what's up?

bucket

another one the owner hoped to see.

i had arrived early, parked in the designated lot, on the gift shop side of the mission. did not see any old cars. did not know where they were going to park them. sat in my car, listening to the radio.

then a big truck with a trailer pulls up in front of me, with this car on the trailer. i watched him unload it, and watched where he went with it, down an alley or was it a street?

shortly after, the los angeles bomb club cars drove in the lot, behind my car, and went down the alley as well.

i figured they must be between the buildings, but i didn't want to walk down the alley and around. so i wandered over to the church building, and down a small walkway past the cemetery. came up to what was a locked gate dead end, but a janitor had propped it open with a broom.

through that, around another building, and found the cars.

not a whole lot there early. the owner had parked his ford and was sitting with a guy who had brought in a military jeep.

i'd seen him watching me shoot some fleetlines, just out of the picture here. as i turned around and walked toward the green truck, he came over and inquired. told him i'd post a shot, so there you go...

get 'er done

i think i have at least a dozen pictures sitting in my drafts bin here. haven't had much to say lately, and not so much time to do so if i did. i used to be so good about getting a picture ready and doing a post the same evening for the longest time. now i pretty much can get a picture or two up on instagram, then i don't get around to posting them here until i'm down at my parents' house, with nothing better to do.

wonder how i used to be able to head to a show after work, shoot for a couple of hours, then go home and post a picture before bed. too much work and traffic...all work and no play, make jack a dull boy. guess you can call me jack.

ya, so my advice is basically go to my instagram first, pictures posted there first, and as an added bonus, you don't need to suffer reading my drivel about nothing. i've lost my whole point with this blog anyway, since i've been so distracted with everything going on around me. about that time i start talking about shutting down this blog again. but, my better half finds it an entertaining peek into my mind sometimes, and there are one or two others who do regularly read this for whatever reason. (still with me, jimbo?)

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this car belongs to the abraxas ltd car club. owner wondered what i did with my pictures. i put some of them here, and write something about the car, the show, the people i saw or things i heard, sometimes. mostly it's irrelevant to whatever picture is there, and more about my day, an observation, or random thoughts that pop into my head while i sit in traffic every day.

i'm a good fly on the wall, and sometimes things are better left unsaid. i really need to chat with more people at the shows and write down any specifics or history about the cars before i forget. better half usually does the talking, and has a memory for details. my memory just seems to be getting worse all the time.

beautiful car, btw. the sun was heading down, and was just catching the chrome and hitting the cars with a golden light about that time.

second shot

another day, another car. owner watched me shoot the picture to the right, and came over to ask me what i do with the pictures.

i'm sensing a theme. don't see people asking every photographer what they do with the pictures, though i'd always be curious to see them. who knows what they do with them. i know i enjoy mine every day, and share a few here and there.

i suppose it has to do with the tripod. i think the guy that's out there at shows, with the old film camera with the bellows gets the same thing. no idea if he posts his shots, as i've never actually spoken to him...too shy.

anyway, saw the car again, on my way back up the street toward home. shot it again. it's a little more interesting, just because there is more color later in the morning, and more angles going on.

i was heading home to get some suntan lotion, as i felt my skin cooking. ended up downloading pictures from the memory cards, chugging a bottle of water and laying down for an hour. a little too long to sit still...was so sore when i headed back out.

went out, intending to shoot a particular car at the far end of the street, if the owner closed the hood as promised, as well as anything else that may have shown up and i'd missed. there were a few. arrived at said car, but the owner was not there, so didn't bother. shot a few more pics, and went to get dinner and cool off again.

uptown show

went out at five-thirty am today, up the street to the car show. better half walked me uptown, and pulled my camera bag around for a while. sun was already coming up.

noticed a bunch of classic cars in the rite-aid parking lot. went to shoot them, but they soon started to move over to the main street—they were there to volunteer to help set the show up and direct move-in, in exchange for prime parking.

strangely, as compared to prior years, they weren't starting move in until eight-thirty. we're used to a zillion cars lined up down the street waiting. nope, not much there.

spent time shooting the cars that were there. then noticed cars showing up further down, and went off to get those.

really love to shoot at this time of day, prior to move-in. fewer people, cool, overcast, everyone happy with anticipation. i really took the majority of my pictures waiting for eight-thirty.

then the time came, and it went very slowly. not sure what was going on, but it seemed to take forever to get cars moving. i took the opportunity to get some bfast.

i'm starting off, not with my favorite, best pics, but with the cars of people who talked with me, or asked about what i'm doing with the pics, as usual.

this nova was owned by the first guy that really chatted us up, mainly my better half, of course.

he popped the hood to show us what was hiding there, in spite of me wearing my infamous hat. whatever. here's a shot of the engine. dare a cop to try to catch up with it.

home sweet home

got my home back for a week. kid is in kauai with his wifey.

if the place wasn't so full of their stuff, i'd be tempted to not let them back in. ;) soon, they tell me, as they complain that rents are too high everywhere they look. yep, and good luck with that. pretty sure their dog will live out his lifespan here before they move.

that's ok, as long as my better half is good with me hanging with him.

here's another from manny's el loco cruise. squeezed in here between a big storage dumpster and the back end of this impala. i managed to get the shot i wanted.

i think the owner sent a kid over to ask for a card first, then he later came over and gave me a flyer for his club's upcoming show. seemed nice enough, actually everybody at the show did. i'll have to add it to my growing list of shows i read about, and consider going to. i think it's out in fontana somewhere; will have to pull the flyer from my camera bag when i get back home in whittier. for the deets.

may showers

I've got sunshine on a cloudy day
When it's cold outside I've got the month of May
I guess you'd say
What can make me feel this way?...

— smokey robinson

who needs april showers, when you get these skies in may? jacket weather. hanging out at hospitals. busy month.

my birthday happened too, but did nothing that day, and usually don't care about it. ask me how old i am, and i have to do math in my head. not really something i obsess about. my son did take me out for dinner a few days later. didn't hear from the other kid...pretty typical.

another car from the los angeles bombs cinco de mayo show. before the rain came. good thing, since this car had the top down.

beautiful cars. how can we not want to take pictures of them?

away

pretty impala out at garden grove a few weeks ago. hadn't stopped there in about a year, and it certainly has shrunk since i used to go five years ago.

there are a few cars i like here and there, so was pretty happy to see this drive up. parked in a nice spot too, able to include the "historical street" arch in the background, as an extra framing device.

here with my younger bro on a roadtrip down memory lane on the east coast. been a great trip so far, perfect weather, and not quite overcrowded by spring breakers.

we're up in the mountains of west virginia today, and it is supposed to rain all day, and start snowing around midnight. temp was in the eighties here a couple of days ago, and will be again after the snow.

got a couple more hours to go to see some relatives i basically haven't seen much since i was a kid, but my bro has been more in touch with, so should be ok. we'll stay a night or two, then head back down the hills to dc.

after that, i have three more days before heading home for a few days, then on a plane again. crazy month, but it's fun, consoling myself for missing chino cornfeed run and chicano park day.

missing my better half tho...

jack sprat

feel like posting something different. saw this ford last week in south gate. the car was just a car, but it did stand out just because the entire body of it was covered in airbrushed figures and skulls. big modern wheels, with tires so new, the sticker is still on that front tread.

the little back lantern lights remind me of the haunted mansion, or maybe herman munster.

better half has been working from home for over a month now, with a couple more to go. he has his reasons. he has taken advantage of the time to also eat better, since the kitchen is right there. he has a lot on his plate, so to speak, but is dealing with it in healthy ways.

to get to the point, he's lost more than twenty pounds in a month, mostly by eating vegetables and fish, and avoiding sugar. and he likes it.

me, i never liked veggies, and barely can stand to eat a salad once a month. and i think i easily gain five pounds in the same amount of time, without trying, especially since i hit the last big birthday milestone.

don't know how many nights i go to sleep, thinking tomorrow will be the day i will stop drinking coke, only to fail by lunchtime.

i cannot imagine how he can say he likes eating vegetables, it's just not in my vocabulary. they're just gross. maybe my mom just didn't cook them right or just overcooked them to make them unappetizing. maybe i was a picky kid who has become a picky big kid. mentally i know i need to make lifestyle changes to kick my metabolism back into gear, but i never had to think about it before. and i don't know how. how do i say no to the random craving for cookie dough? just don't, i know--diversions.

trying to walk more, now that i have changed my work hours, but i'm inconsistent. mostly, i just want to sleep.

so what i'm trying to say is i'm happy for my better half getting healthy. sorry i've gotten so squishy the last five years; time has caught up with me, and i guess i will have to figure out how to do better just to keep up. it sucks getting old.

meet the palms

honestly, this was an accident, but it does make me laugh. beautiful cadillac convertible, trying to find any angles to shoot cars and not have a basketball hoop or pop-up tent in it.

to do so, many times, i have to get the tripod down lower. the first twenty minutes i was there, i could not loosen the screw on the center post, couldn't get a good grip on the twister. almost felt like when my better half tightens up all the bolts on the thing, and i can hardly move the legs. he is the brute squad, and doesn't know his own strength sometimes.

at some point, i finally was able to loosen the damn thing and to get it down fairly low, but not as much as i would like. palm trees and cars were preferable to the hoops.

did not purposely, nor did i realize i'd lined this one up so mr and mrs palm are in the front seat, and the twins are in the back (or is it triplets?). lol.

having a hell of a time deciding what to do on my vacation week. everywhere i'm thinking would be interesting is about to be snowed in, or it's raining. was considering a road trip back east, but i don't want to drive in that by myself.

i will either end up in san diego, san fran, monterrey, or just sitting at home. anywhere is fine, as long as it's away from work. need to clear my head.

go dodger blue

got my oil changed today. and they found a few other things, of course.

i'll be needing a new car soon enough, but not today. not from a dealer. they gouge me a bit more every time i take it in, now that it is over ten years old. but any time i get out of there for less than a grand is a good day.

pomona is tomorrow, but so is some rain. i keep checking; the phone app keeps changing it's percentages. not much cover out there, though i suppose a plastic bag would do for the camera.

i have to be somewhere early anyway, so probably shouldn't cut it so close, only to have to leave quickly. so i guess i'll just sleep in and wait until the next meet.

spectacular fleetline in dodger blue. really brave of these guys with convertibles to drive them out with the top down. rain came down, tops went up though.