it's a harley, dahlink

harley davidson

away from home tonight, so i'll just put this one up.

took several angles of this bike, which are all just fine, but i thought this angle was just more interesting. not an extraordinary bike, but it was clean, and sitting off mostly by itself momentarily. not long after, the owner moved it in with the crowd of cars, where i never would have bothered shooting it then.

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been busy as usual at work. i've been trying to squeeze in a walk before work, or climbing nine flights of stairs if i can. my legs hurt from sitting all day; i should get out for an afternoon walk like i used to, just block out some time on the work calendar and go.

really need to try an experiment and go cold turkey on the coke and/or pepsi. i like my caffiene bubbly and on ice, but it comes with a lot of sugar, which my body is apparently just converting into ass, boobs and belly. i could say i let myself go, out of some bizarre curiosity to see what i'd look like "with a little meat on my bones," same way i'd just see how long my hair would grow, but that would just be an excuse.

better half isn't complaining, but i'd like to be able to bust a lot of my old clothes out of storage, if i lost a few inches.

i spent a good part of a year working in what we called the dungeon, at a previous employer. was a huge project, with multiple companies working together, day and night. they kept a steady supply of snacks and soda, to keep the captives, er, employees, happy and working.

i used to joke, that i could just sit and mainline/iv drip the coke twenty-four/seven. was easier then; i was only a hundred pounds and burned those junk food calories without even trying.

i will miss it. i will be tempted every day, and it's just so easy to get my hands on the stuff.

gonna change to water. but it has to be ice water, to top off the ice water in my veins.

says the girl who chugged a coke whilest typing this missive...

engraved hog

harley davidson deluxe

i watched the owner move this bike forward, out of the shade. thought he was going to take off. no, he moved it for another photographer. then he left it there. had to shoot it, sun hit the engraved chrome just so.

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finally got my car back from the shop. glad their insurance covered it; was quite expensive for just a couple of crunches in a fender.

i guess while taking the door apart, they had to unplug the battery, so now there are things that don't quite work right. the radio didn't come on...had to punch in a code. the alarm seems a bit whack, so i need to look up how to reset that. and the check engine light is on, so i am assuming the sensor needs to reset. the shop is closed on weekends, so i can't call and ask them, but the timing makes sense, and it seems to be running fine.

they gave me a hundai sonata as a rental car to drive all week. who's the genius that designed the car with the emergency brake positioned down by your left ankle? not only is it uncomfortable to rest your foot down there, or stretch, i kept thinking if there was an accident, i'd get hobbled or amputated instantly. really stupid. other than that, the car wasn't that bad.

didn't like that all the doors unlock when you turn it off. made me paranoid at the gas station that someone could jump in and snag my purse. i read the news too much.

end rental car review...

waiting is the hardest part

harley davidson softail

harley harley harley. not sure why i shot this bike versus any of the other bikes at legg lake last month. maybe i just liked the rolled up serapes, with it's colors.

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both my brothers live in florida. hurricane matthew is barreling toward one of them now. the other is further south, and out of town for work; his wife is staying with her dad, but she says so far, nothing happening where she is staying.

i think my brother who is in the direct path, is far enough inland, he'll be ok. he moved there from cali only a few months ago, so this is his first time dealing with real weather since we were kids in virginia.

his house came with window coverings just for the purpose of protection from hurricanes, but they weren't marked which went with which window. should have just nailed up some boards.

pretty sure he is shitting bricks about now. his wife would take an earthquake over this any day.

being overly dramatic last night, he said he was exhausted, but ready to face the storm like lieutenant dan tied to the mast in forrest gump.

Update

on 2016-10-08 05:24 by kathy

p.s.  hurricane missed both brothers' houses, just got a lot of wind and rain. they lucked out this time.

still not home

harley davidson

i hear my mother-in-law closely avoided a trip to the emergency room, having borderline pneumonia. she seems to be responding to the same type of meds my doctor gave me, so i'm hoping to go home tomorrow. i'm a little tired and dizzy, but i'm on the mend.

ventura nationals was today. i've never been, but i'm seeing some remarkable pics other photographers are putting up.

again, an old pic, from a whittier uptown show a year or two back. a harley is a harley, but some catch my eye more than others.

i want to ride my...

harley davidson

so, i've been busy doing stuff i'm not allowed to talk about, so i won't talk about it. i've been away from my computer and/or too tired to turn the damn thing on all week.

saw this bike at the viejitos show. one of the few i saw that morning before i bailed. only one i shot.

liked the paint and pinstripes. not a girly girl, so i won't call it pink; more of a mauvey marooney color.

now i think i'll work on another picture until it gets late, which is going to happen quickly...time flies when i'm having fun...then gotta get some sleep.

florence

motorcycle

made it out to mooneyes open house today, relatively early. sun didn't come out from the overcast for a couple of hours, but it did feel humid. way fewer people in the way at this show if you get there early.

its a popular show, but there really isn't anywhere for people with cars to park. they jam into the lot of the hamburger joint on the corner. there were other business lots that were taped off, that weren't last year. the lot of a flooring showroom on the other side of the intersection was taped off, but cars were parking in there—one of the other photographers i talked to figured they must know the owner. that, or they said they would make him an offer he couldn't refuse.

other cars parked along the side of the street, or in what other parking lots where businesses seemed to be closed. some parked on the street, but didn't pay attention to the no parking signs, so cops had to find the owners to move them. only option for anyone else was to keep cruising up and down the street until a spot opened up, or they got bored and left.

we started shooting at the burger joint, walked down past mooneyes, then back to the burger joint. same bunch of cars there, so we crossed the street to shoot a blue truck i'd seen passing by, and also found a few others parked in that lot with him.

then, crossed at the light with another photographer with a huge lens, who seemed interested in shooting video rather than pictures, at least that's what my better half said.

found this bike in the lot with the flooring store. tavertine. carpeting. tile. didn't need any of that today, but they appeared to be open for business. now if they had been selling some water, i'd have bought that.

took a couple of shots of this bike, then went to shoot a purple truck. while waiting for some people to move out of the shot, the owner of the bike came over to ask where he might see a picture. gave him a card. here it is. wish the goober on the left wasn't just standing there gawking. i think he followed me around for a little while. haven't looked at a lot of the other pictures closely, but i wouldn't be suprised to find him hovering around in them too.

found a shady spot nearby, that actually had a nice, cool breeze blowing through, where we took a break before heading down this side of the street and back to the car. better half insisted that i take a swig of his drink.

he likes diet snapple, which i do not like, and which was not cold, but it was wet. he'd rather i choke that down than have a heat stroke. he also said, "39jimbo wasn't there to give me a cold one." i argued that there was a case of water in the car, but he argued that i wouldn't make it back to the car, so...gagged down half a bottle of the stuff. warm rasberry. i'd give it a warm rasberry.

imperials show tomorrow. and dam, it's after ten, so i better get to bed.

victory

victory motorcycle

motorcycle from the blessing of the bombs show. don't remember seeing a victory before, or at least shooting one. usually all harley, all the time. nice for a change. nothing fancy about this one, except i liked how it was sitting, and the clouds in the sky.

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fourth of july. day off. went to a movie this morning. playing with pictures now. next, there's some bananas that need to be made into bread.

i even made dinner last night. seems if i've got to much time around the house, i start getting domesticized again. i hate cooking, but when i have a craving, i go with it. my better half and his mother aren't complaining about it either. except for the chocolate chip cookies i made on friday; they're made with real sugar, not that fake stuff, and they both are trying to stay away from it. same with my kid and my parents—at least they try not to indulge. so hell, i'm slowly working my way through them myself. going to try pushing them on the neighbors. i certainly don't need them all.

after the bread is in the oven, i guess the whining about going to work tomorrow will begin.

no plans for this evening. i've seen enough fireworks for a lifetime. i'll just stay home, and see if there are any here. >:)

better leather

harley davidson heritage softail

ahem. let's get to last week's whirlwind through the whittier uptown carshow. i've got several to prepare for those few people who asked me to post pictures of their cars.

as i mentioned before, i only had six hours out there, and i still didn't get around to everything. had to get to the train station, and i've been gone most of the week.

it seemed mostly organized this year, though i don't remember checking what time they started rolling the cars in from staging. i was busy, going from flower to flower to flower...i mean car to car to car, trying to shoot as many as i could in my short amount of time.

was out there at five-thirtyish a.m. where were you?

found this motorcycle down in the rick's parking lot, the owner nearby keeping an eye on his bike. he offered to move it, nah, i'd find it later for other shots. this is how i found it, so leave it be.

there was so much detail on this bike, that it seems to be less about the harley itself—which is pretty nice, shiny and pinstriped—and more about the leather.

everything decorated in an aztec theme, with the usual characters and patterns you'd expect. skillfully done and fitted, i asked the owner about it. 

he said he'd save himself a buttload (he didn't exactly use that word, my edit) of cash by taking it down to mexico himself versus paying a guy here, to basically do the same thing.

he had to point out that there was a little felix the cat medal/figure on the side. probably thought i'd appreciate that since i was wearing my felix the cat chevrolet shirt. if he hadn't mentioned it, i wouldn't have noticed it, it was low, on the side next to the wall, and there was so much other detail to look at.

anyway, really nice work here.

l-e-d, you and me

harley davidson heritage softail

haven't decided if these lights on bikes add or subtract from the overall look of the bike. this one is already blinged out with etched chrome and airbrushing.

i shot it earlier, just after we arrived. the owners moved out of the shot then. i like those shots, with the clouds in the sky, from a low angle.

i found it again, just before i packed up my gear, in the evening, sun setting, sky colors changing. mostly it was the sky i wanted. i guess the red glow is ok. 

i guess the owner was too tired by then to move his chair this time, as well as there being other bikes in the same space. also, there were more people crowded around to look at the bikes this late, making it more difficult to find a good angle to shoot my longer exposures, and not get them smearing through the shots.

green reaper

harley davidson road king

found my better half chatting with some guys from the timeless classics club in the lot between the buildings, an overflow parking lot. the real show lot only had one hundred spaces available, so i'm pretty sure this area was meant for actual customers for the nearby businesses. i think the majority of the customer parking areas quickly became overflow parking for the show, and any of the paid, reserved show spaces were quickly forgotten after the tape went down.

i shot the immaculate impala my better half was standing in front of; i'd shot it previously at the majestic's new year's show at the dam. the car looks fine, but my better half and the dudes he is chatting with are too close to the front of it. i'll have to think about if i want to waste time cloning them out, or just leaving them in.

anyway, right behind that car, this bike pulls in and parks next to the wall. i'd seen it cruise by the main lot earlier. wondered if he was going to park, or just pass through. a car had just abandoned the space before he got there, so there was a big gap between the bike and the cars in front and behind. perfect for a picture, and there really weren't a lot of people in that area, only traffic to contend with.

as i set my tripod down, and started to frame up a shot, the owner offered to turn the lights on for me. awesome. thanks, i think it looked better with them on. kinda kicking myself that i didn't shoot the details of the airbrushing on the fenders and tank. flaming skulls are always fun. and love the rearview mirrors held by skeletal arms and hands.

now if the headlights had been on, and it was a wee bit darker, that could have really been cool.

i think i made a car wait while i finished my shots of this one, my ass hanging out in the drive lane, but i think it was worth his aggravation.