hell on wheels

i'm in the mood for a cadillac. ya, a big, elegant tank of a car. so many to choose from... 

take this one. don't think you'd miss seeing this baby driving down the street. it's a bit over the top. don't think i'd have the nerve to cover the classic lines in this loud paint job, but i'm sure the owner doesn't mind the attention. he's screaming for it.

i'm guessing it bounces too. been a while since this show, but i wanna say the owner was here with some of his other homies with similar rides, though the other flamed one is much more subdued, all black, with much tamer airbrushed flames, just here and there.

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hoping the rain holds off until later in the week. i gotta kill several hours after work on wednesday, before heading over to LAX to pick up my better half. hoping to hang out at the broiler. hoping there will be more there than the last time i briefly stopped, and didn't bother to get out of my car a couple of weeks ago. i gave that night a pass, since it had rained earlier, and it was cold and windy. otherwise, guess i'll find me a movie theater and wait for his call.

yaffe taffy

this is a bike like you've never seen, unless you caught it on AZ highways tv (you'll have to find the one titled "paul yaffe" - can't seem to get the direct link to it. it's a custom harley bagger by bike designer paul yaffe.

can't image that anyone would want to ride it, with the possibility of a dent, a chip, mud, etc., hitting it, but really, what's the point of spending all that cash for a piece of art like this, if you didn't want to be out there for everyone to gawk at. got me to shoot it, and i don't bother with many bikes.

wish they hadn't parked it in the shade, the colors are really incredibly vibrant, and they're kinda muted here. seems like if it wasn't chromed and etched, it was covered with this hand painted imagery. check out these details:

 you thinking what i'm thinking: holy shit!, right?

night moves

a quick post. changes at work have given me lots more work to do. add to that trying to get to my kid's baseball games, and i'm feeling stretched pretty thin just now.

had to stop off in long beach tonight on business. tried to find a new car show on the way back home, but yep, another no show. screw it. though i did see some old cars in the parking lot of a public park, but i didn't stop, since i was in a strange neighborhood as it was. parked momentarily in some strip mall to consult my phone for the best route home, and got stared at suspiciously by the asian shop keepers.

i'm tired, and need to get some sleep. hoping to get to a show this weekend, before i forget how to do this thing.

blue velvet

can you not see why rainy days make for the bestest images? look at that sky. and that the sun is muted like a big soft box, killing off harsh reflections.

i take pictures of the cars as i find them, but there are times like this, i wish i could move some of that background crap out of the way...it's cluttering up a perfectly fine car picture.

check out the airbrushed picture on the visor of this dodge. skelly banditos. :)

watermelon ding

saw this truck a couple of weeks ago at the broiler. it's pretty interesting. the patterns and the paint give this otherwise plain jane truck some attitude. is it more bad ass with that dent on the front bumper? that must have been a pisser of a day.

________

went to the broiler this evening. not really much going on. a lot of the same cars i've shot before. didn't stay long. i blame it on the full moon.

did get irritated by some granny with a plain truck. i was in the midst of doing a set of exposures, when she, apparently the owner, decided to open the door and sit in the truck. then lean out the window and ask what i was doing with the pictures. told her i put them on my blog if i like the shot.

she stared at me. then, the got out of the truck, leaving the door open, to go chat with her buds behind the truck. buttholio. eh. was a throw away shot anyway. she either was being obtuse, or was just passive aggressive enough to not tell me she'd prefer i didn't shoot it.

i could make an ok shot of the frames she didn't eff up, but i'd just end up ripping her as richard the second. best leave her to her anonimity, and delegate her truck to the non-existent category in my eyes. blithering idiot.

you could even say it glows...

no idea what kind of car this is. they stripped off all the things i'd look for first to figure that out. another one of the awesome cars at the broiler from the magazine shoot.

really amazing paint jobs on these. can't remember if that nomad is being lit up by the lights for the shoot, or if someone's got their headlights on, but it really brightens things up, almost too much.

dodge'm

spent the weekend hanging out in riverside. my son's last season playing baseball (unless he gets drafted) is gearing up. watched his team play some practice games.

of course, i had to check for any car shows in the area. unfortunately, the grand national show was out in pomona, so i think a lot of shows were sucked dry by that one.

found this one a decent size show in norco at the big boy. don't recall having one of these in my digital garage, so i shot several of it. the owner even offered to close the back window for me, then fussed over how he'd gotten fingerprints on it, so he had to polish those off. thanks for that. they probably would have shown up from this angle.

the telephone pole and wires sort of bother me, but not enough to remove them from the shot...i'm tired, and they were really there after all. it is what it is.

anyway, big lot, and about 100 cars there. probably go again, should i happen to be in the area. gotta get some sleep...back to the grind tomorrow.

sweet dreams

so i went to the broiler the other night. end of january. temps in the upper 70s. weirdest weather i can remember.

anyway, lots of cars were already in the lot by the time i arrived. these pretty little things were all spit shined for an official photo shoot for a magazine i can't remember the name of, but i'm sure you'd all recognize it. quite the production, with a large team of people setting up fancy lighting and lots of cameras.

got this one fairly early on, though i was intercepted when i first arrived by someone interested in pictures of their own car. he's a regular. already had posted his car, and tried to show it to him on my phone, but the signal wasn't that great. had to go fetch my ipad out of the car, and finally found it to show to him. dude, if you're reading this, i sent you an email. waiting for a reply...but i digress...

story i heard from the owner of this lovely nomad was that it was the third time his car had been featured as a work in progress, only this time, the car had just been completed. hot spanking new paint job. perhaps it was really featuring the paint shop, as three of these cars were completely awesome and similarly pinstriped and metal flaked up in lollypop colors.

anyway, i got my shots in between their set ups and all the people milling around. only i didn't use a flash or their lights. i'll look for the magazine, but i'm perfectly happy with my pictures, even if they aren't perfect.

fussy britches

t buckets are interesting beasts. they're old, but you'd never know it, they way they're polished up and perfect. all angles and chrome and wire rims. much too fastidious or should i say meticulous? not a bad thing, but i think you'd have to be a little ocd to keep this type of ride this clean and spotless. not for me, but thanks for letting me park my tripod in front of them.

make up your mind

saw this impala back in november on my way back up the street from the dia de los muertos show in whittier. perfectly nice low rider, but couldn't they have just put the damn top up or down? it just looks half ass like this, but maybe they like it that way? am i to admire the plush interior? and why the mirrors? what's up under the wheel well that i need to see? the hydraulics? perhaps i just don't understand low riders, and i should just stick to the oldies.