what's up?

hello gorgeous

saw this one very early in the morning, and couldn't quite tell if it was all black or what i thought i saw, a little purple tint. the light was muted by clouds, so i thought my eyes might be tricking me with a reflection of something else. what that would be, i dunno, since there wasn't a purple car nearby.

here, i found it later in the morning, and with the sun hitting the paint, i see that my eyes told the truth. it is purple and black. and simply, gorgeous.

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just got some emails. only got three pictures accepted into the oc fair this time, and those were not the ones that i would have expected. the one entry that i totally thought would get in, didn't. oh well, winning there isn't the thing to obsess over; just getting on the wall is the big win. anything else is frosting on the cake.

change of plans

pretty sure this picture is from the azaelia festival show, because i've been to very few shows this year that had the cars parked on grass. thirty-nines are one of my favorites, after fleetlines. the sun is bit high for my taste, but i still like the shot.

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i was showered and ready to pack up my gear for a show when i noticed i had missed a phone call.

was my kid, no message. so i called back and he said, "wassup?" i said, "i dunno, you called me, or was it a butt dial?" i can hear he's in his car, and the signal isn't the best.

apparently, he woke up this morning, and just had a thought that he wanted to take his wifey wine tasting. she likes it, he doesn't particularly, but he likes to keep her happy. solvang is one of her favorite places, so he booked a room.

they usually take her mum and/or sisters, but they were all working. so he had called me, knowing how much i like roadtrips, and to mention they had the dog with them. i guess they had hoped i'd say i wanted to go, and they would have swung by to pick me up, but by the time i'd called back they were already to calabassas.

my mind was ready for a car show, but my heart put the kibosh on those plans, to spend the rare opportunity to travel a little with my boy and his little family. threw some clothes in a bag, better half cleaned the windows on my car (thanks d!), and i hit the road. sad part was driving off, waving bye to him. one of these days he will travel again, but he can't right now.

and it was really a perfect perfect day, weather-wise for a car show. overcast, and in the seventies. damnnit. there will be other shows...

so here i am in solvang, sitting in the dark and typing on my ipad. had expected to be sitting in my own room with the dog, while they stayed out late at a wine bar or the beer garden. after a late dinner, they were both very tired, and decided to call it a night.

beer garden is open until midnight, and is pet friendly, so they could change their mind, but i'll be asleep.

i could have still taken the dog, but then i'd have to get up and walk him in the middle of the night and in the morning, so nah. and i'm in a hotel down the street from them, so if he got too hyper, i'd have to walk a block in the dark.

going to meet them after checkout, for lunch, then pick up some fresh pastries for my mother-in-law, then head home.

only brought one camera, no tripod, so even though i know of a few car shows on the way back to whittier, i won't be stopping.

it's going to be a weird week at work, so i guess i started it off weird too.

three way

saw this impala in the back lot at the memo ortega show. pretty color, sitting mostly alone...had to crop out a newer car behind it, was easy to get a decent picture.

maybe if i backed up a bit more, the wheel would have distorted a little less.

there are at least three tempting car shows tomorrow morning, as far from each other as to have to decide on just one, or none...sleep in, and just go to the latin gents' monthly show in the evening. what to do, what to do...upland, riverside or santa ana?

flip a coin? play roulette...if i wake up early enough without an alarm, just decide as i back out of the driveway?

i've been to the show in santa ana, and it is usually pretty good, and the lot gets full early, and is convenient to hit the gent's show on the way home if i stay there all day. used to go to disneyland in between, but who can afford the damn annual pass anymore?

could go hang out at my mom's for a few hours, or just go home in between.

that also argues to go to either upland or riverside, and just stop on the way home, to charge batteries and download pics. my fear is that once i get home, i won't want to go back out. it happens. usually too much sun, but it is only supposed to be in the seventies tomorrow...perfect weather.

guess i'll sleep on it. i still have hardly touched last week's pictures yet...not done sorting them out.

stats

still working my way through all the pictures i took saturday. briefly thought about going to a show or pomona on sunday, but i was pretty tired, and i had stuff to do and relatives visiting, so stayed put.

i'll share a few stats from my day uptown:

i was out a total of seven hours, since the show was literally down the street from the house...got to take a break when it got too hot
shot about two-hundred and thirty-five cars, and more, if you count detail and hood ornament shots
just under eighty-six gigabytes of files on the hard drive. let's just say, i'd be in trouble space-wise if i had a full frame camera, a whole lot sooner in the year, at this rate.
at least 11,500 steps

thanks to the club that invited us to their xmas party this year. i'll think about if i want to get dressed up in girl clothes, and let you know. could be fun.

i think i have one or two more pics i promised, so here's one. pretty color, pretty car. i think this is the same color i picked out years ago, for a project car my ex was building.

uptown show

went out at five-thirty am today, up the street to the car show. better half walked me uptown, and pulled my camera bag around for a while. sun was already coming up.

noticed a bunch of classic cars in the rite-aid parking lot. went to shoot them, but they soon started to move over to the main street—they were there to volunteer to help set the show up and direct move-in, in exchange for prime parking.

strangely, as compared to prior years, they weren't starting move in until eight-thirty. we're used to a zillion cars lined up down the street waiting. nope, not much there.

spent time shooting the cars that were there. then noticed cars showing up further down, and went off to get those.

really love to shoot at this time of day, prior to move-in. fewer people, cool, overcast, everyone happy with anticipation. i really took the majority of my pictures waiting for eight-thirty.

then the time came, and it went very slowly. not sure what was going on, but it seemed to take forever to get cars moving. i took the opportunity to get some bfast.

i'm starting off, not with my favorite, best pics, but with the cars of people who talked with me, or asked about what i'm doing with the pics, as usual.

this nova was owned by the first guy that really chatted us up, mainly my better half, of course.

he popped the hood to show us what was hiding there, in spite of me wearing my infamous hat. whatever. here's a shot of the engine. dare a cop to try to catch up with it.

shark attack

yesterday was my boy's birthday. twenty-seven. how'd that happen?

they invited me to join them for birthday dinner. some restaurant down in laguna beach. because they're foodies, and know where to go when they want good stuff.

i haven't been to laguna in probably twenty years. no reason to go, and i always hated the crowds and traffic. i stopped going to the beach because there was no point in me trying to get a tan—i just burn then fade to white again. and then all the sand that gets in the car and in places sand just shouldn't be, if i went in the water on a boogie board or to jump the waves.

at least laguna main beach isn't too run down, as beach towns go, but i had a bit of a time remembering how to get around, and finding parking.

restaurant was hopping busy, and i got there early and put in my name to save a table. still would be about forty-five minutes. everyone else arrived and we walked across the street to the water, and some park benches.

flashbacks to places i'd been there when i was younger and dating my ex. and later, a building, where we'd attended a xmas party for work. so long ago.

remembering seeing a random man on a corner, wearing very loose dolphin shorts, with nothing under...and the wind blowing at the wrong time. ewww.

my sister lives out there somewhere, with her boyfriend/landlord/whatever he is. never have visited. i have issues with him. i see her once in a while at my mom's house, but mostly on holidays.

ya, probably be another twenty before i bother to go back.

anyway, it's difficult to find a gift for kids as they get older. they've already bought the things they need, and they have their own likes and decoration style.

so i fall back on their sense of humor, and just get them silly, just so there is something to open. found him a rubber shark puppet, and with some cash in it's mouth, he was happy enough. he's a lawyer, so he got the joke right away.

ready for the uptown show tomorrow. camera sensors cleaned, batteries charged. i should get to bed early tonight, but i probably won't. i can sleep tomorrow when i'm done.

saw this t-bird in garden grove at the super cruise. it sorta vaguely reminds me of a shark for some reason...maybe it's the headlights and shape of the hood.

it was nice in the early light of morning.

fun times

watched a kid playing around with this model car. he noticed me standing there watching, so he put it down.

quickly took a few sloppy pictures of it, for chuckleberries.

then i took a picture of it in front of the car he parked in front of.

this club was parked in a corner, soaking up the shade. sun starting to set, bounced the light around a bit, and flared off my lens, so it's slightly funky. just thought i'd post it, in case the kid and/or the owner happened to notice this post.

wistful

back to the grind, after a long weekend. i'd rather go back to the weekend, or farther back in time, or to some future point.

the current reality at home, is a minefield, and the only escape is through it, one day at a time. i have been trying to rest up, as my turn will be coming soon enough, to step up and give someone a break before they snap. there has to be a way to get some outside help, but it's not my place in this situation, so my ignorance continues.

meanwhile, i still have my pictures to get lost in. saw that the pomona swap meet is coming up this weekend. probably won't make it, but i do have some pics from past meets, like this one.

really, to get the best pictures there, you have to be there when the gates open at five in the morning, before the sun comes up. fewer people, fewer cars. by the time you park and get over to the show cars, the sun is coming up, and the light is warm and beautiful.

down low, i caught the light bouncing up and making the interior glow.

home sweet home

got my home back for a week. kid is in kauai with his wifey.

if the place wasn't so full of their stuff, i'd be tempted to not let them back in. ;) soon, they tell me, as they complain that rents are too high everywhere they look. yep, and good luck with that. pretty sure their dog will live out his lifespan here before they move.

that's ok, as long as my better half is good with me hanging with him.

here's another from manny's el loco cruise. squeezed in here between a big storage dumpster and the back end of this impala. i managed to get the shot i wanted.

i think the owner sent a kid over to ask for a card first, then he later came over and gave me a flyer for his club's upcoming show. seemed nice enough, actually everybody at the show did. i'll have to add it to my growing list of shows i read about, and consider going to. i think it's out in fontana somewhere; will have to pull the flyer from my camera bag when i get back home in whittier. for the deets.

at the bar

no car shows for me today. our family member is in the hospital again. i will have to go tag out my better half, so he can go home, shower and get a few hours of sleep.

this is a crap picture. i know it is a crap picture, but it is how i feel at just this moment...so close, but can't go. it was a different kind of shot though, through the bars, at cars driving into the show.

they didn't stop long enough for me to get a clean shot, but the idea is there.

hoping everyone at the shows today keep cool...going to be in the nineties by noon. hate summer, really do.

two weeks until the whittier uptown show...just down the street...that i can go to...