what's up?

stylish

sitting in my car here, way too early, but i did beat the rain getting to work this morning. it’s just now started falling on the roof, at a pretty steady pace. i still need to get gas over at costco soon—no lines at five-thirty in the morning.

relatives coming this weekend; i’ll probably avoid them...don’t want to trade cooties with the little kid.

but the best news is two days to go, until a two-week vacay for me. nothing fun, but it does involve a flight, a rental truck, and lots of scenic driving. and not working. so yay. wish my better half could go, but he’s busy taking care of his mom. someday his sister will come back to help, but for the near future, it’s just him/us. wonder if medicare would provide someone to help? dunno.

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second time, at least this car is up here. this time at workman high show. one of the few older chevys there. first car i shot that day, being the first one there in the corner. one of the veteranos club members, they reminded me about their car show coming up this weekend, in covina. hopefully, the rain stops by then.

tired

missing a couple of good shows this morning. just too tired to move. my arm still hurts. maybe this afternoon, i’ll check out a couple of evening shows. better half has been out at the markets, and i’ve been watching his mom while he’s out anyway.

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nice car from a few weeks back at salinas tires. limited space, but nice selection to shoot.

shaking my head

i remember this day. last summer's bomb club car show at santa anita. middle of the racetrack, on the grass. hot, sunny day. still looking forward to the next one on june twenty-third.

all the lovely cars, in a new location, at least for me...i'd never been to a show there. actually, hadn't been to santa anita in years, so that was fun.

maybe i'll take pictures of the horse races this time too.

recent events have just got me feeling down. if i was a psych major, there'd be a thesis in it. people are just so horrible sometimes, and selfish and stubborn. there are some that will politely engage in a discussion, agree to disagree, but the rest think if they just yell louder, insult you, belittle you, threaten you, they win. water off a duck's back. let's remember richard for a moment. ok, he's not worth the time; see how it works?

and i'm kind of enjoying that it is raining just a little bit, so i can sleep in and not have to find a reason to not get out of the house. i'm sure there was something grammatically wrong with that sentence, and i don't care...double negatives or something.

been busy, and i'll be travelling soon. i'm getting really good at driving big ass moving vans. hoping i don't get a diesel one again...don't like the steering wheel being so horizontal. hoping the weather is good, and the roads aren't icy.

had to do a bunch of headshots at work yesterday. they scheduled seven people; one showed up, forgetting that she was supposed to wear a suit, and was dressed for st. patty's day. one less person, great. then someone else heard there was a shoot, and wanted one, but she couldn't do it until the afternoon. so i still ended up with seven people.

interesting how insecure people are in front of a camera. i am just as uncomfortable behind one, when they are in front of me. i babble, and try to lighten their mood, to get a decent smile from them, get them to relax. i'm trying, and i hate it every time, but the pictures aren't bad. now if i'd just relax enough to be able to tell them how i want them to pose, to get rid of that double-chin, or thin them out a bit, like i've learned in classes, i wouldn't have to do so much in post-processing, maybe.

i did do a little bit of stand like this, smile like that...sort of a mirror. i don't smile much, so my smile just has to be ever more stiff than theirs. at least they laugh, and i get the shot.

after shooting someone six+ foot tall, followed by a person about five foot in heels, when i went to adjust the height on the tripod, a leg twisted off. not good. couldn't get back together and stay. the person is just waiting. i tried some hand-held shots, but i shake too much. probably should have dialed up the shutter speed or something.

i wasn't liking the quality, so i tried the leg one more time, and propped it up against a chair. that held together long enough, and got something usable finally.

i had a twenty-minute break before the next person, so up to my office, asked a co-worker if they could fix it, while i ran out to my car to get my personal tripod from the trunk. knowing that i didn't have the plate to attach the camera to it with me, i was going to have to pull the ball head off and just mount the camera directly.

fortunately, my co-worker figured it out, at least for the time being, and i got through the rest of the day with it. pretty sure, though, i didn't adjust the leg height for the duration.

need to reschedule the one person sometime in the future, so i better be sure to check it on monday, and carry my own as a backup on those days.

missed you

got up late, but mostly because the time changed. stupid daylight savings time. well, it didn't matter. the weather forecast said no rain, just cloudy all day. oh hell yaaas. love that. giant softbox.

took a bit to get moving, but out i went. drove past where a cruise was supposed to be, on the way to the workman high school show, but i guess they had already left. no big. arrived at the high school just after ten, when it was supposed to officially start.

the cars are hidden down on the basketball court, which you can't see from the parking lot. but in the parking lot, there some semi-trucks parked, followed by some muddy dirt buggies in the next lot.

sort of disappointed [not] that i came to find not so many cars on the court. last year had been jammed, and hot. here, there were maybe about thirty cars, half the kind i don't like, and the other half my favs, just parked around the perimeter.

fewer cars, more focus, more pics, less people in the way. look at the glass half full. make the most of it. any time i walk away with at least one car and one picture that makes me happy, it's cool.

this guy parked over in the corner. was hoping some of his friends from his club would show up, but didn't. that was ok too. i think this was one of my favorite pictures i shot today. and the clouds are ok too. owner even pulled the show tag out of the window too. thanks for that.

waited a bit for a jump-off between two cars, but it kept not happening, and i had to get back home. wished more cars had been there, it never did rain, still isn't, missed you all, but was still good with it. one guy theorized everyone was at the dub show. whatever.

dreary, deary

saw this last summer, at front street. overcast, and darkish, sort of like today. red cars are a pita. the color usually sucks out all the details. maybe the camera sensor doesn't like red. gotta push the color around to give me what i want. clean car.

been busy, as usual. no one reads this anyway, and things i have to say wouldn't be all that interesting to anyone. or would they? nephew is in a magazine today. i can say i know him...sort of like when my better half's nephew danced around and said, "i know her," when i won my first ribbon at the county fair for one of my pictures.

the other day, i was contemplating that i don't own any work clothes anymore. i mean, more specifically, dresses and suits, you know, business attire / girl clothes. company went casual several years ago, and as i outgrew stuff, i didn't replace it. i really hate shopping.

noticing now that i need to buy new casual stuff anyway, it's wearing out. jeans are wearing through. the quality of clothing now is crap; those clothes aren't that old.

now, wondering what i would wear if say, i needed to go on an interview, and/or found a new job, or hey, i'm surrounded by older people in the family...what if...i need a darker outfit?

then my thoughts go to the undergarments.

wore a thong the other day. not sure why i even bothered, as it really didn't cover anything up, make a pair of old pants look better, or protect the parts from irritation.

hey, where's the cotton crotch? how can it 'breathe'? ...does it need mouth to, ya know...resuscitation?

sure my better half loves when i wear them, or nothing, but under the clothes at work, he's not around to see.

and no one wants to see ye olde grannie panties...leave those to my mom.

who is the evil person that thinks they should construct jeans that only go so high up on the hips, so you have to keep yanking them up, or get used to the sensation of them constantly slipping down, and showing the world your ass crack. wait...dudes get away with that look all the time, but at least their boxers cover their butts most of the time.

long brain dump about nothing, sorry. that's what's bouncing around my brain. having to face up to admitting i have to go to the mall. where, i won't find anything that fits, or i like, or is just hideous. i need to learn to sew.

mr chevy

quick post, didn't sleep well last night, and it's been a long day, so i'm tired af.

there are a couple of other pics from this show on instagram if you haven't seen them yet. they'll be posted here eventually when i have time or think of something to say.

check for a new one on wednesday night, going to my parents' house tomorrow to see how they are doing.

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nice backside on these. love the curves so much, and this car was polished like a mirror.

hope for jorene

i made it out to another fundraiser for jorene. she has cancer. i don't even know her, but i've met her people, and those that care about her. they bring out their cars, i bring out my camera, and donate the little bit i can afford.

it was local, i wasn't sure how my arm would handle it, so it was perfect for me to go.

small parking lot, and i heard cars had been turned away earlier, as it was by invitation only, for the limited spots available. they seemed to shuffle cars later on, so they probably should have come back by later in the day for a spot.

out along whittier boulevard, there was a lot of passing cars gawking and honking their horns. maybe if they'd put up a banner asking for donations, people would have stopped and kicked in some cash.

i had to ask which table was collecting the donations, so i could hand over my little bit. apparently they traded for raffle tickets. i didn't stay late enough for the raffle, so i handed them to some other photographer on the way to my car.

i did ok. not sure that i would have been ok, had i gone to pomona instead. long walk, so many cars. maybe next time.

leafy

back in whittier after a week. haven't decided if i'll go to a show tomorrow or not. my arm would probably be ok. i don't think it will rain either, and probably there will still be some kick ass clouds.

i think the first time i used a camera to shoot classic cars seven or eight years ago, it was a cloudy, march day. those are still some of my favorite pictures.

pomona swap meet is tomorrow. hmm. hmm. maybe.

all those leaves on the ground, i should have checked inside the car, to see if it was full of leaves too.

days away

better half and his sister both had a cold this week. ran me outta the house to avoid catching it too. i have to get on a plane in a few weeks, followed by several days driving a rental truck.

that being said, i've been away from my computer. and also too busy in the storage unit to write my piddly rants here. sorry, to my few lurkers, or recent acquaintances looking for their cars. it's beyond my control.

took the wrapping bandage off my arm today. i think it hurts more wearing at this point. still have some twinges of ow-fuckity-oww moments, depending on how i move it or what i'm holding. good thing it's raining this weekend or i might be tempted to roll out to a show.

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impala. front street in norwalk. practically perfect in every way.

empty unit

better half realized that i was going to attempt to keep moving boxes, even with my gimp arm, so yesterday he took the time to help me. i know he had a list of other things he needed to do this weekend, while his sister is in town to help with his mom, so i really appreciated his help.

his help basically ended up being moving most everything that was left. which was a good thing, since mostly the rest of the boxes were full of books, and then there was my old desk.

all i did was repack some boxes of monster toys into big plastic bins—i really liked collecting the monsters for a few years. only found one damaged thing...the heat had melted an old rubber alligator's arm onto a model of a skull. ok, i was a weird kid. oh, and i also swept the floor, when we finished up just before storage closing time.

so that's done. just need to spend time repacking cardboard boxed stuff into plastic bins, and there should be enough room for whatever my kid's bringing down here. now if i can only talk her into selling her snakes and tarantulas, everything would be great.

better half went out for a 'boy's night out' the other night. for him, those usually consist of driving to fry's and just wandering the aisles looking at stuff, usually until they tell him they are closing. he's just happy to be out of the house, i guess, and that's his thing, like women go shopping to unwind thing.

this time, he went out to guitar center. he's been looking for a particular guitar, and their website said they had one in stock.

he got there, and of course, it's not there, or otherwise sold. so he started fiddling around with some other guitars.

said he was sitting there playing, when he realized there was someone standing entirely too close behind him. he said that as he turns around, he realizes it's the sales person, and notices that—in his words—she's really beautiful. at the same time, as he's mentally noting this, his wedding ring flies off his finger onto the floor.

as he quickly reaches to pick it up, his response was, "don't read too much into that!"

he said the girl basically just went, "what?" in such a tone that ruined the illusion, heading right into valley girl territory. just a kid, not too quick witted, and didn't get the joke. probably hadn't even noticed it fall.

he's lost a little weight, so his ring falls off sometimes. he found it funny.

lil blue oldsmobile from the blessing of the cars in san gabriel last year. kinda like the old cars with the eye-like headlights hanging off the sides, looking sleepy with those overhanging bits like eyelashes.