forgotten

i was going to upload a different picture, and then noticed this one. wonder what i was doing the day i intended to post it, then completely forgot about it. huh.

whatever. this one was at the viejitos show in fullerton. lot wasn't too crowded that day. my better half chatted up the club and took a group picture, that he is a couple months behind in posting for them <hint hint d>. he said that the restaurant was thinking of cancelling their shows due to lack of participation. that would be a shame now, wouldn't it?

singin' the blues

getting late, and i still have stuff to do before zeebertime.

so i just want to add another to the teenie peenie collection. not because of the car—it's beautiful; but because the owner is so special he has to park just so, and in a handicapped spot. given, it's a car show, and maybe parking rules don't apply, but do you really need to take up this much space? the other owners know better than to bash into your car—they don't want you to bump into theirs either. you should be more worried about the crowds of people peeking in your windows, with their kids and keys and purses so daringly near your paint job.

that's hot

this bucket was from early in the year out in norco. back when i used to have to drive out to riverside pretty regularly. lots of pictures, and i've been reviewing files to try and free up space on my drive, and found this one. figured it was time for something besides a chevy. i think that's the owner in the picture. didn't say anything, just sat there while i did my shots. seemed pretty happy with himself.

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didn't go to any shows at all today. my better half treated me to the brian setzer orchestra show last night at the hollywood bowl. how long have i lived in california, and i've never been there? didn't realize so many people could be jammed onto a hillside.

was a great show, with the ninety-six piece symphony orchestra behind brian. the light show and fireworks were pretty cool. some of the acoustics were sketchy, and the music seemed to be playing down in a hole. one of the few concerts i've attended that didn't take three days for my ears to stop ringing, but still, glad to have been there.

i guess one of the big features of the bowl is that you can bring your picnic basket and booze and lounge about the area and in your seats before and during the show. all that is well and good, but not being drinkers, we had to smell all of our fellow show goers' open glasses of vino throughout the show. so nauseating. never could understand how people could drink that piss. it's nasty. i've tasted it, and i suppose i just never had those friends that i had to pretend to enjoy the taste of alcohol in front of growing up. actually, mostly didn't have friends, but did get to observe others making asses of themselves.

anyway, my better half put us up in a hotel nearby, so we didn't have to get stuck in the log jam of drunk winos after the show. thanks, d, you know how i hate sitting in traffic.

well, we enjoyed the show, the hotel, the air conditioning, and stuff. we had decided not to do the show in pasadena and hadn't brought the cameras on purpose, but had left others as an option. we slept in, then stopped over at the hilton by universal studios and ate the buffet for brunch. got too hot outside to bother with norwalk, and then got too sleepy to go to lakewood in the evening. and somehow, i'm ok with it. pretty awesome weekend, considering.

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.