what's up?

good morning

it's just after six in the morning, on a monday. sitting here, at a fast food joint, not wanting to go to work.

survived another journey down the five freeway, with assholes driving / flying by at one-hundred miles an hour. can't believe anyone needs to drive that fast to get to work, so they are just assholes. went by so quick, didn't actually see their puckered faces. all i can say is, stay in your own effing lanes when you're trying to kill yourselves! i don't want to go with you.

apparently, seventy isn't fast enough.

saw this car while waiting for the dam(n) show to open on new year's day. early, freezing outside, we parked the car and took a turn about the streets, taking advantage of the parked show cars. this one had its lights on, so that was different. i suppose the people inside were just trying to keep warm.

wishing i'd done my usual ten shot exposures, instead of this three shot my better half said to try. i think even he admitted later, that maybe he should have just let me do my thang, as his shots weren't as great as he thought they'd be either.

all work...

coe truck

i've been working too many hours this week. the extra hours should be ending about tomorrow.

i've missed playing with my pictures. slept in late both days this weekend. didn't bother with the grand nationals...big show, too many people; i just have never gone to that one. i am enjoying seeing everyone else's pictures.

xmas tree came down today. better half's mom finally said it was time. what a pita...so many lights they put on the branches...i helped until i got a headache...hadn't had lunch yet.

waiting to go to the super cruise next week. on my little bro's birthday. too bad he moved to the other side of the states. guess i could make a cake and we could face time it to him, show him how much we're enjoying his bday cake. that might be too mean.

guess i'll spend the rest of today watching the clouds and sifting through pictures to post. rained very hard earlier, but looks like the clouds have blown away. planes are still flying pretty low, on their way to lax...must be pretty windy up there.

makeup

caught this car right after the owner parked. i get impatient sometimes; really nice cars draw crowds quickly, and crowds get in my way. i'll wait for people to move usually, but after a few minutes, i usually will move along, and hope i remember to come back later.

this one happened to be near some food vendors. hadn't had bfast yet, and my better half was in line waiting on his chorizo and a quesadilla for me. he watched me take a few shots.

he told me the other day, while we were talking about car shows, that the owner later asked him about when i'd post the pictures. better half didn't know what to tell him. probably something to the effect of sooner or later.

i think i'd already posted it on instagram; just hadn't had anything to write about here to have a reason to post it yet...one of those rainy day cars. not raining, but since my better half mentioned it...

perchance

1947 chevrolet fleetmaster

was chatting with my better half over dinner tonight; an assortment of subjects, as usual. still surprised we have anything to talk about after this many years, but there it is.

subject of car shows came up, because of course it does. some relative at the funeral mentioned their computer had crashed and he had lost the link to my better half's website. thinking it would be easier to remember if he sent him to it through my links page, better half came over and asked if i had any cards on me, which i did. think it had a cadillac on the back—irrelevant detail.

anyway, that led to conversations he has with guys at car shows, who, invariably will ask him for my card. they know he is with me, and he's easy to talk to, while i am usually busy taking pictures.

he mentioned the owner of this car, from last year's super cruise, wondering why i hadn't shot a picture of his car. he asked first, if the hood was up. it was not. he told the guy that i probably had shot it then, since it's one of my favorite models.

had the owner asked me, i'd have posted it sooner. otherwise, probably never would have gotten around to it. i have so many to choose from. since it came up in conversation, i'll go ahead and post it, though you've probably given up on seeing it.

looking forward to the super cruise again, next month.

into the dark

i liked this car. owner and his friend were standing in front of it for a while, so i spent time wandering nearby and further away, shooting other cars. finally ran out of interesting cars for a while...it was very early...and went back over to it. just asked them if i could take a picture of their car, and voilà, they said sure, and moved out of the way.

hell of a week. a few 12+ hour days will do you in. taking a break right now. going to a memorial service this evening, followed by a funeral tomorrow. then more work to do.

house full of relatives. i may head to the office tomorrow, afterwards. it's just easier.

speaking of, got to watch a crime scene unfold the other day, down in irvine. they found a body on a bike trail. saw it from my office window, soon after they found it, just after the sun came up. didn't have my camera with me, just a cell phone. so, the pic i took before they covered the guy up, just looks like a cow laying across the path.

interesting to see how the cops dealt with the scene, a lot of cops milling around for a couple of hours before the forensic types showed up, failing miserably at hiding the body from view...seriously, it is right next to the freeway, and hanging blankets over the fence didn't cut it.

they say he was killed. my theory, until they say how it happened, is that the coyotes ganged up on him. his bike was parked nearby. i say, he got off the bike, thinking they were dogs, and the pack jumped him. i saw them yesterday from the window, on the same path. just a thought.

or it could be homeless guys under the freeway overpass. it's creepy down there as it is...i've walked over there before. might be a while before i think about walking by myself over there again.

flat top, four door

i was told that this is a rare impala; that it was engineered to be a convertible, by just removing the roof; that somehow this one was ordered, and then no one picked it up, so the roof was never removed. and rarer still, that it has four doors.

i like the back window that curves around to be the side windows. and the fins. always the fins.

a bit dark

i did it. i got up, got my ass out of bed and was in line at the fairgrounds at five-o-eight this morning. really dark, but there were some lights and few people...they were busy getting breakfast burritos or something.

i spent the early morning shooting in the dark. i like the pictures. they aren't sharp as images after the sun started coming up, but i like the feel of them. messed with my camera settings to get them to look like this one.

so many cars to shoot as the morning progressed, and the weather was perfect. cold and clear. not freeze your ass off cold. waaaayyy better than the hell that is summer on that pavement.

i could have stayed all day with no complaints, except i got hungry and also needed to dump my coat in the car, probably about nine. and well, after sunrise, and the light starts getting to normal overhead light, it's probably just as good a time to leave anyway.

with style

going to see star wars this evening. walked uptown early to see it, but it was sold out. i hear it's better in imax 3d, but this small theatre will do just fine.

better half wants to go to pomona tomorrow, but his ankle is hurting, so we'll see. it is a lot of walking.

i have monday off, but he doesn't. not sure what i'll be doing. might just log in to work from home, and get a jump on one of many deadlines i have this week. more likely, i will just sit at my computer and play with my pictures, posting a few of my faves here and there.

here's another chevy from huffarama. don't recall it having any association to any car club on it, and i don't know who it belongs to, but it was very nice, sitting off to the side of the lot by itself.

taco town

i was on my way back to my car, from the mooneyes open house, when i saw this car sitting in a parking lot. i find it difficult to just keep walking past such a car, with all it's rusty business, particularly when i had my camera gear in hand this time. otherwise, i'm just as likely to whip out my phone and take a snap.

not sure if it was completely the car that caught my eye, or just the play of the colors of the cars against the building.

been away from my pictures for several days now. home for the weekend. very busy at work. people will start visiting this house soon; a funeral is only a week away; and one person has two additional of her own to attend...this year has started on a very sad note indeed.

hoping to be sitting in line at pomona this sunday, before the sun comes up. thar be cars to shoot...

take me back

i got new glasses. always love getting a new pair of glasses. each year, you realize your eyes are going a little bit at a time. anyway, shiny, shiny new glasses, and the world is a little clearer today. spent the last year hating my frames; i don't hate these new frames yet...maybe i won't.

i've seen this one a few times over the years. posted it a couple times too...here and here.

it's a beautiful car, and you don't see them very often, unless, of course, you go to a lot of car shows.

there were a lot of photographers gathered around it, probably all day. while i was there, there was at least one guy that follows me, and i follow on instagram. wasn't quite sure it was him at the time...wasn't until later the next day, that he wrote that i didn't say much to him. sorry about that, i never met you in person before, and i'm a social moron.