then there's this guy

went to the imperials show last sunday. wow. huge show. right up there with the legends' san pedro show. two baseball fields, plus in between, and a parking lot full of cars. a good amount of the stuff i like, so i was in chevy heaven.

hot day though, so took several more shade breaks than i normally would, which also cut back on how many cars i got to. big thanks to my friends, the latin gents and old times clubs for sharing their shade and the coldest damn bottles of water i've had since i went to canada, and brushed my teeth with water from a glacier.

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this guy, i see at a lot of car shows. drives a really nice '39 master deluxe. always calls me juera. i suppose that's better than gallina--my ex would tease me and say, "catalina, la gallina, puso un huevo in la cocina." he thought it was funny and our kids liked the rhyme.

saw him early at this show. took a few shots of his car before it got crowded in by other cars; but that's for another time, another post.

later in the day, i'm way over on the other side of the other field, and who comes strolling by? yup. says his friend has brought his car, i really should go check it out. won't see another like it, and it's back over next to his car. of course.

so last thing i do, while i still have enough energy to get there, and then get back to my car, is walk back over there.

he was there, with some friends. the car was pretty nice, with real wood panels, not just painted to look like wood. and a convertible, to boot. broke my own rule of not shooting cars with their hoods up, but since i'd walked all the way over, might as well.

and then he wants to pose for a picture with it...and it's not even his car. i guess he really liked it.

oh, and you can see the car without him in front of it, here.

mooneyes

busy weekend. mooneyes saturday; imperials show sunday. all i can say is, wow. more than enough cars to get my yayas out. i'm sooo tired...too much sun, i guess. after a week of cooler temps, the weekend had to heat up, which seems to be the one thing that forces me to leave early--from the house, and later from the show. sucks.

people have told me i need to go to mooneyes. i think they mean the xmas show, but open house gave a good idea of what shows up at xmas. might have to make the trip this year, wherever it might end up...didn't they close irwindale speedway?

anyway, made my way down one side of the street, through several small parking lots of cars and people, crossed the street and back up toward mooneyes, itself. always a challenge shooting in crowds, and next to a busy street, with traffic in the background. depends on my attitude that day whether i give a shit if there are people milling around a car, or a blur of traffic in the background--either can be fine, especially if no fucks are given about what's going on...focus on the car. ahem, i ramble...

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i am a fan of pinstripes. sometimes shoot a car just for the pinstriping, even when the hood is up ;) saw this car near the street, but more away from the main crowd. not so many people in the way. interesting colors and liked the flames. owner came over and introduced himself. i think he said he was a student at cerritos college, and that he'd done the paint and pinstriping himself. nice job!

connect the dots

thinking of going to the imperials show at hawaiian gardens on sunday. high hopes for an eclectic selection of cars to shoot. charging my batteries, cleaning the sensors, polishing the lenses. trying to get into a better frame of mind, than i've been recently.

new locations have promise for seeing things a new way. shooting cars differently, even if the angles are the same. always looking for the shots that make me happy; the designer in me looks for a pleasing composition and balance, or purposeful imbalance. my hobby keeps me happy, and helps keep me agile in my day job.

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found this at the hillco show from last superbowl sunday; it's their annual thang before the game. i think this was the third year i've been, but got there earlier than the previous years. saw lots more cars, some park and stay, others, just doing a quick stop and continuing on to wherever they are going to see the game.

blah blah blah. i've seen this truck a few times before, this show and elsewhere. i like the pinstriping on this truck. the rest of it, not so much. i like the truck in this picture; i like the composition of it better, with the car behind it, in another. should have took a couple other angles of them until i got what i wanted in one shot.

there seems to be some faint, green on green bubbley airbrushing on the top of the cab. little glitter, subtle shadows.

smug

drove out to ruby's last week. only two and half rows of cars. big change from a few years ago, as is for all the weekly shows it seems.

wasn't completely in the mood to shoot, definitely not to chat. mostly went through the motions, shot a few here, shot a few there. nothing there was really rockin' my world. good practice though.

i see this one once in a while. still like to study the paint job, try to imagine how they create some of the effects in the paint.

redemption

i like lowdown in uptown. not really for what they sell—it's cute, but i'm just not in the demographic for the clothing anymore. time is doing it's thing on me, and i'm not fighting it. just part of the process. kinda don't give a shit anymore. slowly becoming my mom, while my mom slowly becomes her mom.

anyway, they have an art show, their target crowd shows up. mostly to party, i think. they enjoy the artwork, but i don't think many buy. show ends, they go home. owners mop up the mess the next day.

some bring their cars; that's what i show up for. it's an addiction. some days the pull is harder than others.

lots of cars showed up for this show. cops accused them of having an unauthorized car show. same thing they argue every time they have an art show. this was the first car i shot that evening. i just walked up and down the street, avoiding traffic, jamming into small spaces, shooting what i could and what i liked.

lately, i haven't been in the mood much to get out to shows. just feeling tired, and the heat doesn't help. looks like i only have one show i really want to go to on the calendar for the month, san fernando high school. missed it last year because i was sick...haven't had a cold since then, so hoping it stays that way. it's a good show, and organized. i show up way too early, to get in and get out before the heat overwhelms. the people at the gate usually let me in early, as long as i stay out of the way.

picking coins out of a bear's butt

fourth of july. sitting at my puter watching illegal fireworks through the window. was going to walk uptown, but my better half said that there are a-holes throwing m-80s in drive-bys. interesting city, whittier and los angeles. hate living somewhere, where you have to worry about something stupid like that. could be anywhere now-a-days, i guess. where i grew up, the worse to worry about was eggs being thrown.

there's been some jerk in the neighborhood spending time late in the evenings driving around tossing the things here and there, playing cat and mouse with the cops. i have a hard time falling asleep as it is, so thanks bozo. he just went by, and five seconds later, a cop, lights still dark following at a fairly quick rate...hope he catches him.

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here are some random cars, the right colors for the day. red, last night at ruby's; white, last april at chicano park; and blue, march at the unidos show at walnut high school. all chevy's, all beauties, all, i wouldn't mind having.

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oh, if you're wondering about the title, i've spent the last two days rolling all the spare change in the house. i don't have a piggy bank—i have a bear. he was stuffed so full of coins, i had to keep poking him in that little hole on the bottom to get them loose enough to shake out. i've had him for like thirty years, so i really didn't want to smash him.

found a 1945 mercury dime in my bear; a few other silver dimes in other jars.

between my change and the buckets my better half uses for his, we hauled over a grand to the bank. damn that stuff is heavy! but hey, all we need now are a few days off at the same time and a road trip is in order.

is there anybody up there?

am i the only one that loves to crunch tree bark under their feet? that satisfying brittle crackle when you find that perfectly curled and dried seed pod? didn't think i'd find that this late in the summer, but i took a walk this evening and found both my favorites, and i slowly stepped down on them, to enjoy that snap, crackle and pop. ok, i'm weird. whatever. been a long day.

going to get some sleep tonight, so won't blather on here for very long. 

first car i shot from last week's foursquare church show. sun comes up early now; i got there early, and it still got up there first. love the cloudiness surrounding the sun. i so much want to stick an alien spacecraft or pterydactyl or something bursting forth, but decided that wouldn't be appropriate blasting out near the church.

it did help to light up the inside of the car, catching the interior details. that's always nice.

mach 1

ok, this isn't one i usually shoot. sometimes i see stuff that i know some of my flickr buds like, and i'll shoot it and post one once in a while. i like to think they do the same for me...mostly hood ornaments. i know i'm imagining it, but that's what i like to think.

so i'm throwing this one up for my flickr bud, stuart. he posts a lot of muscle cars, but i don't think i've seen him post a funky green one like this. for that matter, i can't say i've ever seen any mustang painted this color. so, vomit. i like this green, but i don't think it's great for this car. i don't know why.

full history

started my day by dropping my pictures off at the oc fairgrounds. fourth year in a row...will it be a fourth honorable mention? seem to be collecting those. it will make me laugh if i do. eh, good enough they will be on the wall.

then a quick run through the swap meet, and out to my condo to grab the mail, without disturbing my kid and his dog there. didn't feel like walking the dog.

randomly, it started to sprinkle. explains the humidity. almost felt like when i was a kid back east, just before the rain comes. almost, but not quite.

back home now. afternoon moving files on my computer, to make room for more. i can fill up a eight terabyte drive like nobody's business. they say all hard drives fail eventually, which means someday, everything i've ever shot will disappear at some point. sad thought. buy a print.

better half just now pointed out six or seven bad ass old chevys driving by the house. can't remember the club, but i've seen them all before. maybe i should take a walk up to the cigar bar with my camera...

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saw this mercury at the chicano park show. i think the simple blackness of the car balances out the busy and colorful mural behind it. i get that it's a historical mural, but do they have to jam the whole history into a freeway overpass?

kinda reminds me of the doodles my sister used to fill notebooks and her bedroom wall with. just not so bright.

hallelujah

made it out to only one real car show this past weekend, over at the foursquare church. not too far away; could have walked over there if i'd wanted, but at seven in the morning, it was already hot. i'd caught the end of this show last year, and liked what i saw, so thought i'd check it out from the beginning. 

there were only a couple of show cars in the lot when i arrived, plus the street of vendors setting up out front. so i walked over to the far corner and took a bunch of shots of that car.

as i mentioned a few posts ago, i'd been messing with settings on my camera the night before, and was giving it some testing. you can only tell so much by pixel peeping, so usually i don't bother looking at the back of the camera except when composing a shot. but since i'd messed with the focus of the lenses, i thought it best. basically, i started redoing the adjustment tests all over again, but this time on the subjects i shoot rather than a stupid paper target.

still not so sure i've got one of the lenses dialed in, but the one i used extensively for a couple of years, i think is pretty close. i shot the later in the morning shots with it, and i'm pretty happy with those.

this is one; saw several kustom oldies cars lined up at the front of the church. shot the obvious from the side, with the steepled church directly behind. nice, but safe and boring. i think this more angled shot gave a better sense of the car and still showed it with the church.

and did i mention it was hot? not as hot as h-e-double hockey sticks, but hot enough to melt ice cream. and me. i took several water breaks, dashing inside to cool off under the slowly turning ceiling fans. if i stood still long enough, i could cool down comfortably.

one time, i went in a different doorway, and found myself at the door of the church proper. strangely empty, i took the opportunity to get a shot. simple and unadorned, i suppose it allows worshippers to focus on what is really important to them, but i still wished there were stained glass windows to add a dash of color to the space.