reflection

here's another car from the duke's show. i forget which car club (my bad). one of the many jammed in the back lot, this one up against the wall. this was a more typical model chevy there in abundance, but no two were exactly alike.

i liked the two-tone paint on this one, but especially liked the reflection of the sky in the fender. don't forget the hood ornament — don't know why i love those things. didn't notice the broiler sign in the shot until i got home and downloaded the pictures from the camera, so bonus. too bad downey still uses overhead lines...stupid telephone pole right in the way. oh well.

gypsy rose

i attended the duke's show & shine over at bob's in downey this past weekend. incredible congregation of car clubs, lots of representation from each. really for me, it was chevy overload...it was a plethora, yes a plethora of chevys of many years, mainly 1939s–1950s, with some odd years and some impalas thrown in, and this one opened its petals to me.

so many to choose from, so many similar cars all jammed into the entire parking lot. i even had to park a few blocks away, since there was no parking nearby. i didn't know where to start, or what to shoot, much less, i'd been away from shooting for a couple of weeks and was a little out of sorts, so i did my usual. i started by walking around the entire show, seeing what's there. then sat down and took out my cameras. then went back through and just picked random cars—they were all so delicious, but so crowded together, as well as being overrun with people, i could only really do a few.

by the time i got there, they were already doing raffles and giving out trophies. really big, tall trophies. i saw many cars stuffed full of plaques and trophies from prior shows. these guys really know how to do a show right.

anyway, i am rambling. this car has a remarkable paint job. lots of detail. real crowd stopper. parked right up by the trophy table. perhaps you know it? according to my flickr friend, kid deuce, it's known as the gypsy rose. he was there the same day, but i don't know if at the same time. i've never met him, so if i walked past without saying hello, i'm really sorry i didn't recognize you without your western attire. :) he's posted lots of shots from that afternoon, so check them out.

also, thanks to jae bueno for posting the notice about the show, or i would have missed it. he takes really good shots of cars as well, and again, if he was there, i did not recognize him, or i would have thanked him in person. waiting to see what pictures he got of the show.

ketchup and mustard

i'm practically psychic...i know i won't be posting tomorrow...so i figured i would just post another one. hoping it won't rain tomorrow; i want to go to the last foothill show for the year.

these two were over in the corner at enderle plaza last month. the red one is owned by a guy that looks like santa, if i remember correctly, only skinny, but with a white beard. at least the plate names it santa56. the owner of the yellow one moved it in next to the red one, and the owners walked off together, so i suppose they're buddies.

i think the yellow chevy might be this same car from the garden grove friday show. nice neutral flames on the yellow, not overpowering and in your face, so much the better. sometimes you gotta let the classic car be the show stopper, not the paint choice. both very clean.

<deleted some snarky stuff here...wouldn't you like to know...?> gotta edit myself sometimes. my mother-in-law reads this once in a while. lol.

lead sled

this merc custom, also from the whittier uptown show, is seemingly the companion piece to this one. this was the second of three similar vehicles parked on this corner. maybe it was just a coinkydink that they were clustered in the same area. i don't think i bothered with the other, as i remember it was just painted in primer gray and not too dazzling or remarkable.

i remember this being a spectacular, deep blue, but i think maybe i've made it too dark here. the time of day made for an uncontrasty, flat shot, so i had to jack it up a bit. but that's the point of my tweaking, now isn't it?

found nemo

so i'm getting over my cold. they've let me back in the house, but i'm staying away from my mother-in-law — not because of the stereotypical reasons; she's wonderful, but doesn't want to catch anything respiratory at her age. missed the ruby's show; was supposed to take a picture of someone's car, and didn't have any way of letting them know i wasn't going to make it besides not showing up. now there's only one left for this year. tried to get my better half to go take shots for me, but he ended up working late. hoping to hit up a car show tomorrow or the one in foothill ranch on monday, if it doesn't rain as promised.

——————

another member of lifestyle car club, this 1949 chevy truck was found at the whittier uptown car show back in august.

i think these guys do their own painting and pinstriping; one of the guys (the owner?) was touching up the pinstripes on this when i went by it later in the afternoon. devil in the details? nope, just little roses, down by the wheels.

sweet, swirly and fun, the curves of the car and the color theme just make me think of clown fish, but in a bad ass kind a way.

purple people eaters

i think i probably caught a cold, courtesy of my lovely neighbors seated next to and nearby me on the airplane home. really tired, so 'scuse me while i whip this out.

not one of my best shots, more of an experiment. i liked the positioning with the neon sign and the reflections on the side of the car, but i think i'd need to rethink the actual taking of a shot like this. a little rough and noisy, and not quite right, but i liked it enough to post it.

gonna go pass out now. i might be banished again from my mother-in-law's, which is where my computer is currently parked, so i might be down for a couple of days...suckage.

deliverance

well, i'm back. had an excellent week hauling myself around d.c. missed my cars though. already had missed a local car show outside of town, so of course, while cruising through museums, i was on the prowl for them.

now i have to tell you, i do hate taking pictures of cars indoors, especially at museums. same reasons i haven't bothered going to the big car shows here: too many people; artificial light and/or ugly ceiling from low points of view; limited manueverability to find the perfect shot; not allowed to use a tripod; etcetera, etcetera, etcetera.

when i was a kid, we lived back behind mt. vernon, so got to visit the smithsonian museums fairly often. my dad would mostly march us to the buildings on the mall. so i had some memories of where to look. i remembered the american history museum having a hall of transportation: a vast room with 3 or 4 full-size trains of various time periods, with the associated smell of smoke and iron; and a room with lots of cars from lots of time periods.

well, its all been redone. the giant trains are gone, except one, and so was the smell. the cars were limited to about 5 or 6 models in silly dioramas, and despicable conditions for getting the shot i wanted. screw it. i got them using a small, flexible gorillapod tripod thing, but i probably will never bother posting them, i dislike them so much.

if you get farther out from the mall, you can find some interesting things. i found this old ford postal truck in the u.s. postal museum of course. i didn't catch what year. the amazing thing was that i could use a big tripod in there now — couldn't do that last year. not a lot of traffic off the beaten path. and apart from the bars to keep you off the thing, you could almost get a 270 degree choice of angle around it to shoot from, only because they have a modern truck behind it at an angle.

really was great to get away from work, but i missed posting. i'll stop boring you now with tales of my time away, since the rest has nothing to do with cars.

again

can't get enough of this car. won a trophy at this show. seems like the guy in the checkered shirt is telling a dirty joke...nice hand movement.

anyway, not much to say, not much time...been running around like crazy this evening. worked late. stuck in traffic. bailed off the freeway. slow drive to the house. no time to change out of my work clothes. pick up a print, then deliver it to the owner at ruby's. no time to take any shots at the show, only a quick walk around. then to the stupidmarket for my mother-in-law. then pick up a bite to eat. home and carry it all in the house.

why the run around? had to get home to pack my bag...heading off for a week in d.c. in the wee hours of the morning. mom and dad, take care of my house, please. don't do anything i wouldn't do...>:)

to the mattresses

here i sit, all downhearted...ah, ah, don't finish that thought. well, third day of rain in a row. everyone is so skittish when there are clouds in the sky; a whisper by someone that looks like rain can clear out a decent car show. i waited all summer for the awesome clouds out there now, but the cars mostly don't come out, even when its clear for the evening.

after work in orange county, the sun had actually come out, and the clouds were all billowy and towering into the sky. so i headed for the show at spires, off the 605. not far into los angeles county, it started to drizzle, maybe even just sprinkle. shit. bailed off the freeway and headed home.

sitting at my computer, looking out the window toward the hills, there is just a big gray smear of cloud cover. not raining at all, sunset trying real hard to make a decent show through the gaps. walked to a nearby restaurant for dinner, then back here at my puter, tweaking my pictures. trying different things, deciding which car to post.

look what they done to my boy...i'm watching the godfather movies again for the zillionth time, on my phone at lunch. lots of nice cars in the film, if you ever noticed.

i can imagine this one in the parking lot at connie's wedding, or maybe one of the cars following the don home from the emergency room, but without all the extra do-dads on it.

courtship of edsel's faja

i never saw an edsel wagon before...didn't even know they made them. so i had to get this one. apparently edsels are relegated to the outskirts of the show, as that's where i always find them, at the ends of the rows. i guess because the cadillacs where curiously missing last friday, the edsels had taken ownership of the last forlorn row of the show.

this pair were really nice. nice and shiny. just before the awards and raffle prizes were being announced, these two moved to a different spot than this one here, facing the other direction. and then the buffing began. the owner of the wagon just started buffing and dusting off that car...don't know that it could get much shinier than it already was, but maybe he just needed something to do to keep his hands busy. uhhh, nervous energy, i mean. oh, behave.