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.

truck me

i've got more work than time at the office. i am becoming one with my chair, and my legs are feeling it. and my phone is screwy and its pissing me off. i think, at least, that is mostly fixed, except for all my phone numbers. here nor there.

i gotta get some sleep. maybe bounce on a trampoline first, get the circulation going.

saw this one the other day in lakewood. at least the trucks mostly kept the hoods down. especially this one, with it's ghost flames.

wonderful pointy things

here it is. again. little dvill. also from the last uptown show. his club helped out with the early, so freakin early, set up of the show. no crowds. no stark shadows. only thing better than the early morning light would be the misty fog of past years shows.

have always, always been fascinated with this car. all the pointy wonderments on the back. it could take out an eye or a kneecap. or enable self-neutering.

the ghostly flames on the front. the paint so polished, you could stare at it until you felt like falling down the rabbit hole.

he's been hiding this puppy, preferring his shiny lincoln this past year. thankfully, he has people. and those people helped bring it out for the show.

bitch

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what is it about guys and high maintenance women? you all know the ones i'm talking about—the ones that dress up for a day at disneyland and wear high heels, then spend all day bitching about how their feet hurt. the ones that the guys want to have, then spend the rest of their lives regretting. she's fine as long as she doesn't say anything, but then she does, and has nothing to say. and the claws come out if she thinks you're looking at other chicks.

i wonder if this car is like that. reine has been favoring his lincoln for the last bunch of months. has she been suffering from imaginary aches and pains all year? she's been a kept woman. hidden away in some garage in never-never land, getting nips and tucks, and apparently tipped. on the hubcaps. i noticed.

thanks for bringing her out to play for the day, reine. i did miss her, even if she is a bitch to photograph. j/k.

i'm in a kind of hell now

living a whirlwind right now, with very little time to post, much less think or sleep. got a coworker on a three week vacation, so helping with some of her work on top of an increasingly busy work schedule. still packing my stuff to go into storage, but at a much more accelerated timeline than i originally thought. but even that, i've been too busy to get much boxed. my son did get through his graduation, so at least i can check that off the list.

quick post, so you don't think i've dropped off the planet. sun was way too bright for taking good shots this day at fuddrucker's in el toro, but i was there and needed to shoot to break the work week up. this was a really nice merc, all flamey and chopped and parked just so. wish that suv thing wasn't next to it.

funny thing was that i was on my way out to spires the next evening, and saw it again followed closely by an unfinished merc on the 91 freeway. had hoped they were heading to the show, but they didn't take the exit, so pooh. went over to the broiler, but they weren't there either. another one of those "where you going?" moments...

free at last

i am both relieved and feeling some loss. my son played his last baseball game yesterday. hitting .351 and 32 RBIs for the season. not bad. he will graduate from college in a couple of weeks. i've been going to his games since he was eight years old. it feels weird to know that my weekends will no longer be scheduled around his games. mostly it just feels weird knowing that is just another step in letting him grow up.

he'll probably still have to make the decision to continue on to law school or say yes to a pro team if they pick him in the draft. big choice, and glad it's not mine to make—it's his future now, so i'll just be there to support him whichever way he goes.

but getting back to the car shows is something i can still look forward to. found this show in fullerton, before heading to a baseball game [of course]. had a momentary scare while shooting this car. seriously thought i'd killed one of the two cameras i use at the car shows. already maimed one and killed one lens from overuse. turned out i just had forgotten to switch a couple of settings, since i'd been also using it to shoot the baseball games.

ya, i didn't stay long at this show. owners seemed a little too pretentious, maybe that's not the word, but it wasn't clicking with me. this was the day for hot rods and stuff; the next day was "concours d'elegance" —yes, maybe pretentious is the right word.

from the lack of free parking to the "free shuttle," which turned out to be a standard van for too many people, i knew it was one of those shows that i typically avoid. and yes, i've known about this show for years and managed to skip it. i'd never even gone to the museum, though my college professors used to recommend it for art gallery review assignments. not as many cars as i thought there would be, but i think the concours was probably the busier day. lots of hoods up, many very fine cars, but not many that made me want to take a picture.

i have a couple more i'll share, but there will be additional stories of owners being themselves, to put it nicely. and maybe i should wait a while so i can do the "say something nice, or don't say nothing at all," and get it out of my system. but that's boring.

easter egg

my better half had to work all weekend. he's still there now. happy easter. pfft.

vacuumed the house, stopped by my parents' house to say howdy, then thought i'd get off my butt and get back in the saddle. surprisingly, i saw there were several shows listed for today, and thought i'd see what might show up on a holiday. i figured anyone with kids wouldn't be able to get away...kind of a requirement to be there. i expected to find old guys, single guys, and couples with no kids.

i skipped a show near my mom's, since it was about time for it to be over, and the good ones don't hang around for the end. instead, i drove up to the show at fuddrucker's in lakewood. i've seen it on the list for a while, and figured without going to one of the big parks and bothering picnicing car clubs, it was the best bet to see a few cars.

there were actually more than i expected, but not as many as there must usually show up. and in spite of not getting out to the shows much, my shyness was not allowed to reclaim me – almost as soon as i arrived an old navy guy came over and started chatting me up as i started to shoot this old ford.

wasn't his, but someone else he was hanging with. said he had one, but either a year earlier or a year later, and not at the show. told a long story about how much it costs to get these cars up to par and the hunt for parts. he'd had his ford at some shop that kept putting him off, asking for more money for this and that, and after it got to $27,000 and no actual work being completed on his car, he pulled it from that shop and shipped it out to arizona, where they were progressing nicely for much less. said he was going to sue the original shop...oh yeah i listen to these stories, and if i post the picture soon enough, i remember more details than i should. i blame you guys that want to tell me all this stuff...and this wasn't even his car. it's all right. he was entertaining, the sun wasn't going down, and it gave time for more cars to show up.

anyway, he knew all about this car, and several other old cars that pulled in. he walked me around this one pointing out parts and asking me to guess how much it was for a replacement part. he said the owner claims to have never washed this car, and only wipes it down to clean it. all i wanted to know is why they painted this such a shiny black, then airbrushed some funky looking flames there on the running boards, which just look like fallen leaves from this angle.

oh ya, i'm doing a trial thing for ordering prints. click on that button down at the bottom on the right. haven't posted many, and if you're interested and don't see yours there, shoot me an email, and i'll upload it for ordering. figured it would be easier, since my better half says i'm kinda scary at car shows...i'd prefer focused...and usually when someone does ask what sizes/what prices, i can't remember them off the top of my head. so give it a peek anyway.

blazing saddles

so why not post more flamey cars? why the heck not? i have quite a few in my collection.

found this one out in riverside at a charity show. saw several cars that i've shot before, but there was an ok turnout considering other shows i've been to recently.

hey gary...i remembered you...just had to place the face with the car. and so sorry, your hood was open, so i didn't shoot it this time.

this one, well, it didn't have a hood, but it did have glittery flames, so why not? it's got a wall-e engine. that thing must block your view while driving.

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?