what's up?

stats

still working my way through all the pictures i took saturday. briefly thought about going to a show or pomona on sunday, but i was pretty tired, and i had stuff to do and relatives visiting, so stayed put.

i'll share a few stats from my day uptown:

i was out a total of seven hours, since the show was literally down the street from the house...got to take a break when it got too hot
shot about two-hundred and thirty-five cars, and more, if you count detail and hood ornament shots
just under eighty-six gigabytes of files on the hard drive. let's just say, i'd be in trouble space-wise if i had a full frame camera, a whole lot sooner in the year, at this rate.
at least 11,500 steps

thanks to the club that invited us to their xmas party this year. i'll think about if i want to get dressed up in girl clothes, and let you know. could be fun.

i think i have one or two more pics i promised, so here's one. pretty color, pretty car. i think this is the same color i picked out years ago, for a project car my ex was building.

second shot

another day, another car. owner watched me shoot the picture to the right, and came over to ask me what i do with the pictures.

i'm sensing a theme. don't see people asking every photographer what they do with the pictures, though i'd always be curious to see them. who knows what they do with them. i know i enjoy mine every day, and share a few here and there.

i suppose it has to do with the tripod. i think the guy that's out there at shows, with the old film camera with the bellows gets the same thing. no idea if he posts his shots, as i've never actually spoken to him...too shy.

anyway, saw the car again, on my way back up the street toward home. shot it again. it's a little more interesting, just because there is more color later in the morning, and more angles going on.

i was heading home to get some suntan lotion, as i felt my skin cooking. ended up downloading pictures from the memory cards, chugging a bottle of water and laying down for an hour. a little too long to sit still...was so sore when i headed back out.

went out, intending to shoot a particular car at the far end of the street, if the owner closed the hood as promised, as well as anything else that may have shown up and i'd missed. there were a few. arrived at said car, but the owner was not there, so didn't bother. shot a few more pics, and went to get dinner and cool off again.

uptown show

went out at five-thirty am today, up the street to the car show. better half walked me uptown, and pulled my camera bag around for a while. sun was already coming up.

noticed a bunch of classic cars in the rite-aid parking lot. went to shoot them, but they soon started to move over to the main street—they were there to volunteer to help set the show up and direct move-in, in exchange for prime parking.

strangely, as compared to prior years, they weren't starting move in until eight-thirty. we're used to a zillion cars lined up down the street waiting. nope, not much there.

spent time shooting the cars that were there. then noticed cars showing up further down, and went off to get those.

really love to shoot at this time of day, prior to move-in. fewer people, cool, overcast, everyone happy with anticipation. i really took the majority of my pictures waiting for eight-thirty.

then the time came, and it went very slowly. not sure what was going on, but it seemed to take forever to get cars moving. i took the opportunity to get some bfast.

i'm starting off, not with my favorite, best pics, but with the cars of people who talked with me, or asked about what i'm doing with the pics, as usual.

this nova was owned by the first guy that really chatted us up, mainly my better half, of course.

he popped the hood to show us what was hiding there, in spite of me wearing my infamous hat. whatever. here's a shot of the engine. dare a cop to try to catch up with it.

shark attack

yesterday was my boy's birthday. twenty-seven. how'd that happen?

they invited me to join them for birthday dinner. some restaurant down in laguna beach. because they're foodies, and know where to go when they want good stuff.

i haven't been to laguna in probably twenty years. no reason to go, and i always hated the crowds and traffic. i stopped going to the beach because there was no point in me trying to get a tan—i just burn then fade to white again. and then all the sand that gets in the car and in places sand just shouldn't be, if i went in the water on a boogie board or to jump the waves.

at least laguna main beach isn't too run down, as beach towns go, but i had a bit of a time remembering how to get around, and finding parking.

restaurant was hopping busy, and i got there early and put in my name to save a table. still would be about forty-five minutes. everyone else arrived and we walked across the street to the water, and some park benches.

flashbacks to places i'd been there when i was younger and dating my ex. and later, a building, where we'd attended a xmas party for work. so long ago.

remembering seeing a random man on a corner, wearing very loose dolphin shorts, with nothing under...and the wind blowing at the wrong time. ewww.

my sister lives out there somewhere, with her boyfriend/landlord/whatever he is. never have visited. i have issues with him. i see her once in a while at my mom's house, but mostly on holidays.

ya, probably be another twenty before i bother to go back.

anyway, it's difficult to find a gift for kids as they get older. they've already bought the things they need, and they have their own likes and decoration style.

so i fall back on their sense of humor, and just get them silly, just so there is something to open. found him a rubber shark puppet, and with some cash in it's mouth, he was happy enough. he's a lawyer, so he got the joke right away.

ready for the uptown show tomorrow. camera sensors cleaned, batteries charged. i should get to bed early tonight, but i probably won't. i can sleep tomorrow when i'm done.

saw this t-bird in garden grove at the super cruise. it sorta vaguely reminds me of a shark for some reason...maybe it's the headlights and shape of the hood.

it was nice in the early light of morning.

fun times

watched a kid playing around with this model car. he noticed me standing there watching, so he put it down.

quickly took a few sloppy pictures of it, for chuckleberries.

then i took a picture of it in front of the car he parked in front of.

this club was parked in a corner, soaking up the shade. sun starting to set, bounced the light around a bit, and flared off my lens, so it's slightly funky. just thought i'd post it, in case the kid and/or the owner happened to notice this post.

wistful

back to the grind, after a long weekend. i'd rather go back to the weekend, or farther back in time, or to some future point.

the current reality at home, is a minefield, and the only escape is through it, one day at a time. i have been trying to rest up, as my turn will be coming soon enough, to step up and give someone a break before they snap. there has to be a way to get some outside help, but it's not my place in this situation, so my ignorance continues.

meanwhile, i still have my pictures to get lost in. saw that the pomona swap meet is coming up this weekend. probably won't make it, but i do have some pics from past meets, like this one.

really, to get the best pictures there, you have to be there when the gates open at five in the morning, before the sun comes up. fewer people, fewer cars. by the time you park and get over to the show cars, the sun is coming up, and the light is warm and beautiful.

down low, i caught the light bouncing up and making the interior glow.

packard

back in whittier for a few hours. don't think i'll stay the night. stopped to say hey to the better half, grab some clothes, write this post. too late to hit up a picnic show in montebello, or is it?

leaving also means i'll miss the show over in la puente tomorrow...decisions decisions. i have a headache...probably caffeine related.

couldn't post this set of images from the app, without losing the format, so i'll just do it now, while i'm at the computer.

don't know why i shot this car, since the hood was up, and no one asked me to. probably because i was running out of cars i wanted to shoot at this small show.

don't get me wrong, it's a lovely car, i just don't like hoods up. but the hood ornament...love those, whenever, wherever...

miss you

my original plans for this holiday weekend included backing up files, going to several carshows, and helping out my better half at home, by going to the market, etc.

the opportunity came up, and i've been at my place for four days now. i like it a lot. i've done my usual cleaning and repair work when i stay here for too long.

those kids tell me they spend weekends cleaning, but apparently, that NEVER includes bathrooms. i mean, come on, how hard is it to swirl a brush in the toilet? sweep the floor? i could write a message in the dust bunnies along the edge of the wall. gave the showers a good scrub, so now i think i'll take a bath for a change.

they have so many clothes! i assume the dresser is full--i'm not a snooper--but they also have two closets crammed and at four hampers full, as well as a pile of clothes on the floor of one closet. i cannot tell what is clean or not, or i'd wash them. i did wash one of the hampers full that was downstairs, as well as re-doing what they had left in the dryer.

ugh. dug lint out of the dryer vent. and that load was too big (that's what she said.) i've told them before they'll start a fire. oh, and there were no batteries in the fire alarms...wtf.

ya, might be time for them to find their own place.

i think i'll drive up to see my better half today. i'm sure he's been too busy to notice that i'm not there. j/k. maybe i can can talk him into leaving the house for a walk or dinner.

saw this merc at the memo ortega anniversary show as i was heading out. it's different, and a beautiful, deep maroon color.

if i stay in whittier tonight, i can make it to a show tomorrow. otherwise, see you next week at the uptown show. except for that one guy, and richard; they know where they can go--someplace extra hot and crispy.

home sweet home

got my home back for a week. kid is in kauai with his wifey.

if the place wasn't so full of their stuff, i'd be tempted to not let them back in. ;) soon, they tell me, as they complain that rents are too high everywhere they look. yep, and good luck with that. pretty sure their dog will live out his lifespan here before they move.

that's ok, as long as my better half is good with me hanging with him.

here's another from manny's el loco cruise. squeezed in here between a big storage dumpster and the back end of this impala. i managed to get the shot i wanted.

i think the owner sent a kid over to ask for a card first, then he later came over and gave me a flyer for his club's upcoming show. seemed nice enough, actually everybody at the show did. i'll have to add it to my growing list of shows i read about, and consider going to. i think it's out in fontana somewhere; will have to pull the flyer from my camera bag when i get back home in whittier. for the deets.

monday

another monday. empty parking structure at work. this early, not expecting too many, but monday is always empty. holiday is next week, right?

made it out to a cruise at manny's el loco this weekend. i seem to be only squeezing in one show a week nowadays...how times have changed. go with the flow at home. not expecting things to get better anytime soon.

anyways, what was i saying? oh ya, manny's...smallish turnout. not sure if that was typical, but there was enough i like to shoot to have made it worth the trip. saw at least two clubs i know, and am always greeted warmly by at least one of their members. good to know someone at a show i've never been to, and when my better half isn't with me.

didn't make it to a morning show, so waited till the end of the day, avoiding the heat for the most part. should have stayed later and worked on some night time images, but i'll settle for sundowners.

don't think my camera sensor is too happy about shooting the sun, but i like catching the rays and sun flares. it's a little different, and need to change things up sometimes.