what's up?

apache turquoise

1954 chevrolet bel air wagon

always looking for an excuse not to have to deal with cleaning the house or running laundry, i found this car show out in riverside, a fundraiser for the arizona middle school. i figured i could at the very least see some new cars.

i was not disappointed. the back field was lined with several inland empire car clubs' collections. i arrived, and just started from the right end of the fence and followed it around the perimeter. didn't shoot every single car, but mainly because half of them had the hoods and trunks open. such fine cars. mostly chevys of various years. but there were also a few newer cars, and some truck club, that i didn't really care about and therefore, totally ignored.

they also had various food and product stands, all selling their wares to collect money for various school clubs. i meant to buy some girl scout cookies from girls pulling a wagon, but didn't want to carry them around while i shot; i forgot to go find them when i was done. oh well. they weren't for me anyway – was going to get thin mints for my mother-in-law – a guilty pleasure for a diabetic.

this wagon was very nice, as proven by the trophies won, sitting in front of it. i don't think i've ever seen one, so i couldn't help from taking a picture of it, even with the back window hatch up. as it's supposed to rain in the next day or two, the sky above made for wonderful down low shots and reflections on all the cars.

i think the owner of this one was victor, one of the few people that bothered to talk to me. handed me a flyer for a show in march. thanks, victor. i hope i can make it there. hope your car won a trophy at this show...the one that was taller than me would probably fit in the back of your wagon.

watermelon ding

1953 chevy truck

saw this truck a couple of weeks ago at the broiler. it's pretty interesting. the patterns and the paint give this otherwise plain jane truck some attitude. is it more bad ass with that dent on the front bumper? that must have been a pisser of a day.

________

went to the broiler this evening. not really much going on. a lot of the same cars i've shot before. didn't stay long. i blame it on the full moon.

did get irritated by some granny with a plain truck. i was in the midst of doing a set of exposures, when she, apparently the owner, decided to open the door and sit in the truck. then lean out the window and ask what i was doing with the pictures. told her i put them on my blog if i like the shot.

she stared at me. then, the got out of the truck, leaving the door open, to go chat with her buds behind the truck. buttholio. eh. was a throw away shot anyway. she either was being obtuse, or was just passive aggressive enough to not tell me she'd prefer i didn't shoot it.

i could make an ok shot of the frames she didn't eff up, but i'd just end up ripping her as richard the second. best leave her to her anonimity, and delegate her truck to the non-existent category in my eyes. blithering idiot.

miss purdy

1957 chevrolet bel air

i've had this one sitting in my favorites for a while now. i guess saving it for a rainy day. supposed to rain tonight and tomorrow, so close enough.

this baby was polished to a mirror finish, and i'm kinda bummed i couldn't get up any higher to catch the sunset reflection in the hood. i think i had the tripod as high as i could get it, stand on my tip toes and still see in the eye piece. of course my better half would/will hassle me about using an angled eye piece for this type of problem, but i'm going to hope he doesn't see this post for a change.

anyway, was damn nice car.

you could even say it glows...

what is it?

no idea what kind of car this is. they stripped off all the things i'd look for first to figure that out. another one of the awesome cars at the broiler from the magazine shoot.

really amazing paint jobs on these. can't remember if that nomad is being lit up by the lights for the shoot, or if someone's got their headlights on, but it really brightens things up, almost too much.

sweet dreams

1955 chevy bel air nomad

so i went to the broiler the other night. end of january. temps in the upper 70s. weirdest weather i can remember.

anyway, lots of cars were already in the lot by the time i arrived. these pretty little things were all spit shined for an official photo shoot for a magazine i can't remember the name of, but i'm sure you'd all recognize it. quite the production, with a large team of people setting up fancy lighting and lots of cameras.

got this one fairly early on, though i was intercepted when i first arrived by someone interested in pictures of their own car. he's a regular. already had posted his car, and tried to show it to him on my phone, but the signal wasn't that great. had to go fetch my ipad out of the car, and finally found it to show to him. dude, if you're reading this, i sent you an email. waiting for a reply...but i digress...

story i heard from the owner of this lovely nomad was that it was the third time his car had been featured as a work in progress, only this time, the car had just been completed. hot spanking new paint job. perhaps it was really featuring the paint shop, as three of these cars were completely awesome and similarly pinstriped and metal flaked up in lollypop colors.

anyway, i got my shots in between their set ups and all the people milling around. only i didn't use a flash or their lights. i'll look for the magazine, but i'm perfectly happy with my pictures, even if they aren't perfect.

ain't nuthin' like the real thing

57 chevy

hi. my name's kathy. i'm a coke addict...no, not that kind. i drink too much coca-cola®. might as well hook me up to an iv full of it. really, what's the difference that i like my caffeine cold, rather than that foul smelling coffee stuff? nothing as good as perfectly mixed combination of carbination and sugary syrup on ice. new year, and yet again telling myself i'm going to cut back on the stuff. batting –.007 on that resolution. i'm sure i'll stop soon. ya right.

this red and white lovely was at fudd's a couple of weeks ago now. apparently we're simpatico...the license plate frame is for coca-cola. and the weather is just starting to get interesting, as far as the cloud formations go, so these down low shots will become more and more my favs. and the tail fins are always a fav...so...deal with it.

make up your mind

impala

saw this impala back in november on my way back up the street from the dia de los muertos show in whittier. perfectly nice low rider, but couldn't they have just put the damn top up or down? it just looks half ass like this, but maybe they like it that way? am i to admire the plush interior? and why the mirrors? what's up under the wheel well that i need to see? the hydraulics? perhaps i just don't understand low riders, and i should just stick to the oldies.

more whine

1949 chevrolet deluxe

danny's car again. he really wants a three-quarter view of it. i've only seen it twice, and both times, not an optimal spot. i shot it before, but he wanted to see more of it. this one echos the other danny's car, both in color tweakedness and in lens flare. it's supposed to be a deep red wine color. must be the light and the shade on this side, again messing up the color. i like it anyway. guess i just like flares and starbursts.

i have a decent one from the other side, and it's the right color, but there's a group of dudes on one side and a single dude on the other in it that just bug me, and it's not quite showing this much of the car. throws the picture out of balance or something, and i can't crop them out without losing some of the car either. i think that is the point where i could revert to desaturating, darkening, blurring, stripping out the background, or a hundred other things to remove the annoying items. i don't have the time or desire to do that much work.

i need to get something done tonight for delivery tomorrow, so i'm just putting this one up because it's ready to go.

uptown boy

1948 chevrolet deluxe

found this beauty at last august's uptown whittier show. it's one of the nice ones that were parked off the street, in a side lot, the one with the booth advertising the show for all the cars not allowed/invited at this show.

some of the best cars were in this lot. i'm looking forward to seeing them in may, assuming they aren't all so pissed off at the organizers that excluded them in the first place.

jade

1954 chevrolet 3100 truck

hey look what i found in my files. was preparing another image from this night's shooting, and noticed this beauty standing out from the darkness, like a gem.

it was parked next to a '55 truck, which was reflected in the door, when another car's headlights hit this truck during my exposures. that one is a good shot too, just not as colorful only because it's beige.

i like how i caught the sunset rainbow as well. really pops when you can get that too, don't you think?