is it a sign?

i didn't sleep well last night, and had a hard time staying awake today. yet here i am posting, early for me anyway.

picked up my pictures from the fair today. only had one offer to buy one, and that turned out to be more of can you take a picture of my car inquiry. about what i expected. oh well, they look ok hanging on the wall here. left the honorable mention ribbon hanging on one of them for now. i'll pull it off before it gets too dusty, i suppose.

here's another lifestyle car. hiding in the shade on a hot day. unintentionally caught a religious symbol by the car. maybe it's a sign?

i shot the sheriff

i went to ruby's for about an hour this evening. wasn't really in to it, but went anyway. needed to stretch my legs, after another busy day at work and 10 hours of sitting on my ass.

was bright and sunny when i arrived, but the sky got gloomier to match my mood. if it had started raining, it would have been so much better. not that many cars this evening.

spotted the guys from the tribe, saw his car, but didn't see the ring leader, and by then didn't want to get voted off the island, so i didn't interrupt their party.

this was the last car i shot. teenager inside was told to make the siren blare a couple of times while i was close by, so thanks for that. a guy said it belonged to his friend, and asked about my pictures, so he wins the prize and gets it posted tonight.

hot child in the city

quick post. tired. again. long day. some stuff i have to take care of, that i'm not looking forward to.

this one just made me stop and say, "damn." not sure the picture does it justice.

night all.

it happens

so i did get out to a couple of shows today. stayed at this one in fullerton for a couple of hours, and ran out of time for another in santa ana. i'd been to this one back in december, when they had a toy drive. that was crazy packed; this one, not so much. but to make up for that, all chevys, in years i love.

most belonged to the orange county viejitos, especially since they sponsor it. my better half came along for the afternoon, with his nephew. i'd told him about this show for several months, but hadn't been able to get back to it until today.

he missed a bunch of cars out in the back of the lot, because he was shooting a lot of cars up front. also chatting with the club members. i guess one of them asked if he could take a picture of the group, so before we left, they were called out to pose.here's my shot of them setting up.

there were so many nice cars, as always, i have to just pick one to start with, and run with it. this one was parked up by the entrance. i like it a lot. not sure if it was the color or the model or what, but here it is. maybe i can talk my better half to go back again next month.

after this one, we drove over to lakewood, arrived before official starting time, and parked in the shade. we checked out what was already there, and waited for about half an hour to see if anything else interesting would drive in. knowing that there are several other bigger shows going on, didn't expect a whole lot more to show up, so we just left without shooting a thing. it happens.

so special

argued with myself too long this morning: didn't want to get out of bed, but i wanted to go to this car show out in san fernando. i was awake at 7:30ish. i could have been there when they opened at 10, before it would get insanely hot, take my pictures and be out of there before noon.

but no. i hesitated, then my mother-in-law made breakfast. then kinda did nothing but fart around with my ipad. but the thought of the car show kept itching the back of mind, and eventually told my better half that i was going to go.

now his new computer had a melt down the day before: one of the drives crapped out and he spent all saturday loading up windows again. he needed to continue loading software, but he also didn't want me to be out there alone for whatever reason. so if i was going, so was he, and so was his nephew, who is visiting for a few weeks and is bored of sitting around the house with gramma.

anyhew, by the time we got out there, it was noon, and it was HOT. there was a breeze, but mostly no shade at high noon. efff. and it was a gloriously big, busy show. low riders. bombs. bikes. booths. music. danny trejo. didn't realize how big the show was, until we were getting ready to leave and realized there was a whole other field full of cars we didn't even get to see.

as i said it was hot, so we got to work right away. figured i'd save the low riders for last, since they were mostly in the shade of some overhanging parking structure or solar paneled thing. it was at the high school, so we headed out to what i suppose is a football or track field. lots of cars and people. i was looking for the bombs. found this car club, with a bunch of chevys, which make me happy and started shooting. the people in the tent next to this one didn't say anything, just watched, though i guess it was the owner, took the entry sign out of the window of this car – thanks for that.

not sure if they were associated with the people in the tent at the other end of the row of cars, who did ask the usual question: you with a magazine? i did show them my pictures and gave them a couple of cards, so maybe the owner will see his car here.

an excellent show, even if it was so hot. i think if i go again, i'll have to wear a hat and some lighter clothing. maybe leave the nephew at home...he tolerates heat even less than i do.

hell week

i am glad the week is over. hope the next one isn't so busy. i'm so tired.

started off last friday driving a big ass diesel moving truck. moving the last bits of my life's debris outta my house. you know it's a weird thing to be in a house still full of furniture from your past life, but your personal debris is out. almost like the house is somehow deflated and sad. still my house, but now my son lives there. while he goes to law school.

figured i'd save on paying a mortgage and his rent by moving him in there for a few years. and hey, a unique idea: i'll move in full-time with my better half. married almost five years now, might as well see how much of me he can take. lol.

was fun driving the big ass truck on the freeway. pretty much had to just go for it, once i decided not to stay on surface streets. really hated that this truck had the steering wheel that was more horizontal than vertical, like a car. didn't like feeling like i was driving on the disneyland teacups at 70 mph.

the rest of the week was spent doing several 11 and 12 hour days at work for some annual tradeshow coming up in another week. interesting to see how many people wait until the last minute to decide they need brochures and datasheets.

oh, and then following one of said long days, went to the oc fair for several more hours to listen to the judges walk around and expound on their reasoning behind how they picked images they liked. almost like being back in college, listening to the professors babble on about technique and vision and bullshit.

the group i was in never did get around to where my images were, but i gathered enough to know that someone of them thought enough of one of my pictures that they gave it a ribbon. kind of an atta boy. close but no cigar. my better half likes to break down the odds of entering and even getting stuff selected for display, and so on, so it's ok.

someone even filled out an interest in purchase card. ya, he's interested in the picture, but doesn't really want to pay that much. he also wants me to shoot his car. told him we'll be at the show in uptown whittier next month, so maybe we'll see him there.

anyway, i've been bleeding out money this month, so it's looking like vacation won't be anywhere exotic this year. and that's still several months away. i so need one too. maybe we can sneak away for a long weekend, but we're both so busy, i doubt that will happen either.

looking at the list of car shows, thinking about going to some show in san fernando tomorrow. might as well go to magic mountain as long as i'm up there. i do have other stuff i gotta do, so maybe i'll just end up squeezing in lakewood in the evening instead.

ugh.

zoot suiter

quick post. this one belongs to angel's friend. said he's new in town, or else it was that'd he'd just moved back after many years...can't quite recall. always love the cars with hood ornaments, even when they're quite simple like this one. the car is quite nice too.

cool riv

yeah, i don't usually shoot many models older than the early '60s, but every once in a while, i yearn for something different. this one was quite lovely, in spite of it's simplicity.

so angel tells me the other day (that's his name, not one of the filmy wing-ed ones), that the lot at the broiler was actually very full, even all the way out in the back lot. oh, stick the knife in and twist...i couldn't go to the show that evening due to other commitments. i've been lamenting how empty it's been the last few months. and tomorrow is the 4th of july, so suckage, no one will be there.

skull obsession

quick stop at lakewood fuddruckers today. was quite hot, and i arrived later then i have in the past. lots of cars, but a lot of open hoods. so i focused on the few cars i really liked.

this was probably the most spectacular chevy i've seen in a while. there were little skulls on almost every little appendage hanging up off the car and everywhere on the dashboard.

anyway, i believe the owner of the car was standing off to the side, out of the shot, watching closely. but then, he also followed me over to watch me shoot an old '46 olds, where he did get in the shot. i suppose he was just someone curious as to what the hell i was doing, but too shy to ask the usual question about magazines. no, sir, i don't.

flying b

so i'm just waiting here for my better half to get home. pondering the two hours i wasted watching prometheus yesterday. i don't go to a lot of movies, mostly because my beloved prefers pixar to any other genre. usually i mostly see what i want to see when he's out of town, or i'm in orange county, but still rarely. hollywood has been putting out more crap than i want to spend for the overinflated ticket price on.

i loved the alien movies, but this semi-prequel was so slow moving and unsurprising, i'm disappointed. did explain the origin of things you see in the first alien movie, but it didn't use the time to make the telling infinitely better. come on, ridley, you've done better. hell, if snow white and the huntsman had been starting at the time, i'd have seen that one instead.

blah di dah. saw this on a really remarkable bentley. but i preferred the hood ornament to the car. actually, i think i only bothered shooting the car because of the lady sitting behind it, asking if i wanted to shoot the ornament on her car. didn't really want hers, so i spent some time focused on this car.