what's up?

go dodgers

almost midnight in florence, and my kid has found one way or another to get online and watch the dodger game. lol. would have thought the wine they drank at dinner would have knocked him out, but he’s all keyed up to watch the game.

no real plan for the morning, so sleeping in anyway. we ended the evening early with gelatos, but trying to upload pics for family to see just seems to make the time scream by, and now it’s later than i’d expected.

going to climb four-hundred-sixty-three steps tomorrow, to the top of the duomo—top of the cupola of this famous church—which is about double what we did today, so i need the rest.

posting this bad-ass truck, cuz it’s a beautiful color, and oh so shiny.

at your service

have you ever thought about the best taco you ever had, while sitting in taco bell, thinking about the best taco you ever had? ya, that happened. but, my fault for wanting something quick.

sometimes i shoot cars that aren't my favorite, because something catches my eye. this day, the paint was it. fresh, shiny, detailed work here.

fine dining

we walked uptown, to the dia de los muertos show this morning just after six. later than we planned, but didn't sleep well last night, and heard the alarm ten minutes late.

there was already a long line of cars waiting to be let in. seemed to be a bit of a disconnect or disorganization on the part of the people letting the cars in. letting them sit too long, cars started overheating, even very early in the day. it didn't stay cool very long. vendors seemed to be showing up relatively late for this type of show as well.

this show has really grown, when i look at pictures from the first year we went out, in 2011, only had maybe ten cars. each year, more. this year really blew the last couple out of the water. so many cars. why did it have to be such a hot day?

anyway, took lots of pictures. not as many as i would have liked. had to keep stopping for water breaks. better half had enough of the heat after breakfast, around nine. he followed me around for a little while, then he walked back home. on call for work again, so he needed to cool off, just in case. i probably sweated off my suntan lotion within the first couple of hours, so by the time i left around elevenish, i was a bit pink.

i looked more hideous than normal, but expected it to be hot, and decided to not give a rat's ass about how i looked. been so long since i worried about makeup and dressing to impress, i just couldn't imagine how the women dressed for the day of the dead kept the makeup from sliding off their faces. never was much for wearing makeup anyway.

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talked to several people, and i promised to post their cars, if i got a good shot. so if they happen to be looking for them. give me a few days—i'm out of town a lot, and away from my computer. not doing them in any particular order, so don't get your panties in a twist.

liked this buick, and would have shot it again before i headed home, after the sun really hit it, but there were too many people around by then.

i think the owner was inside the restaurant, and saw me shooting the car from the window. he came out to ask about prints. i do hope they knew he was coming right back, not doing a dine and dash.

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hmm. down to one more show on my list for the year. heard about one in canoga park early november, but didn't get the details.

thanks to the dead sleds for the flyer, already had the show on my list...sorry we missed your anniversary show.

stalking

i mentioned a car i was looking for in a prior post, that i saw after breakfast, but had to go uptown several times to find it. took a while, went the other way down the street; had to take a few breaks from the heat, but i finally found it.

isn't always the way it is, the thing you want is always in the last place you look, or you find it when you aren't even looking for it at all. here was this olds, parked way up the street, by itself. aside from being a funky purple color, it was the tail lights that caught my eye in the first place.

when we had seen it earlier, all the cameras were packed in the bag, not tripod ready. so we whipped out the newer, smaller cameras and shot some hand-held brackets. i got the shot of the dad and the kid waiting to move out of staging.

the kid seemed really nice and polite. he's just at that age, where he's happy to hang out with his dad all day looking at cars, and still polite to others. i hope he stays that way. i really do.

when i shot it later in the day, a bunch of kids kept getting in the shot, looking inside the car. turns out they were checking out the speedometer. they thought that since it said one-twenty or more, that that is how fast it can go. there was one boy in particular, that was overly enthusiastic about it. then he wanted to push the shutter button on my camera too. uh. no thanks. he was so hyped up, i figured he'd manage to knock the tripod over too.

eagle has landed

all right, i'll show you this one. not because i am starting to love cars with their hoods open, but because it's just a spectacular car, and the owner is so very nice.

the finish on it is smooth as silk. the guy told my better half at a regular monthly viejitos show a few months earlier, that it was a family project and that all had taken turns sanding the surface so fine, using flour to show the high spots, before they got it all painted up. i've posted it before. i like my better half's versions:here and here

this was in what should have been a pretty good spot for a typical car, on an end spot, under a tree. but with the hood(s) up, with background foot traffic, it was just difficult to frame up a decent shot. from the other side, the doors were open, and there was a car next to it, and next to that, a pop up tent, that really kinda ruined it. took a couple of angles from this side, and i guess i like this one better.

and by this shot, he'd moved the car polish bottles and rags out of the frame. :)

grape ape

these guys were parked off on the end at enderle last week. i think the owners and a couple of other people were chatting about paint and body and other customization, but in the background of my mind it all sounded like charlie brown's teachers: "wha wha wha whaaa wha wha."

it was something different. don't think i've had the pleasure of catching a hudson that looks like this. all the curvy goodness is just fun for my eyes. not too flamboyant, and even in a simple monotone, i like it a lot.

of course that there mercury ain't bad neither. guess i'll have to post the close up of that one sometime too. polished to a shine on the hood of infinite darkness.

its1956

yes, yes it is. 1956. says so on the plate.

this is gary's car. i've only met him a couple of times. he's a funny guy.

this shot was from the first time i ran into him, where he made some typical remark, when i was shooting the back end of his car and another bel air next to it (not shown, except for the reflection on gary's car) — can't remember the exact phrasing, but i'm sure you can guess how it went. everyone has to make those kind of comments to a girl on her knees shooting up at the tail lights i suppose.

he happened to have closed the hood for some other photographer, so i went around to the front for this shot, though the back end wasn't bad either. notice i didn't say his back end...

ran into him again last week, where he mislead me on the ownership of another car and knew about my predilection for closed hoods. they do look better closed, don't you think, gary?

coulda had a v8

so it rained last night, but was mostly sunny today. i hadn't taken my camera with me to work, since it had rained, so i decided to go straight home. seems that if i don't stop at a car show on the way, once i get into the house, i just don't want to go back out.

by the time i got home, it was vacillating between sunny/warm and overcast/cold/windy. finally decided to skip bob's broiler yet again. almost feel like it's been forever since i went. already know i can't make it there next week either. eventually, eventually.

i figure there's ruby's on friday, and according to my mother-in-law, there's a 'vintage auto show' in uptown whittier on saturday. works for my weekend schedule anyway.

so tonight, i got off my ass and went for a 2 mile walk at least. i sit too much at work and my legs are killing me, so it felt good to get out. my better half has been working too many late nights, and he's already in bed...

__________

so i saw this grape at ruby's a couple of weeks ago. i'm not quite sure what this is, aside from a v8. guessing its a ford. i've seen it on other people's flickr pages, but they don't have it identified either.

i must admit, it did stand out in the crowd.

grape jelly

posting this one for my coworker, mario. after several months of walking by my cubicle, he finally figured out that i took the car pictures hanging on my wall. who knew he was a classic car freak too? well, he certainly didn't suspect the same of me. he knows cars; i just take pictures of them. my way of unwinding after work. says he wants me to take pictures of his car when he has it fixed up. we'll see...

anyway, i believe he said his favorite color was purple, so this one is only appropriate. some of these cars get stripped down to the point that they're so plain, they seem generic. this one caught my eye because of the color, and then i noticed the subtle pinstripe on the hood. the bumper and the chrome stuff on the side do set this one apart from the plain jane customs i've often seen.

just noticed that i have more than 200 posts since i started this blog last march. whew!