i don't like coffee

can't stand the smell of it. can't imagine how foul that inky molten sludge must taste as it scorches down your throat. flavored varieties just add an overtone to the stench below.

no thanks. i prefer my caffeine cold. gimme a coke anytime. though, if you think about it, is probably just as bad for you. rusts nails and stuff. wonder if it would remove tarnish off of silverware?

anyway, besides the point. these cadillac guys are almost always here at bob's. they play musical chairs with the parking spots. this one got lucky tonight, out from under the roof of the drive-up, and below the neon. and just a hint of the last of the sunset. and the white paint really reflects all of that color back.

haven't been there in over a month. now the time has changed, and it gets dark early. in spite of the longer drive from the new office, i still got there about five-thirty. apparently, still too early for much to be there, but i just didn't feel like waiting. going to "bed" "early," if you can call nine-thirty early.

i'd trade my honda

busy day, busy week. another quick post. still running low on computer space.

this is more like it. nice oldie. i'd totally trade him for my stupid honda.

racy lacy

got things to do this evening, so quick post.

saw this tangiers club car "moded" at the showlows show at st hilary's last month. one of the few cars i shot that day. as always, couldn't get all the detail of the paint job, particularly on the roof. maybe i'll get a ladder for xmas, if i'm a good girl. what fun is that? and then i'd have to get a little red wagon to pull the thing along, or persuade a big guy to carry it for me... >:)

sun kissed

i am still wrestling with space issues on my hard drive. thinking i'll burn off  stuff back to earlier than 2009, stuff i hardly ever look at. just makes sense.

meanwhile, i was bad and attempted to hit up three car shows today. apparently a mistake, as it being veteran's day, they were mostly canceled. drove out to torrance. cadillac show at the dealership there. they had them parked in the service tunnel, and didn't seem to be much parking nearby, so i didn't stop. i know, i know. probably were more hiding on the inside, but if i don't go looking for other pics online, i won't miss them.

then tried another show that should have also been out there, but nothin was there at all. i did pass a park that seemed to have an informal muscle car show going on, but you know those don't really get me going much, so i drove on by it. fortunately, my backup planned worked out...my little bro lives nearby, so i hung out over there for a few hours.

on the way home, i took a quick swoop by the fuddrucker's in lakewood. must have been cancelled for the day, but there were still a couple of diehards sitting there polishing their cars. didn't stop there either.

so nothing for today, but long overdue family time. so win anyway.

i've been pondering which version of a temptations truck i should post. still haven't decided, so i'll put up this lovely viejitos chevy. probably should have waited until the sun had gone down a bit more, but still nice.

was that your club i saw cruising down whittier blvd today?

watch yer back

mostly cars are viewed from the front. you can tell by the way they get parked, that owners think that's the thing to see; that's where the money is...in the engine. and i would agree for the most part, that the front is the ticket. depending on where the sun is in the sky, i sometimes curse the angled spaces, jacking up the good side with my awesome shadow, forcing me to shoot from the other side, missing the turn of the wheel. same issue shooting a motorcycle. hate when they are parked wrong for the lighting conditions.

but the group of cars with distinctive backsides, tail lights, fins, are all equally in my crosshairs. not quite like bubba in the prison shower, but i do like to get down low, catch a shot of where the sun don't shine—mostly because you guys back them into the shrubbery (a shrubbery!). ya, thanks for that. i'll back up into the bushes too, and chance the occasional spider or sharp sticks (pointed sticks!). ahh, i have to go pull up a monty python flick now...

gold member

ok, i'll throw this one up, if only to make fun of it, and because its the only picture i had ready to post.

ya, its a custom hot rod by hinkle's hot rods. but shit, too much blingy goldness. i was looking for the crystal chandelier on the inside. i guess its just too much for my taste.

i did like the pinstriping on the center of the wheel. missing the usual nerf balls in the pipes, but there still seems to be some type of foam filler there anyway. 

i believe i've reached the point that i have to backup and remove old stuff from my hard drive...only ninety-two gb of space left. ya, sounds like a lot, but i could fill it easily by going to a few shows and posting up a dozen or two pictures.

i'll probably do that this weekend. maybe finally get around to upgrading my applications too. or, maybe i'll do the usual, and find any excuse to go out to a show...

brown pride

proud ye may be, but damn, i just love impalas. this is a sixty. nice, but i like the fins on a fifty-nine better, but this car is still pretty fine.

just another awesome car that packed the viejito's halloween show. the dj was playing better music this time, there was also a fairly decent live rapper guy who performed several songs. kids dressed in costumes. lots of cars.

raynbow was right...i used to show up at the beginning of the show, and was starting to lose interest, as there wasn't much there. he said i should come back later, when people are out after church, there'll be more to see. i've done that the last couple of times, and he is absolutely right. way more cars, way happier me.

gently into that good day

saturday was my better half's birthday. plan was to go to disneyland and ride stuff, and hang out until the evening to watch one of the bands that rarely plays there anymore.

all week, i'd been telling him about this car show someone told me about, hosted by the latin gents, before i realized it was happening the same day. so i had started tossing out other options for his birthday. mentioned that this show was not too far from dland, if he could spare about an hour.

so i kinda hijacked his birthday, at least for a couple of hours. he said he mostly just wanted to hang out with me, and if i was going to be hanging out at a car show, then that's where he was going to be. especially since i was driving. sweet thing. he was bringing his camera to dland anyway, so he made the best of it, and took some shots too.

i had been told that there had been over a hundred cars there the previous month, and that they thought i'd really have fun there. all they had to mention was that it was associated with the latin gents, and i already knew that was exactly the type of cars that i would be looking for. i wasn't disappointed. though we did arrive at about the slated start time of two in the afternoon, there were already quite a number of cars there, with more arriving all the time.

i saw many guys i've met previously, and they came over to say hello, glad i could make it. quite nice of them, actually. especially some that i hadn't seen in a long time.

yes, to the dude with the civic, i did shoot a couple of your car. haven't decided if i'll post the better one here or not. to the guy with the yellow truck, the shot i took last year is here; i haven't decided if i like the shots from this show or the viejitos show last week better...keep checking...its a bitchin' truck, and i'll definitely post something soon.

yadda yadda. getting late, and there are plenty of other cars i can continue to blather on about. good show. hope to get there again in coming months.

liked this particular shot for a couple of reasons: first, i liked the car, of course. second, you need to know that the other two cars in this shot originally had their hoods up. that third one back has the two-sided type hood that opens.

well, i was setting up to shoot the green car in the front, and a guy casually walks over and closes the hood on the one next to it. i figure, well, he's going to leave before i can get to it, and mentally write that one off, and wait to take the picture until he's out of the frame.

but then he also goes to the split-hooded car, and carefully closes the hood on both sides, and walks away. that just makes me start to laugh on the inside. either he knows, or someone told him about my likelihood of shooting their cars when the hood is up is about zero. either that, or he was just being very considerate of me getting a better shot. makes me giggle to think its the former, so i'll just stick with that.

i'll throw in this shot, just because. its their show. they were representing. here was a whole row of them on the outside of the lot, though there were plenty more member's cars elsewhere. thought i'd give it a try to see what my camera could do with it. had to do three shot panorama to get this. kinda funky with a wide-angle lens, but it gives you the idea of what i saw.

why hide it?

when i go to that rare, larger show, i try to remember to investigate the side streets. if there's time. if it's not too hot.

sure a lot of the best cars, and those who think they have the best cars, are out on the main drag [hey gary from riverside], but its more crowded there as well. people wanting to stand thisclose to your car for a picture of themselves and their fantasy cars, or just because they need something to post on whatever social media site. or little kids, that are barely restrained from putting their sticky fingers on the paint, or trying to sit in the seat.

and there's the pissing contest of whose hood and/or engine is bigger/louder/shinier/more original than the next guy's, and oh, how many can get'em up. a lot of the old guys need a little help. i mean they use a bar or stick to hold the hood open.

so i'll wander over to where there are not so many people, or where there seems to be some shade. i am usually amazed at the jewels people hide off in the corners, and off the center of attention of the main street.

for all i know, they've been out all day, and they, too are trying to just take a break and cool off. otherwise, i just don't understand the why of being a wallflower? or maybe i do understand, only way too well...

meeting with one of the bobs

i often sit near this boy when i'm either getting my gear out, or packing it up at the big boy in downey. has to be one of my favorite places to be on a wednesday night, all year round. one of the first shows i went to, when i got started doing this photography thing again. i really should get out and shoot more often. and this guy gives me something to look forward to in the middle of the week. well, apart from the other guy, my better half, that is.

this one is a lot less scary than the burger boy on the other side of the lot, near the other entrance.