pain in my chesh

1951 chevrolet deluxe

and i can't breev. one of george lopez' classic stand up bits.

so, saw his car out at san fernando. famous not only for the owner, but for the glittery mexican flag painted on the roof. and check out that interior. 

yet another time i wished for a ladder or roof or platform to shoot from, but none of those fit in my camera bag, so maxed out the tripod, and got this piss poor shot of the roof.

curb was higher than the street, and the street had the occasional car driving by, so couldn't shoot too well from there.

golf carti was curious why his car was there, but he wasn't. maybe he's afraid of danny trejo? can't have two celebs at the same show at the same time?

he also had his golf cart there...el mas chingon...it is, it really is.

no number given

1965 ford falcon

on a normal day, i would not have taken this shot. but random white guy, with a muscle car at a viejitos show, bounds up and starts chattering away, so i can't not take it.

he seemed really nice, and really enthused. sort of that surfer dude attitude.

said he'd grown up in cerritos. had been at some other show, where i think he said raynbow had told him abou this show, so he figured he'd come on down. mentioned that he'd seen himself driving his car in someone's video on youtube. told him i'd seen myself in someone's video on youtube...my backside, because i was busy taking pictures of cars as the videographer went by...seems to be typical.

got kinda wierd when he asked what i was doing later. i said playing with my pictures, but i don't think that was the answer he thought i'd give.

i took a few shots of his car. and when he yelled, asking if i wanted his phone number...ya no. told him i didn't think my better half would be cool with that, showing up with some random guy's number and no reason to have it. the guys nearby giggled a bit, but no offense was intended.

cat's spots

1961 chevy impala

this impala is a little over the top, on the paint job.

airbrushing, pinstriping, etching, and to top it off, cheetah or leopard spots on the little side panel space. i'm thinking cheetah...it's a faster animal. though leopards are pretty bad ass too.

no doubt about the quality of the paint job, it's very good. it just overwhelms and detracts from the car, which seemed to be in good condition.

completely my opinion, which means diddly-squat. it's a beautiful car, if i just go with it. 

was kinda sad it was backed up so close to the plants behind it, and close to the car next to it and pop up on the other side. just got in the way, and couldn't get a clean shot from the back angle.

1961 chevy impala

nice pipes

1935 ford pickup

this is a random post. at my mom's and this is the only picture i have lurking on here for a rainy day--i've been that busy.

you know a few posts ago, when i said the big project was done and things should slow down a bit? well, what kind of idiot goes to a weekly status meeting and says ya, it seems quieter? that's just a cry to the great beyond to slap down your ass with a shit-ton more work. so yes, i jinxed myself, and the great beyond shat upon my desk.

i mean i have a steady stream of work every day. every day. every day. but then you become suddenly inundated with overlapping deadlines, and juggling priorities, and no desire to put in extra hours cuz you're still trying to recover from the big project. the hamster wheel speeds up.

and then, the drive home, and that cursed (say it curse-sed) five freeway, that road to hell and back. fuck that drive.

so i've been a bit too tired to post fresh tasty pics this week. sorry. responsibility is a heavy responsibility, as my better half says.

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i first saw this hot rod, about a year ago, parked by its lonesome, at a here unnamed center of commerce and debauchery. i was walking to lunch, and i've got a pretty good eye for spotting uncommon cars. i saw it from two blocks away, and wondered if it would still be sitting there, and alone, by the time i reached it. remarkably, it was. i only had my cell phone on me at the time, so use what you have.

have since seen it a few times on the streets behind the orange curtain. i've seen pics of it frequently hanging at a certain cars and coffee show. i went to that show once, near an apartment i used to live in, when i used to hit up a car show every day in the summer, two or three on weekends. ya, ninety-nine percent muscle cars, pns cars, and old white guy hot rods. so not what i like. and i certainly didn't remember seeing this one at the time, so maybe it hadn't been built yet.

blah blah. getting sleepy now; i think i only had four hours last night...its so hot...

anyway, getting to the point: this guy was a long way from home, when i saw him zoom by at mooneyes' open house. actually, it makes a lot of sense, since hot rods are what they're about, right?

so i finally got a few shots of the thing with my big kid camera. i actually like the other shot of it better, but this one shows that it actually has four chrome chimneys to play beer pong with, vs two, which is how it seems in the other shots.

nuff said. back to the regularly scheduled programming tomorrow. g'night.

big one

rooster hood ornament

i love hood ornaments, you probably should have figured that out, if you've browsed through this bloggy thing for any amount of time. regular, standard hoodies are fine to shoot, in case i want to show details of a particular car.

but the unique, custom, or hard to find hoodies are a fav. like little bespoke sculptures, with lots of little detail to mesmerize daft little photographers.

so how dirty double entendre should i go with this one? maybe i'll forego those jokes this time, but i am thinking them. i do love a nice cock though...oops, see what i mean?

saw this rooster on some type of small car named after a kid or the kid was named after the car--i don't remember what the owner or the sign said now. i didn't shoot the car, i know that much. whittier uptown show, and i was in a hurry to catch a train that day.

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going to take my madre to the fair this evening. probably won't stay long, since her legs get tired. better half has to work, but he may take his own mom there next week.

i think the hell week at work is just about over, so time to relax.

busy day

chevy truck

spied this wonderously painted truck driving past mooneyes a couple weeks ago. watched it go through the intersection, and turn into the parking lot of the offices across from all the action at the burger joint. by the time they showed up, it was pretty hopeless to find parking anywhere else.

the lot was bordered by short hedges, but tall enough to conceal a few gems, if you just scanned for where all the spectators were congregating.

look at that pinstriping and airbrushing job. just in awe. or awwww.

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crazy busy at work this week. should let up quite a bit next week. thinking of asking for a few days off, to fly out and see my brothers, or north to see my daughter and her new doberman puppy.

florence

motorcycle

made it out to mooneyes open house today, relatively early. sun didn't come out from the overcast for a couple of hours, but it did feel humid. way fewer people in the way at this show if you get there early.

its a popular show, but there really isn't anywhere for people with cars to park. they jam into the lot of the hamburger joint on the corner. there were other business lots that were taped off, that weren't last year. the lot of a flooring showroom on the other side of the intersection was taped off, but cars were parking in there—one of the other photographers i talked to figured they must know the owner. that, or they said they would make him an offer he couldn't refuse.

other cars parked along the side of the street, or in what other parking lots where businesses seemed to be closed. some parked on the street, but didn't pay attention to the no parking signs, so cops had to find the owners to move them. only option for anyone else was to keep cruising up and down the street until a spot opened up, or they got bored and left.

we started shooting at the burger joint, walked down past mooneyes, then back to the burger joint. same bunch of cars there, so we crossed the street to shoot a blue truck i'd seen passing by, and also found a few others parked in that lot with him.

then, crossed at the light with another photographer with a huge lens, who seemed interested in shooting video rather than pictures, at least that's what my better half said.

found this bike in the lot with the flooring store. tavertine. carpeting. tile. didn't need any of that today, but they appeared to be open for business. now if they had been selling some water, i'd have bought that.

took a couple of shots of this bike, then went to shoot a purple truck. while waiting for some people to move out of the shot, the owner of the bike came over to ask where he might see a picture. gave him a card. here it is. wish the goober on the left wasn't just standing there gawking. i think he followed me around for a little while. haven't looked at a lot of the other pictures closely, but i wouldn't be suprised to find him hovering around in them too.

found a shady spot nearby, that actually had a nice, cool breeze blowing through, where we took a break before heading down this side of the street and back to the car. better half insisted that i take a swig of his drink.

he likes diet snapple, which i do not like, and which was not cold, but it was wet. he'd rather i choke that down than have a heat stroke. he also said, "39jimbo wasn't there to give me a cold one." i argued that there was a case of water in the car, but he argued that i wouldn't make it back to the car, so...gagged down half a bottle of the stuff. warm rasberry. i'd give it a warm rasberry.

imperials show tomorrow. and dam, it's after ten, so i better get to bed.

no pressure or nothin’

chopped mercury

a while back i mentioned that they asked me at work, if i would be able to consult or maybe even shoot portraits of management types at the office. and then it never happened. next big event, they hired the outside guy to shoot it. fine by me; didn't want to deal with that many big cheeses from all over the states, in one setting, much less one after another. that would be dealing with a lot of people and my little introverted circuits would be overloaded pretty quickly. and i shoot cars, not people.

well, i guess the usual guy that shoots quick and dirty stuff is out of the office this week. says he has an ulcer. that didn't take long; he's only been there a year or two. j/k. sucks.

so the public relations girl asks if i might be able to take a picture of someone who is visiting the office tomorrow, if i could bring in my camera...not sure where the company camera is, but most likely its a canon or nikon, and i'd be pretty dumb using it, not knowing my way around either one. her existing picture is fuzzy/blurry. i have a kick-ass hundred millimeter macro, so i think i can do better.

i've had to go back and review all the class notes and the book i studied on doing portraits, and did a crash sitting with my better half being my test subject. i think it'll be ok. only thing to worry about really is that the room they'll have me shoot in has windows on two sides and an obnoxious orange wall on the other. hoping they know where the green screen might be hiding.

i could take her outside, in natural light. just pretend she's a car, and aim for her headlights, i mean her eyes, not her hooters.

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speaking of green, this car was pretty bright. i wonder if i could use it to strip in other backgrounds, like the memes have been doing with the queen elizabeth birthday pictures and that bright green suit she was wearing.

i thought the shot straight from the camera was pretty clean, so i only kicked the pixels a little bit.

countdown

ford hot rod

saw a couple of these hot rods down the street earlier. the lady directing staging made them move before i could set up a shot, then they moved again.

found them here on my way back up the street. not my typical car to shoot, but sometimes, i just do. maybe it was just the light.

do you think this looks ok? i think the last few pictures might need to be reworked. i've been experimenting with my process, and they've been a little too dark for my taste. pushed this one more toward what i used to do, and i like it a bit better.

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less than an hour until game of thrones...eeeeee!

i wandered uptown to get lunch. figured if i got too out of it, i could just uber back the few blocks to the house. i was ok. hardly coughed at all. sun came out on the way back, so had to take off my jacket.

figured i'd get the work out before i play. got something ready for work, washed some laundry. watched some videos...educational, and youtube...wasting time. better half and his mom got home.

better half treating me like i'm deathly ill, but i feel fine, just sound like i'm possessed just a tad. now i'm slathered with icky sticky vicks goo. smells great, but it makes you chilly, like a cool breeze blowing across my chest, and my shirt is stuck to me. so gross.

better leather

harley davidson heritage softail

ahem. let's get to last week's whirlwind through the whittier uptown carshow. i've got several to prepare for those few people who asked me to post pictures of their cars.

as i mentioned before, i only had six hours out there, and i still didn't get around to everything. had to get to the train station, and i've been gone most of the week.

it seemed mostly organized this year, though i don't remember checking what time they started rolling the cars in from staging. i was busy, going from flower to flower to flower...i mean car to car to car, trying to shoot as many as i could in my short amount of time.

was out there at five-thirtyish a.m. where were you?

found this motorcycle down in the rick's parking lot, the owner nearby keeping an eye on his bike. he offered to move it, nah, i'd find it later for other shots. this is how i found it, so leave it be.

there was so much detail on this bike, that it seems to be less about the harley itself—which is pretty nice, shiny and pinstriped—and more about the leather.

everything decorated in an aztec theme, with the usual characters and patterns you'd expect. skillfully done and fitted, i asked the owner about it. 

he said he'd save himself a buttload (he didn't exactly use that word, my edit) of cash by taking it down to mexico himself versus paying a guy here, to basically do the same thing.

he had to point out that there was a little felix the cat medal/figure on the side. probably thought i'd appreciate that since i was wearing my felix the cat chevrolet shirt. if he hadn't mentioned it, i wouldn't have noticed it, it was low, on the side next to the wall, and there was so much other detail to look at.

anyway, really nice work here.