who's afraid of the dark?

tired. friday. done. another busy week.

quick post. i don't do many motorcycles. they just don't get me going. but the occasional one does stop me momentarily.

this one was it's own flashlight. paint job was nothing special, with ubiquitous raider nation stuff emblazoned here and there.

what i did like was the engraving on the chrome parts and the ostrich leather custom seats. i liked the details better than the overall bike, and that can't be good.

but i just thought i'd share. another night time experiment with the newer camera. still not lovin' it like my a700s.

same car, different place

ya, i thought i'd seen this one before. and it is a nice car. probably would have kept on going, but it does pick up the sun so nicely with the lightest dusting of glitter or sparkle in the flames. plus the owner busted me taking a picture of it and jokingly asked what i was doing. said he expected a snapshot of it. 

well, i don't give those out for free, but i'll show him the shot of it, since he said hello.

found it this time at silverado days in buena park. didn't expect it to be as busy as it was, but there were about a hundred cars, including a few of my favorite clubs, so it was all good. and a carnival to boot, in the shadow of knott's berry farm, was a bonus.

too bad so many cars had the hoods up...

scratcher

i missed a chevy show in tustin for the dia de los muertos show down the street from the house here in whittier. sure i probably could have had a lot more cars to choose from, but probably not many as interesting as the dozen or so that turned up here.

i'd been to the show a couple of years ago, and only the showlows and some arbitrary cars had shown up, and maybe a couple of blocks of vendors. 

this time, several blocks of vendors and food peddlers shutdown the main street and a couple of side streets. we found some cars as we entered the closed off main street and shot those. then i noticed further down, what appeared to be a few more. seems that a new store on the corner, which will be selling t-shirts and other low rider themed accessories, is associated with a car club and some of their cars showed up, as well a few of their friends. 

they had about five cars parked on the street by the store, so we busily got to shooting them. then this puppy, which we'd seen a few nights previously, drove up and dropped down on the corner here. i mean down, scrape the bumper on the street low. heard it loud and clear.

flipping through my collection, i found i've seen it a few times in various places, but only really shot it from the front. wasn't until we passed it uptown that we noticed this funky pinstripe job on the back. who knew you could make praying hands with rosary beads kinda cool. so lemme hear a hallelujah.

found more cars at the other end of the street by the movie theatre and cigar bar, including the usual suspect, whom i am not stalking. at least he'd put a cover back on the spare wheel thing on the back of his chevy, just not the fancy pinstriped one.

emerald city

way back in april, found this at chicano park. what a great show that was. looking forward to the next one. and i love love love the back end of these impalas.

while i didn't find jesus or ol' blue eyes, i really liked the pinstriping back here.

yay! it's friday. time to look up some car shows. busy week ahead. sorry, latin gents, already know i'm gonna miss your show...

caught a raynbow

ya, i posted earlier. i ran too late for the viejitos show. drove over there only to find them cleaning up the lot, maybe a dozen cars sitting around, according to my better half, who urged me to stop anyway. told him i didn't want to get in the way now that it was over.

instead drove up to a show in lakewood, intending to stop at the costco there anyway. that one was as he expected it to be, not that busy, really only one or two cars i'd bother to shoot. i didn't feel like breaking out the camera for that. i think probably because i hadn't really eaten all day, and maybe was a little loopy. i didn't feel hungry, but figured i might as well get something.

so we went over to the mall behind the costco, found where they hide the food and was satisfied with a salad. by then my better half started feeling dizzy, probably because he waited too long to eat, so after all that, we didn't go shopping either.

so, broke my own rule to at least take one picture to make it worth the trip. two car shows, no pictures. no groceries. and i'm ok with that.

here's raynbow's pretty pontiac from the show last friday. saw it today, right at the front, but since we didn't stop, didn't get it. kinda like this better anyway. mid afternoon light would have just made it average.

not so sure i'm digging the painted hood ornament. but it's his car, so he can do what he wants, right?

down in flames

so i'm running late already today. on my way to the viejitos show and lunch. you know what? decided not to go to work this weekend at all. i'll work late all week. i wanted my weekend too much. and my better half is also so persuasive. :)

i noticed at the legg lake show yesterday, that the tribe was there, even had their tent up. but i didn't see this one. and not even his lincoln. he's a busy guy i guess.

i stayed out among the cars, didn't go up on the grass and talk to anyone. they knew i was there, good enough. i was trying to hurry to go to work, remember?

anyway, this one from the whittier show in august was ready, so i'll just post it now and be done with it. the flames, the flames, the cursed flames. guess the early light was good enough to pop the ghost flames off the hood.

only sometimes

i started out a small show in montebello, with the intention of going to work for a few hours to try and wrangle my deadlines to something slightly more bearable on monday. but no, someone at the show mentioned to me about a show over at legg lake going at that moment.

i dragged my feet. hung out at this show for the raffle [didn't win anything], stayed for the trophies, then left for lunch, still intending to go to work. making it more difficult, was the fact that i was literally eight minutes away from the lake. the lake was next to a freeway onramp, so if it sucked or if i really intended to go to work i could.

well, it was an ok show. loosely coordinated, more of a picnic with a bunch of car clubs. many cars i've seen before, but still took shots of. sort of an assortment of classics and low riders. i shot a few of the low riders, if i liked their paint jobs. i'll show you this one, because one of the guys from the club came over and talked to me and asked for a card.

oh, and after two shows under the hot sun, and it being almost four when i left, i didn't make it to work after all. the freeway also went too close to home, and thought i'd just download my pictures instead. maybe tomorrow.

motivation

saw this one at the legends show at point fermin. the owner wasn't around, but a guy who said he did the restoration on it was there. said it only took about seven or eight months to fully rework it, since the owner had the cash to get it done quickly. otherwise, he said it typically takes several years.

he did a pretty good job, i think. guess money changes everything, no?

hooch

i've shown this one before, but it really is a nice car, and i found it at the viejitos marketplace show in july, mostly off by itself, so why not show it again?

really spectacular paint and pinstriping. can't really say anything bad about it, except for that the glitter paint is so reflective, it blew out detail in spots because of the hot afternoon sun. that's mostly my fault, for not carrying a filter around or something.

it was a good show. i really need to go back through the pictures from that day. it was during the month i was watching the dog, so i really haven't posted much from there. and there have been so many other shows i've been to since then, perfectly good pictures get lost in the shuffle.

so many cars, so little time.

behind the curtain

i had stopped by the impressions show at bruce's prime rib, after driving five hours back from vegas, and before i even stopped at home. ya, i could if i want. someone had given me a flyer a week or two prior.

better half was working anyway, so he wasn't just sitting and waiting for my arrival. it was way hot outside. there were far fewer cars there than i had expected, and while it was hosted by the impressions, i don't think i really saw a car with their plaque in the window. doesn't mean there wasn't one, i just didn't see one. which is odd, as usually the host club is there in force, representing. there was a tent with their banner, so ok.

i took some shots of the few cars that were there. mostly old chevys, but there was a small cluster of low rider, monte carlo-type bouncers there. none of them were too remarkable paint- or unique-wise, so i didn't bother with any of them.

and then there was this guy. the guy that i am not stalking, from the cigar bar, from the tribe club. lol. i've been going to random shows lately, and he just always seems to be there. none of the other tribe guys, just this one by itself.

so we move in the same circles, but i had never really talked to the owner, more than maybe a hello. he was getting ready to leave, and came over and explained the what in the what the hell with the back wheel cover. the car is usually so immaculate, especially with the new paint job on the roof and random pinstriping, to see it in such a state of disarray, was just too much to pass by.

his story was that he'd driven home from the ventura nationals, and the next day was going to another show, when a block from home, he got a flat tire. and then he didn't have another whitewall tire; but he just couldn't help himself, and came to this show anyway. almost as bad as me, at a show not having been home yet after a week away.

so here it is, with the spare, and the bare nasty parts you usually don't get to see.