what's up?

aches & pains

so many car shows lining up, while it's still not raining, and i have to go sprain my arm. makes it difficult to carry a tripod and pull a bag on my own.

i've been moving stuff from one storage unit, to a bigger one, in anticipation of moving my daughter's junk in with mine. at least until we figure out where she's going.

been mostly moving it after work, for a few hours at a time. anyway, reaching up to snag a box too high on the stack, another box fell down and whacked me near my wrist. was aching so much after a couple of days, i went to a walk-in clinic yesterday. x-ray showed no cracks, so i just need to wrap it up.

feel like i should wrap both forearms and pretend i'm a boxer, or better yet, wonder woman with those stupid metal things that she used to deflect things. nah, more like the metal things they wore in 300.

anyway, not sure how much i'll get out for a few weeks. still have a month to move stuff. guess i'll get my other kid to do it. piece of cake for him; probably can move all the boxes in a day and not break a sweat.

was talking to tudy a couple of weeks ago, and somewhere in the conversation he mentioned the showlows st hilary car show. said he hadn't made it there this past year, but his son had. described the car, wondered if i'd seen it.

looking through pics, yes, yes i did.

new day

sitting in the dark, waiting for my workday to start. contemplating the next few days.

my daughter is coming down to visit for the next couple of weeks, with her boy toy and one of her dobermans. she's leaving the albino one back at home. trying to find a new home for it...if you're interested in an untrained, unhousebroken sweet rescue dog, let me know.

i have a few doctor appointments coming up, so hoping to figure out whatever my issues are. hoping it will be just a take this pill and you'll be just fine, but that's probably too easy a fix.

at least it's relatively quiet at work. rare couple of weeks that i'm not busting my ass juggling projects. it won't last, so trying to enjoy that. have had to shoot several portrait/headshots, which mostly have turned out ok. will need to get a roll of gray background paper on the xmas list, and a dedicated room to set up some lighting...just making do for the time being.

people just don't sit still looking pretty, like a car, so it's been a bit challenging for me. different camera settings, with a camera i'm not completely familiar with. it's all good. keep learning, i guess.

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last few shows i've been to. have chosen different times of day, just for the challenge of pushing the camera to see what i see. mostly i get sunrise shots, like this one, because i'm out trying to get the pictures before the sun brings the heat.

slightly easier than the evening shots, where the camera settings just have to get dialed up to where i can still get an image and not have it too noisy without a flash, or the exposure so long, that people tend to just walk through the shot thinking you're not doing anything.

this picture kind of has an african plain feeling, but those porta-potties kind of ruin for me.

alex

out to st hilary's very early this morning, before the sun came up. watched a few cars head in before i got outta the car. so by the time i was shooting my first car, the sun was peaking out already.

got through two batteries before i got to this car. either they're going bad or i haven't been using them enough. more like the latter.

told him i'd post a picture of his car. he said he'd painted it himself, and knew it wasn't quite perfect. so it is good enough, your car doesn't have to be pristine to get a picture.

i used to help my dad sand his car every year when i was a kid. he always painted it some sort of steel blue, using some giant compressor he got from the navy scrapyard or something. not shiny, but did the trick.

owner of this car apparently has seen my pictures before, and probably reads this here blog, as he offered me a water pretty quickly. it was a hot day, and i was about ready to go find one and/or head out to eat. that helped a lot, i was getting pretty shaky about then.

so thanks for the water, alex. nice to meet you.

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.

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...

good day, sunshine

chevy truck

another early morning shot from the showlows show at st hilarys. i think this is a dukes' truck, at least it was parked near a bunch of their cars. decided i liked this one better than the shot with the sun's rays glaring into the lens this time—the lens flares were going straight down the middle, and not that interesting.

queue the violins...

i've done nothing so far this weekend. yesterday all i did was sleep and deal with stomach issues. i don't know what it is that i get through the work week just feeling meh, only to get to saturday, and feel ick.

i had plans. i had wanted to go to the latin gents/dukes toy drive. it was wonderfully overcast here by the house, and assumed it might have been in cypress as well. the show was from one to seven in the evening, which would have been nice for a change.

instead, i watched the awesome sunset from the couch, and wished i had just gone anyway. oh well. judging from only one photographer's pics posted on instagram, looked like it was a good show, and that they had collected lots of toys.

only left the house once yesterday, for a late lunch. walked uptown. sometimes if i just get out and walk, whatever it is goes away. not this time. was tempted to call my better half to come get me, but i toughed it out, and walked back home, but not very quickly.

not feeling one hundred percent today. but i am hoping to go to the viejitos show over by legg lake—at least that is only fifteen minutes from home vs half an hour+ to cypress, if i start feeling queasy.

good fella

1939 chevy master deluxe

was thinking about going to friscos, then it started to rain. rain or shine is great for cars, but not for camera lenses. the bodies are supposedly water resistant, but not the lenses. i can't afford new lenses, so probably will skip it. my loss.

saw this in the corner at showlow's st hilary show. if not a fleetline, master deluxes are my next favorite.half in, half out of the shade is sort of challenging.

wishing that other car wasn't behind it. took a picture of that one too. that owner was a dodgers fan, and took time to put a sunshade emblazoned with the logo across it in the front window, so that i'd take a picture of it. i did, but i don't think i'll post it. not the best shot, and i wasn't that impressed by the sunshade.

took my kid's dog for a walk on friday after work. hadn't stopped in to visit for a while, and the kid wouldn't be home from work for another hour or two. i took him to a nearby park and let him off his leash at some point, so he could run around a bit. he ran in circles for a few minutes, then must have found something, because i saw him eating it before i could catch up and stop him.

it looked like what was left was evidence of a picnic in the grass, with a baby's animal crackers and chicken bones strewn about the area. had to pull him away, as he was trying to snarf another bone.

saturday morning, about five a.m., i get a nasty "what did you feed the dog?" text from my kid. i guess the dog had not been feeling well the night before, had been locked in the kitchen just in case, and had woke up barfing and crapping everywhere. pictures were included. thanks for that visual.

he says the dog always drops a bigger load after i've stopped by, i usually feed him extra biscuits, or share my dinner with him. i'm a bad gramma in his eyes.

i had to apologize and tell him i hadn't fed him anything extra, and could only think whatever he managed to eat had already gone bad, and he had food poisoning.

i guess he continues to be sick, but supposedly slowing down. i've offered to take him to the vet and/or pay for it. he says he'd given the dog some pepto-bismol.

hoping to hear they've taken him in and given him an iv or something.

the trunk

go dodgers

was asked to shoot this trunk. owner had been chatting with my better half, and called me over.

i like baseball, grew up watching the dodgers and listening to vin scully, so ok, i'll shoot it.

haven't really paid much attention to the games this year, or baseball at all. one thing after another, ya know.

posting it in honor of his retirement, on this, the last day calling a game. we'll miss you, vin!

missing san pedro today; celebrating our ninth anniversary this week out of town. happy my better half has put up with me this long; he deserves a cuddle or something.

showlows

wishing i'd pulled out a different camera/different lens right about now. wide-angle distortion is interesting and aggravating at the same time.

early on, just club guys and vendors there. their show, their line up, my shot. thanks, guys!

heart and soul

pearlescent. adj. having an iridescent luster resembling that of pearl or mother-of-pearl.

it does have a pearly white color. it's a bit more refined than glitter-filled metal flake.

either paint is hard to shoot, especially in the sunlight. gave it a shot anyway.

owner was very nice. said this paint was only a few months old, so it would explain why i didn't recognize the car. words pinstriped on the window say "heart and soul." i've seen that on other cars, but don't remember it on one of these.

anyway, he said was going to have the roof done in some other irridescent opal color as soon as he saves up the money to get it done. that will even more of a challenge to photograph. i'm looking forward to it.

wake up

we got up early and got to st hilary's today before six, and the sun. sure, roll-in wasn't until six-thirty, but i get my choice of parking, and the host club's cars are there setting up, so we just start with them.

then the sun did it's usual thing, and a few more cars showed up.

i was suprised that these spaces in front of the statue didn't fill up first, as is usual. this guy sat all by it's lonesome for a long time. i would have preferred shooting from the other side, because there's a big old tree i really like to have as a background, but, unfortunately, there were a couple of port-a-potties under that tree, so settled for this angle instead.

building lights were still on. timers or sensors? not sure, but they are mildly irritating, adding extra, unwanted lights and reflections.