leadrag

i've seen this one many times. i thought i'd posted it at some point, but i'm not finding it right now. well, i know i have other shots, but not very satisfying ones.

this is the first time i've seen it with the top up. i suppose because it's next to those trees, those lovely, drippy, sappy trees. and the birds.

i'm not saying it's my favorite car, but i do just like the challenge of trying to get a good shot of cars i see far too often. usually solved by a change in location. like this one; they killed off the fuddrucker's show in el toro...all that construction had pushed it too far from the main drag, and no one knew it was there. here it is at chik-fil-a, where you are separated from the main street by a few feet of concrete, dirt, trees and flowers.

that's mister lowrider to you

this is one of the glitter twins. not sure where the other one ended up. actually, maybe it's pixie dust, they're like a dream, a happy thought.

parked in a perfect spot, i shot it from the front, the side, the back. liked this one best, because it hides most of the tent behind it, where the owner (i think) was sitting, and look at those great trees and sky...really makes the orange pop. basic art school color wheel complementary and tertiary colors.

three for one

quick post. gotta get up early tomorrow. make up your own story about this one.

tiger in the grass

i've posted this one up here several times before. keep trying to get the stripey, random airbrush paint job right. lo and behold, there it was in with a small contingent of cars from orange county down at chicano park, hiding in a corner. 

as i've said before, it's fun to find a car over and over, and then to find it some new environment. typically, i find it on a hot, sunny day, sitting on hot asphalt in a parking lot. things get more blown out that way.

here i found it again, in the shade of the bridge overpass, sitting pretty on the grass. surrounded by hundreds of other remarkable cars, i found it without a crowd around it for a change.

checkered past

i still have a couple more cars i promised before i get back to my favs. 

this one was just different than the typical hot rod. mainly the checkered paint job on the radiator and inside the engine compartment. otherwise, pretty standard hep cat.

wonder what that guy in the doorway is thinking...or the zombie to his right. neither is looking at me, nor the car. must be something driving by out of the shot.

they all head south for the winter

so, i'll get back to riverside in a couple of days, but i wanted to put one of this beauty up before i forget. my better half talked the owner into closing it up later that afternoon.

i basically stare at cars with their hoods open if i really want to shoot it, and hope the owner notices and offers to close it. i've only asked owners to close it a couple of times because it was too good not to get it, and most typically will just walk past a few times and hope to see it again some day.

of course, i took advantage of the hood closed, and took several more shots. but i thought i'd share this one, just to show that i sometimes break my own rule. i think my better half mentioned that it's rare to see one in such immaculate condition, but if memory serves, d, there was about five of them in a row down at chicano park, each just as delicious as this one. but i did skip most of those, since they had one side up and one side down.

ok, this one had a nice engine, so i guess that was part of the reason i went ahead and took this shot. my better half liked this one better than the others i did, so maybe that's why i'll share it with you.

out of town tomorrow, so riversiders, hold your breath until wednesday. unless i go to big boy...

buy a print here

more candy

a lifestyle car is most always a delight to the eyes. pinstripes, airbrush, candy colors seem to be their modus operandi. i walked past this one earlier. thought i'd seen it before and/or the light just wasn't hitting it right and/or it was surrounded by people.

on the last walk around this field, walking past from this direction, i had a change of heart and took this shot. i can appreciate a good paint job. and hey, look, no one paying it any attention. perfecto.

just realizing that it was the same car i saw last summer at the san fernando show. but not that surprising. nice to see it out in the open, and not crammed in with a bunch of other cars.

jesse’s girl

while wandering around the show, we passed through this group of cars. i was shooting the pinstripes on the back of this one, when the owner came over and asked what we do with the photos. so, since he seemed really interested, i took a few shots of his car, while he pointed out the finer points of the monte carlo next to it.

i liked his car. a pale yellow, with tan pinstriping, just a touch on the hood, and a little on the back end. not too much, not too little. he says their club mostly goes to the bigger shows, in several states. mentioned one coming up in laughlin, nevada next month. says it's a good show, lots of cars. i'm trying to remember how hot it gets in nevada in may. already thinking about going to vegas in september and it is usually smoldering then.

normally, i wouldn't shoot the monte carlo, but it was the details that really blew us away. etched metal on all the chromed surfaces, custom leather interior, airbrushing and pinstriping. really impressive. here are a few of the details:

mr pig

found this over at hooters a couple of months ago. probably wouldn't have taken the shot, except i noticed the little decoration on the engine, or rather the air filter cover. other than that, this is a pretty generic bucket.

-----

got busted by the doctor, who knew i'd been walking too much by the look of the cyborg boot. almost was free to go, when he happened to push on the wrong place on my foot. yep, another shot of courage into the foot. this time, a needle that looked a mile long, and deeper into my foot. hurt like a bitch.

promised to keep off the foot as much as possible. kinda putting a damper on going to car shows. but this weekend is the show at chicano park and also the annual show in orange plaza, neither of which i've been to before. i think i can do one or the other, but not both. better half is going to insist on going and pulling my bag around. maybe i can talk him into helping me up, if i want to take a low shot.

chairman of the bored

my better half may have found jesus; i found frank. like forrest said, you never know what you're going to get, especially when you go around to the back of a car. i'd never seen one of these cars, and was happily shooting it from the front. then this happy surprise when i went to the other end.

while frank never impressed me much, the airbrushing here wasn't bad, but it wasn't especially great either. for one, why is the color almost pretty good all over, then his mouth is full of gray teeth and gums? did he wear dentures, or did they forget to add a little pink to liven it up a little? no, wait, he was a smoker; that explains it. i know he was old, but ick. kinda creepy.

no, i don't want to dance with you. maybe my dad helped him out with the punctuation—he too, also likes to use exclamation points on everything he types. i know he'll read this eventually! sorry, but it's true! i love you dad!

anyway, this is it for a week. i'm all packed up, and the weather channel says it's going to be raining all week, as one would expect in seattle. bringing my cameras anyway, in case a patch of sun opens up for a few minutes here and there.

i'm sure my better half will keep himself busy and not notice the time passing until i get back, right d? he can hang out with his other old lady...who also is known to read this blog...thanks for putting up with me.

---side note---hey ernie from the latin gents, did you get my email last month? probably in your junk mail...that's where they always go.