milestone

look what ronnie has been hiding in his garage. said he'd had it there for five years, and finally got it fixed up and running. so he brought it out to the whittier uptown show. he was helping with the early morning setup of the show, so he got this choice spot on the street. just one of the advantages of getting there early.

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check it out. this is my thousandth rambling post here. who knew? nobody. who cares? nobody.

wondering if it's worth continuing with this website. i like it, but really, i'm running out of things to say, or maybe it was the need to say things. maybe i'm just going through a period of climbing back in my shell, migrating south for the winter, i don't know. i'm blaming the blood moon tonight.

most people just come looking for the pictures anyway. got flickr for that. and this doesn't satisfy the instant gratification most people are seeking, looking for that photo dump from that day's show.

i think i'll kill of the other site for ordering pictures, since so few people ever used it. ya, i'll start with that. not renewing it.

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skipped the dead sled show yesterday. figured i'd spend some time with my better half, and give my side a rest. i don't understand. if it's one particular rib with a crack in it, why it hurts randomly in different spots on that side, and not relating to any rib.

badger

saw this special deluxe at the fleetline fest. better half also managed to get this far in the parking lot, and spoke to the owner. asked him about the badge on the grille. since my better half seems to never post anything much anymore, i will take the opportunity to relay a short story here.

and of course, a week away his details are getting fuzzy.

guy found the badge on what was left of a grille in a junkyard. pulled it off and took it up to the office to ask how much it was.

dude in the office didn't even know what it was, and wasn't sure what to charge. better half can't remember how much he paid, but probably undervalued, since the dweeb didn't wait for the manager to get back. online, they seem to go for a couple hundred bucks, in the original blue velvet gift box.

says the historical value is in that it was an item chevrolet would give to employees / salespeople / owners that served in the war...one of the world wars, not clear on the first or second. i'm thinking more like the first.

also said the shades over the headlights helped to mute the glare of the lights from enemy aircraft that may be flying overhead. why give them a target?

anyway, some of the badges i see on grilles are quite interesting, and i'd never asked the why or where they come from, but my better half has no problem chatting people up, so he usually picks up these little tidbits of trivia.

top down

back in the grind at work and already overflowing with deadlines. that's why i hate taking vacations, the coming back to the office. 

took a long walk when i got home from work today. we walked about six miles a day on vacation, so it's the usual, let's keep it going when we get back. i suppose it will last a week or two. less, if the weather doesn't cool off.

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another from last week's fleetline fest. my better half didn't even get over to this side of the building, so didn't see it. very nice.

i like shooting dashboards of convertibles...always looking to update the header on my page. different steering wheels, dials and the different fonts they used to use...it's a designer thing, i suppose.

this one seems to be real wood fitted in there. and this one had yogi bear and dashboard jesus together...which is more useful?

fleetline fest

i really love fleetlines. saw a flyer for the fleetline fest online, while we were out of town. just back late last night, so we got up late this morning...didn't hear the alarm...or we would have been out earlier.

over at k1 in gardena, where i usually check out the old memories harbor area shows, i knew the parking would be limited. wondered how many fleetlines they would manage to jam in there, plus vendors. you would think whatever the number it would be enough, right? 

funny thing was that, in with all the fleetlines, there was other stuff. deluxes, special deluxes, bel airs, trucks... and maybe it was just the locations, the backgrounds, the surrounding cars with hoods up, but i have quite a few pictures of other stuff that i quite like, better than the fleetlines that i went for. all good. i like the old cars, so i'm pretty happy in spite of that.

this car was really nice. i've never seen it before, which is great. awesome paint job.

wasn't so happy with how damn hot it was. as one of the guys said, supposed to rain the next couple of days, shake and bake weather. i'm not ready to go back to work after a week off. especially up a bunch of floors in a tall building, parked in a parking structure. kinda have to not think about that when you live here in cali.

didn't stay too long. couldn't take the heat, forgot the suntan lotion, and don't tell my doc that i was out pulling my bag around with a cracked rib. didn't hurt, but kinda sore now.

bloody mary

see this car often, and it's owner, howard gribble, too. he's locally famous in southern california and the lowrider community. i follow him on flickr. and though all this is true, i've never been officially introduced. i have often walked past him, and never say a thing. perhaps we're both just shy, at least i am. only on rare occasions do i break out of that shell and go over and say hello.

jae bueno was one i said a tentative hello to, and he was the nicest guy in the world. apparently, he spoke to my better half, frequently, usually while they watched me fiddling around with my camera. he was delightful and gracious, and i was socially akward, as usual.

on this morning, in san pedro, in the dim morning light, before many people had come into the park, i saw howard coming around the bend in back of the lighthouse. he never looks happy, looks sort of pissed. i'm guessing that must be what i look like, at least according to my better half.

anyway, i did not divert my path, and walked toward him, as i was going round to the front of the lighthouse, and quietly said hello. and unless i imagined it, i heard a gruff "hi" from him. and that was it.

celebrate those little personal triumphs. sure it wasn't much, but it's hard for me to get out of my shell, or my head. it does get easier each time, whether you can hear me or not.

btw, the rearview of the car was from the sultan's signal hill show. just saying, i see it a lot, different places. nuff said.

a family

i was minding my own business, walking through the park at point fermin, looking for something interesting to shoot. cars were moving in by this point, and being directed left or right when they reached the lighthouse.

queue the random guy to come over and tell me to take pictures of his family's cars. all of them together, then individually. like i'm there taking orders. sure, i'll take them, gave me something to do. kinda doubt he'll buy prints; most guys like that just don't.

i could be totally wrong, but that's just how it came across.

nice set of chevys, then he said the ford at the end was also part of the group. they had that pop up over the truck, until the guy told the other guys to move it back. didn't ask what was so special about that one in particular.

anyway, did as i was told/asked, and got on with my life.

brotherhood

i went to this end of the park hoping to find a car with a good shot of the sunrise coming up over the car. this club was at the far corner, under this tree. i could see good shots as i approached, but they were still moving their cars around. the parking director told them where to park, and when he wasn't looking, they tried several times to pull their cars forward to get them lined up. then the parking guy would yell at them to move them back...he had to fit so many cars in this field, they couldn't spare the space.

i think they tried a couple of times before the parking guy threatened to invite them to leave.

anyway, i saw several beautiful shots, but couldn't get them, for all the cars and club guys walking around. i'm really the one in the way—the show really doesn't open for public viewing until ten or eleven—so i had to let those shots go. i work around the edges, and get what i get.

i know that camper kinda ruins it, but i really liked the color of the light.

back it up

i stood and watch the owner park this car here. couldn't wait for him to park and leave. he rolled out of the car looking kinda grumpy. almost thought he was going to move it somewhere else, but he didn't. i walked away and came back after he left.

i think maybe i love the trees in this park as well. i'll shoot most anything with them in the background. they just frame it up so nicely. they help camoflauge most of the crap and buildings too.

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apparently, somehow, somewhere, i've managed to crack a rib. started hurting a few months ago; finally couldn't ignore it any longer and saw a doctor, and got it xrayed. i probably shouldn't have mentioned it to my better half, knowing he was going to treat me differently. he'll make me follow the doctor's recommended orders to take it easy and not lift anything or overly exert myself. i've been walking around for a couple of months already, as is, so come on.

anyway, i'll probably take a few weeks off from going to car shows, and pulling my camera bag. unless i can talk him into being my bag boy. oh well, more time to work on pictures i already have, right?

we've got a trip booked soon, running away for a week, and i don't think we're going to bring the big cameras with us for a change.

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?