so round, so firm, so…

here's a nice bomb, hiding in plain sight. under cover of the overhang, i had to tweak it a bit to get it out of the dark—my camera exposed for the sky more than the car. someday i'll have to figure out how to use the camera properly.

my better half has tried many times to explain all the buttons and what nots on the camera…his is even worse. he'll sit with the knowledge that one of these days, i'll give in and ask for this information, and pay attention, the same way i did when i asked him to show me how he was doing his pictures. he loves to tell that story, and it gets more “interesting” with each telling, as do most of his stories about me.

anyway, i like these old chevys, with all their curves and chrome. i like the front of it too, even if the hood ornament is so very simple, err, elegant, err, modernistic...; i'll have to post the pictures someday.

put it where the sun does shine

first car show in over a week. bob's big boy was busier than it has been and the weather was perfect; not too hot, with a cool breeze. i got there a bit later than usual, as i stopped at home first and got my cameras. i've been stuck to my office chair too much lately, and it was good to get out. but of course, now it's late and i gotta get to bed.

i love when the guys park over here. pretty easy to frame up something interesting with the front of the broiler behind it. sun beginning to head south, so it really bounced the light around on this chrome back end. nice old caddie, no stuffed animals necessary...j/k.

chatted with several guys there. one guy said he'd seen me a couple of weeks ago at the show in cypress. had to think about the last time i'd been there...didn't stay long...was very hot that day. he'd wanted to tell me about a new show starting up on sunday mornings at woodruff & carson, but probably not this holiday weekend. guess i'll have to check it out. that and the donut derelicts in huntington beach, since the girl who x-rayed my teeth the other day said her dad shows his cars there, and he lives nearby. just kinda early for me to get there most weekends...just want to sleep in, ya know?

green with envy

oooohhhhh. this was one spectacular car. really incredible flame job and chromeography. yet another in the land of unwelcome customs and low riders lot at the whittier uptown show. my only question in all the attention to detail, is why they used such a jolly green giant green on the wheels, rather than something from the same range as the hood flames? kinda throws me off a bit.

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question for you: what do you consider a professional photographer? i often get asked if i'm a professional, and am always at a loss as to how to answer. i look at them, they look at me. they blink, look quizzically. "do you work for a magazine?" blink. blink.

i wonder why they bother to ask, most never look like the type that would buy a print, much less pay “professional” rates. i assume they want something for free, to use for their charity, whatever. if i state a price, i sometimes hear that mr. xyz only charges $X. well, then, go buy his/her pictures, it don't bother me none. i don't have the time or interest to peddle my wares or harass the owners.

i think the basic definition, is that if you can sell a print, you're a professional. then, ya, i guess i am, in some fashion. on the other hand, i do this more as a hobby, to do my own thing after a long day at work, without other people telling me what to do. 

i'm a professional graphic designer, since that's what i've got a diploma in and how i make my bread and butter, one who farts around with cameras after work, then tweaks the images on a computer—still in designer mode. so anyway, ya i'm a professional.

back in college i collaborated on a gallery show with a painter. i showed my black and white photography, he put up his paintings. i had cemetery images, close up detail stuff, abstract negative space, etc. the one comment left in my guest book that stuck out in my mind, was that "...the work looked like it was done by a graphic designer." i was never sure if that was meant in a good way or a bad way. i developed the stuff the same as a "photographer," so what is the difference? was it the way i cropped the images? the presentation? was it a snobby photography student? i don't remember. i didn't know anyone well at the school, and it wasn't advertised as photography done by a design major, so how would they even know?

anyway, back to my point; everyone with a camera these days can call themselves a professional photographer. but the old rule still applies: garbage in, garbage out. i think people can judge for themselves. i usually just answer to the blinkers, "no," and they go away to stuff more of their flyers into people's cars.

to hell and back

i took my mom to a car show a few weeks ago. with all the beautiful shiny cars all around, she asked why i bothered to shoot stuff like this. if you can have steak every day, every once in a while, you still just want a hamburger.

can't tell me this doesn't have some character, can you? it doesn't look totally, naturally weathered; they're probably working on it at a very early stage, but still shows a life lived. that these old cars are still around in whatever condition is a statement in itself. it may be a POS, but it's still an interesting one to look at.

ya, i cropped it...had the damn hood open. :)

bling

quick post. been working too late, and then come home to work on a picture. gotta get some sleep.

maybe i'll write more about this one another day...

fly away

i'm pretty sure i didn't see the butterfly on the hood ornament the first time i passed this car. i think it got clipped on later.

my better half was spending a lot of time shooting this hood ornament on the car next to this one. he'd borrowed my macro, which when slapped on his full frame camera apparently kicks ass. anyway, i'd spent long enough just standing around waiting, that the lady who owned this one noticed i/we shoot with sony cameras. she was fascinated and full of questions. mainly because she was looking for what camera she should buy, and noticed i had a minolta lens one of mine.

when she started asking more techical questions, we waited for my better half to finish with the other pontiac. she and her husband said they'd owned more than 100 different cars over the years. this one, she said, drove like a pig, something about the power steering or non-existence of it. she'd made a deal with the proprietor of a car shop, where he spliced in an engine or front end of a car he'd recently finished, and some other parts, so now the thing supposedly really rips up the road.

i think she said it had a t-bird radiator in it too, which my better half joked whether it had an opera window in that as well.

of course, she may have been talking about one of her other cars, and i've just gotten them mixed up, just like the guts of said car.

i liked that the paint wasn't perfect; it was all scarred and pitted—a car that is driven and loved every day.

pug

this was a different truck. don't see too many of these around, though i did find other pics of this one on the web at other shows. apparently its a coe or cab over engine model, hence the shortened front end. but, to me, it reminds me of those purebred dogs or cats that look like they've run into a wall and have no nose. at least in a monster like this, you'd feel safer than driving in one of those "smart" cars; in an accident, i'd place my money on this one and still being able to walk.

the owner was a nice guy too. very happy to let you have a good look around the thing. thanks for moving out of the way, but i don't remember the guy standing next to me, if you can see me in the bumper. i think he owned the red muscle car you see reflected on the side. i didn't take any pictures of his car. psst. dude, close your hood – maybe i'd think about it.

thumbs down, uptown

i had already been warned that the whittier uptown show was going to be different this year. i'm not saying there weren't some nice cars there, because there were. i'm saying, the change was not good. they decided to segregate the show this year: today would be hot rods and muscle cars; next may would be the bombs and low riders. it almost felt gutted without the quantity, quality, and enthusiasm of past shows. what were they thinking?

happily, in a side lot, a group of bombs, low riders and the like, had staked out the lot the night before, and set up there, along with a tent advertising the show next may. while i do have more affection for these types of cars, a few had still managed to find their way in, out on the main street. while there were not so many cars, they had still blocked off just as much space as past years. you'd think they'd tell the guys to space the cars out...a lot. they still clustered them toward the center stage and judges' area, i suppose. the crowd was not so rowdy. the cops didn't notice the guys drinking beer out of the back of their van disguised in red plastic cups. there were a several whole blocks of closed, empty streets.

now i wonder if so many, of what they've determined to be the rowdy element, will want to come on down next may, after being so excluded. i'd be kinda pissed if i were them.

anyway, that's my review. a big pffft to the bigwigs in whittier, you've made a great show kinda boring.

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this one was over in the bomb lot. only a handful of cars back there, but the kind that i like. the owner kindly dropped the hood for the shot. i'm not sure that the guy that specifically asked for a shot of this car was just one of the working car show shlubs, or one of the organizers of the show. if an organizer, i've probably not made him happy by my review, but it's just my opinion, dude. and what do i know about cars anyway, aside from how to shoot them with my little camera here.

squee

so shiny. i don't usually shoot these ’stangs. they don't usually do it for me, but this one was too nice to pass by. i am laughing now, because as i look at this shot all i can see is that this one really needs a car bra...a big grannie one...it apppears to be real cold out, if you know what i mean. but then i'm told i'm a bit twisted anyway.

general

i think i've seen this truck over at jae bueno's blog at some point. here it is, hiding on a back pathway of the old world village in huntington beach.

i'm thinking the wheel covers aren't original, but they are kinda cool. wished the hood was down, but figured i better catch it while i could, from the side that was closed.

it was highly polished, like looking into a black hole, were it not for the blue sky above, throwing reflections all about it.

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i'm in tradeshow hell at work again. i've worked a couple hours over for the last three days, and will probably continue doing so for the next month or so. makes it hard to get it up for a car show in the evening. i want to go, i really do, but if i stop at home first, i just don't want to go back out.

i do intend to hit the whittier uptown show this saturday. please do bring all your purrrty cars out for me. i miss you so.