a rose by any other name

according to my brief “research” on the internet, “the 1954 chevrolet corvette nomad was a concept car built by GM and introduced at the 1954 GM motorama in NYC. the nomad was decidedly a sporty wagon way ahead of its time.” probably should have just taken a close up shot of the descriptive flyers in the window for the history of this baby.

i'm left to wonder why anyone would want to make a corvette into a wagon. bet some dad didn't want to haul the family around in some big ass family wagon, and thought it would be a good idea. i guess it would have been cool enough, but i don't think it really caught on...i've never seen another one like it til this.

flame thrower

only a few more weeks until the season when there is literally at least one car show a day. car gluttony. car-razy. car happy = carappy? whatever.

i think it's been hinted to throttle back on how many shows i hit up. shall we just say my better half is very patient with me, and i should probably throw more time his way. but, hey, he does work a lot of overtime, so what else am i going to do? i really hate going to the gym, and at least this gets me out and about, hauling around a tripod.

speaking of upcoming shows, this flamed beauty, and it's hot rod companion (can't really see the flames on it from this side) were at the foothill ranch show last june. was a bit overcast, and not as broiling hot as it got later in the summer there. i can't be sure, but i think this chevy has also been over at fuddrucker's once in a while, and i think it might even belong to the pinstriper guy who comes out once a month there in the summer. i'm sure someone out there will let me know ifn i'm misguided...you always do.

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.