playing with fire

so i hit a couple of shows on sunday. stopped first at the big boy show in orange. second time there. big disappointment. didn't even get my camera out. they had several rows of the parking lot blocked off, so they were hopeful, but the security guard started taking the caution tape down before i left.

then drove over to pal joey's show in costa mesa. haven't been to one of these since they were at the santa ana elk's club. decent turn out, but i still expected more. got there late enough that many cars had the hood up, so bye bye to them.

this one was a pretty decent hot rod, as hot rods go. i've never seen slightly rainbow-y flames as these...pinks to greens to oranges to blues. nice big wall•e engines...kinda expect a nickelodeon if you peek into this one.

so basically for the day, i got shots of maybe four cars. whatever. i had fun anyway.

this one is gumby

yep. here's the proof on the back:

 not much to say, except this is one clean bomb.

fly away home

i've been checking out some of the odd and random shows lately. looking for some different cars to shoot, new people to meet. well, this one was really disappointing as far as shows go, but not as far as the few cars that showed up.

the flyer mentioned that you should r.s.v.p., as there was limited space. well, smooth move sherlock, i can't think of a better way to get people not to show up. marketing genius.

i'd just gotten a new macro lens to replace the one that had broken...so sad. anyone interested in an awesome minolta "secret handshake" macro lens, that doesn't focus anymore? needed to test it out, in case it needed to be returned. being late in the day, i could only think of this particular show still running by the time i could get there.

well, despite being only half-way through the advertised show time, there were a grand total of four cars that i would consider being in the lot for the show, two of which were just selling stuff or otherwise just silly and shouldn't ever be seen in public...so embarassing. oh wait, a tricked out golf cart in front of an indoor golf facility, i guess could be interesting to some.

there were only three when i first pulled up across the street, then this baby drove in. saves the day even better than that stingray next to it. thank you so much!

took a shine to it

this car caught my attention. off at the end of the lot, the sun just starting to go down, light hitting it just so. the pinstripes and chrome just begged to be looked at, just had to get past a handful of hydraulicly-endowed cadillacs.

i like that the fuzzy dice match the color of the roof and interior. i'd lose that antenna ball if it were mine, but i ain't so nevermind.

crossroads

there have been a few new shows listed on dave's site recently, at least i've never seen on it before. this is from the good times show off crossroads parkway, in the carl's jr parking lot. figured if there wasn't much there, we could just go to fry's down the street.

there was a pretty good turnout: lots of chevys, lots of low rider cadillacs, and lots of hydraulics being bounced around. the show started in the late afternoon, but the sun is still dropping fairly early, so started shooting as quick as possible. there was a space of time before the parking lot lights came on, where it was pretty dark, and hard to see the cars. i still took some shots in the various lighting conditions...never know what you'll get. always learning, so practice, practice, practice. see what works and what doesn't for a picture.

there were beautiful cars from one end of the lot to the other, but this was one of the first group of cars we looked at. the owners were friendly and brought along their nice, big pit bulls too.

old guard

this line of chevys was at the old memories eastside charity event at the broiler yesterday evening. i got my better half to join me for this one and a couple of other shows today. good sport. thanks d.

the rain had stopped earlier yesterday, but the cold continues, with intermittent strong winds. the wind wobbles my tripod sometimes and messes with my shots, and throws them out of focus. guess i need to get a weight to help stabilize it from the shaking.

there weren't as many cars as we expected, probably due to the weather, but still a few worth shooting. several people were very helpful about moving their chairs out of the way, so i could take a picture, so thank you very much. there were some cars that i really wanted to get, but the sun was busy going down, and was casting too much of a shadow across them, so i had to pass, or the location just sucked with all the posts and light poles screwing up the look.

my hubbie ran into another photographer who cared to advise him that if he used a flash, you wouldn't need to use a tripod. the camera model my hubbie uses doesn't have a built-in flash. the guy said you can buy them pretty cheap. yup.

usually, at this point my hubbie would have whipped out his iPad® and shown him that we do all right without it, but he didn't have it in his bag. he just handed him one of my cards and told him to check out my website to see what we get without using a flash.

so, camera guy, i hope you didn't lose my card. please let us know where we can see your pictures, we'd love to see them.

by early evening’s light

made it through the week at work. very tired and ready to sleep in tomorrow. raining tonight, otherwise i'd have been over here at chubby's diner with the latin gents.

i can't remember seeing one of these plymouths in such fine condition before, and especially here amongst all the chevys. just a nice, simple off white, yellowed by the sunset.

it's owned by a very nice gentleman, who took some time to chat, introduce his young son, and look through my picture book. he seemed familiar with several of the cars in the book, knew the owners or had otherwise seen the cars elsewhere.

blimey, it's limey

i did mention there was a car show at whittier high school a couple of weekends ago, as a fundraiser for the baseball team. i didn't get there as earlier as i'd planned, so the sun was already pretty harshly in the sky.

there were a decent number of cars there, mostly chevys. main club representing was the bomb squad. not sure if this one is one of theirs, as the majority of those were around the corner from this one. it was such a brilliant green, enhanced by the sun, i had to have it. wish the owner would have closed the trunk. eh, the owner was behind the next car over, and seemed oblivious to hey, someone is taking a picture of my car. screw him, i cropped him out of the picture, so there.

there were a number of cadillacs all hyped up on hydraulics, all jumped up and posing. i only took a couple of shots of those, cuz they aren't really my thing. they just make me wonder why they do that, but to each his own.

there was a spectacular old chevy truck parked out on the street, i suppose because he didn't want to pay to participate for a trophy...there seemed to be plenty available, maybe everyone got one at the end of the day.

the pointy things on the back

raining off and on all day. went to work for a couple of hours then got my taxes done.

pouring right now, and i'm just sitting here playing with my cars. not quite the same as when i was younger and playing with my bro and his hot wheels. never was much for playing with dolls. i still can't remember why i cut the hair off my sister's dolls, but i'm sure i had a reason at the time. i guess i was a tomboy then, and still a bit of it remains.

i still don't like dolls, and my bro still has his hot wheels. funny that he's never passed them on to his own kids. guess you just gotta keep those childhood memories for yourself sometimes.

anyway, i digress. took this picture last year, when i was just getting started taking pictures of cars. it was going to rain that day, but the guys still brought their cars out to play at this show that only happened once a month. they didn't leave until the sky got much darker and scarier.

i just like the back of these chevys from this angle. makes the fins that much more interesting.

cherry

it is getting difficult to choose what to post. i have so many, but you'll just have to wait. go somewhere else if you want a photo dump.

busy weekend. only hit up two shows on friday and one early on saturday. had planned on a couple today, but valentine's day plans took priority.

this one was from friday. mmmm, the cars at the chubby's show are just so delicious. it's just chevy heaven every friday. the latin gents just do them right, and seem to represent more than other clubs at this show. 

not quite sure if this is one of theirs though...he drove in and parked all by himself. pulled in and dropped down. parked with no one near means fewer background distractions, i have more options for framing the picture, less people milling around, though they did start walking over by the time i got my shots. i liked this one best.

i was down lower for this shot, on my knees. one of the guys went with the "you don't have to worship the car" joke. at least that was one of the cleaner ones i've heard. thanks. :)