what's up?

back in black

made it out to pomona this morning. after the hike in from the parking lot, i probably only shot for a couple of hours. first time out in a few months, and i was getting exasperated by the people walking through my shots, and just the fact of the pomona swap meet—so many cars, on the move and parked together, ebb and flow of people. it gets overwhelming and boring at some point.

it was a good two hours to bang out some crap pictures, and remember what i used to do. kick start how to 'see' again, mostly anonymously. no one really bothered me.

better half had gone with me, to make sure i was ok, i think. he brought his camera bag with him, but mostly just shot the sunrise, before calling it a day. it was a really nice sunrise, i'll give him that.

got somewhat frustrated after the sun came up, when i wanted to shoot some details, but my second camera is having issues and giving me card errors. finally brought out the a6000, but the lens isn't what i wanted to use, so promptly sacked that one. guess i'll have to send it in for repair, since it's relatively new, and it doesn't seem to be a card issue.

this was the last car i shot, before calling my better half to see where he had wandered off to. he had been hungry earlier, so i assumed he'd gone to eat, and wander the aisles of parts. turns out, he hadn't eaten, and decided the pavement on the aisles was too rough for one of his cameras bouncing around in the bag, with it's delicate sensor.

so i said, i'd had enough, and we left to find breakfast/lunch on the way home.

my favorite end of this cadillac, with the great fins, and dual bullet lights. there was a woman sitting just off to the right end of the car, and her legs kept getting in the shot. so screw her, cropped it to the essential bit of the car. more interesting this way, anyhow.

looking back

my thoughts have bounced around in my head a lot lately, to the point i don't know any one thing i would write about, that might be of any interest to any lurker who may be reading this on a somewhat irregular basis lately.

if you've never met him, my better half might be considered imposing, especially when he has a 'stache and goatee, and his long hair. when he's clean shaven, he just seems more friendly and younger, rather than tuff. he's a big guy, six-five, hovering around three-hundred pounds most of the time.

big enough to stare down the little shits that block sidewalks when his mom used to roll her wheelchair uptown. he would politely 'suggest' that they make way, and when they'd turn their back and stay put, he'd 'make way' for his mom. fucking little posers.

there's a new generation that hang out uptown now, only i think they are wannabe drug lords, making their little drug sales out in the open. i have my own little bitch face that moves them out of my way when i go uptown by myself.

he's mostly a big, friendly bear of a guy. i really don't know why he picked me, but i'm happy he did, and that's all i'll say about that. no need to get mushy here, and i really am not that gushy kind of girl.

there is one car club guy, i'd like to sic him on, but i'd prefer to keep my better half with me, than to visit him behind bars, so there's that.

better half has tossed a more than a dozen memories at me, to write about. we laugh about each recollection, giggle at the details of what people said or did, and how we ended up where we are today. then i say i've already referenced most of these stories at some point, and how a lot of stuff is inside jokes, or too gross.

i haven't been anywhere lately, except work, my parents' house, and picking up mail at my house. boring, but i gots things on my mind.

i could bitch about stuff i see on the freeway every day, but there hasn't been too much going on with the holidays, and i assume people home with the flu. traffic has been really light in the evening, so the few drives to whittier i've done the past couple of weeks have only been about an hour.

i'm hoping to get up in the morning and head to pomona for the swap meet. was thinking, it's january, it will be cool outside, everything will be great. summer is hell out there, and i usually can't / don't stay that long in the sun there.

it was fuckin' eight-five degrees outside this afternoon. it's going to still be in the eighties tomorrow. so it will be a short day as usual, in spite of being the middle of winter. really is no winter in cali, so what am i thinking?

one of these times, i'll have to actually walk the aisles of parts and stuff for sale, but i never seem to be able to tear myself away from the cars themselves. maybe next month it will be cold again. next week it will be sixty again.

so, long-windedly, i have no stories to blather on about, or that anyone might care to hear anyway. not feeling very enchanting at the moment, though my better half seems to still be stuck under my spell. who knows why?

here's a lovely back-end of a fifty-seven bel aire. it's all about the fins on these cars. the fronts are pretty generic and boring.

to the point

it's valentine's y'all. go spend it with someone you love. my lil blog will be here for you tomorrow.

flight line

one more for the day.

i did get out to pomona yesterday, albeit, way later than planned. late enough that my better half couldn't go; had to stay home and work. yay overtime, but seriously, no weekend sucks.

got away from the show cars and wandered through the sale area. i don't think these two were for sale. caught them as the owners were dusting them off, preparing to leave. actually the only shot i have that the owner with the duster wasn't in there dusting the green car. just something you deal with shooting this stuff. not going to ask him to get out of the way, when he seemed determined to keep at it, when i was obviously taking pictures of his car. thought about posting one of those, but i like the fins on impalas, and this was the best shot anyway.

not sure why he wasn't in this shot. seems to me there was another photographer shooting from the other side. maybe he moved for that guy. whatever. i got the shot with the airplane heading to the landing field on the other side of the fence. part of the fun of being in the flight path for the airport.

reflecting

last day of vacation. i walked around uptown. thought i'd try to find a red dress. my better half has been commenting on all the red dresses in the shop windows. trying to remind him, i am no longer the same size as the mannequins, but he doesn't care; he likes my curves.

i looked in every clothes store in town. i did not like any of the dresses i saw. probably just me. i hate clothes shopping, and i haven't had to shop for girl clothes in a long time. good old casual dress code at work, only really need to wear a sort of business casual shirt, i.e., polo, and then jeans are now ok, so no reason to shop anymore.

back home, playing with my pictures again. thought about going to a car show, followed by a few hours at disneyland. there's an elvis impersonator performing tonight and tomorrow...young, bad ass elvis, not chunky butt elvis. but meh, i was tired. maybe tomorrow night.

my mom's bday is on sunday. there's also a car show at legg lake on sunday. i can pull off both.

then back to work on monday. not looking forward to the work that waited for me, and more new jobs. already getting a headache, so i'll push that thought out of my head until then.

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one more tonight. i like the back end of cadillacs. this one is like an xmas present—the colors, the pattern, the glitter and shine.

got to the show early early, and managed to wade through all the waiting cars, and found this one stuck in the frozen river of cars.

impala this

i've got so many pictures of cars, sometimes its just hard to pick one. finally settled on an old standby...a '59 impala. just love the curves from the back end of these cars. i can't help it.

i have shot this same car a lot the past few years at various shows. this was at the unidos show at walnut high school. was hot out. low turn out because of a parts show out at pomona fairgrounds the same day and time. here because one of their guys had sent a flyer to me via my better half, as often happens. i do try to make it to the shows when they go out of their way to get me a flyer.

have really had a crazy couple of weeks work and family wise, so haven't been able to post so much. it's my zen time to take and play with my pictures, and i do miss it when i can't do it. i gotta try and get out to more shows like i used to, but there has just been so little free time lately...

dream time

three day weekend ahead. a baseball game. taxes. car shows. long week at work, another one coming, gotta get some rest.

my better half has already gone to bed, so i guess i should go join him.

i like impalas. the back end on this year is beginning to lose the wonderful curves of a '59, but not completely. and the tail lights are still cool. can't really read which club this one belongs to, with the plaque up in front of the blinds. oh well.

talk this way

these cars were one my original favorites when i started playing with cameras again. it's the fins. the curves. like a manta ray. i can appreciate a nice back end—can't you?

not quite sure, since one of the guys in this club didn't respond to my email yet, but i think this one might have won a first place trophy for most original. i suppose my reply to his inquiry is sitting pretty in his junk mail. someone go ask him if this is the one.

gotta go to dana point tomorrow for work stuff. any car shows going on down there? haven't really been to the beach in a few years. maybe i'll stop and fry on the sand.

oh, maybe i could go deep sea fishing. my better half has to work, and he wouldn't do that anyway. don't think i've been since my daughter was little and thought she was saving the anchovies by grabbing them out of the tank and throwing them back into the ocean. all i know is the sea lions next to the boat really enjoyed the free lunch.

Update on 2013-04-25 03:28 by kathy

i did get an email from the owner the other day. he said he did win first place. congrats!

crop it like it's hot

the full shot of this car was ok. but i think i like it cropped in like this. really it is the fins that make these cars anyway. and the contrast of colors wasn't bad either.

oh, and that's a shadow of a wagon wheel on the side. sun was starting to go down already.

this was from one of the shows on dave's cruise nights list. it's a little hit or miss in the winter i guess. there were only 3 or 4 cars when i got there, but was told that a couple had just left. well, that makes it better, i guess? anyway, i chatted with a guy with an old truck for a while, hoping more would drive in, but no luck in that department. he did mention another show the following week, which i did have the chance to get to, and saw him there, with his little dog too (he wasn't on a bike with a basket). that show rocked about a hundred cars, so thanks for that dude.

meant to get to one or two shows this weekend, to which i'd been given flyers, but other things came up, and couldn't make it. oh well. summer shows are almost here, so i'm sure i'll run into those guys again. raining here now, so i could post more pictures, or i could go clean my house...hmmm. nah, i gotta get some things done. i'll be good, just this one time...

i get off on...

ha, made you look.

...and screaming guitars, like the way it hits me everytime it hits me...

this one is often at the fuddrucker's show in el toro, though it is usually facing the other way when the sunset hits it. he likes to park at the end of the parking island, so is generally pretty good for getting a decent shot without a lot of other cars smashed up next to it. different spot this time, but i liked the light on it, and of course, those wonderful fins.

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busy time at work, so probably will not be posting as frequently as i like for the next couple of weeks. didn't even have time for a show at all this week... :( but looking forward to checking out a new one on sunday, if it doesn't rain. :)