what's up?

brave soul

toyota corolla

made it to the two shows on my calendar yesterday. first up in my sights: the azalea festival.

i'll get to that in the next post. first i wanted to post this completely unusual car, or should i say completely normal car. what the hell is it doing here?

i was on my first go around of the show, a couple of aisles from the entrance. i went counter-clockwise, so i'm saying, i'd already been around three-quarters of the show. that early, there weren't so many cars there.

i guess the owner of this perfectly regular car had seen me taking pictures, when i'd been down his row. he'd walked a couple rows over, just to ask me if i'd take a picture of his car. he described which one it was. i had to ask him a couple of times, not quite sure i was hearing what i was hearing.

finally told him to show me, i was done shooting whatever it was i was currently shooting, so i'll follow you to it. yup. a toyota corolla. the idea of that car being in this show, with all these other wonderful cars, just tickled my brain to no end.

he was completely serious. it's his car. he wanted a picture. here you go. i salute you, brave soul, for bringing that car in, and for asking me to take a picture of it.

rock what you drive...nice rims.

shadow king

i'll just post this picture up from last week, while i wait for this weekend's pics from south gate and walnut high school download. gonna be a while. feeling sleepy too...been up since five a.m. lightly toasted by the sun while at the high school, so my skin is all tingly too.

this picture seems a bit dark on my screen. i think i'll go back in and tweak it a bit after the download is done. nothing like kicking the pixels to make them behave. actually, a lot of my pictures seem a bit dark lately. too much sun, or maybe just my screen.

chevy baby

1957 chevrolet bel air

another week of being away. things got busy, my daughter was still in town. generally exhausted by week end.

i've been away, and unable to post more pics from last week, and i'm already looking forward to tomorrow's show in south gate. should we say, i'm gathering my nuts for a rainy day. they still say rain is coming before summer comes slamming back, with it's wall of heat.

pretty sure i've seen this one somewhere else, though i can't quite pinpoint it in my memory just now.

it was just sitting there, with some space around it at this point in the show, so i took a few shots.

even went back later to shoot the back end. something about it just isn't the right angle to make me happy, but i told the owner i'd post something. the shots are ok, i just know there is a better angle or something, and i know i didn't get it. maybe next time.

lights out

got too late to post last night. fortunately, the power just went out here, in the oc, so i can't do any work. they're trying to find out if the construction site nearby cut a line. awesome.

anyway, back to the blessing of the bombs...

i liked the show a lot. even made a wrong turn off the freeway, and ended up where we needed to be, got a great parking spot. totally was in the neighborhood where my former sister-in-law/comadre lives. only really see her at weddings and funerals now, so didn't stop to see if she was home. probably visiting her mother, since it was sunday. i digress...

we got there about nine-thirtyish. flyer said it started at ten, priest not arriving until after eleven. we took advantage of the open spaces and the cars that were there, which were exactly the kind i was hoping for.

never had been to this park, and my better half took time out to check out the abandoned city pool and the building nearby, where he enjoyed his breakfast/lunch. open space building, with cement picnic tables, and what appeared to be a burned out snack bar at the far end. chicken wire covering the ceiling area; not sure if it was meant to be highly ineffective at preventing birds from nesting, or to give absolutely no confidence in stopping any falling pieces of ceiling concrete or plaster.

the priest arrived with a videographer and photographer, and a few others in his entourage. he carried a bottle of water, aquafina or similar, with the label removed. he used that to fling water at cars, and also people. didn't hit me. that's fine, probably because of the cameras. maybe i'm not worthy. lol. i'll get over it. over it already.

watched the woman in this car being directed by another girl, on how much room she had, before she would hit the curb. i waited until they both got out of the car and off to wherever they were going.

don't shoot a lot of these, but the paint was exceptional, so here's the front end.

power still out. too much longer and the higher ups will bite the bullet and send us plebes home for the day.

bless the bombs

1954 chevy bel air

sorry, this will be brief. it's late, and i gotta an hour to drive before bed.

went to dino's bomb squad's blessing of the bombs show. never been. i'll go again. everything i like, in one place.

heard it's usually a bigger show, but there was plenty to appreciate.

i'll post this shot, since it was the last one i took for the day. yay for the clouds—probably scared some people away, but it didn't rain anyway.

awww, shoot

1953 chevrolet bel air

posting another tonight. i've been away from home too many days. catching up with things.

another from last weeks mini-show at the vfw. such a small show, i felt like i'd crashed a party. someone posted a flyer, so i just took them up on it, and showed up.

i liked the cars, that there weren't lots of people in front of the cars. i think i lot of them were inside, enjoying the freshly barbequed meal being sold at the door. i wasn't hungry, so i didn't buy one.

i'm pretty sure i've seen this chevy somewhere. the sun going down, is whacking the color with a blanket of yellow. throws it off a bit.

hell if i was going to work a third weekend in a row. though, with the workload waiting, i sometimes find it hard to not think about trying to get ahead of deadlines, without being interrupted. it's hard to stop thinking about the work. gotta remember there is a life outside the office.

i gotta get back to weekly car shows, spending time with my better half, and trying to drop a few pounds. i sit on my ass all day in traffic, at the office, in the evening. i need to make some changes. just don't know what.

so shine your cars, or not. i'm in the mood to shoot.

crusty

saw this car between the buildings at the super cruise this past february. it's sort of a POS, but wonderfully full of character. the texture in the morning light is fun. just had to do extreme angles, to keep the cars parked right up next to it out of the picture. hate when they're clumped so close together.

rain is supposed to stay away until drive time monday. great. there are like, four car shows tomorrow, that i'd be perfectly happy going to any one of them. either i pick one, and spend most of the time there, or flit from show to show...the weather is too perfect to not be able to stay out all day. not too hot, not too cold.

i'll end up at my mom's for the night, working my way south. my kid is in town, so i should see if she's there or out with her friends.

work can wait til monday. so much work. i gotta get my request in for vacation time, for time off to go to some more distant car shows too. i want to travel more, got the bug again. any recommendations?

been gone, and it's late

ever feel like you've been running non-stop for days on end? not sustainable, but i'm not seeing any relief in sight.

planning on getting home tomorrow--been gone since monday. rain will probably ruin any aspirations for a car show or two this weekend.

i'm just gonna post this for now, as i gotta get at least a few hours of sleep, before getting up and doing it all over again.

butts

supposed to rain again tonight. guess i'll head to my mom's house for a couple of days. also, my daughter will be flying in mid-week. i'm already overloaded with work for the next couple of weeks, so i should be insane by next weekend.

posting one from the fairgrounds, since i didn't go to the swap meet today. true, it was raining at five in the morning, but it cleared up by lunchtime.

just love the curves on the back ends of fleetlines. bridgetown is always found here, along the bleachers. like they must always be first in line at the gates, at five in the morning. actually earlier. i get there at five and they're already in place, at least a few, staking out the row.

sucks

we just got back from a walk uptown. passed the whittier community association office, where they post flyers for all the local activities going on, up on their windows.

this year, the annual uptown car show has been moved up from mid august to june fourth.

in a normal world, i'd have said that's great, since it's always hotter than hell in august. but it's not perfect, and my world has been a bit of a crazy whirlwind lately. so, checking my calendar, i've just noticed that i have to catch a train to san diego that same day. perfect.

i can make it work, though, since the show is physically, just up the street. i'll just have to be sure to be all packed and ready to go the night before.

we're usually up and out by five-thirty in the morning anyway. organizers are up and telling vendors where to set up, and cars are stuck in purgatory, i mean, staging.

we'll just get up and out, shoot the cars for a few hours, as usual, but then i'll go home, download the pictures, and head to the station, instead of back to the show. just sucks that i won't be able to do anything with them until i get back a week later.

------

shot this car before, at a different show, from the back end. even sold the file for cheap, to an unnamed shop not too far away, with their idea of putting it on tshirts. perhaps they didn't have a shop to do it, or the cost prevented it.

i suspect, the more likely scenario is that they just gave the owner a nice print of the car. enjoy, i guess.