turn off the light

got up before the sun and out to point fermin yesterday. clear sky and a full moon, we ran around trying to catch some pictures of the legends' cars that were already in the park.

don't realize how quick it fades from night to day until you're hauling a camera bag and tripod across grassy fields, to get to cars with the promise of a better point of view. still wouldn't trade it for a point and shoot camera. i'll use my phone camera for quick shots to instagram, but they're more of a documentation of stuff i saw quickly or where i've been--they're the throw aways.

i've shot this car before, and he always seems to park here every year. you don't know how much i wish bad things on that scrawny palm tree, whose pathetic trunk snakes up between the car and the lighthouse. ruins the shot, and i'm not going to waste time photoshopping it out...it was there, so there it will stay.

it was dark, so of course the park lights were on. do they get some sort of discount for those horrid yellow-tinged light bulbs i wonder? the blackness of night inherently sucks the color out of stuff and neutralizes it, but with that light dropping its mandarine light down on the car, everything getting hit by it just gets whacked to an orange spectrum. would have been so nice with just the moon and stars shining down.

posted the color version here too, because despite it burning my eyes, it's sort of ok, because that's how i saw it.

a went back a little later to try and get the same shot as last year, about the same time in the morning, but the sunrise just wasn't as spectacular, and every sunrise is a different experience, to be enjoyed in that moment. maybe next year...

feed bag

my better half and i got a rare three-day weekend, where his sister is in town and able to watch their mom. we hastily made last minute plans, since we didn't have much pre-weekend notice. we tossed a few ideas around, found some places we wanted didn't have rooms available, so we went local thursday night, and then friday to where we are now, hanging out in long beach.

mostly we have done absolutely nothing, but enjoy the air conditioning and sleep, with an occasional foray into the world for food. sometimes that's all we need. we work too many hours, so just to be able hide away is a good break.
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better half is whining that he'd looked at this car, from the viejitos show, and had even taken some pictures of it, but that they didn't look anywhere as good as this. maybe it's his point of view--he's a foot taller--he needs to adjust the angle of that dangle, and really look at a car from all points. i whine because i'm not tall enough to get good shots of cars with lots of airbrushing on the roof. maybe i'm just trying to see a good shot and take it.

he says i'm obsessed, but maybe he's enabling the obsession...otherwise we wouldn't be staying in long beach, just to be closer to the car show by the sea, happening tomorrow in san pedro, now would we?

picture this

up and out way before my body wanted to be on a weekend. stuff like this makes getting there early totally worth the effort. i like it when i can catch the sun just kissing the car, warming it up just so. and no one around. almost like a thief, stealing this shot...did anyone else see it? am i bogarting this all for myself? no, trying to share what i saw here.

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so at work they're thinking of doing their portraits in-house. tired of paying the go-to guy five hundred a pop. probably have another in-house guy do the shooting. they're thinking of getting a canon camera. pfft. whatever.

they know i do photography, so they're asking me for advice. why not; i'll end up working the files anyway, so might as well try to minimize how much work needs to be done with them. mostly asking if i can help them with lighting. i reminded them i do cars. at car shows, in natural light. where i can move around to find the best angle and lighting.

i've never done portraits, at least besides family. i suppose i could do it. i guess it would be the opposite of shooting a car, having to move the lighting around the subject or shifting them around to find the right angle. but it does miss one of the reasons i shoot cars...they don't look back, i don't have to talk to them or tell them what to do.

i sort of offered to do a shoot out—their canon against my sony. it would be sort of fun to see if i could get the big cheeses to crack a smile or ask them to do strange contortions to bend the light to my will. i've sat through classes, watched videos, read books. aside from getting the equipment, the only thing required would be to just do it, just like when i started going to shows and shooting cars. worse that could happen is getting some average pictures.

black and white

another car i promised to post. i have a few normal shots of this car. but i like this early morning shot. black and white cars can be a little boring sometimes. even if it is a fleetline.

uptown boy

busy day saturday. whittier car show. got up before the sun, and walked down the street.

tried shooting cars at the main intersection. all the guys that help set up get in early, so get their choice of parking. but, they were too close to where vendors were setting up, so people in the shot, cars driving through the shot, and with it still being mostly dark, it messed with the long exposures.

better half had me fiddle with the camera settings, which sped up the exposures, but made them more noisy. didn't change the background activity, so i skipped a bunch of them and moved on down the street, to where cars had started staging.

the point of being out that early was to get the early light. so tried to get to the cars stopped with the rising light coming up behind them, and fewer buildings in the way. mostly owners leave their cars and hang out in groups, or take the time to polish the paint.

the owner of this one asked me to take a shot of his car. so here's one from the morning. couldn't get the group out of any of the shots, so there they are.

we continued to shoot, then the fire marshall cleared them to start moving. everyone at the far end of the street started their engines, but that didn't last long. takes a while to move cars in. so, we just kept going. when they finally started moving the end of the street in, we stopped for breakfast.

may i also mention, that unlike the previous years that i've gone, it was hot and humid, even at this time of day. so, everyone that survived sitting out there all day, omg, how did you do it? we had the convenience of being able to go home for a break.

had to anyway. we had relatives arrive from northern california, so spent some time with them and their baby. took pictures of them for a while. downloaded all the pictures i'd already taken, charged batteries.

we had just headed back uptown and started shooting, when i got a call from my son. he was in town, and he'd just arrived at the house. so we headed back, while he headed toward the show. stopped again. walked down the street and had lunch at one of the barbeque places. at least it was cool inside. that ate up more time.

walked back home, chatted for a bit, checked out the car he'd recently bought himself. he took off. we went back inside to cool off for a bit. downloaded any additional pictures i'd taked before being called away again.

decided to head back at two-thirty, before the awards were to be given out. that usually ends a show; people start leaving after they realized they haven't won anything. wasn't really the case here. seemed like the earlier organization of the show broke down here. the announcer at the main intersection seemed to be calling out awards, but really, there wasn't the normal crowd of people listening. as if no one had told them what time they were going to make the announcements. it was weird to say the least.

and we also finally got to eyeball this year's show shirts. wow! what a crappy quality image! they've been bad the last few years, but these were really, truly crap, sad to say. looked like they'd put tracing paper over some pictures they probably downloaded from the internet, and used cheap magic markers to draw them. maybe kids did it. but wow, really bad. didn't see too many people wearing them. and the printing sucked too. sorry, i'm a graphic designer, so i can say it was badly done shirt all the way around.

i digress.

we went down the side streets. i was looking for a particular car, we'd seen earlier, after breakfast, waiting in staging. had no idea where it had ended up. i wasn't going home until i found it.

was up one of the cross streets, and found this same car again. didn't see the owner, so couldn't take him up on his earlier offer of a cold bottle of water, which would have been really good about then.

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have to pick up my pictures from the fair tomorrow. hope you all got a chance to see them. i have relatives in town from the east coast, over at my parent's house, so i suppose i'll drive over there, and show them off. probably won't get back to my posting until wednesday.

valley high

gonna post this, because i had it ready to go. i did make it uptown to the show today, and i'll start posting some of those soon, after i move from out of the front of this fan, and into a cold shower.

i'm way behind posting on recent shows. just been too busy and not home enough.

this one was from san fernando last month. love this show—oldies car club is very efficient about getting things organized, and moving the cars in. plus, they've let me in early for the three or four years i've made the trip up there.

pretty much have decided, since my better half mostly hasn't been able to join me at car shows lately, that if i can't find decent parking, in a relatively safe looking neighborhood, i'm not hanging around. luckily, i haven't had to leave one yet. there are other places i can be, which is the great part about socal and the los angeles area.

i think this is one of theirs. was in a line of their other cars, in the last parking lot i made it to before i was done. not sure which i liked most—the car or the hood ornament. liked the pop of the red, of the wheels, and the subtle pinstriping.

good hunting

long drive home from vegas this morning. freaking cajon pass construction. nice to be back.

better half had been out and about this afternoon. he came home and told me about some old fleetline types driving around uptown, guessing they were heading over to the radisson. sounded sort of like pharaohs' cars, but he didn't catch the plaque. told him that they were either scoping out where to park for the show in the morning, or heading over to a certain house in that neighborhood.

toward sunset, i headed uptown with my camera bag, in hopes of finding one or two over by the cigar bar, or better, in the parking lot at the hotel. only saw a couple of old cars drive by, didn't park. went all the way down the street to the hotel, but didn't see anything. so, they must have been just passing through.

so i walked a block up and back down the less crowded street, and got some dinner, enjoying the air conditioner in the restaurant. just before i'd gone in, i spotted this chevy down on the corner. figured if it was still there when i was done, i'd shoot it.

sun went down before i got back out. got my better half to walk down to the restaurant, so he could walk me home, and/or watch my back while i shot the car. it was still there, but slightly more dark. he got there ten minutes later, and there was the car.

so, my search for the early birds wasn't a total loss. i think it turned out ok. quite a few cars drove through the exposures, so i took a lot of shots, and this is about the cleanest of the bunch. better half thinks i should have left some of the light streaks from passing cars in. i'll think about it.

vegas, baby

here i sit, all by my lonesome. meetings all week. missed pomona this morning.

spent a few hours walking around an automobile collection/display at the linq in las vegas. no tripod, and indoors, so curious if any of the shots came out ok. using a camera i hardly ever use, since i didn't want to haul the big bag out here. it can wait at home with my better half...next saturday is whittier uptown car show, at last! also supposed to go to a bridal shower that same morning, but we'll see...

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last post until i get back, since i had this picture ready to go. blvd bombs car show in los angeles, i think a couple of their cars. i liked the pop of that yellow car, and also that it was a fleetmaster--just love the lines on those and fleetlines. the church building behind somehow just helps the composition. i liked it, anyway.

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sun starting to set here, so over and out...night d.

early bird gets the...

got to san fernando so early, that i parked on the curb near the entrance, and could have parked even closer, but held back a few car lengths. years' past there had been a line of cars down the street and around the corner. not entirely sure why it wasn't the case this time, but i needn't have worried--so many showed up later. must have been hungover, or, egads, they went to church?

i get to shows early, just for opportunities like these. no people in the shot, that glowing morning light, always chasing the light. gotta setup and shoot quickly, or you miss it. no gold reflectors needed. still, i got there too late for the transition from dark blue to purple to orange. oh well.

can't remember which club these two belong to...don't remember any club insignia, though they were later surrounded by a zillion pachuco club cars. i just know that i saw them across the field first thing, with that golden light, and went as quickly as i could to them.

loved the light hitting the hood ornament on the plymouth, and that it showed it's age, hadn't been replaced with a shiny new piece.

camera bags don't roll too good on grass. maybe they should make them with bigger wheels. that glow with fiber optic light. nah, wouldn't really blend into the background that way.

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crazy busy weekend/week ahead. day off on friday, mother-in-law's birthday; a graduation saturday, followed by a drive to vegas. a week there (any local shows besides cars and coffee?). car shows when i get back. thoughts: uptown whittier car show or bridal shower for future daughter-in-law??? hmmm hmmm hmmm.

gotta figure out how/when to take 100+ hours of vacation time before the end of the year. my mom just changed her mind and said she'd be willing to do a road trip. interesting. wait a few days...she'll change her mind.

glory days

i was shooting the woodie next to this impala, early in the day. the impala's owner was still polishing the car, so, when i turned to consider his car, i just walked by, and said i'd come back when he was done.

spent another hour or so, walking around the now crowded park, and had circled back toward the side closest to where i parked my car. i think i was shooting the back end of a '59 buick, when the guy found me, and smiling, said, "i'm done with the car."

i said i would, so i did soon enough. took a few angles; liked this one best. some other guy walked up and got in the passenger side...i hope he was friends with the owner.

another guy came over to ask if i'd shot his car, and pointed out into the fray, talking loudly, but i couldn't quite make out for sure which car he meant. the impala was parked near the stage, and the band was playing loudly. i didn't give him a card, so how would he see the picture anyway? i probably shot it, if the hood was down, and i liked the location. i think it was a packard he was talking about...i shot one...not sure if it was his.

sat down in the shade right in front of the group for a bit to watch old guys rocking. i think they said they were there every year. they played ok; and i took a few shots from where i sat. maybe i'll add a couple of them here.

time to get back to the office...