nice attitude, babe

i think i saw this one at ruby's last time i was there. here it sits in the parking lot of old world. kinda cool with the wall•e engine thing and weird finish paint job.

my favorite parts, though are the unused hood lock painted to give you the bird – F.U. too; and the metal rooster on the dashboard. wait for it, wait for it...no, i'm not going there, i'll be good for a change, and not say something about how big (or small) it might be. love the pinstriping on the door too.

i think the owner was sitting opposite the car, and would occasionally make the hydraulics squeak a bit. thanks for not bouncing it while i was taking my shots.

painted lady

the paint job on this was awesome. wished i had a ladder to show the detail on the hood better. can't remember if there was more to see on the roof. actually, the shots before this, there were some kids standing next to it, that wouldn't get out of the way, so i really didn't get close enough to look.

they finally moved their little asses. no, that isn't their body outlines in chalk on the ground, though i kinda felt like kicking their little butts outta my shot.

skully

this was a very nice hot rod ford at the run whatcha brung show in rialto. the owner was a very nice gentleman, that told me a bit about how he'd fixed it up. he seemed especially proud of the skull details he'd added. this one was made from a belt buckle; others were from lighters and other found items, and put onto valve stems, door locks, etc.

i liked the purple in the flames and the purple of the flowers...oh how i hate those little flowers. they fall on my car, and they make my high heels slip when i have to walk on them...but they do frame a car nicely from this angle.

got the blues

well, it's over 100° today, here in sunny, lovely cali. got up early and headed over to the chino air museum, where they were doing their monthly presentation. this month was on russian planes, followed by a flight of a yak-3, with a MiG-15 sitting by the hangar. if you haven't been to the museum, you can get up close the planes, even so far as touch them, and a good majority of them are still flown, as evidenced by the oil pans underneath those. use it or lose it.

why bring up airplanes on this blog? back to the point about the weather. too damn hot. keeps me away from the middle of the day / early evening car shows. really tires me out and gives me a headache. on the other hand, it's good i've got a lot of pictures in my little archive here to finally get around to tweaking. so many to choose from. not a bad thing.

this truck has been taunting me since last february. there was a baseball fundraiser over at whittier high school, with many fine cars inside. but this baby was outside, not participating in the show. was it a tease, or was the owner just too cheap to pay the participation fee? whatever.

it was a hot day back in february too, i might add. anyway, i've played with this picture several times. my camera threw a yellowish cast over it, in spite of my white balance doohickey. i can't quite seem to get it all out, as i'd prefer, but i still like the truck, so i've thrown in the towel on it, and i'm calling it a day. does it look washed out to you, or is it just my monitor misbehaving again?

it's a drag

i don't know exactly what you'd call this thing, but i don't see one every day, so i stopped and took a couple of shots. i think mainly i liked the mascot out front, between the front wheels. there really isn't much car to look at, being so sleek and stripped for speed.

how the heck does the driver see around that engine? i'm pretty sure they didn't drive it here. wish it had been parked somewhere besides this lovely alley, but it wouldn't fit in a standard parking space, now would it?

----

does it bother you too, when kids purposely spell things wrong? i have some relatives that seem to be incapable of spelling stuff correctly on their facebook pages, though they have brains the size of the universe...IQs off the charts. maybe they think it makes them more cool and more gangsta — though they're the milkiest white gangstas you'd ever see...i think it's the environment they live in. i think it just makes them sound stoopid. yo yo yo...boyz.

row, row, row your boat

technically, this one wasn't in the show, it belonged to a vendor. but it was just so unusual, i had to show it to you. didn't seem to be anyone around, and there was no markings on it, so i had no idea if it was a kit car or what.

i believe the owner of the previous car was checking it out as well, and took a little time to recall what it was; said that happens with age. finally remembered it was called an auburn boattail.

must be a bitch to back into a space against a wall.

oh fordy! fordy!

been so busy at work, i mean crazy busy. the kinda busy that just makes you want to crawl in bed once you hit the door. truly not enough hours in a day, but i am happy to be up to here with work. keeps me from getting bored. anyway, it does keep me from playing with my pixels here.

i had to meet up with a couple in rialto this fine june gloomy morning at the run whatcha brung show. i actually arrived at 7am, when the cars were just showing up. don't know why i woke up so early, except that i get up before that ungodly hour all week, so it really wasn't that bad.

i'd never been to rialto, or obviouly that show, and wanted to be sure to figure out where to park. and well, i got to shoot the cars before too many people got in the way, and before the majority popped the hoods open. (ya gary, thanks for pointing out that yours was already open– lol.)(hey to your buddy that said i should stop hassling you...you should know that just makes me wanna continue...don't worry, i'll stop soon enough and go back to haranguing richard)

my take on the show: it was pretty good, not too big, only about 3 blocks long with an island down the middle. the overcast made for great lack of strong shadows – giant softbox for pictures, though it does kinda wash the colors out. and if anyone can get a sunburn between the hours of 7am and 10 am, that'd be me. i'd planned on hitting one or two other shows on the way back home, but my lightly toasted skin kinda made me skip them. didn't even stop at ontario mills – never shopped there either, just driven past.

i must say, security is very interested in anyone with a tripod and seemingly professional looking camera. i guess "professionals" need some type of permit if they intend to sell. well, i had to explain twice that it's just my hobby. they let me go on, but they still seemed kinda hesitant to believe me, and i wouldn't know how to prove otherwise if they insisted that i leave, apart from asking anyone whose car i shot if i was being one of those bad photogs. apparently, in past years, that type of pushy, "buy my pictures" photogs invaded, and they wanted to avoid that. that ain't me fer sure. so thanks to the security guys in the golf cart for being diligent in their duties, and to bev, who was also doing her job, and thanks for not making me leave. i do hope you inquired of the other couple with the tripod and the more "professional" brand camera with equal diligence.

a big camera does not always equal a pro, or even a good photographer. check the settings on most, and you'll find they never switch out of program or auto mode...that'll get them average images at best...just people with the buy the expensive camera and i'll get better pictures mentality. doesn't work if you don't know how to use it. <enter the obvious analogy here>

the owner of this car graciously closed the hood so i could take a few shots. said he'd put a small fortune into this old ford, and it shows. it totally stands out amongst the other cars, but he said it's just the color. no. nope. it is really different than the average car, and i am getting pretty jaded after chasing them down for the past year.

oh, and the couple i was meeting, finally rolled in after 9am. but all's well. i had plenty to keep me entertained before then. if only i can find the time to get them posted.

in remembrance

how the heck are you all this memorial day? don't forget those you loved who are no longer with us, and those who served our country and gave their lives so you can enjoy yours today. oh heck, thanks to all the veterans and enlisted too. hug them, while they're still here; time flies too fast as it is.

hey dad, both my bros, my sister-in-law, and to all my my relatives that have served in the navy – thanks for all you've done and still do.

____

this car i found in riverside. beautiful old buick. the lady that owned it said it had been her husband's pride and joy. it will be a year ago, july 4, that he passed. she said he hoped she would still take the car out to the shows. well, she does, and puts a big poster in his memory in the front window, but took it out for my shot. thank you.

mercules

ok, this one is definitely a mercury. says so on the back bumper.

i'd been at the fuddrucker's show for maybe about 10 minutes. there were plenty of cars – an additional row had been made available. problem for me was that, either i'd already shot the car before, a good number of them were muscle cars (yawn) and/or the hood was up. i try to at least shoot one car, to make it worth the stop at the show.

i'd settled on an old ford, and rattled off several sets of shots. wandered around again, nothing interesting. i approached a very rusty 1928 ford of some sort. mostly original rickety bits. i was going to shoot it, when the owner popped up and opened the engine compartment to show it off to some other dude. oh well.

so i proceeded to my car, capped the lenses, packed it up, and got into the drivers seat. i sat for several minutes, checking phone messages, email, etc., all the while keeping an eye on what was driving in. more muscle cars. (yawn), newer corvette. (eh), chevys i'd already shot.

i was about to leave, when this baby drives in. always happens...just when you're about to leave, a good one shows.

since i'd been watched packing it up by some guy in a van nearby, i decided to move my car to another lot, and pretended to leave. i didn't feel like hauling all my bag and stuff out, so i just grabbed my wide angle set up, and the tripod. i felt a bit nekked without the whole bag of fun, but it was much quicker.

walked back to the lot, hoping he'd been forced to park on an edge because of all the muscle cars. happily, it was parked along the curb on the edge, so i had a bit more access. of course, because it was so different, it had attracted a crowd. i had to wait a bit for people to move, and then just ended up shooting anyway. the sun was getting ready to set, and it was casting long shadows, so that limited what angle i could shoot from as well.

different days, draw different crowds. sometimes the regulars are friendly, sometimes indifferent, and other times, they might as well be on the rag. grumpy old men. young teenage posers. frumpy women. overdone girls. lol. just kidding. but not really. can never tell if people will be polite or not. and this particular show, they seemed to be a bit more pushy, and in the way. haven't really had a day that their cumulative attitudes turned me off from a show yet, but one or two, almost.

i'

hot lead

so this is not a merc, as i originally thought, but a ford (thanks for the correction gary!). i do have a hard time with id when there's nothing but the bumper and wheels to go by. i'll get the next fer sure merc up tomorrow or the next day.

as i said previously, i keep seeing flame-painted low slung cars. seems to be all the rage, or cliché, but at least there are lots of variations in how they can be presented.