pita green

found this merc ford (is this a shoebox?) out in riverside yesterday. fremont elementary school was having their 2nd annual car show. not sure what they were doing with the proceeds, but there were quite a few cars in spite of the overcast and scattered showers.

this was right up at the entrance. so shiny, so clean. it's actually a deep, dark green, with ghosted green flames on it. a real pain in the ass... just can not seem to get it the way i remember it because of the blue sky reflecting on it so brightly, which is making it go turquoise, and also killing the hint of the flames on the hood. i do like the shiny reflection, but it does make it difficult to have any chance of remembering that there are flames on the hood.

the owner was sitting inside too, but i'm mostly low enough all you can see of him is the top of his baseball hat.

karate choppy

double-posty tonight: if i'm not working overtime (it's tradeshow season...again), i'm hoping to be out shooting at one of the two shows running tomorrow.

i've seen this awesome custom mercury (though one of the other regulars said it was a chevy) at fuddrucker's pretty often over the past year. the color is so deep, you almost fall into it when he's got it buffed up like this. hard to capture without the light hitting it just so. got the sunset highlighting it here, and i usually can't get the back end of it either, due to his parking choices, and the crowds. was a bit colder this night, so fewer people.

wish that tree reflected on the trunk wasn't in that spot...there's a very nice pinstripe job going on, but it's being masked by the tree branches. it's chopped and dropped pretty low, must be interesting to get in and out of, but still pretty sweet.

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short rant:

i ran into someone at a show the other day, whom i'd met at a car show several months ago. at the time i'd shown him my book of photos, and he'd asked me to take a picture of his car. fine. he even closed the hood for me. i would have taken it anyway, it was that nice of a car. i worked up my favorite and posted it, but then never heard from him. had a lot of people comment on it, liked it quite a bit.

anyway, i finally went ahead and bought a print for my book, since i liked it well enough myself. so when i spotted his car at another show recently, i figured i'd at least show him the print...they look even better than they do here. i think he saw me before i remembered which one was him, and he avoided me for a while. eventually i found him sitting in the car, and approached him.

asked if he wanted to see the picture, and he said sure. then he proceeded to tell me that he'd seen it posted, but he really wasn't interested, wanted more of a photograph. i shrugged and said this type of photography wasn't for everyone.

if i show you my book, you know the type of pictures i take, so i figure you should know what to expect...why waste my time asking me to take a shot?

it doesn't bother me in the least if you don't like what i do, i've heard the photo purist arguements before, and to each his own. but if you specifically ask me to do a picture of your car, and i bother to take the time to work on it and post it, at least be polite and say hi or something. even say i don't like it, but take the time to let me know you saw the thing.

not doing a full-on rip you a new one here (richard (no it wasn't him either)), but no, i'm not going to tell you which car it was; i assume he's still lurking here and will recognize himself anyway. whatever. if you change your mind about buying the print, the price just doubled, just for you. :)

end rant.

pink panther

this past friday, i hit three car shows in one evening. they aren't too far apart from each other, so really wasn't a problem. started at chubby's, to which i arrived a bit too early, but was still going to be a really good show. i was told that the week before, about 90 cars showed up. i left early that night, so didn't see them all. gonna start calling this one the chevy show or the latin gents show...that ends up being a lot of what i see there.

then i went to a newer show over at the pep boys. ended up being a lot of the cars that have been missing from the garden grove show, as well as others i hadn't seen before. only bitch about this one is that it's just a parking lot; no scenery to add to a picture, too many cars crammed in, and the owners parking them nose in. makes it difficult to really "see" a car that way. and i really don't like to get in the middle of a bunch of cars with my tripod...it makes the owners nervous.

after that, went briefly to the garden grove show, which has been very light on cars the last few times, in spite of the elvis impersonator show. there were a few that i've taken before, but again, parking nose in or putting a big sign in front of the tail fins that i'd really like to shoot. thanks for nuthin'.

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i've seen this one many times before. at the garden grove show. never like the shots because they usually put a big stupid sign about it out in front, or on the side where the light is hitting the car best, thus ruining the picture. do these signs really add any value, especially at a show they attend often, as far as judging goes? also they have a little stuffed pink panther sitting on the hood. i think everyone can guess why this one is called the pink panther, don't need to reiterate it so many ways. definitely a 'look at me' car.

sign and stuffed animal were also in attendance here, but fortunately on the side that you can't see them. and from this angle, you can't see the damn toy on the hood.

nice flames popping on the hood though, with the sun setting behind me. pretty happy about that.

sign says it's a '47, but looking at other images on the internet, it looks more like a '51 or '52 to me, but what do i know? nuthin. just like taking pictures of your shiny babies.

newport news

can't let my better half get all the glory on his page. here's one of my shots of a sultan's car.

hadn't seen this one since last march in lakewood. back when i was just getting started and took the majority of shots from low angles, as shown here. i think it needed to be redone at a higher angle, to get a better view of the flames on the car.

still very clean, and the paint really reflects the lights from various sources in interesting patterns. glad i got the opportunity to shoot it at a different time of day.

la chona

so i'm in a rough and dirty mood. been too long since i threw a beater up here. a nice rat rod made of bits and pieces of various years. i'm tired and don't feel like spit-shining pixels tonight.

this assembly seems to be based on a ford body of some sort. i like the unfinished surfaces, with the engine compartment a matte black with pinstriping. interesting to the spend the time and money for a touch like that, or even for the dice on the tire valve stem, when the rest of it seems destined to remain “aged.”

at least it doesn't have a huge, obnoxious engine, which in a chop top would inhibit the view from the driver's seat. i don't believe i've seen it back again since then, so maybe its been transformed into something more interesting by now...

gypsy rose

i attended the duke's show & shine over at bob's in downey this past weekend. incredible congregation of car clubs, lots of representation from each. really for me, it was chevy overload...it was a plethora, yes a plethora of chevys of many years, mainly 1939s–1950s, with some odd years and some impalas thrown in, and this one opened its petals to me.

so many to choose from, so many similar cars all jammed into the entire parking lot. i even had to park a few blocks away, since there was no parking nearby. i didn't know where to start, or what to shoot, much less, i'd been away from shooting for a couple of weeks and was a little out of sorts, so i did my usual. i started by walking around the entire show, seeing what's there. then sat down and took out my cameras. then went back through and just picked random cars—they were all so delicious, but so crowded together, as well as being overrun with people, i could only really do a few.

by the time i got there, they were already doing raffles and giving out trophies. really big, tall trophies. i saw many cars stuffed full of plaques and trophies from prior shows. these guys really know how to do a show right.

anyway, i am rambling. this car has a remarkable paint job. lots of detail. real crowd stopper. parked right up by the trophy table. perhaps you know it? according to my flickr friend, kid deuce, it's known as the gypsy rose. he was there the same day, but i don't know if at the same time. i've never met him, so if i walked past without saying hello, i'm really sorry i didn't recognize you without your western attire. :) he's posted lots of shots from that afternoon, so check them out.

also, thanks to jae bueno for posting the notice about the show, or i would have missed it. he takes really good shots of cars as well, and again, if he was there, i did not recognize him, or i would have thanked him in person. waiting to see what pictures he got of the show.

lead sled

this merc custom, also from the whittier uptown show, is seemingly the companion piece to this one. this was the second of three similar vehicles parked on this corner. maybe it was just a coinkydink that they were clustered in the same area. i don't think i bothered with the other, as i remember it was just painted in primer gray and not too dazzling or remarkable.

i remember this being a spectacular, deep blue, but i think maybe i've made it too dark here. the time of day made for an uncontrasty, flat shot, so i had to jack it up a bit. but that's the point of my tweaking, now isn't it?

flaming youth

ahhh, this is more like it. i've posted two flamers in a row, similar paint scheme, but which is better? does it matter really? they're both bitchin' cars. i wanna say this car kicks butt, but the flames on the el camino are probably better done.

my whole day blew big chunks at work, so getting a shot like this salvaged what was left of it. just sorry i missed a spectacular sunset with big toy story clouds in it...shots would have been so much more awesome.

california freeway traffic on a friday is just what i needed to get a really massive headache going – thanks knott's scary farm people! you all drive like dillweeds. and surface streets weren't doing much better; the scattered lightning strikes and sprinkles of rain had put out traffic lights here and there, which just slowed me down even more. now all i need is my computer to lock up, as it tends to do, my day will just be complete.

here's to a better tomorrow. yay for the weekend!

hot rod lincoln

my best guess is that this a 55–56 lincoln of some kind. just not finding one with exactly the same bumper set up. guess i should've asked the owner — i think he was the guy who asked me "what is it you've been doing all these weeks here?" my answer was, "having fun," but maybe i should have been a smartass and stated the obvious answer, "taking pictures." nah, he was curious enough to ask, so i didn't feel the need. anyway, i handed the guy my card, so i hope he sees his car, if it is indeed his.

nice pinstripe job, and interesting paint. didn't quite overhear the whole story, so i'm not sure if he was saying he painted the car himself in his garage, or he took it somewhere. its kind of a matte finish, which is a little unusual when its not primer, but then this car was a bit unusual, and i don't have another one like it in my files.

i also think i've seen that guy in the doorway...i think he owns this hot rod, and is also currently selling an old cadillac.

bubblegum

this was practically parked front and center at the whittier uptown show, at one of the main intersections. was hard not to notice it. of course the girly girls liked this one, just because it was pepto pink, but since i'm no girly girl, i liked it just because it was cool.

with those teeth up front, it does look like it could take a good bite out of you, if you don't move out the way.

i need to figure out what kind of car this is, for my own info. you'd think by now, i'd recognize them, since i have a few in my collection...

there was a similar one, but a different year, in blue, just a bit down the street, just as stunning, but without flames. they could have been a set. i'll have to post that one sometime.