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training

chevy

on the train, heading home from a weekend in san diego. chicano park was awesome this year. i took so many pictures.

even went to a baseball game.

there's a guy from klique riverside on the train too. wearing his shirt, representin'.

someone from klique sd sold my kid a car a few weeks ago. coincidence. that guy showed my kid other cars he was working on, but my kid isn't familiar with the classic cars, so he just mentioned that his mom would be all about it. i had to smile, and agree that their cars are pretty nice.

but i'm not home yet, so those. shots will have to wait. summer coming up, shows to go to, and i fall behind on posting stuff i promised to post. so when i get home, i can be good, and get back to those from the last show, or should i give in to the fun of a new batch of pictures to play with?

and only have this one ready for now. from legg lake, quick pic before the rain started and we bailed. better half got a better shot of the car, if i remember right. it was the first car he shot when we got there.

rocking the 'patina.' shooting the hood from this angle, usually because the surrounding cars have their hoods up, and/or the background is distracting. in this case, it was because the aged crustiness of this car is just so fun to look at.

another hour to go, then let the downloading begin. :)

not a rainy day

1939 chevy master deluxe

at my mom's tonight, after a long day. was so tired when i got here, took a three hour nap, and only woke up because the obnoxious house phone rang.

this picture has just been sitting here, waiting in post purgatory; might as well put it up. definitely, not another dramatic sky...

from the new year's day show at the dam, just another fine master deluxe, under a blue, california sky.

probably going to miss pomona this weekend. other plans keeping us busy.

pretty maids...

veteranos car club

another from yesterday. i suspect this isn't all of the club, but my better half talked to the owner of the pontiac, who said the other members had him check the weather outside, being that he lived close to the area, and after reporting that it was half dry and half wet, they decided to just sleep in.

apparently, some other car owner he knows called him very early wondering where he was, being that he was at the show, there was no rain, and plenty of parking.

this parking lot should have been packed, but because of the clouds, it wasn't. seems it was not a problem getting there late, and still possible to park with the group.

so i shot them, without too many people walking through the shot. this one from one point, on my tripod. thinking i should have moved myself a bit vs the pivoting the ball head on the tripod, to avoid this distortion.

but i still kinda like it.

good thing this was a group shot, or i wouldn't have shot that one with the hood up. :) it ruins the shot. :)

spur of the moment

1958 chevy impala

it was going to rain today, so slept in. thought i'd just be sitting around the house today.

when it still wasn't raining at eight-thirty, asked my better half if he wanted to just drive over to legg lake, to see if any cars were there for the boulevardos show. thought it was close enough to home, if there was nothing or if it started raining, we could just go to the mall, or turn around.

better half said they wouldn't be there, since they were going to cruise in from los angeles. he kinda wanted to drive out there and watch, but mostly he just wanted to hang out with me, and i wanted to take pictures.

drove past the lake, and saw no show cars there. got on the freeway, and i said, what the hell, let's just drive out to chino and see if anyone showed up for that show. flyers said rain or shine. we were already half way there anyway.

racing the clouds, and it was slightly sprinkling, we went anyway. even thought about just driving out to cucamonga, checking into a hotel, buying a change of clothes, and kicking back in a jacuzzi. well, they didn't have any of those rooms available, so we skipped that idea. better half was on call for work anyway.

took a different route to the chino show than i usually take, and ended up at the end of the town, near the railroad tracks.

figured, we could just make a quick walk through, if the rain started, we could dash under a roof, or cover the camera with a plastic bag until we could find somewhere to pack everything back in the camera bag.

i'd been before, and it's usually very hot, and very busy and crowded. lots of cars, up and down the streets, on the lawn in front of city hall, and through side lots. cars can cruise along the street route.

well, the rain did scare a lot of cars away. but there were still a lot of cars i like to shoot anyway. better half didn't seem to see anything he wanted to shoot, until we came to a mostly empty lot, with some of the veteranos cars in it. he took some pictures, and set up a time lapse, to catch the movement of the clouds. actually, turned out really interesting, and he's having fun editing it. maybe he'll post it for a change.

while he shot that video, i quickly went and walked the rest of the show.

found this impala near the city hall. thought it looked pretty awesome with the clouds overhead. turned around pretty quickly, to head back to fetch my better half. the rain was coming. this car and the one on far side of it drove away soon after.

made it back to my car, just as sprinkles started to fall...

long way to go

1940 mercury

i've seen this car before. probably at chicano park.

i was chatting with a car owner when i spied this car drive by at the end of the lane. he off-handedly mentioned that the merc owner had driven up to city of industry from san diego. that'd be about a three hour drive on a good day. but on a friday, it must have been hellish.

gave me more hope that this frisco's show was worth the effort to get here. having the previous show shut down before it had barely got off the ground, definitely was a good sign.

but what if this guy drove all the way the eff up here, just to have to leave?

i guess it was a gamble he was willing to make. i did not hear that the authorities shut it down after we left, so he lucked out.

i bet he has plenty of friends to hang out with as a back up anyway. nice car, no problem meeting people, i suppose.

rained a bit today. predictions put it at eighty percent chance of rain all day saturday and sunday, so i guess my weekend outings are off. shows may be on, rain or shine, but my lenses don't like rain that much. maybe i'll actually pack up my camera that crapped out on me last summer, and send it in for repair. does me no good as a paperweight.

oh, that shine

1959 chevrolet impala

always see people obsessively polishing their cars at shows. almost as soon as they park, they have a towel and bottle of liquid wax in hand. get the dust from the drive there off, i guess.

rub it and rub it, ahhhhwwww...

this car was already parked when i found it. middle of an aisle, gave up waiting for a space. didn't see the polishing. you'd think at a nighttime car show, there would be no reason, right? honestly, he probably didn't, and it is just several layers of clear coat, but damn, could almost imagine seeing other worlds in that paint.

i love these impalas, with their curves, and i was hopeful that the camera would be able to capture what i saw. i think this is pretty close. and i'm completely suprised that there weren't more cars and/or people moving as blurs through the exposure.

he asked

was waiting near my car for my better half. it's just there behind this one.

the owner specifically asked if i could take a picture of his car. sure, i'll try, i told him. knowing that it would be difficult with all the cars driving in the background, and down the aisle behind me. it was starting to get dark, and knew the longer exposures would be hard.

i changed the settings a bit on the camera. not completely happy with them, but it's an ok picture, if you can ignore the shadow of the tripod hitting the wheel.

i had a pretty good parking spot, so there were at least three cars that wanted it when we left. maybe they played rock, paper, scissors for it...

disco disco. good good.

1952 chevrolet

i have a craving for lasagna today. so i've been busy making the sauce all afternoon, and just now have finished layering it in the dish with all the cheese, and got it in the oven.

better half chopped the onions for me. i think the doubled the garlic that the recipe called for, so, i may be sweating odiforously for a day or two, thanks to him.

have also watched the old cars drive by today. saw a really beautiful mint green bel air drive past the window earlier. walked uptown and saw an old merc drive by.

drove over to whittier boulevard at lunch, and saw an intriguing old gray chevy of some sort waiting for service of some sort or oil change, down by the ymca.

saw this completely glitter covered chevy at frisco's on friday. i think the light hitting all the facets of glitter at different angles fooled the sensor on the camera a little, so it's blurrier in some parts than i like, and others, the glitter disappears.

owner says at night, it looks like nothing. just flat paint. hard to imagine, but i guess so.

i don't think i'd do this to a car of my own, glitter isn't really my thing, but it is different. and it caught my eye.

frisco's

made it out to frisco's yesterday. worked from home friday afternoon, so didn't get stuck in hellish traffic, so i wasn't too tired. better half got home, and after about forty-five minutes, got him out the door, and we were there about five fifteen or so.

wanted to get there early as possible, since it had been shut down by eight the first time. some guy told me they hadn't pulled a permit, and made friends with the nearby shops. said it got out of control, people double parking, drinking, etc. somebody turned off the lights in the parking lot about eight, and the cops came around and made everyone leave.

figured i'd get my shots and be gone before that, before too many people got in the way, before the light faded. i used to go to bob's big boy, and be shooting in the dark, long exposures. fewer people walking through the shot.

well, that guy also told me that there was nothing else really going on for a friday night, so no worries, there would be plenty of cars to show up.

he was right.

got a lot of pictures in before the real crowds showed up. and even then it was fun. i could see how it could make the officials nervous. better half said cops and firemen were at the dj booth threatening them for all the code violations happening. it was dark by then, about eight. too many people, and lots of cars showing up and moving through the aisles, looking for parking.

lost sight of my better half. had to call him on the phone. music was loud, but fortunately, he's taken to wearing wireless headphones when he goes to shows with me. somehow they play from his phone, so when i call, he hears it in his headphones.

i'll just post this shot, not only because i love the cars that parked in front of it, but as a shout out to frisco's and thee unknowns car club. thanks for being host to the show. hoping they'll have more there. haven't heard that they shut it down, so one can only hope.

if only the thirty-nine had kept the wings folded down.

cry baby

1948 chevrolet fleetline

pretty little fleetline. passed it by early on, because these kids were busy posing in front of it. waited a bit, but they took too long, and there were plenty of other cars to shoot.

right after the mom finished with her picture, the kid on the right started to cry. not sure why. didn't see the older kids pick on him or anything. he sucked it in pretty quick, but i saw it. tough times when you're young.

came back around to shoot it on the way out. there was some dude passed out asleep inside, mouth hanging open, head up against the side. some other dude was taking a picture of that, but it seemed a little rude to me, so i settled for just the car.