intersection

i had intended to go to two car shows on the way home this evening. but its hotter than an armpit out there. wondering if it will start a shake and bake, california is so famous for. 

i have also spent half the day working, working, working, and packing. moving to a new office next friday. somehow it gets hot in an air conditioned office when you're throwing crap into boxes and piling them up. somehow in over five years, i've amassed more junk than anyone else in the department, it seems. gotta keep everything for legal, but they are all still making me feel guilty for snagging all the boxes.

so i'm sitting here, in front of a couple of fans, waiting for the sun to start setting, then maybe i'll go on over to ruby's. really shouldn't, until i make some room on my hard drive...getting pretty full.

this car was on the corner of the main intersection at the uptown show. well it is very nice. walked past it several times throughout the day because the hood was open, or there were too many people around it. patience, grasshoppa. finally found it with the hood down and people mostly out of the way. maybe the owner was getting ready to leave, or was off to see if he'd won a trophy or something.

kismet

so, my betatted friend, you found me at bob's today. and there you were with your car. the stars must be aligned.

i recognized that pin up girl on your arm right away, when you caught up to me to point your baby out. i liked this shot best. maybe should have waited for the sun to go down a bit more, but didn't want to take the chance of people and cars getting in the way.

maybe when it starts getting dark early, i'll shoot it again, and see how it looks under the overhead lights.

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so this weekend, what would you recommend: the pharaohs show in norwalk or the cruzn for roses in pasadena??? gonna be in hollywood anyway, could easily do pasadena, though i did that one last year. i've seen pharaohs cars before, and they're cool too...oh too many choices living here in socal.

glitterati

dear mr. car show guy (was your name victor?),

i take pictures for my own fun and post some here on this little blog. really, what fun is it, if no one sees what you shot? spread the joy or something.

no, i don't post nekked pictures, even pictures of the wannabe models (they get in the way of the car), or blather on in raptures on the wonders of alcoholic beverages or drugs, because i don't drink or do drugs and wouldn't have any idea about that—except by observation. and it doesn't look like those people are really having that much fun while they are doing it, and especially the next morning.

so, have no fears of being associated or mentioned on this here bloggy thing. or any injury to the reputation of your school. good on ya.

sincerely,
kathy@tweakedpixels.com

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these two, i think, are in the dukes car club. mr and mrs? i don't know. both have been glitter bombed on the roof. i shot the turquoise one before.

here is an orange one to complement it, at the show at la habra high school. both are wonderful to look at, and a pain to photograph. i need a ladder...

this one is “ok”

apparently, i'm hard to read. i mean emotionally. i don't get all cranked up one way or another, at least most of the time.

not long after i married my better half, i had the opportunity to travel to london with my brother. spent about a week there, riding the subway, and walking (well, i was mostly limping—i twisted my knee the first day there) and taking pictures.

i heard some time later, that my brother had to ask my better half if i had enjoyed the trip. apparently, even he couldn't tell. and then my better half had to tell him, “i have no idea. when i asked her to tell me all about the trip, she said, "it was ok", and gave no details." sorry, i'm not a gusher. i hope i've gotten a little better, but i'm sure i'll never fully detail what i saw.

my better half sometimes asks my opinion on things. he's learned the translations of what i said vs what i mean. so if i say something was “ok,” coming out the other end of his babblefish (go read hitchhiker's guide to the galaxy), it was probably fairly “bitchin’.”

green machine

went down the street to la habra high school's fundraiser car show on saturday. no idea what would be there, but didn't think i could deal with a bigger show on a hot day. ya, it was too hot, and not really any shade unless you chatted with owners under their pop-up tents.

there was maybe thirty to forty cars there for the show, anything from a porsche 911 to old chevys and seventies low riders. several car clubs had cars there.

one of the guys i'd met from the fleetliners came over and asked if i remembered him—met him down at a show in fullerton, and also in santa ana last christmas. told me how his daughter had found the picture i'd shot of his car on the net, and who was kinda pissed because she wasn't able to download it. oops. sorry about that.

there were several cars from the dukes club, including this wonderful truck. it stood out, for its color, for its size, for its perfection. me standing out there with my tripod, led to one of the guys coming over to ask if i was with a magazine or something. when i said nope, his response was along the lines of "darnit," only maybe a little more colorfully.

i have a few more pictures from this show that i'll put out there, but not as many as i would have liked, because, like i said it was hot. why don't you do more shows in the winter? it doesn't rain so much here, and clouds in pictures and reflected on paint are awesome anyway.

after i did a quick run through the aisles, and a stop at the food stand for a coke, i went over and sat in the shade. i packed up the cameras, knowing as soon as i did so, something nice would drive in. yes, while i sat there, another very nice black and white chevy truck drove in, but i was done with the show, and let it go.

some kind of wonderful

not sure what this is—chevy or merc—but it was one of the few nice cars at ruby's yesterday. incredible interior upholstery throughout, and very light use of pinstriping on the hood and over the lights.

i go away for a couple of weeks, and when i get back, there's not really much there. fewer cars than ever.

at least when i arrived, had just parked and popped my trunk, an old acquaintance ( his car ) was just walking back to the show from the carl's jr. said he'd missed me, had been reading my little blog. had been reading my better half's blog. mentioned a couple of pictures of me he'd seen there. apparently, he perceived that my better half might actually like me. a lot. hmmm. hmmmm. hmmmm. of all things to notice over on his blog...i hate pics of myself, but my better half seems to like them.

so there was only a couple of rows of cars there for the show. didn't take too many shots, still taking it easy, though i am allowed to return to normal activity. talked to a few people i've met before, as well as a few others, about cameras, about pictures, about cars—don't know much about the last one, but i do like taking pictures of them. it's nice to get back out.

color coordinated

the other day, while i was working late, my bettter half was fiddling with the two cameras i use. he said that one of them has more than double the rated shutter actuations and the other was maybe twenty thousand over. ya, i've got two photographic volvos. not sure what i'll do when they give up from overuse. he says not to worry, it's what they're for.

he was trying to program in some settings thinking it would make it easier for me to shoot with them. he's a tech geek that way, gets all excited about electronics and camera gear and computers, etcetera, etcetera, etcetera.

all i want, is to do what i do, with my basic understanding of how the camera works, and it doesn't bother me to turn the dials or widgets or whatever it is to make it work. when he tries to explain something new he's discovered or read about, i can only take so much before i have a mini implosion. i'm sorry, but i have to be open to learning that stuff, and i can only take so much. 

he knows that at some future point, i'll come back and ask again for him to explain how the flashes/off camera lights work again, but it will have to be when i'm ready and i ask.

anyway, my kid wanted me to shoot some pictures of himself with his girlfriend and his new puppy. depending on the time of day, i might need to fiddle with an off camera lighting setup of some sort. my better half said early morning or late evening is best for portraits, and started explaining using a one light setup, then if i needed another light...and i finally broke, and went aaaaaaahhhhhhhhrrrrrrr!!!! just wanted to keep it simple. dealing with a puppy, i was going to have to go with the flow, and his attention span and nap times. and i can never get the lights to work right half the time.

i ended up out there late in the afternoon. harsher shadows. i tried using one light, but didn't get it in close enough. they wanted the background. he was happy with the pictures. next time, i'll have to move in closer. then maybe the flash will be more useful.

here's one of the pictures from that day. i don't do portraits. i do cars. i don't have to pose them, or get them to smile or hold still. they make me happy.

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here's another car from the uptown show. was it random or purposely planned to park in front of a restaurant painted the same color? at least the blue truck breaks up the monotone of it all.

turns out it was the second show, that jae bueno, of low rider magazine fame, has been at while i was also in attendance. he's been a flickr contact for a while now. i still haven't knowingly run into him; more likely i was probably doing my tuned out, looking at the cars only thing. apparently my better half had spoken to him at a show a year or two ago. here's jae's version of the car, so i know he was there.

a big one

so my better half is always complaining about me posting the ittle bitty pictures, how you just can't appreciate them when they're that small. he says he has the benefit of being able to see them up on my big screen while i work on them, and how spectacular they look big.

i have a few points of view on this one. the car is terrific. i liked the other two images of it, from a lower point, showing the theatre marquee above. but this was a better look for the car. i like the pinstripes over the headlights. i like the pointy hubcaps and the swoop of the hood, the split front window. the car is basically a colorless, silvery gray, but the dash of color behind it, the sunrise sky dawning above it, breathes some life and color into its sleeping carcass.

so anyway, my point is, here is a big one for my better half. can't wait for mine.

little mermaid

i was just reviewing some of my older photos, looking for something i might have been keeping for a later point and forgot about. i think this one qualifies.

i posted the front end a couple of years ago, then forgot about it. it happens. i have a lot of pictures, as occasionally someone will comment on whether i have enough yet. well, no. i may be close to filling my hard drive up, but can you really ever have enough? i'm still learning and having fun with your cars and my camera.

this was from 2010, when the whittier uptown was still a decent show, overflowing in excellence of all types of cars, low riders included. while some of the lifestyles cars showed up this year, this one wasn't one of them. the few that were there had their hoods up, and had a crowd around them each time i walked by. in fact, i only shot one of them, and i'm not all that thrilled with it.

this one, i found early in the day, and far enough up the street from the main intersection, that there were few people in the way. though i did go back for more later in the day, and ya, more people.

the car is impressive. the paint finish is luminous on these candy cars, almost like you're staring into a pool of water, and you may fall in. interesting airbrushing and pinstriping on many of them, in interesting locations on the cars. liked the mermaid on the back end of this—wonder if its a portrait or just the typical fantasy girl guys wish they had.

powerful mach I?

still being kept from lifting anything more than what seems like a toothbrush. yes, my better half is very diligent about sticking with doctor's orders. i feel fine, and he says he wants to keep me that way.

so, in spite of ruby's show going on this evening, the most he would offer is to let me follow him around and watch him take pictures. i countered with, he could be my camera boy, and carry the tripod around, and set it up for me, and just let me focus and push the button. pfft. stalemate.

i've decided recovering from surgery is like going to a very loud concert, where your ears ring for days afterward. go to too many and you damage your hearing. then one day you wake up, you're all fine. so, i guess my ears are still ringing. but it was just one concert, i mean surgery, so i'll be ok, right?

but it's ok for me to work late. just slaving away in front of hot computer is ok. then i needed to eat dinner, so i went to disneyland. day before labor day weekend, and an hour and half before closing, not really that many people there. ate clam chowder overlooking the water in DCA, and left just as the color sprinkler show was starting.

then drove out of the parking structure just as fireworks were starting. why is it people in cars always act like they've never seen them, and randomly stop on the road to look up. hey, i'm driving here...move it.

hey ace, this one's for you. didn't quite catch the pearlized paint job, but i guess it's ok as is.