mists of time

we got up very early on a saturday and drove over to pico rivera for this show at st. hilary's school.

stopped by quickly last year, on the way to san diego, and remembered it being full of wonderful cars, so we had high hopes for more of the same.

it was wonderfully foggy and overcast. the show didn't actually start until ten, but we were there about seven-thirty. the ladies at the gate thankfully let us in, so we got to taking pics right away, knowing we only had an hour or so before the sun burned through.

many of the cars i've seen before, clubs i've run across before, but always good to take the cars in different locations, lighting, and/or atmosphere.

while it turned out to not be as busy as the previous year, be it due to the weather, people partied too hard the night before, or the world series, there was still plenty to shoot, and those people missed out on a good show.

found several bomb club cars down this lane, with no other cars around them. there was the unfortunate placement of the portable toilets nearby though, so i mostly tried to keep them out of the shots.

here's the first one i liked. not sure if it was the matte surface with the fog misting around it, but i just liked it. i will probably post another of it, just because the owner expressed an interest in it, and this one won't print to the proportions of 8x10, which seems to be the typical size people want. guess i pushed in too close, but i really liked this angle. but hey, there is no shortage of framage available for the new size standards for digital cameras nowadays.

still want to buy a print? i've posted it over here, where you can order all different sorts of items with your car on them. christmas is coming. i'm just saying. and my equipment is wearing out. it's an expensive hobby.

hot legs

been a long day. was at work at 5:15am, so i'm pretty much done for it.

quick post. i squeezed down between a couple of old cars and the group of guys that went with them. not the best angle, but i wanted the picture. liked the car, liked the club sign. the guitar that was actually a speaker playing some good old tunes was pretty cool.

and then there's that guy's legs. i could crop the picture, but that cuts the sign. i could just photoshop them out, but its late and i'm too tired to bother. maybe some other time. maybe its his car, for all i know. i could have shifted the camera a bit to the right, but then there'd have been the issue of them parked next to the porta-potties, so i took the less offensive angle.

testing testing

took me two hours to drive home yesterday. sure it was friday, but seriously, i leave work at four most every day, and the traffic is just getting worse and worse. wtf. do i just get up at three am so i can try leaving at three in the afternoon??? efffff.

i got home in a not so happy mood. already was tired from not getting enough sleep for three days running. felt like a zombie driving on the freeway, i'm glad i made it home. told my better half, either we get going to a car show, or i'm just gonna lay down for a bit, which would turn into several hours. 

i knew the ruby's show only runs for a couple more fridays, and figured i would skip this one, knowing its the first and last show of the season that really gets a lot of cars anymore. but then i remembered seeing mention of a show out at the broiler, and had to double check on the date. yep, friday evening, same as ruby's only it runs until ten. hosted by the vintage bombs south side, it promised to be just what i was looking for.

pleasantly surprised when we got there, because the last few wednesday night shows i've been to have been so disappointing. while there only seemed to be about twenty cars, they were the right kind for me.

i mentioned before that i had to buy a newer version of my camera a couple of months ago. i've shot so many pictures, mostly of your cars, that the old ones are starting to be unreliable. so i've been mainly using the new one at the few shows i've made it out to. i'm still getting used to it, and it's ok, just not in love with it yet. more buttons and fine tuning required, it's a higher maintenance bitch than the old one.

here's the thing: i hadn't taken it out late, after sunset yet. was't a problem with the old one—got very nice night time shots even in dark corners—but here we arrive at basically a chevy bomb show, sun already set, and i'm not sure i can get the shots i want. so i'm experiementing with the settings.

didn't know my better half had updated the firmware, when i'd only asked him to clean the sensor. so right off the bat, my settings had been reset. wondered what the hell was going on with the first bunch of shots i was taking, then noticed a few things set wrong, and knowing i hadn't left them that way. finally had to go ask him why my camera was tweaking.

there were a few additional settings he found that needed to be changed back, then i got going again. had to reshoot a couple of cars. went to the back lot, where it is much more dark without the lights on and shot over there too. there were a few more in the dark, i really would have liked to take, but there were a lot of guys hanging around behind those cars, and i don't care for the smell of what they might or might not have been smoking. i'm sure there was just a skunk walking by, right?

we packed up about eightish, as neither of us had eaten dinner yet. spoke to a couple of the vintage club guys on the way out. very nice. said they were doing only one more show next friday for halloween, and that was it for the season. costume contests and candy for the kids. said this was a pretty small show because of the dodger game, but they'd been getting more than a hundred cars on other nights. 

we're already talking about just driving straight there from work next week; sorry ruby's—see you in april.

so here's a couple of shots of the same car. one from when we got there, with the screwy settings, and the other from later on. i think they're kind of both ok, but still not quite the same as i could squeeze out of my old camera. guess i'll have to keep trying. 

on the way home

i won't bore you with vacation pics. good to be home. not looking forward to monday. i've enjoyed a week of sleeping in and not looking forward to waking up at 4 am again.

i did find a car show on our trip, but it kinda sucked donkey balls, so i don't feel like posting any pics yet. there were a few cars to salvage the show, i would otherwise not bother with. there was another show i thought about going to, but it got rained out in the middle of the week, and then on the way home, i decided not to stop at another between there and here. 

ahh, but we did stop briefly at the garden grove elks lodge show, for a shot of the latin gents chevy goodness. parking was hard to come by, as there was another event going on at the lodge. always warmly welcomed by ernie and his wife, we set about taking some shots.

it is difficult to choose which of their cars to show. my better half seemed to really like this one. hard to argue with that. the paint job is great, with a shine to die for. 

true, there were other cars at the show. but i do like to start with my favs.

ernie said he's now not only running their monthly show, but will be in charge of the annual show next august, so there's that to look forward to on the calendar. and we did enjoy the musical selection he was spinning for this show too.

winning

my work days are so long, even the eight hour days. too much work, too little time; you know the saying. i'm on the verge of burning out, so i'll take a long overdue vacay soon.

meanwhile, i get home and then don't feel like going out to car shows i used to enjoy. been only hitting a few here and there on weekends.

i thought about going to the broiler this evening; my better half said he was working late anyway, so why not? about the time i was going to pack stuff up to go, he let me know he was on the way home. so nix that idea.

he got called in to work last night, and said he only got about three hours of sleep, so that's where he is right now, making those zeebers.

this chevy was from a show in montebello. the one i hung around for instead of going to work. this one got the "best bomb" trophy. it was next to a similar one, a 1936, that was equally nice. how they ever decide which cars get trophies i'll never understand, though they did say the kids at the show made a lot of the decisions themselves.

ok, my legs are tired of sitting. too many hours in front of a computer, then driving over an hour home, and sitting in front of a computer for another couple of hours can't be good.

caught a raynbow

ya, i posted earlier. i ran too late for the viejitos show. drove over there only to find them cleaning up the lot, maybe a dozen cars sitting around, according to my better half, who urged me to stop anyway. told him i didn't want to get in the way now that it was over.

instead drove up to a show in lakewood, intending to stop at the costco there anyway. that one was as he expected it to be, not that busy, really only one or two cars i'd bother to shoot. i didn't feel like breaking out the camera for that. i think probably because i hadn't really eaten all day, and maybe was a little loopy. i didn't feel hungry, but figured i might as well get something.

so we went over to the mall behind the costco, found where they hide the food and was satisfied with a salad. by then my better half started feeling dizzy, probably because he waited too long to eat, so after all that, we didn't go shopping either.

so, broke my own rule to at least take one picture to make it worth the trip. two car shows, no pictures. no groceries. and i'm ok with that.

here's raynbow's pretty pontiac from the show last friday. saw it today, right at the front, but since we didn't stop, didn't get it. kinda like this better anyway. mid afternoon light would have just made it average.

not so sure i'm digging the painted hood ornament. but it's his car, so he can do what he wants, right?

broadside

been a long week at work, and i'm tired and not sleeping well, so i won't blather tonight. just getting my quick fix before i begin tossing and turning for the night.

i don't usually shoot from the side. probably because at most shows, cars are packed so close together, and too many people are milling about, i just can't get the shot. here at the show in la puente, early, i did shoot several, since cars were loosely parked together.

owner of this one, i think had met me before, but asked for a card anyway. can't remember what that red thing reflected on the side was, but it vaguely looks like a bow.

persistance

second show from sunday, out in la puente. hot there, few clouds. decent size parking lot cordoned off for what was hopefully a good show. i got there around start time, maybe a little early. there were already vendors set up, and some cars, a couple of clubs, with my favorite old cars.

this chevy was out in the middle by itself, so i took advantage of the situation. in the midst of different angles, the owner came over and introduced himself. said he'd met my better half the previous weekend at the bomb club show, which i missed. said he'd been given a card, had checked out both of our websites, said he'd sent an email, and was wondering about the pictures my better half might have taken and possibly promised to share with him.

well, i told him, thanks for his interest. if i receive an unexpected email, i mostly assume they talked to my better half and forward them over. he's been quite busy, and if he said he'd send pics, he will when he gets time to do it. i think the guy heard me over the speaker system playing loud music.

anyway, i kept on taking pictures. he came back over later, and said, "gonzalez?" he was remembering my name from my card, then rattled off my better half's website, and was just getting half of mine off the tip of his tongue. yes, he really had checked out our sites.

well, if you own this car, i liked this shot, and hello. my better half will have to sift through about a thousand shots from that day to see if he has your car there, so please be patient.

also, one of the volunteer security guys thought it was his car. showed me a picture of what he said was his car, same make, model and color, that he'd left at home. said he was kind of freaking that someone had stolen and brought it to the show.

motivation

saw this one at the legends show at point fermin. the owner wasn't around, but a guy who said he did the restoration on it was there. said it only took about seven or eight months to fully rework it, since the owner had the cash to get it done quickly. otherwise, he said it typically takes several years.

he did a pretty good job, i think. guess money changes everything, no?

hooch

i've shown this one before, but it really is a nice car, and i found it at the viejitos marketplace show in july, mostly off by itself, so why not show it again?

really spectacular paint and pinstriping. can't really say anything bad about it, except for that the glitter paint is so reflective, it blew out detail in spots because of the hot afternoon sun. that's mostly my fault, for not carrying a filter around or something.

it was a good show. i really need to go back through the pictures from that day. it was during the month i was watching the dog, so i really haven't posted much from there. and there have been so many other shows i've been to since then, perfectly good pictures get lost in the shuffle.

so many cars, so little time.