olive drab

i have spent too much time sitting in traffic lately. plenty enough to contemplate inane thoughts.

take this for instance: if they manage to clone a person, whose birthday should the clone celebrate?

thinking about changing my hours at work, since i get there so early to beat the morning rush anyway. i sort of think leaving an hour or even a half hour earlier than i do now won't make a damn difference anyway, but my better half thinks it will, but then he doesn't have to get past the 55 freeway in the afternoon, or that caltrans work up past buena park. pfft. it all sucks.

anyway, he is likely to get called in and go back to work tonight, so i should get going and spend some time with him.

here's one of the tribe's cars. haven't really had a good opportunity to get a shot i like of it. the owner was still polishing it when i was first there.

circled back and caught this shot before the other guys got closer. there's still a group there, but far enough away to not ruin the shot.

and i do like racoon tails.

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?

more than i could catch

finally made it over to the car show by the sea in san pedro. i've known about it for a couple of years, but have just never been able to get to it.

my better half had expected to be called in to work today, but volunteered to go along, since i was going to get there very early. i figured if he did get called, there were several other shows i'd been given flyers on i could hit closer to home.

but they never did call him, so we kept on shooting cars. and wow, we could not believe how many cars could be packed into the little park area. and better still, mostly the kind i really love—old chevy bombs, pontiacs, fords, cadillacs—you name it, it was probably there.

it is hosted each year by the legends car club. i'd been there previously for their xmas show, but hadn't stayed long. they were a extremely friendly and outgoing group of guys, and many came over to introduce themselves and make me welcome.

they stop letting cars in when they hit about six hundred, someone told me. i saw a lot of oldies driving down the street after they arrived late. i had to pass by many cars that i would have ordinarily gone ape shit over at a regular, local show, there were just so many and so little time.

very few people stopped to chat with me, and i'm finding out, that many prefer to seek out my better half. fine with me, he's much better spoken regarding the cameras, and more comfortable, in general, chatting people up. although, that does allow me to keep on being my shy old self. its only people that have never seen me before, who really come over and inquire. i don't mind one bit taking a break from shooting your car, to answer your question, if i can, or to hear your story about it. i am pretty socially retarded the first few times i talk to you, but keep trying, i'll get the hang of it eventually.

if i can remember your story, i'll write about it. if you see your car, and want to share, please do comment or send me an email and i'll add to my post.

this car belonged to one of the first guys that ventured over to speak with me for a few minutes. not exactly the first, but those guys didn't stay long enough to ask what i do with the pictures, and didn't get a card.

i don't remember having one of these in my files, and particularly not in green if i do. it caught my eye, and that was that. i wanna say this one is a member of the harbor knights car club, but i'm not sure.

beautiful cars, a great day, perfect weather and location. i'll definitely plan to be there next year.

i apologize to the other clubs that sent over flyers to me for their shows, that i couldn't get to today. some days, i just can't move fast enough.

destiny

this was the staging area for the whittier car show just before seven a.m. a seemingly endless line of cars down the main street, then other lines going down the cross streets, which you can't see from here. these guys should consider themselves lucky to have to wait it out here, in the shade. the side street guys were already getting hit by the sun.

so i took advantage of the captives and had my way with their cars at my leisure. still close together, but this time, nose to tail.

i don't remember seeing this one around before. i like these type trucks/vans/whatever you call them, with the big shiny sides; they reflect whatever is near them so well, when the light hits just right.

at the helm

here's one of the tribe's cars. guy next to it said it was of helms bakery fame. i didn't grow up out here, so i had no clue what he was talking about, but my better half knew all about it. guess they used to drive these vans around and sell donuts out of the back. can only imagine they put a stop to that because of health codes.

flying fish

stopped at fuddruckers the other day. mostly too late to catch the sunset, which wasn't all that special anyway. not like the one a couple of nights ago. why is it when there's some awesome sunset to be seen from the front door here, there isn't a car show to be had? saturday, there was a sunset so deep purple to deep red, melted crayons couldn't have matched it in a million years.

finding fewer cars at this show that i want/need to shoot a picture of. been an overall different vibe there, though the dj/host does like to mention other upcoming shows to me.

only took this shot because i liked the fish hood ornament. that decal on the side panel kinda ruins it for me otherwise. 

no show

so the year is going out in a whimper. drove over to the viejitos show this afternoon. a block away were some of those look at me, look at me, small package guys with their new big ass trucks, with doors that open upward, hoods that flip up and all their blingy stupidness.

drove past. they were in the lot i usually park in. thought maybe they might be overflow from the show. but no, where the nice cars were supposed to be, nothin. well, there was one viejito, seemingly just arrived, climbing out of his nice old truck. perhaps he was as mystified as we were as to where everyone was. we kept going, but probably should have stopped and shot his truck just for the heck of it. i suppose it was cancelled for the holidays, and the weather...cold and windy. didn't think/realize it was supposed to rain.

we weren't far from disneyland, so stopped there to pick up some of the sourdough bread for my mother-in-law. wasn't as crowded as you'd have thought, but busy enough we weren't going to stand in the soup line. fortunately, they have a cart outside, that they were just opening for the day, and got some there.

the skies were looking increasingly gray, so we decided to skip eating there, and headed for the little sandwich shop hiding in the hotel there. no long line in there. as we sat down to eat, it started pouring rain outside.

by the time we finished, it had mostly stopped, and we headed directly to the car. sprinkled a little on the way home.

so it sucked that there was no show, but my better half reminded me that i didn't really have space for more pics anyway. but i would have shot them anyway.

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i haven't decided yet whether to drive in to work tomorrow, or work from home, now that i've been enabled to do so, thanks to the IT department. pretty sure i'd be one of the few in the office, as i was last week. it was nice and quiet, even with the few other die hards working in offices elsewhere sending me work. i can think of only one person who might send me something to work on, and after that, there'd be no one to approve it, so really, wondering what to do.

probably the clincher will be the weather. if its raining, i'd be less inclined to drive in, and then fight the traffic coming home.

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found this car at one of the summer shows out at enderle. i'd never seen one before, so of course i had to shoot it. interesting tail lights, i think.

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oh ya, for christmas, i gave a few people a small book of hood ornaments i've shot over the last couple of years. a few have asked for copies for their friends. if you're interested, i've put it up for sale here, or you can preview a few pages from it anyway. no words, and i kept it simple. thought i'd let the images do their own talking. there's a small book of flowers, if that's your thang as well.

back to work

my week as a slacker is over tomorrow; back to work for half a day, then a day off, then the rest of the week like normal. i've enjoyed sleeping in late. got a few things that needed done, done. i'll be glad when the holidays are over. not my bag.

this week, it's my better half's turn being a slacker. he's got family coming to town. sometimes, that's more work than going to work.

he did take me to the brian setzer concert last night, sort of an annual thing. but i think it will be the last time. the gibson amphitheatre has reconfigured the seating just enough that he cannot fit into the seating comfortably—he's six foot five—and it's pretty uncomfortable even for me. and he felt ripped off after a great wall of enebirated backsides wouldn't sit down. if we wanted to stand up the whole show, we'd have bought pit passes, not the ass passes we apparently were stuck with. 

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another of the legend's cars. i think that's enough for this year. time to share the love with some other clubs.

watch yer back

mostly cars are viewed from the front. you can tell by the way they get parked, that owners think that's the thing to see; that's where the money is...in the engine. and i would agree for the most part, that the front is the ticket. depending on where the sun is in the sky, i sometimes curse the angled spaces, jacking up the good side with my awesome shadow, forcing me to shoot from the other side, missing the turn of the wheel. same issue shooting a motorcycle. hate when they are parked wrong for the lighting conditions.

but the group of cars with distinctive backsides, tail lights, fins, are all equally in my crosshairs. not quite like bubba in the prison shower, but i do like to get down low, catch a shot of where the sun don't shine—mostly because you guys back them into the shrubbery (a shrubbery!). ya, thanks for that. i'll back up into the bushes too, and chance the occasional spider or sharp sticks (pointed sticks!). ahh, i have to go pull up a monty python flick now...

low down

i have a hard time passing by the back end of impalas, with their sweeping fins. so i found this version in the form of a wagon unusual, but still enough to make me stop.

turns out to also be a viejitos member, only this one for the inland empire. nice and low. which is exactly how i was to get this shot, which if i remember right, had the owner wondering what the heck i was doing behind his car. for all i know, that's his kid sitting there, wondering the same thing.