to did say they usually get about 60 or 70 cars. i've heard that before, and i'll believe it when i see it.
i didn't stay long, as i was heading to ruby's halloween show right after.
wtf is an elk anyway, and why would anyone want to be one? do they wear the big hats with horns like fred flinstone and barney rubble? secret handshakes? what's with the silly names for the exulted leaders? guess i'm not old enough to want to be part of that club anyway. i'll stop now before i get into trouble.
another from the halloween show. an old fav, this one. his parking spot really sucked. too many cars, too many people. there was a car parked in the aisle in front of this one, with very little room for people to pass by, or for me to set up my tripod. thank goodness for a wide angle lens.
it's late, and i just got home, so i don't really have a car ready to post. i'll put up this hoodie, well, because i like them. and i like these old beat up pontiac indians best. lots of character, with all the cracks in the amber plastic. or is it glass? i dunno.
they're just more interesting, especially if you can catch the light behind them just right. wishing that the sky had been cloudy or something. i guess i could go in and add some color or a gradient, but no. this is just fine as it is.
i went to the last show of the year at ruby's yesterday. halloween show. didn't dress up this year, which disappointed reine, who asked where the leopard suit was. thanks dude. lol. she's locked in a box, and probably won't be let back out for a long time.
anyway, as i suspected, it was very busy, very packed with cars. so many that there were cars parked up the aisles. bummer for one lady, who i guess worked in one of the nearby stores, and had parked earlier within the boundaries of the show. she couldn't get her car out because of an old ford parked in the aisle behind her. she had to wait for more than an hour to go home from work; actually, she was still waiting when i left, so i assume she was there until after the raffle and trophies too. she even had them paging for the owner to move it, but i guess they were in ruby's and didn't hear the announcement.
i had stopped at the buena park elks club show right after work, which was disappointing, but that's a story for another post. so by the time i got to this show, the sun was already dropping. that makes for longer exposures. and there were so many people milling about.
i've been avoiding staying late at shows this year, just because i'm tired, but also because of the longer exposures. not saying the pictures can't turn out awesome, cause they do, but because people will walk right into the frame and just stand there. because i don't look like i'm doing anything while the camera does its thing.
well, anyway, this car was pristine. and that kind of car draws the people like a magnet. i'd tried taking some shots earlier, with the sun setting, and they're ok shots of the car, but the people are blurs walking around the car.
i came back to this one before i left, as it was getting closer to the time of the costume parade, and more people were herding toward the front of the show. still not perfect. i took a few points of view. he did close the hood, i have it in another shot, but it's pretty plain from the front view. right now, i kind of like this one. ask me again later, and i'll probably choose one of the other ones.
i do love the fins on these. that's why i have one on the front of my card.
another day, another back end. wasn't feeling well this evening, so i skipped going to the broiler. just been flipping through old shots, deciding on stuff i will work on when the rain comes or when i can't decide which one i like. at least it will have been narrowed down a little. and it's just a collection of what i liked today, which doesn't mean i'll like it on a day that i don't know which one to work on.
this one was from a cars and coffee type show over by LAX early last january. had to drop my better half off for a business trip, so hey, find a car show as long as i'm up this early. it was parked next this woodie.
favorite combo: fins and clouds. kinda wish that woodie wasn't there.