it was only a few minutes after six in the morning here, but we still wished we had gotten there earlier. clubs were lining up a block away, then waiting here to be sent into the park. sometimes they were parked long enough for me to get my exposures.
i like how the girl in the car tried not to look, but i caught her anyway.
glad the week is over, but the work isn't done. will probably end up working in between bouts of relaxing, which should cancel each other out. that's the theory anyway.
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computer is misbehaving too. hoping you can see the pictures and not just boxes with red "X"s.
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wondering the why of the carpet, except that it matches the color palette of the car, and defines the space and environment boundaries. no other purpose really. i see mirrors on the ground often, but there's a reason for them, usually involving a lot of chrome and hydraulics under the car.
i like the simple pinstriping on most of the car, but the big shape on the back wheel probably would look better on the trunk, not necessarily so big, and leave this part clean...if it were my car, as a matter of speaking. but it ain't, so don't listen to me.
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brain is mush. what else can i say about chicano park? let's play bitch and moan / sunshine up your...
busy weekend, but fun. tired now, so i'll be brief.
even better, my better half got to go with me. his sister got out of the hospital, and she was well enough to take care of their mom.
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we got to the park around five-thirty in the morning. there were already cars lined up in staging to go into the park. so we decided to go over by the stage thing and unpack our cameras on the steps. within a minute of unzipping the camera bags, we were approached by an older woman who wanted to know who we were with, what were we doing...etc. we simply said we were just unpacking our cameras to take some pictures. she said the whole park is reserved for an event, they were setting up and that we had to leave. we replied that we were here for said event, and repeated we were just unpacking. she persisted, so whatever, we'll move somewhere else and unpack and do exactly what we planned anyway...to go back over to where they were staging the cars.
honestly, there wasn't anything or anyone there on that piece of the park, and we weren't intending to get in the way even if there had been. going to bite my tongue here, because i like the show, and want to go back again next year, but get a grip. even the cop in the car in a neaby parking lot wasn't going to bother us. hope she had a nice day.
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took so many pictures. the weather turned out to be perfect, overcast with bouts of sunshine. never really needed a jacket, even so early in the morning. i liked this picture because it seemed to represent the show and location well.
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and as we left the show for the day, i was waiting to cross the street, when my better half started laughing. i turned around and he pointed at this painting. and OMG, it was the lady who had told us to leave in the first place. took some searching, but i've figured out who she is, and why she had the authority to ask us to leave. we still found it funny that we started the day with her and here she was again, on our way out...
quick post then to bed.
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saw this delivery truck at the majestics easter show too. owners seemed very pleasant, but didn't move out of the way fast enough, though they offered to move later. nope, sit there if you want; i'll shoot around you. actually, if you really want to be in a picture with your car, you can just ask. throw down your signs, look tuff, show off your tats. could be fun once in a while.
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happy easter, if i don't see you in chicano park. off to sleep...my eyes feel like they're gonna fall out. what a week it has been. what a month. more to come. so dang busy at work, this weekend couldn't get here soon enough. san diego, here i come!
well, i made it to the majestics easter show over in lakewood. just didn't get moving early enough to justify paying to get in at pomona.
while i knew this show was going to pull in a lot of the low rider, newer cars i'm not that interested in, i also knew they would get some nice oldies in too. i did shoot a few of the more notable low riders, and maybe i'll post them sometime, just when i feel like something different. all i can say is they put a lot of money into those cars for the customized paint, hydraulics, chrome and engraving. and well damn. just damn.
i liked this one mostly because it parked screwy at an angle. i could get this view and a side view with no real problem. except for the club members on the other side hanging in the tent. they did finally move out of there by the time i took this shot; you can see them in the paint reflection standing behind me.
ran into a couple of people i see frequently at this show. that's always nice. luis said he was going to be at chicano park this saturday too...so that's one familar face i'll see there. wish my better half could go, but that probably isn't in the cards this time. so :(
still not loving this lens as much as the old one, and with chicano park coming up, i may just go around once with one lens then switch and go around again with the other, just to be sure i get something that makes me happy.
ah, yes. the pendleton shirt. why the shirt? gotta be a status symbol. or stopping at the dry cleaners on the way home.
pretty car. still not sold on this lens i've been using.
thinking of two shows tomorrow: pomona and the majestics show in lakewood. feeling tired already. hope to get out to pomona early, before it gets too hot and sunny.
another strange monday. why did i get out of bed? responsibility is a heavy thing. sister-in-law is having some health issue at the hospital right now, so the taking care of the mother-in-law situation is getting a bit more exciting here. wait and see, wait and see.
ok, this isn't my favorite, best picture, but i did like the neon green of the the car with the pop of red from the tree behind it. don't remember any other red leafed trees except that one...weird.
otherwise, there's the sign up against the car, the bunch of dudes i've never seen before just sittin' there shootin' the shit on the other side of the car, and the car has blems and scratches. normally i wouldn't bother to show it, but i like it just the same. maybe it's the pinstripes. and it's just a weird day.
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thinking about shutting down the print ordering website. up for renewal on the fifteenth. only a few have used it to order prints for themselves; most people just email me directly. paid for itself last year, but no one really uses it. oh well. i cut the prices...if yours is there, now's the time...
where did the weekend go? so tired, gotta get to bed, so quick post tonight.
saw this chevy at the los boulevardos show.
it's nice. fairly typical; i have lots of shots of them. what caught my eye specifically was the plaque in the back window. there was a serape in the back that was reflecting onto it, and i just loved the colors.
told you the weather guys can't predict nuthin. no rain last night, no rain today.
i got up late, or i would have gone to three or four shows. so starts baseball, so starts the car show season. pretty much it never really stops in so cal, just not so many in the winter, if you can call it that.
when i went to the unidos show here at walnut high school last year, there wasn't much there, due to the coinciding swap meet at pomona. tends to suck the local shows dry. this one was busy, the lot was full, and i was happy. probably a fifty-fifty mix of 60s low riders and the bombs that i like.
right at the front were the host members' cars. i saw this one before, but i didn't like the shots i got of it. i like impalas, with their wings on the back. my preference is the fifty-nine, but this is ok too. i like the airbrush work on the wheel cover.
funny thing happening the last couple of shows i've been to. usually, its my better half telling me guys are asking where i am, if i am there; these shows, they've been asking where he is. someone even gave me a flyer to give to him for a change. he's finding that a funny twist.
stopped by the show in garden grove yesterday, on the way home from work. was better than sitting in friday traffic. haven't been there in many months, so it was nice to see that the street was pretty busy. i don't think there were too many empty spaces available when i left.
sadly, there weren't enough of the cars that i like or that used to show up there. i consoled myself with the few bel airs that were there. this was the first one i came across.
i set up and took a couple of angles of it, before the owner moseyed over. he asked if he could get a copy. told him i'd post it and handed him my card. want a print? go buy one here.
noticed the latin gents had shown up while heading out, but didn't take any pictures of their cars...to many people around them.
i intended to also stop at the show at the buena park elks' club before sunset, but was thwarted by construction lane closures before i could turn around and go a different way, so skipped it and went home.
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my older bro is in town from the east coast, and today's his birthday <happy bday rob!>, and all of us sibs are actually going to be at my parents' all together. that's rare.
too bad my better half can't go...he's sure to miss some of the best stories my brothers tell from their daily life at work. interesting jobs, they come in contact with some unique samples of humankind—and it's not even walmart.
then to see my younger bro mimic people...he transforms into that person, so you can almost see them. it's just priceless. bubbles, the ginormous stripper from west virginia, is a fav. with her country twang demanding "i thank you need to buy me a drank," to the gyrations of gravity on her heavyset frame coming to a stop, he burns the image of her perfectly into your mind, though you've never even seen her.
anyway, got things to do this weekend. looks like i'm hitting up a couple of shows next weekend, so gotta take care of stuff now. and probably do a job for work on top of that. don't think i'll drive all the way down to the office, unless i really need to, though that's fun too...no one there except the cleaning crew, and i always suprise the shit out of one of the women, when she comes around the corner of my cubicle.