lucky bastard

stopped by the three car shows in the area yesterday. keep finding the most variety of cars over at the pep boys show. hearing that there was some disagreement with the guys that run the garden grove show, so there was a split, and now a good majority of the cars can be found here on friday nights.

i was told in passing, by a guy i frequently see at shows, that this car almost ended up in a chop shop. it had been stolen from the owner's driveway and found a few days later, covered, in the yard of a "mechanic's" shop. i remember reading about it, but the article i read had no pictures at the time, so i didn't recognize this as being the one. yep, the guy is one lucky bastard...what are the typical chances of ever seeing your stolen custom car in one piece again?

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i read a small sign hanging in the window of a shop in uptown whittier, that there is a charity car & bike show on the 12th at whittier high school, benefitting their baseball team. not much advertising...wondering if anyone has heard about it and is planning on going? says the show is from 10–4, drive-in starts at 7a.m.

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going to seattle/tacoma this summer...anyone know of any car shows?

where’s the fire?

quick post, cuz it's late. been busy lately, and made it out to the broiler for a couple of hours shooting this evening.

i usually walk past this "fire truck." i see it quite often. usually in a different spot, jammed in with some other cars.

the owner saw me shoot it this time, and walked over to ask, "what makes you take a picture of a car?" i told him first, the hood has to be closed, second, i have to like the car. forgot to mention the location...what's in the background...will it make an interesting picture? or if i don't think i'll get another opportunity to see it again anytime soon. 

i took it this time because he was in a different spot, and it looked more interesting. simple as that.

almost 11pm...gotta get some sleep. :)

heartburn

this isn't the shot of this old ford i meant to take. and it is the shot of this old ford i meant to take. lemme ’splain lucy.

i'd been at fuddrucker's for about half an hour shooting away, by the time i got around to this car. the unseasonably warm (upper 70s) january weather brought out a lot cars for the show. the allotted space was swarming with old cars, muscle cars, a stupid prius, and a couple of other odds and ends.

the sun was just getting ready to set, and the way the light was hitting this car made the flames seem to glow. i set up my tripod, framed the shot, adjusted the white balance, and pressed the shutter release button. instead of click click click, i heard clunk clunk clunk. oh crap. the preview showed black with a smidge of light across the top and bottom of the frame. tried again, only it made a more hideous sound, and now the previews were just black frames.

i turned the camera on and off a couple of times, as this one is a bit flaky anyway — it likes to change f-stops all by itself mid-shot sometimes — hoping to reset it. even tried turning the dial to auto and also program mode, just for jollies. pushed the button again, but this time got a white screen of death, with "camera error" emblazoned across the screen. not good.

quickly whipped out the other camera i use to shoot details and hood ornaments with, and swapped out lenses. then had to adjust all the settings and buttons and whatnot to work with the wide angle lens, watching the light change as i did so. just as i was screwing on the mounting plate for the tripod, i see that the light has gone; the sun has gone down below the buildings behind me. so i lost the shot i wanted, and also got the shot i wanted, sans glowing flames.

don't know why the camera chose that moment to crash. i've only taken more than 30,000 pictures with it since we bought it. it's been to london, d.c., seattle, san fran, san diego, vegas...all the car shows...can't imagine why it would give out (j/k). so i'll have to send it in and hope they can repair it. i hate having to switch out lenses on location, because that only invites dust and crap to fly into the camera and ruin pictures. fortunately, i do have the other one, which while not used as much, has quite a bit of mileage being bounced around in the backpack i roll around with me. i hope it lasts a while, or my little hobby is done for. arrrrgggghhh.

and check out that old 1920 ford thing next to it. wtf?

grape jelly

posting this one for my coworker, mario. after several months of walking by my cubicle, he finally figured out that i took the car pictures hanging on my wall. who knew he was a classic car freak too? well, he certainly didn't suspect the same of me. he knows cars; i just take pictures of them. my way of unwinding after work. says he wants me to take pictures of his car when he has it fixed up. we'll see...

anyway, i believe he said his favorite color was purple, so this one is only appropriate. some of these cars get stripped down to the point that they're so plain, they seem generic. this one caught my eye because of the color, and then i noticed the subtle pinstripe on the hood. the bumper and the chrome stuff on the side do set this one apart from the plain jane customs i've often seen.

just noticed that i have more than 200 posts since i started this blog last march. whew!

“streetrod”

this owner was getting ready to leave. i had been taking pics of the car next to his. he had his hood up, so i wasn't going to shoot his car anyway. i asked him if i was seeing flames on his paint job, and he said yup, they're ghosted on there. not the typical airbrush in a barely lighter color ghost, but more of a they're the same color as the paint, only they're a slightly raised surface. really hard to see, especially with all the clouds reflecting on the hood. they're behind the vent(?) on the hood and on the fender above the tire, but you probably can't see them at this size.

anyway, he was nice enough to wait while i took a few pics of his car, so here ya go, and thanks.

chubby’s

wow. i haven't posted since monday? well, i've been busy. and i finally got out to a few shows that actually had cars at them, in spite of the cold. so i've been away from my computer and having fun.

i've taken a bunch of photos all week, so i have new stuff to play with. i chatted with several people too, but still think it's difficult to break out of my shell and strike up a conversation. i did meet a couple of dads out with their sons at two different shows. they were very nice, and i guess that's how it gets passed to the next generation. shot pics of their cars...give me a few days.

anyway, getting to the image above... stopped at the show in garden grove on friday. never have seen it that empty, and on an elvis night. i guess an impersonator comes out to entertain the crowd, but i've never hung out late enough to see him. the street was half empty, where usually they have to turn cars away. good for me to take pics, but not many to choose from that i either haven't already shot, or wanted to shoot.

briefly stopped to show the owner a picture i took of his truck, since he claimed he didn't have a computer. he told me a quick story about it being in a magazine, and his posse all said it was a very nice picture.

anyway, since i was nearby, i thought i'd go to disneyland and grab some dinner. then i remembered a show i'd stopped at once during the summer near the entrance to dland. hadn't been too impressed with it at the time, mainly because i got there late, and most cars had probably left. it still shows up on the calendar, so i drove over to check it out.

i was pleasantly surprised to find that it was very busy, no doubt due to the location. and also solved the mystery of where all the bad boys and their chevy's from the back lots at garden grove had gone. i won't say all, but many of the clubs started showing up in groups, and of course parking out back. but man, oh man, they do have beautiful cars.

not sure if this one belonged to one of the bad boys, but it was parked right at the entrance, in this primo spot. this one was very nice, but i think there were several in the back that might have been even better than this.

definitely will have to stop here again. and i never did get to eat at dland; i stayed so long taking pictures it got late, and decided it was too crowded to just go to dland for dinner. friday night traffic there is a bitch, with all the people hitting downtown disney. pfft.

feeling blue

on an ordinary wednesday, i'd be heading over to the broiler. but nooooo, it's still raining here. not this instant, but soon enough i know it ain't worth the drive over there.

oh well, i'll just play with my cars now.

i think this is a ‘34 ford, but i'm not betting on it. i've seen it several times before, but never really liked the shots i was getting. while it's still wedged between other cars, i got most of it before the sun sunk too low and cast a shadow across it.

if an engine has to be displayed, this is better than having the hood open and messing up the lines. and i'll squint my eyes and imagine that the blue flames are real and pretend that it's going real fast. :)

roar of thunder

quick post...got things to do tonight.

i really liked the way the neon was reflecting on this car. and hey, i got both the scary burger boy and the drive thru sign in the same shot. can anyone tell me the year, please? just so i can call it like it is. thanks!

fordy fordy

hi. my name is kathy.

<good evening kathy>

i have an addiction. to classic cars, or is it to photography? whatever it is, it's consuming my evenings. and i'm enjoying every minute of it. i don't know if there's a cure. i think i need to seek a balance though. i don't know if it's the taking or the processing i like more. either way, i can get so focused, it's easy to shut out everything else, tune out...is that zen? or just bliss?

still, i need to step away from the computer sometimes. i need to get out and get some exercise before i conform to this chair. taking pictures and hauling a tripod only helps so much. i need to paint a room in my house. i need to...i need...to do so many other things. it's just that most things are not as fun.

a few more months for this web site and then i have to decide whether to continue sharing or horde them for myself. should i have kept this old ford hidden away? it's one of my earlier shots. it's not perfect. a lot is hidden. but it's still an old car and it's still beautiful in it's own way. i'm sure the owner would agree.

thank you.

would smell as sweet?

this old ford gets around. i've seen it at a few shows in various places. the aged finish and pitted hood ornament and grill make it more interesting when i process it.

the name on the door proclaims it to be of penrose machine shop out of compton, ca, but i can't find it on google. and i can't believe there isn't another picture of it out there either.

is this penrose an "impossible object" popularized in the '50s by the mathematician roger penrose, who describes such objects as "impossibility in its purest form?" [no, i'm not a geek...found it on wikipedia] how can it be explained otherwise?

addendum: (thanks denny) There was indeed a 'Pensose Machine' in Compton, CA. He was a dealer for small industrial engines and parts, such as Wisconsin, Continental, Kohler etc. I sold him product in the 60s thru mid-70s. Another 'Penrose' was" Dick", who was at one time working for Continental Motors, before I was, and he was 'Sherm" (I presume Sherman) Penrose's son. Sherm had a small engine and lawn equipment distributorship in Long Beach in the 60s. I believe 'Penrose Machine went 'unde'r in the early 80s with different ownership. The Ford in your picture was most likely sponsored by Penrose-Compton.