sweet dreams

so i went to the broiler the other night. end of january. temps in the upper 70s. weirdest weather i can remember.

anyway, lots of cars were already in the lot by the time i arrived. these pretty little things were all spit shined for an official photo shoot for a magazine i can't remember the name of, but i'm sure you'd all recognize it. quite the production, with a large team of people setting up fancy lighting and lots of cameras.

got this one fairly early on, though i was intercepted when i first arrived by someone interested in pictures of their own car. he's a regular. already had posted his car, and tried to show it to him on my phone, but the signal wasn't that great. had to go fetch my ipad out of the car, and finally found it to show to him. dude, if you're reading this, i sent you an email. waiting for a reply...but i digress...

story i heard from the owner of this lovely nomad was that it was the third time his car had been featured as a work in progress, only this time, the car had just been completed. hot spanking new paint job. perhaps it was really featuring the paint shop, as three of these cars were completely awesome and similarly pinstriped and metal flaked up in lollypop colors.

anyway, i got my shots in between their set ups and all the people milling around. only i didn't use a flash or their lights. i'll look for the magazine, but i'm perfectly happy with my pictures, even if they aren't perfect.

ain't nuthin' like the real thing

hi. my name's kathy. i'm a coke addict...no, not that kind. i drink too much coca-cola®. might as well hook me up to an iv full of it. really, what's the difference that i like my caffeine cold, rather than that foul smelling coffee stuff? nothing as good as perfectly mixed combination of carbination and sugary syrup on ice. new year, and yet again telling myself i'm going to cut back on the stuff. batting –.007 on that resolution. i'm sure i'll stop soon. ya right.

this red and white lovely was at fudd's a couple of weeks ago now. apparently we're simpatico...the license plate frame is for coca-cola. and the weather is just starting to get interesting, as far as the cloud formations go, so these down low shots will become more and more my favs. and the tail fins are always a fav...so...deal with it.

fussy britches

t buckets are interesting beasts. they're old, but you'd never know it, they way they're polished up and perfect. all angles and chrome and wire rims. much too fastidious or should i say meticulous? not a bad thing, but i think you'd have to be a little ocd to keep this type of ride this clean and spotless. not for me, but thanks for letting me park my tripod in front of them.

heavenly shades of night are falling

i've shot this car a couple of times now, on a couple of occasions. not particularly one of my favs, but it is clean, and it is shiny. wasn't going to bother posting it, until my better half mentioned something the owner said to him. well, he didn't say it to me, so i won't retell it here (yet).

he just so happened to have parked his baby here, in one of my favorite spots, with a conglomeration of lighting. apparently, there was too much of a fluorescent light hitting it, and it effed with the blue of the paint. colorful, and the white fluorescent still manages to wash out the island too.

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on another topic, my better half and i stopped by the irvine farmer's market car show last sunday at the irvine "great" park. i think it was maybe the second week. weather wasn't too bad, just a bit chilly. hadn't rained yet. hauled all our stuff out of the trunk, and with tripod in hand, headed over toward the "car show lot."

was maybe a total of 5 cars that i would consider trying to be a show. only one maybe worthy of shooting, but the doors were open, and there were kids hanging around it and welcome to sit in it. some sort of 1920s or 30s car, kinda chitty chitty bang bang. skipped it.

then the same silly pt cruiser i see often, with fake bullet hole decals and gangster dolls in the back, instead of sitting in the driver's seat. never shoot it.

couple of '60s or 70s beaters and that was it.

so the show was a bust. didn't even take a token shot, which i usually try to do. so we walked quickly around the market place. noisy vendors, shouting as you pass by. food vendors were particulary obnoxious, and their wares were more pricey than other farmer's markets we've been to. so pfft.

i worked on a proposal back in the day for building the "great" park. our proposal lost, but the winner had so much overreaching promise, and it's so disappointing that it's been hung up in red tape and politics for this long. poor use of the money they talked us out of in taxes. would have been better for them to have kept the marine base open (thanks clinton), at least the air shows and men in uniform were pleasing to the eye.

make up your mind

saw this impala back in november on my way back up the street from the dia de los muertos show in whittier. perfectly nice low rider, but couldn't they have just put the damn top up or down? it just looks half ass like this, but maybe they like it that way? am i to admire the plush interior? and why the mirrors? what's up under the wheel well that i need to see? the hydraulics? perhaps i just don't understand low riders, and i should just stick to the oldies.

where the sun does shine

i've been going through last year's pictures. getting ready to send the next batch of files to the copyright office. finding some cars that should probably get some love.

this isn't the greatest shot, but i do like the back end. yup, me squeezing in between parked cars to get this shot. thankful for the wide angle lens.

caddies & coffee

there always seems to be groups of cadillacs here at bob's. a couple of new ones have started coming around, though i'm pretty sure i've seen them somewhere before. lovely pointy fins and nice tail lights, even with their imperfections. and if one happens to park here, in one of my favorite parking spaces, i can't help but take a shot.

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anyone going to the new weekly show over at the great park farmer's market in irvine on sunday? i've never even bothered to go there, but i think the show just started up last week. wondering what i might find there.

of course, after a week of perfect summer weather in january, there's a 20% chance of rain. well, it did get cloudy on wednesday...i'm starting to think my better half is causing the exceptions to the perfect weather – he went with me to the broiler on wednesday, and says he'll go with me on sunday. kinda sucks, because i hardly ever get him to a show anymore, and the weather keeps the cars away. 

i think a former co-worker has a stand in the market, so i guess i can at least say hi.

le rouge et le noir

i've been to a few shows the past couple of weeks. feels good to get out and shoot. met some new people, chatted with people i've met the past couple of years. so much for forgetting old acquaintances, right? silly idea anyway.

i hadn't been to fuddruckers in a while. they finally finished up with all the construction in the parking lot, so hopefully the show will pick up again.

this was a striking color combination on this old car. not quite sure what year it is, but i'm sure somebody can tell me.

i cropped this image down to 8x10 proportions, but thinking maybe i should have left it as it was...more of the sky would have been better, since it really was pretty as the sun was setting.

i think i need to recalibrate this monitor yet again...it's looking a little yellow to me...how's it for you?

minty fresh

one more from the broiler around xmas time, with the lights still up.

i've seen this one several times, but i don't think i've ever posted it. i like the night time shots—they pick up light from all the different angles: overhead, from the restaurant, the neon signs, headlights of cars coming into the lot or backing out—seems to perk up the colors and enhances reflections. helps make a plain vanilla car more interesting.

gotta get out and shoot some fresh images, though i have plenty from the last couple of years to keep me busy for a long time, when the rain comes.

silver bullet

quick post. gotta get going. not much to say about this car. don't know why people don't like hudsons. they're like some poor bastard of a chevy and some other model i can't quite remember. chrome on silver and a cloudy day always make me happy too.

outta here. ttfn.