what's up?

senator's car

saw this buick at pomona. wanted to take a picture from the other side, but a pop up tent was opposite, along with a group of dudes, and a couple of empty wheelchairs. a guy came over and started telling me all about this car. 

said back in the day, senators used this model. it has two spare tires, one on each side, instead of the standard one. i forget how many six figures he claimed it was worth. and to boot, it wasn't even his car—he was sitting under the pop up.

i waited a bit, and eventually the dudes moved on or out of the way. pretty sure i've seen this one before. whatever; today is another day.

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sitting here looking out the window; grand nationals show going on this weekend, and i expect there may be a few cars cruising uptown. time for dinner. might just go for a little walk.

flight line

one more for the day.

i did get out to pomona yesterday, albeit, way later than planned. late enough that my better half couldn't go; had to stay home and work. yay overtime, but seriously, no weekend sucks.

got away from the show cars and wandered through the sale area. i don't think these two were for sale. caught them as the owners were dusting them off, preparing to leave. actually the only shot i have that the owner with the duster wasn't in there dusting the green car. just something you deal with shooting this stuff. not going to ask him to get out of the way, when he seemed determined to keep at it, when i was obviously taking pictures of his car. thought about posting one of those, but i like the fins on impalas, and this was the best shot anyway.

not sure why he wasn't in this shot. seems to me there was another photographer shooting from the other side. maybe he moved for that guy. whatever. i got the shot with the airplane heading to the landing field on the other side of the fence. part of the fun of being in the flight path for the airport.

golden glow

don't know what this is for sure. i liked the pinstriping.

background was kinda interesting. but too challenging with the traffic to really get a good shot. couldn't stand out the street very long before another car would come zooming by, looking for a place to park.

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i had the day off...MLK, office was closed. i should have been sifting through paperwork for taxes. can you tell i'm stalling?

purple sky

another from the lowdown show. these aren't perfect, but i think they give you the gist of the feeling. wishing i'd used my old lens, especially at night. better half would probably argue that this one is better, but i don't think so.

pretty truck. i think i've shot it before, but i'm not finding it now. probably didn't label it right. they moved it to this side of the street at some point, so shot it again. different spot, different light. slightly fewer people in the way. can't really do anything about the traffic, so i just live with the light streaks.

promised

like i thought, the mi barrio art show at the lowdown in uptown brought out the cars. wanted to get out earlier to see what might show up, but had to wait for my better half, who decided to take his morning shower at five in the evening, so he could look pretty, i guess. no, that isn't typical. he had to work all day, and well, it was the weekend, so whatever.

only had time to get a few cars before the sunset. i shot this car at sunset, and then later, when it was dark. the owner came over to ask what we do with the pictures. then he asked if we show the plates. he had the usual paranoid story about people online shopping for cars to steal and tracking them down by the plate numbers. heard it before. he was nice about it. of course, i'll not show the plates if asked, or if like richard, i won't bother to show them at all.

anyway, i always love a fleetline. hope you don't mind the felix, instead. seemed appropriate.

smelled like pussy

as we were walking home from the art show uptown, we found this ford was parked a half block down. i had already taken a few shots of it, when the owner walked up and wanted to grab a jacket out of the car.

better half, who had assigned himself as my bag boy/assistant by this point in the evening, asked him what the story on this car was. 

if i remember right, he's had it for about seven years. said it was a complete mess when he got it. said it smelled like cat, or cat piss, fairly unbearable. took four months to air that out somehow.

he cut out that oversize sunroof and smoothed the edges. i think he said when needed, he can pop in the old piece to cover it up, and i suppose keep the rain out. but maybe he doesn't take this out in the rain.

anyway, cool car now. check out that paint job.

and i apologize for the title...better half dared me.

doesn't fall far from the tree

been sitting on my ass all week. too much work, not enough time. and watching my kid's dog again a couple days a week. didn't even realize its a holiday weekend, so i've promised some deadlines that i still hope to be able to make, even with one less day.

better half has to work all weekend. he told them he's busy in the morning tomorrow, so we can head out early to pomona tomorrow for a few hours. i'm hoping for some new cars to shoot, and it seems to be a great place to find them.

there also seems to be an art show at the lowdown in uptown this evening. walked past the store at lunch time, and they seem like they better hurry up if they plan on hanging stuff before five. they did have five of their cars parked outside, though. i shot'em with my crap cell phone and stuck them on my instagram at #randomcarsuptown. thinking/hoping other cars show up later. gonna wander down the street with my camera and check it out. or it's saturday; ususally stuff further down by the cigar bar.

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looking back through shots from legends' san pedro, car show by the sea show. latin gents' cars were all parked near the street, under the trees. shade is good, but i'd be worried about birds. if you know what i mean.

pinky swear

we were heading back toward the car and spotted this car across the parking lot, across the street. definitely bright and sparkly enough to stand out.

lots of bling and too much of everything. all the chrome engraved, airbrushing, glitter, pinstriping and pink. pink. pink is for chicks. i'm a chick, but hate pink, and that's just me.

but it was an interesting amalgamation of skills.

close your hood, please, oh please

walked around this one. beautiful, beautiful fleetline. almost just left it sitting there. hood was open, but i just couldn't not shoot one picture of it. so here, i tried to get low enough to not notice the open hood so much. didn't work, not low enough.

my better half, who's there between the cars, talked to the owner earlier. he had asked him to close the hood, but that guy said most people are interested in the engine. nope. 

better half usually asks for the story on the car. unexpectedly, this guy says he bought this one as you see it, from someone who was desparate for the cash to buy his "dream" car, that had suddenly become available. so he got this sweet thing for twelve thousand even. damn.