what's up?

fingerprint

i feel icky. officially my two week vacation has begun, and i expect to be catching a cold any moment now. i work my butt off, day in and day out, and almost every time i take a break, i catch a cold. must be the release of tension and adrenaline. the stress of driving is a big factor too. took me two and a half hours to get home yesterday.

didn't feel up to going to mooneyes this morning. figured i could go later in the day, but i basically only left the house to go get some lunch, and really didn't want to do that either.

whittier had their xmas parade today. goes right past the house. usually they gather outside the bedroom window, and wake us up, but this year, they staged it further down the street and around the corner.

still, crowds of little kids squealing, yelling, singing, and playing music aren't conducive to sleep anyway. we got up, turned on the tree, and peeked out the curtains once in a while. neighbors were outside heckling the marching bands and beauty queens, but that's to be expected from forty year old wanna be frat boys.

so, hoping if i take a few days, taking it easy, i'll be up to my road trip mid-week.

for now, going to play with my pictures, watch the old cars passing by, on their way to the cigar bar or other bars uptown...the show must be over.

i love hood ornaments. pontiacs are always a target. even the ones with newly installed amber faces, but i prefer them in plain metal, painted metal, and plastic. the older the plastic resin is, the more likely they are subject to crackage (not the butt kind).

i suppose like skin, they dry out, become brittle and get this really interesting texture. and each is unique in the patterns, so i suppose i would be able to compare similar shots i've taken, to see if i've shot the car before, without ever seeing the rest of the car.

like, totally arrrr

i guess i need to think about finding a dress for a wedding. it's only next month. plenty of time. ugh. girl clothes. i hate shopping. been so long since i've had to wear a dress and heels. no idea what to do with this stupid hair. and makeup. i fail at being a girl.

at least i'm not high maintenance. lucky for my better half.

anyway, he's going with me. says he's bringing his camera. he actually likes watching me play dress up, but that's another story for another day.

i've seen this car around a few times now. shot it a couple of times, and now i'm bored with it.

i think i like these pictures from the first time i saw it at mooneyes open house, when i was still all, like, totally, wow, dude. still had some enthusiasm for it.

the details are really fun. a pirate theme going on. nuke the pontiac hood ornament, and put in this skull. should probably paint the screw in his nose black, so it doesn't show so much. maybe people with macro lenses shouldn't shoot up the nose shots?

i liked the pinstriping of pirate wenches, and the stick shifter inside. lots of details. nice paint job. and low, so low on the ground.

red vine

quick post. it's late, long ass day. i'll write something more later...meanwhile, beautiful car...

badger

saw this special deluxe at the fleetline fest. better half also managed to get this far in the parking lot, and spoke to the owner. asked him about the badge on the grille. since my better half seems to never post anything much anymore, i will take the opportunity to relay a short story here.

and of course, a week away his details are getting fuzzy.

guy found the badge on what was left of a grille in a junkyard. pulled it off and took it up to the office to ask how much it was.

dude in the office didn't even know what it was, and wasn't sure what to charge. better half can't remember how much he paid, but probably undervalued, since the dweeb didn't wait for the manager to get back. online, they seem to go for a couple hundred bucks, in the original blue velvet gift box.

says the historical value is in that it was an item chevrolet would give to employees / salespeople / owners that served in the war...one of the world wars, not clear on the first or second. i'm thinking more like the first.

also said the shades over the headlights helped to mute the glare of the lights from enemy aircraft that may be flying overhead. why give them a target?

anyway, some of the badges i see on grilles are quite interesting, and i'd never asked the why or where they come from, but my better half has no problem chatting people up, so he usually picks up these little tidbits of trivia.

baby blue

got an owner interested in seeing a picture of his car. i only shot a couple pictures of it. people got in the way here, in the staging area.

later in the day, i passed it a couple of times, but the trunk always seemed to be up, and people were around it, so i didn't shoot it again. maybe some other time, some other place.

it's not a bad shot, but i think it could have been better.

check another promised car off the list...

valley high

gonna post this, because i had it ready to go. i did make it uptown to the show today, and i'll start posting some of those soon, after i move from out of the front of this fan, and into a cold shower.

i'm way behind posting on recent shows. just been too busy and not home enough.

this one was from san fernando last month. love this show—oldies car club is very efficient about getting things organized, and moving the cars in. plus, they've let me in early for the three or four years i've made the trip up there.

pretty much have decided, since my better half mostly hasn't been able to join me at car shows lately, that if i can't find decent parking, in a relatively safe looking neighborhood, i'm not hanging around. luckily, i haven't had to leave one yet. there are other places i can be, which is the great part about socal and the los angeles area.

i think this is one of theirs. was in a line of their other cars, in the last parking lot i made it to before i was done. not sure which i liked most—the car or the hood ornament. liked the pop of the red, of the wheels, and the subtle pinstriping.

early bird gets the...

got to san fernando so early, that i parked on the curb near the entrance, and could have parked even closer, but held back a few car lengths. years' past there had been a line of cars down the street and around the corner. not entirely sure why it wasn't the case this time, but i needn't have worried--so many showed up later. must have been hungover, or, egads, they went to church?

i get to shows early, just for opportunities like these. no people in the shot, that glowing morning light, always chasing the light. gotta setup and shoot quickly, or you miss it. no gold reflectors needed. still, i got there too late for the transition from dark blue to purple to orange. oh well.

can't remember which club these two belong to...don't remember any club insignia, though they were later surrounded by a zillion pachuco club cars. i just know that i saw them across the field first thing, with that golden light, and went as quickly as i could to them.

loved the light hitting the hood ornament on the plymouth, and that it showed it's age, hadn't been replaced with a shiny new piece.

camera bags don't roll too good on grass. maybe they should make them with bigger wheels. that glow with fiber optic light. nah, wouldn't really blend into the background that way.

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crazy busy weekend/week ahead. day off on friday, mother-in-law's birthday; a graduation saturday, followed by a drive to vegas. a week there (any local shows besides cars and coffee?). car shows when i get back. thoughts: uptown whittier car show or bridal shower for future daughter-in-law??? hmmm hmmm hmmm.

gotta figure out how/when to take 100+ hours of vacation time before the end of the year. my mom just changed her mind and said she'd be willing to do a road trip. interesting. wait a few days...she'll change her mind.

special

life is speeding up lately. yes, i know i missed the gatos show yesterday. rare day that my better half could get a few hours out of the house, and he wanted to go to the fair to see my pictures hanging on the wall. matter of priorities sometimes.

we had fun, almost like a date. spent a lot of time talking about nothing and everything. walked through the buildings of schlocky stuff for sale, looked at the crafts, watched the mariachi and pacific islanders dance shows. weather was mostly good, so we stayed later than we had intended. his mom was fine—he called her twice—and told him to stop worrying and enjoy the time out.

next, going to speed through the week at work, even when a work week feels like it drags on forever. next weekend, a college graduation to attend, followed by a drive out to vegas. whittier car show coming up when i get back, then something else i can't even remember right now, then pick up the pictures from the fair... blah blah blah. stop thinking about things, and just do them. life happens. just one big check list...

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went to the sultans show this morning. perfect weather for pictures, got my favorite parking space, very close by. got there about six-thirty, and there were some cars, stuff rolling in. watched yet another ballet of parking the cars. it's a sort of choreography between the club members on what cars should go where. some are more organized, with walkie talkies, others just yell across the field, over the revving engines.

park isn't huge, so these guys just yell. but they do pack them in well. the park was filled, except for fire lanes. i made the outer circuit to start with, to stay out of the way of the moving cars, and to keep them out of my shots.

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starting with this car. belongs to a retired gentleman, who i think said he'd owned it for thirty-eight years. i've seen it around before, shot it before, but had never talked to the owner. i liked the paint combination, and the back windows are kind of different. the hood had been up, so i had decided to just shoot the back end. he offered to close the hood, so i offered to take a picture or two. so here's a few shots for him.

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briefly considered going to mariachi plaza, and decided i didn't have the energy. looking forward to seeing everyone else's pictures of all the cars i wished i'd been there to shoot.

field of "dreams"

this stunning pontiac was parked on the baseball field. almost walked past the entrance to the field, since the majority of cars parked toward the front, where you could see them, were the big, loud, overdone newer type cars. i wanna say the guys with the teeny peenies, that need to compensate, but maybe they just really like those types of cars. not my cup of tea.

anyway, saw this on the same field out the corner of my eye. sitting next to an old chevy. that one is nice too. so i hiked across the infield, remembering when my kid played ball, and then it hit me. the sweet stench. a recently "fertilized" field on a hot, hot day. oh, how i felt sorry for these poor bastards, having to hang out on that field all day with their cars.

i suppose you eventually don't notice it, but later, when they get back in the car, what about the "dirt" on the bottom of the shoes? lots of air freshener will be needed.

as i was saying, really nice car. really nice owner. chatted a bit. happy, happy guy. i liked the pinstriping, and of course, the hood ornament.