duke of earl

i did a lot of shooting this weekend. had lunch with my better half, who had to work all weekend, then decided i'd finally go check out this show in riverside. yep, riverside. no reason to go out there anymore, since my kid graduated, but there are a few shows that i did enjoy, that i will definitely make the drive for again.

as i said, i'd never had time to hit this one, which is in the evening, once a quarter the guy said. out at riverside airport, adjacent to a hanger. they actually advertise it as a sock hop, and folks showed up in 50s costumes, and the dj only played songs from the 40s and 50s. there were several marine and army planes around, and for a hundred bucks and three hundred bucks, you could get a forty minute or more ride in a couple of the planes. damn things would fly by real low and twist in turn right near the crowd. thanks buddy. don't make a mistake.

anyway, there were about three dozen cars, at least before i left. a lot of chevys got passed by because the hoods were up. there was only one car i'd seen before, so that was nice. i may not remember the owner, but i do remember the cars. actually, i did remember this one owner only because he made some joke at a show a year before. maybe i'll post his car sometime.

hey gary from riverside (not the other one i do not like out here) why weren't you there with your chevy? i bet you would have closed your hood like last time.

nuff boring story. i gots to get some sleep. long day today.

i liked this merc that drove in. pretty simple. drove in, parked, and dropped down. and didn't open his hood. also, got the plane there in the shot, just before it took off on a another charity ride. now, if it only had a hood ornament, it would be perfect.

look at that, look at that cadillac

so when i was getting my degree in graphic design, i took a few photography classes. both photography and design classes required that you put your work up on the wall so everyone could pick it apart. the theory was that if you knew what wasn't working, you'd know how to do better next time.

you also learned pretty quickly how to defend your work, why you chose to put it up. started to put only what you considered your best, what you were willing to stand by, irrelevant of other's opinions. so there's the reason i never do a photo dump. don't waste space with every little fart in the wind.

i post these few cars up here because they please my eye. they're a record of where i've been, memories of light on that day. i hope they delight you as much as they do for me.

so i've spent the last few times out chasing sunsets. longer exposures make it harder to get shots without some blur of a person walking into the frame. but still having fun, so i'll keep shooting, at least for now.

opposite day

is this thing a ford of some sort? driver sits on the passenger side. so did he customize it or import it? interesting in it's simplicity and its hydraulics. inky blackness really reflects the sky overhead; just wish it was more natural light than of the fluorescent variety for illumination.

stumbled upon

after melting over at the shakedown show, we were hungry. i suggested pizza, and remembered that there was a round table a couple of freeway exits up. coincidently, in the same plaza as the fuddrucker's show in lakewood. and hey, the show there was just getting started.

just kidding. i knew it was there. just dragged my better half over there to have a peek. still wasn't that busy yet, but this one did catch our eye as we drove by. originally sitting there with nothing next to it, but by the time we parked and set up, a clown car drove up and parked next to it...not the mg, that one was sweet...on the other side. a whole parking lot, and he has to park there. so i squeezed in and took this shot.

don't think i've got one of these before, and the blue and white paint job made it more striking. happy accident.

man, i'm baked

not what you thought—pull your head out. i mean, it was really, really hot yesterday at this fundraiser. why, oh why do a show on a sunday on a day over 100 degrees, on a blacktop, er, in this case, pavement?? really limits the crowd and any pictures to be taken.

have to be selective, because i already know my interest is going to decrease relative to the temperature. though there was some shady spots to retreat to, eventually, i'm not gonna keep going.

judging by other people's pictures on the net, jae bueno was there, as was howard gribble. sorry for not recognizing you guys and saying hi there. though now, after the fact, i have some guesses which faces in the crowd you might be. you got some great shots, way more than i took.

there were only a few old cars which i like there, and maybe twice as many of the low rider jumpers. still too many of both types with hoods open or just angled weird, so i skipped a lot of them. and a few that were just too flashy, as to make me giggle. but that's just me...whatever floats your boat.

both me and my better half zeroed in on this one right away. he took a bunch of shots first, while i took a walk around the rest of the cars. got back to this one last, and this is the only shot i took. i was soaked with a coating of slimy sun block and sweat, and just felt gross by then. aparently, the sun block wasn't cutting it so well, and my better half said i was starting to "get some color." just temporary, as today, nothin. never was worth my time to try and get a tan, thanks to my parents; oh but you should see my son...who used to tell me he was "dark white" when he was three years old.

move, please

been seeing a new car club over at the broiler the last few times. they have a few nice cars that i'd like to shoot. but the thing is, usually, one of their cars parks in front of their other cars, which are parked in the spaces and then the group of big guys (literally) stands around in front of the cars, or near the doors, of the ones i'd like to shoot, and glare at everyone. my better half says that's my thing, glaring at everyone, and they stay away. i suppose i could ask them to move, but usually i just wait people out if they don't clue in on the girl with the camera, or else wait until some other opportunity.

well, last wednesday, they were doing the usual, and i passed by several times. finally, when i was done for the evening, and heading over to the wall to pack my gear, i noticed that the pod had shifted slightly to the left of this car. so i squeezed in between the pod and the car parked in front of them and got this shot. not the best, but i got it.

glowing

why is it they say that women don't sweat...they glow? bullshit. i was definitely sweating the other night at ruby's. not that it was that hot, but more that it felt humid. probably should have just worn shorts and a tank top, and expose more skin. levis just don't "breathe" even if they are made of cotton.

i purposely waited until later in the evening to hit this show, hoping it would cool off enough to persuade me away from the fans at home. and so i could start taking some sunset shots, with summer officially coming to an end, and the sun going bye bye earlier and earlier.

there were many cars i walked by because of their location, or owners parked in chairs in front of them. running out of room on my hard drive makes me more picky i guess.

i came back to this one before i left, and probably should have just kept shooting while the sun went south. the hood was so reflective, and the colors changing in the sky just glowed off of it. this shot isn't picking up the rose colors that i saw later.

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.