hot rod lincoln

my best guess is that this a 55–56 lincoln of some kind. just not finding one with exactly the same bumper set up. guess i should've asked the owner — i think he was the guy who asked me "what is it you've been doing all these weeks here?" my answer was, "having fun," but maybe i should have been a smartass and stated the obvious answer, "taking pictures." nah, he was curious enough to ask, so i didn't feel the need. anyway, i handed the guy my card, so i hope he sees his car, if it is indeed his.

nice pinstripe job, and interesting paint. didn't quite overhear the whole story, so i'm not sure if he was saying he painted the car himself in his garage, or he took it somewhere. its kind of a matte finish, which is a little unusual when its not primer, but then this car was a bit unusual, and i don't have another one like it in my files.

i also think i've seen that guy in the doorway...i think he owns this hot rod, and is also currently selling an old cadillac.

night vision

this beauty was just sitting there by itself, mostly being ignored by everyone at bob's last week. maybe it had just got there and no one noticed, or maybe everyone was caught up with all the cars coming into the main lot. i don't know. i only know that for night shots with long exposures, no one walking into my shot is a good thing. it isn't perfect – at full resolution you'd see the dust spots and blown out highlights – but i like it anyway. pretty much captures what i saw, the reflections, the traffic speeding by, the colors...cool.

---------

on another note, i've been working some 12+ hour days, which leave me very little time/energy to post, though i really am missing it. probably will do a few this week as well, so apologies for being negligent here...i'm having posting withdrawals. i've purposely left earlier on a couple of days to hit a couple of shows, to get my butt out of the chair at work...was at ruby's the other day with prints for some people that actually paid for the them beforehand, but hey, there was another show somewhere, and i was 0 for 4 on delivery. makes it difficult when i don't have a contact number, or they don't have a computer, or they send an email, but my response bounces back for whatever reason, to figure out what images they will want or when they will be there to pick them up. well, i think one of them was sick maybe...guess i'll just carry stuff around with me until i run into them again.

i did get to show some people a very nice, big print of the dodge – i went ahead and ran one in full color (because that's the way i like them and they really do look awesome on the paper i get them printed on), though they will probably want it with the background all grayed out, so i'll have to order another for them. thinking about someday soon having a show at a local gallery, and figure i'll start printing out some of my favs as i can afford it. i have so many to choose from, but that's not a bad thing, now is it?

coming at you

well, i'm spent. full weekend spent trying to get that one image that the owners will want to have hanging on their wall for years to come. should have taken more shots. more different angles...just more to choose from for me. live and learn.

to the three owners who wanted pictures of their cars, i've had fun working on these, but really hope that you'll love them when they're printed. please email me which picture(s) you want, (note which one is yours, of course!). if you let me know by tomorrow, i can get them back to you in time for friday's ruby's show. otherwise, i'll bring a small proof for you to see, then worry about a better print later.

for the guy that wanted his larger, i can make it up to 20 to 24 inches on the long edge, and it should still look quite good. let me know if you had something smaller in mind.

i like this shot, so i've posted it big instead of a small shot on the previous posting of the car.

gonna be busy at work this week, but i think i've done my share of posting anyway. i'll attempt to hit a few shows after work, always on the look out for something different to shoot.

it's a chevy

ahh, the third car, second chevy for today...it was pretty nice, except for the hairline crack in the windshield, which you really can't see here unless you look for it. i didn't emphasize it.

so i've posted what i'd said i would, now i'll work on a another option for them to choose from. hopefully, that will be good enough. i'd have to reshoot on a different day, different location, different lighting for something better...send me an email to let me know.

chevy baby

so, this is the second of three cars from my captive weekend deadline. missing several car shows this morning, and hoping to get to at least one this evening by the time i'm done with these.

this picture is going to be a gift for someone. hope they like it, and i'll order a nice print.

dodge

the owner of this car has been stalking me for probably a month now, at least. not in a bad way. he's been trying to sync up at a show when he has this car and i have my camera. he'd been shown some of my work and had been crazy trying to get me to shoot this car.

it actually has yellow doors, but he really wanted them to be the same color as the rest of the car, which if i remember right, is actually a warm brown. i think this is close enough, but a little warmer because of the sunset.

there was some interest in making the background black and white or sepia or blurry, but that kinda loses the beautiful colors that come from a sunset. and adds a bit more time to my work, so i'm skipping it for now, unless they really want that...

told him i'd post a couple of shots to choose from, then either print a small proof to look at or go ahead with a large print to deliver on friday. i'll add another shot to this post tomorrow.

then, after shooting this car, ended up shooting the gray car you see behind it, as well as another car behind the gray car...i'll also post these two tomorrow, for them to choose a bigger print from on nice paper. busy weekend, but having fun with the challenge.

der ss

so busy at work since i got back from vegas. tradeshow season, and i'm slammed by everyone needing artwork created for their booths, etc. i expect to be very tired for the next couple of weeks at least. but i've also managed to squeeze in several car shows, since the weather has cooled for a while.

i usually walk past these muscle cars, mostly because the hoods are most always up. and i don't really care much about them, the lines of the cars just don't resonate with me like the older classics. they're nice, they're loud, and they move real fast, but ehh. i always get the feeling from the owners that i'm ignoring them, or the "what's wrong with my car" vibe, but they never really say it.

well, because the sky was overcast, and this puppy was so very shiny, i couldn't pass it up. i loved the reflection in the hood and fender too much. shows how much i haven't paid attention to these...i don't even know/remember what kind of car it is, much less the year. maybe someone will let me know so i can update my post.

tally my bananas

i thought this ’56 packard carribean was different. hadn't seen one before, and i thought the color combo was nice, with a creamy off-white, a turquoise stripe and black on the bottom. i liked the way the sun was hitting it. unfortunately, had to crop out a bit on the left and right — people moving through the image too much on the left, and i didn't want to bother nuking them out of the picture. also cropped the owner in her chair out on the right, but now it's ready for an 8x10 anyway.

i was out of town for the past week, in las vegas, on business. this is the third year in a row i've gone there, and will probably end up there again next year. so over it.

need i say that as one who doesn't bother to gamble, doesn't drink or smoke, i find it a very unglamorous place to be.

always entertaining is seeing what the cat dragged in to the casinos very early in the morning: shit-faced women, who tried to keep up with the boys and didn't, hopefully being escorted to their own rooms by men who know them; men and women who didn't get lucky at all, but were all dressed up with no where to go; very large people in town to have fun for a few days, looking far too serious and planted at one slot machine for hours on end; a man on a gurney with a bucket in his lap, being rolled away by casino security; chicks in underwear dancing on a stage, while drunk guys howl, as if they had a chance; people on the bridges selling water for "juan dolor"; people slapping decks of cards and trying to hand you pictures of naked women that you can "call any time for a good time," who jump if you snap your fingers back at them; the unmarked planes that take off for area 51...oh i could go on and on.

there is beauty if you look for it. the patterns, textures, and colors are all around, day and night, changing with the light. if you were up before the sun, after the riff raff has gone back to their rat holes, and just wait for it, the sunrise coming up over the mountain range is spectacular to watch. especially from a jacuzzi tub. 

mean green machine

this 51 chevy was in the side lot at the garden grove main street show. it seemed more crowded than it had been recently, and there was an inordinate number of spectators in chairs around the judges' table.

turned out that it was elvis day, and they were waiting for an impersonator to come out and put on a show. great for me, fewer people milling around the cars. if you look closely, there is an elvis on the balcony, not sure if it's the guy having a peek, or just a dummy — is there a difference?

my friend with the cane, at the ruby's show later that evening, said it's always elvis day in garden grove. viva garden grove.

purple flames, purple flames

this old ford was sitting in the back corner of the small lot near the judges' table at ruby's in whittier. usually i don't shoot anything back there because people are sitting in front of the cars or they just aren't that interesting. made an exception since this was so clean and no one was around for whatever reason. was just very shiny and with the sun beginning to set and the chevy next to it, it was perfect.