fool injection

another day, another back end. wasn't feeling well this evening, so i skipped going to the broiler. just been flipping through old shots, deciding on stuff i will work on when the rain comes or when i can't decide which one i like. at least it will have been narrowed down a little. and it's just a collection of what i liked today, which doesn't mean i'll like it on a day that i don't know which one to work on.

this one was from a cars and coffee type show over by LAX early last january. had to drop my better half off for a business trip, so hey, find a car show as long as i'm up this early. it was parked next this woodie.

favorite combo: fins and clouds. kinda wish that woodie wasn't there.

sleepy

i gotta get some sleep. my eyes feel like these tail lights...kinda scrunched closed, half awake.

found this one from a while back. sometimes i just wonder why it takes so long for me to get around to putting some of these images up.

i just like the lines going on in this shot.

his baby

ok, nuff showlows for the week? ronnie asked if i had one of his ride, so here it is. he's one of the few that actually comments on my blog. so thanks ronnie. hope you like this one.

oh, and here's a shot of the pinstripes on the back of the car.

apparently i missed a decent show and some of my favorite cars over at bob's this weekend. sorry, but my better half caught a cold, so he got my attention instead.

get it up

low rider types are also not my typical subjects. these two were just on my way out of the show, and there weren't too many people milling around, so  there you go.

i find them difficult to shoot, not this red one in particular, but others are. they like to lower them way down, then pop one or two wheels up so the angle gets all screwed, and/or they pop open the hood and trunk to show off the boom boxes and hydraulics.

i took a shot of the car behind this one. it was up on the far side, so it looks a bit funny. not sure if i'll post it. i haven't decided yet.

a fast one

i wasn't going to take this picture. or rather a picture of this car—i prefer more vintage, classic cars. but the owner, carl, asked me nicely to take a few shots of his car. he told me it was a '74, but looking around on the net, closest i can find is a '77, so i'll take your word for it, carl.

so this is one of many reasons why i typically won't work for hire: letting the owner art direct. i know it would have been a fine shot from the other side, as he wanted, but the sun was beginning to set, and i had to show him how my tripod and me would cast a fine shadow across the car. i was going to do my thing, my style – i'd showed him my book of prints—but he had his own picture in his head. he wanted this, a shot that was more typical, showing more of the length of the car.

i wasn't going to go into discussions on the limitations or expections on what you get from the lens i use. i should have moved in closer for this shot, but i was just going with it for him. geez, i think he was starting to remind me of my dad, and you can't really argue with him when he thinks he's right.

i had to get him to trust me that it would be just as good from this side. i even let him look in the camera to see if it was the shot he wanted. in fact, from this side, you start to get the beginning of the sunset in the sky...maybe i should have told him to wait a bit even, to pick up even more color. he was having a hard enough time getting other owners from parking around him, afraid it would ruin his shot.

i hope he sees this and likes it enough to buy the print, but now i'm wondering if he would have preferred a more typical photographer just doing a typical picture. hey carl, if you don't like it, it won't bother me if you don't want to buy it. i think i'm just reacting to letting someone else tell me what to do and how to do it, instead of trusting myself and my own eyes.

so i'm posting this just for him, and i hope he doesn't take my commentary wrong, but it's meant with love. trust the artist, then either like it or don't.

altarnative view

here's another showlows car from the dia de los muertos. one of two altars set up in the back of their trucks. interesting to look at and very colorful.

some work's been done to this truck since this shot. kinda wondering what's planned for it. it's all sanded down.

not plain vanilla

here's the first one i took from the dia de los muertos show in whittier yesterday. this was a row of showlows cars. ronnie was kind enough to let me know they were going to be there, and since its right up the street from me, easy to walk to. even got uptown early and got some bfast before they arrived.

i don't think i've seen this one from their club. very exceptional and clean. i liked the pinstripes, which they all seem to have, and it's very well done.

wonka

so i got out shooting today, but already had this old picture ready to go, so you guys from today will just have to wait a few more days.

this was back in august, on the day of the uptown whittier car show. the one that allowed vintage and muscle cars, but no low riders. ya, you guys have to wait until may for your token show. thanks whittier.

don't know why, but this ford wasn't part of the show. he parked over by the coffee bean, i suppose to get his fix. did he get there too late? did he not register? did he just want to be noticed? well one out of three is sure.

the lack of people walking through the picture and the brilliant color of the car, made it an "ok, i'll take it" shot.

duke of windsor

another quick post then off to bed again. been busy. probably a couple more weeks and the work marathon will be done for another six months.

i don't see the cars from the showlows very often. well, i haven't really seen too many cars at all lately. this one was from an evening earlier in the year over at bob's. they had the club parked out back along the fence. their facebook page says it belongs to lou. i know ronnie reads this blog sometimes, so maybe he'll mention it to his friend.

i really like when i can catch the sunset or the start of one, with a car. i like the lens flares. on shiny cars the sun really blazes in the reflections.

this one has a more matte finish, but it's still pretty spectacular. pinstriping is cool too.

gotta go. ttfn

life’s a whirlwind

it's been a while since i posted. not my fault.

first i've been and still am silly, crazy busy at work. all the extra hours have kept me from the shows and from posting. all the extra hours finally caught up with me and bit me in the shoulder. my desk wasn't set up ergonomically since i got moved to my current location. so i've been sitting wrong, resting my arm on the desk and i guess my shoulder was getting too much motion as well as being in a weird position. so my nerves got tweaked, and i finally couldn't lift my arm higher than my rib cage. couldn't use two hands on the wheel driving home. that was fun and scary in rush hour traffic.

so i stayed home, and a cough that i've had for a while finally had a chance to catch up and turn into a nasty cold. and nasty colds keep me away from my computer, since i can't be near my elderly mother-in-law when i'm sick. she lives with us. so i have to be somewhere else, computerless.

anyway, cold is gone, back in the house for the first evening in about a week, and right back into the fire at work. so here's a quick post.

this tornado is almost the same model i used to drive. mine used to be blue, but a ’65. like driving a friggin' tank. man do i miss that car.