little mermaid

i was just reviewing some of my older photos, looking for something i might have been keeping for a later point and forgot about. i think this one qualifies.

i posted the front end a couple of years ago, then forgot about it. it happens. i have a lot of pictures, as occasionally someone will comment on whether i have enough yet. well, no. i may be close to filling my hard drive up, but can you really ever have enough? i'm still learning and having fun with your cars and my camera.

this was from 2010, when the whittier uptown was still a decent show, overflowing in excellence of all types of cars, low riders included. while some of the lifestyles cars showed up this year, this one wasn't one of them. the few that were there had their hoods up, and had a crowd around them each time i walked by. in fact, i only shot one of them, and i'm not all that thrilled with it.

this one, i found early in the day, and far enough up the street from the main intersection, that there were few people in the way. though i did go back for more later in the day, and ya, more people.

the car is impressive. the paint finish is luminous on these candy cars, almost like you're staring into a pool of water, and you may fall in. interesting airbrushing and pinstriping on many of them, in interesting locations on the cars. liked the mermaid on the back end of this—wonder if its a portrait or just the typical fantasy girl guys wish they had.

dia de los thunderbird

yes, it's a real eye-catcher. kinda ugly, but outstanding pinstriping and airbrushing job. i like the skulls pinstriped inside, out, and on top.

weren't too many of the pimped out low riders at the show this year in whittier—apparently they're still pissed off by their exclusion last year. i've heard that the idiot that vetoed them last year is no longer on the committee, but his asshole-edness has continuing repurcussions. thanks dickwad. eh, excuse my french, or something.

i wanna be sedated

so i get to do this medical thing on friday, and my better half is saying he isn't going to let me get near my tripod all weekend. even though there are big shows out in san pedro and el segundo i was thinking of going to for a change. i suppose i'll spend the weekend sleeping it off anyway. not looking forward to it.

anyway, been a long week at work and it's only tuesday. working extra hours, and then staying up late, is wearing me out. probably won't make it to either bob's or ruby's this week. pooh.

this here is the front end of jack's star chief. really a spectacular car. he's usually there at bob's representing the mercifuls of long beach. even made it to the whittier show last weekend. too bad he usually is parked in the vicinity of richard's car, but you know the saying, "you can pick your friends, you can pick your..."

ps: hey geri, yes, i did tell my better half he can start calling me baroness von jones soon.

bitch

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what is it about guys and high maintenance women? you all know the ones i'm talking about—the ones that dress up for a day at disneyland and wear high heels, then spend all day bitching about how their feet hurt. the ones that the guys want to have, then spend the rest of their lives regretting. she's fine as long as she doesn't say anything, but then she does, and has nothing to say. and the claws come out if she thinks you're looking at other chicks.

i wonder if this car is like that. reine has been favoring his lincoln for the last bunch of months. has she been suffering from imaginary aches and pains all year? she's been a kept woman. hidden away in some garage in never-never land, getting nips and tucks, and apparently tipped. on the hubcaps. i noticed.

thanks for bringing her out to play for the day, reine. i did miss her, even if she is a bitch to photograph. j/k.

is it a sign?

i didn't sleep well last night, and had a hard time staying awake today. yet here i am posting, early for me anyway.

picked up my pictures from the fair today. only had one offer to buy one, and that turned out to be more of can you take a picture of my car inquiry. about what i expected. oh well, they look ok hanging on the wall here. left the honorable mention ribbon hanging on one of them for now. i'll pull it off before it gets too dusty, i suppose.

here's another lifestyle car. hiding in the shade on a hot day. unintentionally caught a religious symbol by the car. maybe it's a sign?

walk this way...

the continuing saga at work of too much overtime, and not enough sleep. today, i'd intended to go to the broiler. left work a half hour later than normal—told them i just was done for the day, i am fried—and headed out.

what a difference thirty minutes makes in the traffic. i was screwed, mainly because someone had decided to occupy the same lane as another car on the freeway in santa ana, so went surface streets. normally it takes about forty-five minutes to get home; took two hours, and after sitting all day, followed by a long ride home, i just couldn't bear to drag my butt to the show. telling myself i'll go to ruby's on friday. most of the work will be done by then, so shouldn't be a problem leaving on time toward the end of the week. and the tradeshow will be over by mid next week, so i can get back to posting more regularly too.

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here's a beauty from the SFV show. there was a plethora (a plethora?) of cars, and many clubs were represented. i've loved these candy colored lifestyle club low riders since i first saw a bunch at the uptown whittier show a couple of years ago. hoping they'll show up again next month.

they had a bunch of their cars parked under the shade of the solar panels. kinda mutes the colors, but not by much. saa-weeeet. and i'm an id...forgot to note what kind of car this is...lincoln? chevy? buick? whatever.

only got a few other cars—which i'll get to eventually—because of the heat, but i hella wish i'd stayed and got so many more. next time...

i'm in a kind of hell now

living a whirlwind right now, with very little time to post, much less think or sleep. got a coworker on a three week vacation, so helping with some of her work on top of an increasingly busy work schedule. still packing my stuff to go into storage, but at a much more accelerated timeline than i originally thought. but even that, i've been too busy to get much boxed. my son did get through his graduation, so at least i can check that off the list.

quick post, so you don't think i've dropped off the planet. sun was way too bright for taking good shots this day at fuddrucker's in el toro, but i was there and needed to shoot to break the work week up. this was a really nice merc, all flamey and chopped and parked just so. wish that suv thing wasn't next to it.

funny thing was that i was on my way out to spires the next evening, and saw it again followed closely by an unfinished merc on the 91 freeway. had hoped they were heading to the show, but they didn't take the exit, so pooh. went over to the broiler, but they weren't there either. another one of those "where you going?" moments...

impala

didn't make it to either of the two morning shows that i'd thought about going to, but then it's really difficult to convince myself to wake up early on a sunday, much less get out of bed. i knew about this one out in lakewood, and had been to it once before on easter sunday. it starts later, like 2pm, so figured it wouldn't hurt to see what else might show up when it's not a holiday.

wasn't disappointed. and my better half, now having a super computer that can probably reprogram the laser and magnetic tractor beams on the death star, all from his big desk in the back room, has rediscovered his enthusiasm for photography. his computer can now work with his gigantor files from his a850 without taking a couple of hours to contemplate it.

there were several cars that really stood out, and a couple of times we had to wait for the other to finish taking their shots. i don't what he might post over on his blog, so i'm just going to post this baby and hope we don't post the same one. i couldn't choose which view i liked better, so i asked my better half, and he thought this one was more interesting.

it's really in remarkable shape for it's age, and the glitter and airbrushed paint job on the roof is something to behold. neither of us could get the camera high enough to get the shot we really wanted, to show it to its best advantage, even from the small incline behind it. so you'll just have to squint and see the little bit you can see.

the owner did stop us as we were packing up to leave. young guy, very nice. asked about what we did with the pictures, which only one other person asked me about, and so i gave him my card. he said the paint job was 10 years old, though you couldn't tell by the look of it. he did admit that it stays hidden away in the garage mostly, so that does help explain the lack of scratches and dings.

those that ask are usually the ones that get first consideration when i think about what to post. so here's a shot of your car, hope you like it.

the chevy on the left was pretty awesome too, but the owner unfortunately decided to prop open the hood with a wooded machine gun, so my loss...

free at last

i am both relieved and feeling some loss. my son played his last baseball game yesterday. hitting .351 and 32 RBIs for the season. not bad. he will graduate from college in a couple of weeks. i've been going to his games since he was eight years old. it feels weird to know that my weekends will no longer be scheduled around his games. mostly it just feels weird knowing that is just another step in letting him grow up.

he'll probably still have to make the decision to continue on to law school or say yes to a pro team if they pick him in the draft. big choice, and glad it's not mine to make—it's his future now, so i'll just be there to support him whichever way he goes.

but getting back to the car shows is something i can still look forward to. found this show in fullerton, before heading to a baseball game [of course]. had a momentary scare while shooting this car. seriously thought i'd killed one of the two cameras i use at the car shows. already maimed one and killed one lens from overuse. turned out i just had forgotten to switch a couple of settings, since i'd been also using it to shoot the baseball games.

ya, i didn't stay long at this show. owners seemed a little too pretentious, maybe that's not the word, but it wasn't clicking with me. this was the day for hot rods and stuff; the next day was "concours d'elegance" —yes, maybe pretentious is the right word.

from the lack of free parking to the "free shuttle," which turned out to be a standard van for too many people, i knew it was one of those shows that i typically avoid. and yes, i've known about this show for years and managed to skip it. i'd never even gone to the museum, though my college professors used to recommend it for art gallery review assignments. not as many cars as i thought there would be, but i think the concours was probably the busier day. lots of hoods up, many very fine cars, but not many that made me want to take a picture.

i have a couple more i'll share, but there will be additional stories of owners being themselves, to put it nicely. and maybe i should wait a while so i can do the "say something nice, or don't say nothing at all," and get it out of my system. but that's boring.

full monte

another car that i usually pass by, but i liked the reflection on the hood too much. frankly, i don't get the tiny wheels they put on these cars. i suppose it has something to do with the hydraulics and bounceability. otherwise, this one was rather plain compared to others i've seen all tatted up, relatively.