peep show

happy easter or passover or whatever.

now pretend like that didn't happen and look at this:

i had already packed up my camera, and was just watching my better half shoot this car. testing out a new camera and lens, he was just having fun. i was standing in the shade, so whatevs.

then a '39 master deluxe drove by, and asked my better half if it was too late. he said of course not, and went off to follow that car to a parking space.

so damn. i stood around for about five minutes, saying i won't, i won't, i won't [on the inside]. it was hot, i was hungry, and just done.

then i lost the inner argument, and got my camera back out. might as well, i'm just standing there waiting.

super shiny and perfect. almost wanted to kick it, like stomping on the feet of a kid with the brand new white shoes.

then, of course, i had to go shoot that '39 too. i'm not stupid.

barney

saw this thirty-eight in chino. kinda beat up. kinda awesome.

owner said it was found in a barn in ohio. he bought it recently, for what seems like a real deal, considering that it basically was still running as found. eventually, he plans on fixing it up, but i really hope not. liking it as he found it.

bullet

we go uptown a lot. there are lots of flyers posted on shop windows, so when we pass one that's advertising a car show, we make a note of it.

saw several posted in various places for the usuals' "chinga las vegas" get together over at legg lake. knowing the kind of cars in the club, i knew the kind of cars that would show up.

my better half was waiting for a call to go into the office, so i didn't think he'd be able to go. when i finally got moving and decided to head over, he decided he would go with, as long as i could bring him back home if he got called. i was also thinking i could just drop him off and keep on going over to the latin gents show.

we stayed at the show for a couple of hours, then had lunch. by the time we got home, we decided to stay put. if we'd headed to westminster, there would have been only about an hour left of the other show, so maybe next month.

apparently, the show was unsanctioned, or they didn't pull a permit, and the cops were keeping a close eye, and sometimes just harassing the guys. were being picky about how some cars were parked, and not others.

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saw this beater drive through the show, as we were heading back to the car. noticed it had a bunch of real bullet holes in the trunk, not those stupid stickers.

my better half got the story from the owner. so second-hand, and knowing he isn't going to post his pics any time soon, i'll put mine up.

owner told him he'd seen it from the freeway, in someone's yard. i guess he somehow convinced them to sell it to him. it wasn't running, so he'd had to rebuild some parts of the engine. he'd only had it out and driveable last week. he said he was intending to fix it up, but that everyone is telling him it's too cool and that he should leave it alone. i sort of agree.

did not get the story of the bullet holes, so just make up a story.

i don't know whether he'll continue to work on it, but it is really cool right now.

special

saw this buick on the edge of the grass, by some vendor booths, in chino. didn't remember seeing another one, so set up to take a shot of it.

owner turned out to be one of the dead sled guys. i think he said he recently bought this car. told him i didn't think this would be considered a sled-type car. what do i know.

had a cracked window, which i only noticed when the owner started talking with some other guy about getting new glass for it. that guy said he could get the glass, but that he doesn't do installation. what's up with that?

i like the front chrome on this.

begin at the end

slept in on sunday, and arrived at the unidos show just about eleven. i walked through the show first, around the outer perimeter of the lot, and around to the other parking area. usually where i end, is where i began shooting. figured it was going to only getter hotter, and by the time i got around to finishing, it would be closer to the car and it’s air conditioning.

chatted with a few guys from the bomb club over there. i’ll post those soon.

had to stop and take a water break, after having to figure out which stall was selling the refreshments. really dude, put up a sign. had to ask one of the food vendors where the drinks were hiding. only obvious drink vendor just sold horchata and that type of stuff, when i only wanted a bottle of water. sat under a canopy at a lunch table. so much cooler in the shade, and with a breeze.
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spent about fifteen minutes talking to the owner of this car and his friend. usual chit chat about my hobby. then about another female photographer from the early fifties, vivian maier and her street photography. then about the heat and where i got my hat, which led to talk about chicano park and san pedro car shows, neither of which these guys had been to. ever. go, baby. go.

interesting guys. hope he likes this picture.

javier's hot potato

it got pretty hot in the afternoon on saturday in chino. had to take a few breaks and hide in the shade. days like that make me want some sort of air conditioned/cold water suit to wear, sort of michelin man looking. that, or just wear shorts and a bikini top, but then i'd just burn up in the sun.

this is one of the cars i found early in the morning, parked on the shady side of the street. good thinking...did you scope it out the day before?

i've seen this car before. it's javier's car; says so on the tag. and he introduced himself as javier too, so let's just call him javier. :)  and it's a tan color, sort of like a potato, so just go with it. i'm running out of title ideas. lol.

he asked me about how to get a picture. easiest is to send me an email, and i'll upload it to my print vendor site, and you can either order direct from there, or i can make other arrangements for ordering and delivery. if javier happens to be looking for this one, he can find it here.

this looks a little dark on my screen here. i'll have to check it out somewhere else. might have to tweak it a bit more.

auntie freeze

had a busy weekend. better half got called in do work, so he didn't get to have any fun at car shows with me, as originally planned. hope they remember he is out of town when we go to chicano park.

spent all day saturday out at the chino corn feed run. a lot more cars than last year, adding a few more "overflow" lots. and i saw them all. didn't shoot them all, but really, who could?

also stopped at the unidos fundraiser at walnut high school on sunday. annual show. been there twice before. i thought there were more cars this year, but maybe because i got there later than i usually do.

anyway, i'll start by saying i took more pictures than i'll ever get around to doing anything with, as usual. i actually talked to a lot of people, which for me, is really interesting. met a lot of people, and i probably won't remember your name, until i've run into you a few times, but i definitely remember a car.

since i took a lot of pictures, i've posted single exposures of most of the cars on my flickr junkyard. feel free to check them out, and let me know if you think your car is worth polishing up. easier if you view by album.

• chino corn feed run
• unidos

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this impala was really nice. owner offered to put the top down for me, but it was fine as it was. how i found it, how i shot it.

gruncle gruncle

quick post. tired. again. two hours in traffic to get home today. ugh.

we were standing over by the food trucks trying to decide whether to eat, get water, or leave the show. a guy walks over and asks who we shoot for. we tell him we're just having fun.

he asks if we could take a shot of his car, and points it out through the crowd. happens to be in our line of sight, so i said sure.

better half side tracks me on the way to show me a tshirt at one of the vendor stalls. nah, it was pretty plain, so didn't need it.

finally made it to the car. shot a few, but liked this one best. so, check another off the list of cars i said i would definitely post. because they asked.

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you should see some of my better half's pics. really killer. i don't think he's posted them to flickr yet. he hasn't posted or even played with his pictures much this past year. busy taking care of his mom and working too much.

his blog isn't really working right now, since he let the domain expire before he could move it to another provider. and then some ahole bought it. blog is still on the net, just hosted under a default url until he thinks of something else.

no matter what he tells you, he's still the better photographer, technically.

and now he's a great uncle. his nephew's girlfriend had a baby boy last night. and his niece will be having a baby girl at some point today. so now he's a gruncle. twice in twenty-four hours.

sharper image

let me start this tale by mentioning how my mom sometimes comes to me with her point and shoot camera, asking me to fix whatever my dad had done to it. i've probably told this one before, but it's more relevant this time.

my dad used to buy a lot of cameras in japan, when he was in the military. mostly nikon. as a kid, i only really remember him using a camera when we'd drive out to d.c., to the washington monument or lincoln memorial. of course, he must have taken more, because we have a zillion boxes of those old slide carousels full of them.

my point is, he can talk camera talk with my better half, and understand what we're doing with our shots and tripods. but put the point and shoot in his hand, and he's lost. he fiddles with modern cameras and all the menus, and basically fucks it up.

mostly my mom just needs to know how to turn the flash back on. she just can't remember how. every time. she's kinda afraid of technology, so she just wants to be able to push a button and get a picture. doesn't everyone?

on with the story...

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we arrived at the show in southgate just about six am. beat the sunrise. beat most of the cars. they were just starting to let cars into the parking lot to stage them before the gates opened on the golf course.

we like to get the early light, as well as a reasonable parking space. finally decide to get out of the car and go shoot the sitting ducks in the parking lot.

oh, i'm finding some really nice cars, in good locations. light hitting them just right. having a fun time already. then they start letting cars onto the golf course about sevenish. we couldn't get in quite yet, so we both sat on a wall and shot them as they drove past us. fun.

got my better half to ask the ladies at the gate when or if we could get in to take pictures. they weren't quite sure about how that was going to work and kind of just let us come in with the cars. thanks for that.

better half hadn't eaten at home, so went off to get something to eat off the food trucks. i decided to start around the perimeter and was getting some really good shots, without lots of people in the way, sky overcast.

fifty cars later, on the other side of the show, i took a look at a car on the little screen zoomed in. looks blurry. i know i've mentioned that i'm not too keen on this lens, but it seems more blurry than usual. i slap on my older lens, and shoot a few. it was ok, but i couldn't push in close enough and put the other back on.

i spot my better half a couple rows away, and go ask him wtf? now i wished i'd gone to the smaller car show the day before...

my better half had said for a while that we should do a microadjustment on the camera for the lens to see if it would help. well, i had been reminding him about it for a couple of weeks, with the bigger shows coming up, and he finally did the night before. while he set up the resolution target, i made some basic settings changes for the tests. he got to work, i went to my computer to play with pictures.

later i asked him if he wanted to go uptown for dinner. then there was a thing going on at the lowdown in uptown. old cars, some sort of sale inside. a pinstriper.

he's talked about pinstripping his lens hood for some time now. after chatting with the guy, he thought it was time to try it. we went home, he grabbed his camera gear and headed back. it was late, so i stayed and took a shower, got ready for bed. put my camera away. charged batteries.

and that was it. i put my camera away. he hadn't made the final adjustment or programmed it in or whatever.

the thing of it was, he forgot too.

he remembered to tell me to put the settings back that i had made back to what i needed to shoot. which didn't include whatever menu he had been using.

turns out i had been shooting all morning with a -20 adjustment, when it should have been +5, or maybe higher, since i apparently i interrupted him in the middle the range test for dinner.

so what i'm saying, they look like i used some dreamy romance filter on them, a soft blur. so fuck. my better half took off quickly to the other side of the show after realizing what it was and fixing it, thinking he'd be safer there.

so ya, kinda sucked. i am my mom when the camera isn't acting right. he's the tech geek i go to to fix it.

the sun was winking in and out, alternating with the overcast. i had to go back around and reshoot all the cars i really liked. the light was different. there were more people around. so out of having about a couple hundred wonderful shots of cars, i end up with ninety-seven. and then whatever i shot with my other camera. happy hood ornaments and details.

but they are sharper. maybe after he finishes adjusting the camera, i may really start to like the damn lens.

so there you go. i should have just stayed in bed...same difference for my effort.

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shot this chevy over with the originals cars. one of the guys wanted to take a picture of me taking a picture, and asked first. cameras don't like me, but i said i guess so. i'd like to see it, but they always forget to forward it on.

i'm showing you mine; why don't you show me yours?

i was impressed by his young friend, i think he said he was third generation in a family of guys who work on and chop cars. owns his own chop shop, and apparently does excellent work. i guess most people don't believe he can be that good at his age, as he kept reiterating the quality of his work. i believed him. an artist is an artist, especially if you grow up around them. if he remembers to send me an email, i'll put the name of his business here.

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congrats if you made it through my blather.it's over now...go home...

’stang

i'll throw this one up here. something different. shot it because it wasn't surrounded yet. and maybe somebody out there likes them.