300

almost as buff as those guys in that 300 movie, this 1962 chrysler 300 caught my eye last week at the show at the former spires restaurant off the 605 and alondra. first time visiting this show. great selection of cars. a bit farther than i usually go, and i got there later than i intended on surface streets, avoiding the freeway. lots of friendly people, really good crowd waiting for the raffle/trophies.

talked to many people, watching the sun slip away. then decided to pack it up and head to the broiler. late, too cold, not many cars left. and more people stopping to chat. seeing more people showing up with tripods too. interesting.

oh, and my road trip to seattle was interesting too. you would not believe how many classic cars are sitting and rusting in junk yards and backyards along the highway through oregon and washington. too bad i did not have time to stop and check some of them out. anything from the 30s to late 60s frequently made me snap my head around to see.

I had hoped to squeeze in a car show, but the only one in town was too far away and it was raining. thought maybe i could visit the lemay auto museum but was taken on a tour of seattle instead, lunch at cheesecake factory and quick run through pike's place market, before being dropped off at the airport.

facing a tough week at work, extra hours...hoping to be able to post a picture each day, but not sure that i will be able to. probably won't be able to hit any car shows until friday at the earliest either. hmmm friday: ruby's in whittier or main street in garden grove...both so tempting.

land shark

this is an interesting car. don't see too many of these around often. actually, there was another one next to it, but it was a truck. nice gills on the side and the swooping grille up front, this is a 1934 hudson terraplane k at the whittier founder's day celebration. i know this for sure, because the owner has fortunately/unfortunately prominantly displayed a plaque in the window saying so, and wants everyone to know he owns it, and where you can find it, should you have any nefarious intentions, i guess. sort of ruins the image, but oh well.

did i mention that it was my birthday that day? what a great gift to stumble across this little display of cars on a day that i had declared, "no car shows this weekend!" really, i did say that. i had to go back to the house to fetch my gear...i couldn't help myself...lol. my husband watched patiently while i took all my shots. i think he was just enjoying the view from behind.

it was such a nice day, i got a bunch of decent shots, i really didn't have to do much to them. and that's the way it is.

i hope you've got your fix of my photos...i'm driving up to seattle this weekend on business while my hubbie stays home :(...back late monday, and no access to my computer. patience grasshoppa.

all that glitters ain't gold

this glittery '53 studebaker custom was at the santa elks lodge in may. pal joey puts on a well-attended once-a-month show, with a live band, food, trophies and raffles...the whole sheebang.

nice orange sparkles, combined with the reddish-orange flames made this a quite striking car. then put it butt up against that sunny-bright car behind it here and my eyes were burning. i don't know if it won anything, but it should have.

a galaxie far, far away

this was a sweet 1964 ford galaxie 500 at flabob airport's fly and drive show way out in riverside last saturday. owner was very proud of his baby, kept polishing it and brushing the dust off. it was kind of a windy day, but the light was just perfect for pictures.

he explained about the manufacturer's plate on the front...says they're hard to come by with numbers that low. had found it at a swap meet or somewhere, and that he just puts it on for the show. you gotta do what you gotta do—first i've heard of that. guess it adds to the authenticity or old-timey feel? maybe adds to the overall collectability of an old car.

i remember i asked him if he thought he'd win anything, as they were announcing last calls for votes. he didn't think so. maybe he figured there were other, better, more popular cars. as i mentioned before, i hung around for the awards, and doggone, if he didn't win a trophy after all. good on ya.

where's wall-e?

found this old chevy rat rod at fuddrucker's a couple of weeks ago. it's kind of beat to hell and back, but it was just more interesting that way. wonder if they're stopping here, or if they will continue fixing it up.

love the hood ornament (see a close up here). i like the added old coin inserted on the radiator emblem, i've seen that more than once. even better, the big engine sticking up reminds me of the little robot from wall-e, but on steriods.

on a more humorous note: soon after this shot, i packed up my gear, threw it the trunk, with plans to stop somewhere for dinner. but, as i was sliding into my seat, my back pocket caught on something, and then the entire left side of my pants got a big vertical rip in the backside, from the waistline to the top of the back thigh. i'm talking full cheekage hanging out. oh shit. there go any plans for dinner. i wear long shirts, but it would have been no help that time.

very fortunately, i have a detached garage i could drive in to at home, shut the door, change back into the pants i had worn to work, and then go back out. tried to pick up my dry cleaning, but they locked the door as i circled the lot looking for parking. guess it just wasn't my evening to be out.

master deluxe indeed

yet another 1938 chevy from the downey broiler. something about this body type i really like. the big, full fenders and grill, and my fav, a hood ornament, i just gotta take a picture or two or three...

the couple that owned this one and a similar one (this one, i think (correct me if i'm wrong): /whats-up/2010/5/14/pontiac-attack.html), knew i'd taken shots of their cars, and after having seen an 8x10 print of another car, were totally all about buying one of each of their cars. when i get a reaction like that to my work, i know that i'm doing something right.

we'll see. a lot of people say that they want a print, but then don't follow through. i suppose they're happy with the wallpaper they copy from here and that's fine. but nothing will beat the full resolution print without my name plastered on it, and if i don't get an email about it or run into them again, i probably won't order it, unless i wouldn't mind having one myself anyway. if i happen to have a print of your car in my book, you're welcome to buy it from me—i can always order another. :)

need i remind anyone, these images are copyrighted? if you want to use them for anything other than a personal wallpaper, you need to ask permission...send me an email.

i got the bird

i had to go to riverside today. as long as i'm out there, i might as well hit up a car show, right? only one i could fit into my schedule was a small one, the fly and drive car show, held once a month at flabob airport. tiny little airport = tiny little show? there were maybe 30 cars there, half muscle cars, half older cars. good enough for me. had maybe 10 to 15 trophies to hand out too, as well as raffle prizes.

i don't think they get too many photographers with tripods, but at least they didn't ask if i worked for a magazine. seemed like an older crowd, just more curious about me. those that did talk to me were very nice.

most of them had their hoods open, and if you've been reading my blog for long, you know how i feel about that. if the owner was there, they mostly jumped right up and offered to close it for me. thanks so much!

anyway, enough blathering. this was a gorgeous ’62 thunderbird. i believe this was the second time they had attended the show. lovely paint job. had a thunderbird ghosted on the hood, though i didn't quite pick it up in this shot. might as well have painted a target on it, as it seems the birds kept aiming at it and the owner had to wipe it off several times, which he joked about quite a bit.

anyway, i hung out for about an hour or so. long enough to see who got the trophies, and this was one of them.

pontiac attack

got to the broiler late the other day. sun was already starting to set. had to park in a spot that really wasn't a parking space, because the place was so busy and i didn't want to park way out back in the dark. quickly got my gear out and took a first walk around the place to see what was on display this evening.

found this '37 pontiac around the front. it was so clean. how could i not take a picture of it? i took 4 points of view, and not really a bad one in the bunch. this one just seemed most interesting, with the sky showing off the chief's profile best.

a lot of people stopped to chat with me and look at my book, so i did not take as many pictures as i probably would have otherwise. i watched the sun set and answered their questions. i ended up staying later than i had planned.

what the hell am i doing?

i am sometimes asked this question when people see me down on the ground, right up next to a car with my camera. the answer is obviously, taking some pictures. really. lots of them. i think this year so far, i have taken over 10,000 images, and of that, several thousand are just from car shows. i easily take more than 300 a show, and that is not even taking pictures of every car there.

so then, you may wonder why i do not have that many cars posted here or on my flickr site. i want them to look better than your typical snapshot. if that's what you want, there are other websites to visit where people just basically upload their camera cards.

these cars are rolling pieces of art and history, and i dig them. so i try to capture what i saw, which one exposure just can't do. (exception: the close up macro images i usually don't do a thing to — nothing beats a prime lens, baby.) this takes disc space, time and some work. but i think it's worth it. contrary to what some may think, i'm not adding anything to the images, though i do sometimes get rid of a shadow or a light pole, and i will touch up your paint chips. i'm combining multiple exposures into one image, to get all the detail i can, to match what my eye sees at that moment.

let me show you this average shot of a car:

before

it's just kind of...a car. and a shot you see every day, albeit, i took it from down low, which isn't the average point of view. now here is what i get from doing my thing, and more interesting, thanks to the sunset:

after

some may wonder how i choose what i put up here on tweakedpixels.

• i have to like your car; mostly like them older than 1970. it doesn't even have to be perfect; some of my favs are all dinged up and rusty; somehow they have more character sometimes.


• have to have the hood closed—it ruins the lines of the car for me, and i don't need to see what you've done to the engine, though it may be very impressive (i think its a guy thing). i don't know what the parts are, and as long as a car runs, i'm happy for you. if i'm tired or already have a similar car in my collection, i'll probably just walk on by it; if i'm not, i'll ask if you could close it for a few minutes.


• the shot has to be interesting; i take a lot of angles, try to catch the car at different times of day, to find the shot that just makes the car look good

couple of other reasons a car makes it here or on flickr:

• you said hello. and i like your car. i'm shy by nature, and i am really trying to be more open. this hobby is really forcing me to get out of my shell, which i guess is a good thing, but it's difficult.


• you want to buy/bought a print.

so what the hell am i doing? i'm having fun. and now i'm off to the broiler for even more fun... :)

old timer

this 1916 buick 45 was at the whittier founder's day celebration i mentioned a couple of days ago. i think it was the oldest car there, and possibly, one of the oldest i have in my collection here.

i think i'm finding it more facsinating seeing and learning how cars evolved over the years, each generations' designers copying each others ideas, various models so similar, yet so different. can still see it going on in the cars of today...does everyone go to the same design school or what? if only that sense of classic style would come back. i think it kind of did with the pt cruisers and the recent thunderbirds. more curves and presence, something undefinable that is just missing in the standard crap they have been turning out, small tweaks, and they call that a new model. yippee. just too boxy and lacking style.