fundraiser for big manny

has it already been three weeks? time is flying.

better half had an itch to go play with his new lenses he bought used online. needed to find out if they worked or send’em back. only thing i could think of was a fundraiser that i’d seen a flyer for on instagram.

garden grove isn’t crazy far for us to get to, even though we didn’t leave the house until almost noon. the typical fundraiser has a lot of the memorialized person’s friends and family showing up in their rides, meeting up for food and memories of the dearly beloved.

this particular meet up was at a small neighborhood bar, in a little industrial hood. though i used to have relatives in santa ana/garden grove, i can’t say that i’d ever been in this area. it wasn’t bad, as compared to some neighborhoods i’ve accidently turned into.

the parking lot was small, and there was a post office we parked in, just across the street.

as we drove up, we only saw a few cars. good enough. i always feel a tad odd showing up for some of these fundraisers. i didn’t know the person much, if at all, but i am fairly sure that i’d seen them, their car or club in the past. better half made a donation toward the collection for the funeral expenses, and gave our regards.

i haven’t seen my better half’s shots, and it’s been a while since he had a chance to turn on his computer, and not be working on work work versus fun work. he still has the lenses, so i’m guessing they performed as expected.

instead of just posting one car, i’ll post a few of the handful that were there, and maybe add more if i get a chance. people seemed to have just shown up, which is of course, more important to the family than whether they came to a fundraiser in their classic cars.

havana house

1948 chevy fleetline

i used a couple of new camera bodies at this show. still judging how they perform. the pictures seem a little dark to me, but that could just be my eyes or my monitors.

i've posted a couple of the promised pic already today, so i'll throw up one that i just like. shocker it's a fleetline, right?

guys seem to like parking anywhere near the cigar shop here. it's a popular hangout any night of the week. i think it just stanks—i'm not a smoker—but i'd equivalate it to the smell of starbucks too—i'm not a coffee drinker either.

in this case, i just like how the colors in the morning light all play well together.

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i really meant to go to a carshow this morning. i was going to get up and go to rialto at five in the morning. or any of the other shows that were closer, whose flyers i had started seeing pop up yesterday on other photographers' instagrams.

i had an alarm set for four-thirty. thing of it is, i think i may have brought home a cold from san diego, and after arriving home thursday, rapidly got ill, and have been a bit wobbly since then. it's evolved through having a sore throat, runny nose, and sneezing. the usual. but no fever. hardly ever get a fever anymore.

about one in the morning, i woke up and just shut off the alarm. i know my better half; while he would not prevent me from going out, would strongly discourage me from going anywhere this weekend. and i have a busy week waiting for me at work, to make up for being out of the office for a week.

just as well i didn't get up early, since when i did wake up, it was lightly raining outside, which continued most of the morning. so most likely, it would have rained on my parade at any show i might have chosen to go to. so i'm kinda disappointed, but i do like the overcast and the rain.

mother-in-law said there had been a storm off the coast, that unexpectedly decided to blow inland. 

if this cold progresses any further, i'll have to leave this house, and go stay at my mother's, lock myself in the back bedroom, or hide out in a hotel. apart from a stuffy nose, i feel fine, but i shouldn't stay here, with my elderly mother-in-law too much longer. just have to decide when to leave, or wait to be told to get out...

drive

i have monday off from work. only know of one show, out in norco. i went to one there last year. lots of cars. worth the trip, but also very hot. used to have a reason to drive that far out of my way, but not really now. so i'm thinking about it, but haven't decided for sure if i really want to drive out to east jesus nowhere yet.

i should just hit up a couple of shows tomorrow and fill up my memory card with enough to keep me happy for a while. still a couple of weeks for my favorite monthly shows, so i'm just idling through older pictures in my collection.

i think this is one of the latin gents cars, out at ruby's last summer. they don't usually make it this far north for a smaller show, but i think there were a couple of them out that night. 

random observations

i walked uptown last saturday, looking for some dinner. better half had to work all day. had been raining off and on the last couple of days, so i took my umbrella. i mostly use one of those long black ones, with a handle like a walking cane. makes me imagine that i'm looking for russian defectors to poke in the leg with the sharp tip, if you know the kind i mean.

i got about a block from the house, when it started raining pretty well. moment of hesitation, deciding whether to go back and get my car, or just keep on going. always loved walking in the rain when i was a kid, and it wasn't falling hard enough to stop me, so i kept going. only lasted about five minutes anyway.

saw a few odd things on my trip:

• a guy riding a beach cruiser, but it sounded like a motorcycle; he had a radio strapped into a basket on the back playing the sounds of a harley
• a pimped out, low rider 56/57 chevy with the spare tire cover on the back
• two women knocking on the door of the mortuary, as if they would be keeping evening hours, but no one was there; the older woman on the cell phone, presumably calling for an appointment, at least i imagined

i just notice weird things sometimes, when i'm not tuned out, noticing colors and textures, and thinking that whatever would make an interesting picture.

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this nice chevy bomb was from the whittier show this past august. parked over by the tattoo parlor, the weird gift/pinstriped furniture store, and pizza place. surprised that group wasn't standing in front of the bar, just out of the picture on the right.

everything's eventual

ah yes. eventually, i'll think of an appropriate (or inappropriate) title for this post. inevitably, i need to get some sleep. someday, i'll finally sort through my to do list at home. soon, i'll order the blinds for my windows...the list goes on and on. things that always get put off. i suppose in the end, it will all catch up with me.

for now, i'm still choosing to distract myself with my pictures. but today, i think i've had enough of sitting: driving to work for 50 minutes; in front of a computer for 8 hours at work, driving home for another 50 minutes; eating dinner and chatting with my better half for another hour before he has to go back to the office for the evening...then sitting a bit longer to play with my pictures. enough already. i'm off to bounce on my trampoline, and then finally a chance to lay down for a few hours before starting all over again.

the clock is ticking. i doubt any of us will look as good as this car when we reach the same age.

golden oldies

the sign in the back window of this beauty says classic oldies—i assume the car club, not just a statement of opinion. this one and the black and gold one behind were just amazingly perfect examples of rolling art. simply awesome. what more can i say?

so round, so firm, so…

here's a nice bomb, hiding in plain sight. under cover of the overhang, i had to tweak it a bit to get it out of the dark—my camera exposed for the sky more than the car. someday i'll have to figure out how to use the camera properly.

my better half has tried many times to explain all the buttons and what nots on the camera…his is even worse. he'll sit with the knowledge that one of these days, i'll give in and ask for this information, and pay attention, the same way i did when i asked him to show me how he was doing his pictures. he loves to tell that story, and it gets more “interesting” with each telling, as do most of his stories about me.

anyway, i like these old chevys, with all their curves and chrome. i like the front of it too, even if the hood ornament is so very simple, err, elegant, err, modernistic...; i'll have to post the pictures someday.

this one is gumby

yep. here's the proof on the back:

 not much to say, except this is one clean bomb.

old guard

this line of chevys was at the old memories eastside charity event at the broiler yesterday evening. i got my better half to join me for this one and a couple of other shows today. good sport. thanks d.

the rain had stopped earlier yesterday, but the cold continues, with intermittent strong winds. the wind wobbles my tripod sometimes and messes with my shots, and throws them out of focus. guess i need to get a weight to help stabilize it from the shaking.

there weren't as many cars as we expected, probably due to the weather, but still a few worth shooting. several people were very helpful about moving their chairs out of the way, so i could take a picture, so thank you very much. there were some cars that i really wanted to get, but the sun was busy going down, and was casting too much of a shadow across them, so i had to pass, or the location just sucked with all the posts and light poles screwing up the look.

my hubbie ran into another photographer who cared to advise him that if he used a flash, you wouldn't need to use a tripod. the camera model my hubbie uses doesn't have a built-in flash. the guy said you can buy them pretty cheap. yup.

usually, at this point my hubbie would have whipped out his iPad® and shown him that we do all right without it, but he didn't have it in his bag. he just handed him one of my cards and told him to check out my website to see what we get without using a flash.

so, camera guy, i hope you didn't lose my card. please let us know where we can see your pictures, we'd love to see them.

cherry

it is getting difficult to choose what to post. i have so many, but you'll just have to wait. go somewhere else if you want a photo dump.

busy weekend. only hit up two shows on friday and one early on saturday. had planned on a couple today, but valentine's day plans took priority.

this one was from friday. mmmm, the cars at the chubby's show are just so delicious. it's just chevy heaven every friday. the latin gents just do them right, and seem to represent more than other clubs at this show. 

not quite sure if this is one of theirs though...he drove in and parked all by himself. pulled in and dropped down. parked with no one near means fewer background distractions, i have more options for framing the picture, less people milling around, though they did start walking over by the time i got my shots. i liked this one best.

i was down lower for this shot, on my knees. one of the guys went with the "you don't have to worship the car" joke. at least that was one of the cleaner ones i've heard. thanks. :)