what's up?

el canas

1951 chevrolet thriftmaster truck

went to ruby's first show of the season last night. pretty good turnout—about five rows of cars with some cars up the aisles.

ran into the owner of this truck fairly early after i arrived. have joked around with him for about a year now, but hadn't seen him in a few months, since i hadn't been going to many shows. he asked me a couple of times if i'd taken a picture of his truck. not at the time, no, but i did get a few shots later, including this one. sun starting its way down, and this is from the darker side.

he asked for another one of my cards...lost the other, enjoys reading my blog...i think he's just collecting the whole set. each one has a different car on the back. lol. nah, he probably just keeps losing them.

met one of my flickr friends for the first time...hi there steve! he got some good shots too. go see a few of them here.

anyway, not sure what to do this weekend. big airshow in chino. big car show in riverside. definitely have to go to my son's baseball games. my big bro and family is in town from florida. better half is working all weekend. i think since it's getting late, i'll hit the car show before tonight's game, then do a few hours at the airshow in the morning before the afternoon game.

now if i stop at the train station in riverside, i'll call it a planes, trains, and automobiles weekend. :)

times are changing

1937 chevy

as i've been saying, my life has been getting very busy. not clearly an absolute yet, but i may soon also be packing all my worldly possessions up and stuffing it into storage. nah, i'm not going anywhere else, everything's fine. change of environment, sort of.

had hoped to get some pictures yesterday at fuddrucker's in el toro, and drove over there, but since the weather has been overcast and sprinkly, there was just a couple of newer corvettes and a 1930's ford. didn't get out of the car.

today i intended to try a new sunset show in laguna niguel, but figured since you really couldn't see the sun, and would have been colder near the coast, figured it wasn't worth the drive yet.

so, i'm really hoping the sun is out on friday for the first ruby's show of the season this friday. i'll be there, won't you?

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found this one from the easter show over at fuddrucker's in lakewood. i think i've mentioned in another post, that there wasn't much at this show because of the holiday. i'll have to go back again soon on a typical sunday. i've heard it can be a very busy show, and more cars equals more to choose from. lots of practice, only makes you better, and i've been out of practice. 

rumble

chevy fleetline

the thing i really like about being at a car show—apart from the taking of the pictures—is not even having to look around to know when these beasts are rolling in.

i can be low to the ground, focusing the camera, blocking the shot, and i can hear the low rumbling, like those dinosaurs in jurassic park, of the old cars blocks away. i don't even have to turn around, to know by the rumble if my next picture is driving up.

there's a big difference in the deep, low growl of old chevys, from the high pitched whine of the rodents running in the engines of say, a civic, driving down the street—eeeeeeeeeee—you know what i mean.

those lovely clouds...oh these are the kind of days i wait for all year.

full monte

chevy monte carlo

another car that i usually pass by, but i liked the reflection on the hood too much. frankly, i don't get the tiny wheels they put on these cars. i suppose it has something to do with the hydraulics and bounceability. otherwise, this one was rather plain compared to others i've seen all tatted up, relatively.

payback isn't always a bitch

1955 chevy wagon

one of the first cars i decided to shoot at this show, and oh how i wished the photo album was off the hood. the owner did finally come over and offer to move it, but i was already done with his car, starting to overheat and running short of time. chatted a bit, showed him my book.

he said he'd helped the original owner paint this car, i think back in the '70s. turns out he'd inherited it from him a couple of years ago. if i remember what he told me, i think he's still tweaking the engine, but it looked nice, glittering in the sun. glitter and pinstripes. not a bad way to say thanks for your help.

cruisin baby

1954 chevrolet

this lovely was out in riverside in february. back end sports a latin magic plate logo. a few guys from this club took time to chat with me. possibly the owner of this car talked a little about photography and shooting this car. no doubt it gets shot a lot.

they did give me a copy of that flyer that's messing up a perfectly fine image in the window there. i'd planned to go, but then the weekend of the featured show, i was out of town. sorry, it's baseball season for my kid, so my priorities are bit skewed now. not making it to as many shows as i'd like, nor posting as much as i'm used to. it happens.

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what is it about the dbags that drive those lame hybrid cars 50 mph on the freeway? do they think they're saving the environment by going waaaay too slow? maybe their electronic squirrel engines just can't go that fast. but why is it, that they always choose to drive slower than molasses in front of me? and what the hell are they doing anywhere else, but the slow lane?

solvangian dream

1956 chevrolet

whilst on a lost weekend in solvang several months ago, i was on the hunt for an old ford i'd seen tooling around the town. had even gone all the way back to the hotel to fetch my gear, and headed off to the main drag and public parking lots, hoping to find it somewhere. 

usually, it's quite busy on the weekend, and parking spaces are full. most any day of the week, one can find this here chevy. it's owned by one of the shop keepers. i was told by one of the employees watching from the store's doorway, that he also has another old car, and that she did as well...told her to tell him to bring his out, as well as hers the next day. (they didn't — i checked)

i've passed it by often over the years, but never had the interest prior to a couple of years ago, nor a good opportunity to shoot it. being that it was a rainy weekend, and fairly windy and chilly, here it was sitting with an empty space next to it, not many cars on the street. booyah! i took a couple of shots from the front, and from out in the street behind it. i liked this view best.

never did find the ford. must have been out just for a cruise.

crop it like it's hot

1957 chevrolet bel air

the full shot of this car was ok. but i think i like it cropped in like this. really it is the fins that make these cars anyway. and the contrast of colors wasn't bad either.

oh, and that's a shadow of a wagon wheel on the side. sun was starting to go down already.

this was from one of the shows on dave's cruise nights list. it's a little hit or miss in the winter i guess. there were only 3 or 4 cars when i got there, but was told that a couple had just left. well, that makes it better, i guess? anyway, i chatted with a guy with an old truck for a while, hoping more would drive in, but no luck in that department. he did mention another show the following week, which i did have the chance to get to, and saw him there, with his little dog too (he wasn't on a bike with a basket). that show rocked about a hundred cars, so thanks for that dude.

meant to get to one or two shows this weekend, to which i'd been given flyers, but other things came up, and couldn't make it. oh well. summer shows are almost here, so i'm sure i'll run into those guys again. raining here now, so i could post more pictures, or i could go clean my house...hmmm. nah, i gotta get some things done. i'll be good, just this one time...

everything's eventual

1948 chevrolet fleetline

ah yes. eventually, i'll think of an appropriate (or inappropriate) title for this post. inevitably, i need to get some sleep. someday, i'll finally sort through my to do list at home. soon, i'll order the blinds for my windows...the list goes on and on. things that always get put off. i suppose in the end, it will all catch up with me.

for now, i'm still choosing to distract myself with my pictures. but today, i think i've had enough of sitting: driving to work for 50 minutes; in front of a computer for 8 hours at work, driving home for another 50 minutes; eating dinner and chatting with my better half for another hour before he has to go back to the office for the evening...then sitting a bit longer to play with my pictures. enough already. i'm off to bounce on my trampoline, and then finally a chance to lay down for a few hours before starting all over again.

the clock is ticking. i doubt any of us will look as good as this car when we reach the same age.

like buttah

1956 chevrolet

i suppose the guy that owns this chevy gave up hope of ever seeing it here long ago. such a rich, creamery butter color, i think it may be just a tad too dark here because of processing, or just that my monitor is out of calibration again.

i think the owner was one of the few guys that bothered to chat with me, and he and his buddies took the time to flip through my book of prints, and ooo'ed and aaaah'ed all the while. it is always fun to see people's reactions to the pictures. mostly they are tickled by them, not believing they're pictures; there a few photography purists, who screw up their noses, and say it isn't their taste, which is fine. you like what you like.

anyway, was a nice car and a nice guy.