the chicano park show this year, made up for the low turn out last year. last year, it threatened to rain, and many cars stayed away.
this day was almost as perfect as you could wish. not too cold, and overcast and/or cloudy most of the morning. then blue skies cutting through here and there, until it dominated, and the sun burned through, and the wind blew the clouds away.
and the cars. so many cars. every type i could wish for in one place.
we got there, as usual, after five, still dark out. shot cars that were lined up, until roll in. then headed across the park, to the street, to the patch of grass next to the freeway on-ramp. that's klique territory. they park over there every year.
first car that caught my eye, was this hudson. the owner--a woman, btw--was busy polishing it, so i went on to shoot another car.
came back around ten minutes later, only to find her still busy rubbing that paint to a crystal finish. i decided to shoot it anyway, as the sun was rising behind me and hitting the car with a warm glow. had to snap my shots as the woman was around on the opposite side of the car. tried to take it everytime she leaned down, out of view.
what was bugging me, and ruining that shot, was that there was a big box of a transformer or other equipment on the lawn behind me a bit, to my left, so, with the sun rising behind that, there's an odd boxy shadow across part of the car.
following the advice of some famous photographer, whose classes i've sat through, i decided to look the other way, and take the shot from the side you see here. the thing of it was, the car is parked next to the beginning of the uphill ramp to the walkway over the freeway. so i'm bent over in that small angle space underneath the ramp, with my tripod, to get this shot, while the owner has now moved to the other side of the car again, still polishing and shining.
i have another picture i like a little better than this shot, from the other morning at chicano park. almost the same shot, but just a few minutes earlier. in that one, there's the sun, blazing sun rays, framed in that little gap on the right. the sky is more colorful, the car gorgeous still, even with one sun flare blemish on the car.
the one little thing that ruins it, or makes it, depending on your point of view, is my better half and his tripod, as graceful as a giraffe at a watering hole, fiddling with his camera on the other side of the car, stage left. he's trying to get his shot too; i wonder if he got my sorry ass in his picture.
i passed it later in the day, after the sun was full up and the light hitting the car had changed, but the hood and trunk were up, and that was that.
better half says he read an article about the owner, who said she had wanted to join the klique club, but they said no, it's for men only. the dukes accepted her and that car...good on them. win-win for both. i hope she won-won.
