what's up?

betty boop

hard to pass this plymouth by, it being so red and all. i stopped. i saw. i took a picture. well, actually a few.

i liked this one best. shows the sky, the car, the bridge, the mural...what the show is all about...and the location. or maybe just because it makes me laugh because the guy in the painting looks like he's about to write all over the car. furiously.

evening light

spent the weekend in riverside. three day car show. this is from early friday evening, when there were still not so many cars out.

just liked the way the neon played on the car. and gotta love an impala. this one was pretty nice.

later in the dark, the crowd surrounded two cars that blew fire out their pipes. they stood awfully close to two cars that blew fire out their pipes. sometimes people are stupid. nothing happened, other than a lot of noise from the engines, but it would have been interesting if they all had hot dogs on sticks to cook, i think. but that's just me.

 

feast for the eye

yes, i know it isn't perfect. but it is fun. aside from the obvious signs of aging, most people wouldn't give this one a second look.

rust, chipped, distressed paint may distract from the fun, but there's more to meet the eye. this is a great truck. really. it's in the details:


hot and palmy

 

so i had this pic ready last night, ready to upload, and then the internet wasn't working in the house. it was late, i was tired, the usual b.s. saved it to my phone and went to bed.

not staying at my house today, and away from my puter, this is the best i can manage. the app can't quite post it the way i usually do, and flickr isn't playing nice either. hate the new flickr app. hate it everytime they feel the need to revamp it. anyway, i' m blathering and i'll fix this when i get back.
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quick stop at the von fink show in foothill ranch the other day. pleased to find more cars there than last time i was there, last summer. some cars i like, but many with the hood up. one woman excitedly pointed to a very nice chevy nomad, saying it had just been finished [painted?]. hood was up, a crowd stood rigidly in the way, so i admired, but didn't shoot. sorry.

good turnout of muscle cars, if you're into that, but i'm not, so meh. hoods up anyway.

saw several familiar faces, even if they didn't see me.

this was actually the last shot i took before leaving. shot the front and side when i got there, but there were cars parked behind it at the time. happened to take one more look before heading to the car and saw this. empty space behind the cars. gotta love that big behind, right?
and the every detail of urban development and planning, which includes this "natural" row of palm trees, so cliche, which just so embody the facade that is so cal - hip and happening. right.

time is fleeting

i went out this morning with about four hours to hit car shows before i needed to be home. i had for sure three on my list to hit up, possibly five. 

started out in tustin at enderle. haven't been there in a long time because i don't drive north past it much any more on sunday mornings. didn't get there until a little after ten. same old same old: after the prizes are awarded, people bug out. must have just missed it, and most people were gone or in the process of leaving. i got a couple of shots before leaving.

from there, headed over to original mike's. also haven't been there for a while. cadillac kings were there in force, and all of their buddies it seemed. two aisles of caddies. should have made me happy, but i just wasn't looking for cadillacs today. 

i liked the paint job on this one. the sky was wonderfully cloudy, perfect for pictures. can kind of see them reflected here too. 

i didn't stay long at this one. kind of not what i was looking for either. 

figured everyone was at the floral park home and garden show. i kinda didn't want to deal with the crowd, so drove over to where the viejitos usually have their show last sundays of the month. nope. no show. what gives? well, maybe next month.

there was a ford show over by knott's berry farm, which was only a few minutes from where i parked momentarily to decide what to do. at that point, i just didn't want to zig back down to another show in westminster or zag up to lakewood, so i headed home. had that pesky work stuff to do anyway, which was probably what was back of mind gnawing away at my fun anyway.

i did get this one, which is really what i was in the mood for, so at least i satisfied one craving:

magic carpet ride

glad the week is over, but the work isn't done. will probably end up working in between bouts of relaxing, which should cancel each other out. that's the theory anyway. 

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computer is misbehaving too. hoping you can see the pictures and not just boxes with red "X"s.

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wondering the why of the carpet, except that it matches the color palette of the car, and defines the space and environment boundaries. no other purpose really. i see mirrors on the ground often, but there's a reason for them, usually involving a lot of chrome and hydraulics under the car.

i like the simple pinstriping on most of the car, but the big shape on the back wheel probably would look better on the trunk, not necessarily so big, and leave this part clean...if it were my car, as a matter of speaking. but it ain't, so don't listen to me.

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brain is mush. what else can i say about chicano park? let's play bitch and moan / sunshine up your...

  • not as many cars as last year / loved the cars that were there
  • whose *brilliant* idea was it to move the show to easter weekend? / everyone will be in town to enjoy a day of festivity on a holiday weekend
  • "we have a permit for an event" / it's great they want to maintain the integrity of the show rules 
  • some people are rude / people were enjoying themselves
  • lemme just sneak in front of you to get the same shot you're taking / photography is a great hobby
  • it was overcast :(  /  it was overcast! :)
  • being facetious / being facetious

 

chicano park

busy weekend, but fun. tired now, so i'll be brief.

even better, my better half got to go with me. his sister got out of the hospital, and she was well enough to take care of their mom.

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we got to the park around five-thirty in the morning. there were already cars lined up in staging to go into the park. so we decided to go over by the stage thing and unpack our cameras on the steps. within a minute of unzipping the camera bags, we were approached by an older woman who wanted to know who we were with, what were we doing...etc. we simply said we were just unpacking our cameras to take some pictures. she said the whole park is reserved for an event, they were setting up and that we had to leave. we replied that we were here for said event, and repeated we were just unpacking. she persisted, so whatever, we'll move somewhere else and unpack and do exactly what we planned anyway...to go back over to where they were staging the cars.

honestly, there wasn't anything or anyone there on that piece of the park, and we weren't intending to get in the way even if there had been. going to bite my tongue here, because i like the show, and want to go back again next year, but get a grip. even the cop in the car in a neaby parking lot wasn't going to bother us. hope she had a nice day. 

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took so many pictures. the weather turned out to be perfect, overcast with bouts of sunshine. never really needed a jacket, even so early in the morning. i liked this picture because it seemed to represent the show and location well.

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and as we left the show for the day, i was waiting to cross the street, when my better half started laughing. i turned around and he pointed at this painting. and OMG, it was the lady who had told us to leave in the first place. took some searching, but i've figured out who she is, and why she had the authority to ask us to leave. we still found it funny that we started the day with her and here she was again, on our way out...

happy easta

quick post then to bed. 

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saw this delivery truck at the majestics easter show too. owners seemed very pleasant, but didn't move out of the way fast enough, though they offered to move later. nope, sit there if you want; i'll shoot around you. actually, if you really want to be in a picture with your car, you can just ask. throw down your signs, look tuff, show off your tats. could be fun once in a while.

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happy easter, if i don't see you in chicano park. off to sleep...my eyes feel like they're gonna fall out. what a week it has been. what a month. more to come. so dang busy at work, this weekend couldn't get here soon enough. san diego, here i come!

loyalists

well, i made it to the majestics easter show over in lakewood. just didn't get moving early enough to justify paying to get in at pomona.

while i knew this show was going to pull in a lot of the low rider, newer cars i'm not that interested in, i also knew they would get some nice oldies in too. i did shoot a few of the more notable low riders, and maybe i'll post them sometime, just when i feel like something different. all i can say is they put a lot of money into those cars for the customized paint, hydraulics, chrome and engraving. and well damn. just damn.

i liked this one mostly because it parked screwy at an angle. i could get this view and a side view with no real problem. except for the club members on the other side hanging in the tent. they did finally move out of there by the time i took this shot; you can see them in the paint reflection standing behind me.

ran into a couple of people i see frequently at this show. that's always nice. luis said he was going to be at chicano park this saturday too...so that's one familar face i'll see there. wish my better half could go, but that probably isn't in the cards this time. so :(

still not loving this lens as much as the old one, and with chicano park coming up, i may just go around once with one lens then switch and go around again with the other, just to be sure i get something that makes me happy.