gots balls?

getting late, so i won't say much here. i'm always fascinated by these big engines and wonder why the balls in the pipes? so birds don't nest in them?

this one practically has a crown of pipes, at least from this angle. i just want to take those nerf balls out and have a water ball fight...it's been so hot lately. i think those were parking tickets plastered all over the windshield, but i don't know what the point was. maybe if i look at the large size again, i'd see what the joke was. and i love the table full of puckerbutts watching...can practically read what's going through their minds: "what in the world is she doing? why is she doing that? am i in the picture? go away..."

ever have one of those days, when stuff you said got taken all wrong and everyone is pissed at everyone else? well, i just had one; glad it's over, and man, my head hurts from even trying. i'll try harder not to care, and go back to being the wallflower that i naturally am, watching and silent in the background. geez.

nice attitude, babe

i think i saw this one at ruby's last time i was there. here it sits in the parking lot of old world. kinda cool with the wall•e engine thing and weird finish paint job.

my favorite parts, though are the unused hood lock painted to give you the bird – F.U. too; and the metal rooster on the dashboard. wait for it, wait for it...no, i'm not going there, i'll be good for a change, and not say something about how big (or small) it might be. love the pinstriping on the door too.

i think the owner was sitting opposite the car, and would occasionally make the hydraulics squeak a bit. thanks for not bouncing it while i was taking my shots.

skully

this was a very nice hot rod ford at the run whatcha brung show in rialto. the owner was a very nice gentleman, that told me a bit about how he'd fixed it up. he seemed especially proud of the skull details he'd added. this one was made from a belt buckle; others were from lighters and other found items, and put onto valve stems, door locks, etc.

i liked the purple in the flames and the purple of the flowers...oh how i hate those little flowers. they fall on my car, and they make my high heels slip when i have to walk on them...but they do frame a car nicely from this angle.

it's a drag

i don't know exactly what you'd call this thing, but i don't see one every day, so i stopped and took a couple of shots. i think mainly i liked the mascot out front, between the front wheels. there really isn't much car to look at, being so sleek and stripped for speed.

how the heck does the driver see around that engine? i'm pretty sure they didn't drive it here. wish it had been parked somewhere besides this lovely alley, but it wouldn't fit in a standard parking space, now would it?

----

does it bother you too, when kids purposely spell things wrong? i have some relatives that seem to be incapable of spelling stuff correctly on their facebook pages, though they have brains the size of the universe...IQs off the charts. maybe they think it makes them more cool and more gangsta — though they're the milkiest white gangstas you'd ever see...i think it's the environment they live in. i think it just makes them sound stoopid. yo yo yo...boyz.

mercules

ok, this one is definitely a mercury. says so on the back bumper.

i'd been at the fuddrucker's show for maybe about 10 minutes. there were plenty of cars – an additional row had been made available. problem for me was that, either i'd already shot the car before, a good number of them were muscle cars (yawn) and/or the hood was up. i try to at least shoot one car, to make it worth the stop at the show.

i'd settled on an old ford, and rattled off several sets of shots. wandered around again, nothing interesting. i approached a very rusty 1928 ford of some sort. mostly original rickety bits. i was going to shoot it, when the owner popped up and opened the engine compartment to show it off to some other dude. oh well.

so i proceeded to my car, capped the lenses, packed it up, and got into the drivers seat. i sat for several minutes, checking phone messages, email, etc., all the while keeping an eye on what was driving in. more muscle cars. (yawn), newer corvette. (eh), chevys i'd already shot.

i was about to leave, when this baby drives in. always happens...just when you're about to leave, a good one shows.

since i'd been watched packing it up by some guy in a van nearby, i decided to move my car to another lot, and pretended to leave. i didn't feel like hauling all my bag and stuff out, so i just grabbed my wide angle set up, and the tripod. i felt a bit nekked without the whole bag of fun, but it was much quicker.

walked back to the lot, hoping he'd been forced to park on an edge because of all the muscle cars. happily, it was parked along the curb on the edge, so i had a bit more access. of course, because it was so different, it had attracted a crowd. i had to wait a bit for people to move, and then just ended up shooting anyway. the sun was getting ready to set, and it was casting long shadows, so that limited what angle i could shoot from as well.

different days, draw different crowds. sometimes the regulars are friendly, sometimes indifferent, and other times, they might as well be on the rag. grumpy old men. young teenage posers. frumpy women. overdone girls. lol. just kidding. but not really. can never tell if people will be polite or not. and this particular show, they seemed to be a bit more pushy, and in the way. haven't really had a day that their cumulative attitudes turned me off from a show yet, but one or two, almost.

i'

only one that asked

taking a break from work and from the showlows cars...i'll get back to you guys tomorrow, probably.

busy weekend. spent many hours in riverside. i had a few hours to kill on saturday, and it just so happened they were having one of those 3-day car shows in downtown riverside. the type of show that i normally would skip as being to crowded and busy. but it was late afternoon on the second day, after the awards for the day supposedly were given, and i figured most of the mess would be gone.

that may be so, but there were still lots and lots of cars to see, and many that i would have like to have shot busy cruising and never stopping. several blocks were closed to traffic, except for cars in the show, which were allowed to cruise along several blocks in a circuitous route.

and damn was it windy there. had to hold onto the tripod to minimize the shakes, and it did nothing for my hair, but really it was more annoying than anything. my hair blew across the camera as i was trying to frame up the shot. it flew all around my head as i walked down the street. it took on a life of its own, until i just really didn't care what it was doing, which is what it does best anyway. i probably looked a fright. i probably should just cut it short again and be done with it. i digress...

while there were many people, they mostly stayed out of my way once i set up my tripod. i never did see anyone else with one, so i'm sure they didn't know what to think of me. couple of owners inquired if i was a professional, but only the owner of this hot rod bothered to really ask about what i was doing, looked at some of my pictures, and took a card. this one was off the street in a parking lot of a business, thus no one really getting in the way. not the best location, judging by the background, but the other angle just was going to be some garage doors and building frontage, so...imagine those are time capsules on the right side.

i took lots of shots, so i will post a few more soon.

siblings

these two could be brother and sister, so different, yet so similar. i suppose the truck would be big bro, watching over his little sister. and she's so hot. party in the front, no junk in the trunk...ehh, no trunk. lol.

i know i talked to the owner of the hot rod at this show; gave him my card and he commented that he had the same last name. i think he was one of the vendors, so probably the truck belongs to the company or partner. too much of a coincidence otherwise.

of course, i wished the hood was down, but couldn't resist the hot rod, so what the hell.

anniversary post

greetings. anyone miss me this past week? all i can say as to why i haven't been able to post, in no particular order: overtime, rain, family.

take this ford, for instance. i managed to get the hell out of the office last tuesday, on an evening when it was actually not raining. sky was clear, wasn't too cold, yet there just weren't all that many cars out at the show. true, clouds were rumored to be heading this way, but not yet. gets kinda disappointing when i find the time, and not much is there.

i hadn't seen this particular car since 2009. it did make it on my blog early on last year. i was especially happy to have found it again, as i had only taken a couple of shots of it from way down low.

anyway, i'd only taken a couple images of this one and also a sweet chevy nomad, in all of 10 minutes, when i get a call from work, saying please come back and tweak some files. so i pack it up and work 2 or 3 more hours...they're all starting to blur together.

otherwise, family was in town, and had to get all the time i could with them. ended up squeezing in a lunch hour, and a late dinner the night before they left. oh well.

i've realized it was exactly one year ago today that i began this blog. i'd like to thank everyone for putting up with me at the car shows, whatever mood i'm in, and letting me take pictures of your cars. at least most of you. thanks for visiting my blog, no matter how much i ramble, digress, or blather on about nothing. the pictures are the main thing, and they make me happy. i can only hope you're liking them too, or i'm really just talking to myself here.

flame thrower

only a few more weeks until the season when there is literally at least one car show a day. car gluttony. car-razy. car happy = carappy? whatever.

i think it's been hinted to throttle back on how many shows i hit up. shall we just say my better half is very patient with me, and i should probably throw more time his way. but, hey, he does work a lot of overtime, so what else am i going to do? i really hate going to the gym, and at least this gets me out and about, hauling around a tripod.

speaking of upcoming shows, this flamed beauty, and it's hot rod companion (can't really see the flames on it from this side) were at the foothill ranch show last june. was a bit overcast, and not as broiling hot as it got later in the summer there. i can't be sure, but i think this chevy has also been over at fuddrucker's once in a while, and i think it might even belong to the pinstriper guy who comes out once a month there in the summer. i'm sure someone out there will let me know ifn i'm misguided...you always do.

playing with fire

so i hit a couple of shows on sunday. stopped first at the big boy show in orange. second time there. big disappointment. didn't even get my camera out. they had several rows of the parking lot blocked off, so they were hopeful, but the security guard started taking the caution tape down before i left.

then drove over to pal joey's show in costa mesa. haven't been to one of these since they were at the santa ana elk's club. decent turn out, but i still expected more. got there late enough that many cars had the hood up, so bye bye to them.

this one was a pretty decent hot rod, as hot rods go. i've never seen slightly rainbow-y flames as these...pinks to greens to oranges to blues. nice big wall•e engines...kinda expect a nickelodeon if you peek into this one.

so basically for the day, i got shots of maybe four cars. whatever. i had fun anyway.