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:

home again

i survived my week in washington state. didn't want to disappoint the kid, so dutifully marched all over the place, or rather gimped. by the end of the week, though i had to nix the three hour car ride to hike in a rain forest. did the space needle instead. just got back to the car when it started to rain, then hail...so that was pretty cool. thunder is very loud over puget sound.

she thought i'd enjoy the lemay auto museum, and it was really interesting, but as they all go, no tripods allowed, and stuff is roped off, so i mostly focused on hood ornaments. i don't know when i'll find time to go through all the pictures i took.

i'm running on four hours of sleep, and getting home after getting picked up from the airport is a story in itself. and a panic run to the tax preparer and race to the post office to pay uncle sam. and i still don't feel much better than when i left on the trip.

anyway, here's another truck. found it on the fringe of a car show; i hope only because there were no spaces available in the main lot. nice ride. like the pinstripes.

glamour shot?

while i was wandering around this show in whittier, some dude comes over and asks if i was "that chick that does the glamour shots of cars and bikes?" never thought of it that way, but i suppose so. thought it was a funny idea anyway.

he was specifically asking about a bike i had done way back on the first day i went out to bob's and started shooting this stuff. happened to have a print of it in my book. he and his friend flipped out about a bike in the background belonging to one of their friends, then went on their merry way.

this is a tribe car. belongs to a previously mentioned guy that hangs out up the street at the cigar bar. i know i've posted it before, but i like this shot too. so there.

such a nice car

quick post because i went to the broiler tonight and stayed longer than i intended, though i wished i could have stayed later...there were lots of cars showing up. i still have stuff to do before bed.

spent a lot of time up at the front of the lot. several cars caught my eye. noticed this one pull in and drive directly out to the back of the lot. thought that was a shame, but figured there just weren't any spots open at the time to park closer.

so when i was mostly done, i wandered to the back to see if they were still there. yep. they've turned the back lot lights on again, and it was parked like this under one of them. a guy was there with his two kids, so i went over to them. the teenage girl was shooting pictures of the car, and i was waiting for her to finish so i could slip in and get some shots. 

turns out its the guy's car, and his daughter was trying to shoot it for a school assignment. only thing was, i think they said it kept coming out wrong. blurry or too dark. she had the settings wrong. and was standing way too far back for the little flash to really illuminate anything—almost like people using their flash at a baseball stadium—pretty useless.

i managed to grab this one view of the car while she was trying to figure out her camera. she/they were kind enough to wait while the long exposures were cranking through.

they were still there when i left. hope she got something to satisfy the teacher anyway.

well, bummer

so i'm trolling my more recent photos for something different, and thought this would be interesting. then my week got busy, and didn't have time to get back to it and post it.

since i'd already started it, i figured i'd finish it tonight. but as i was trying to nuke the color funkiness from the sun glare—which i couldn't quite cancel out—i realized i'd already posted it recently. strange that i hadn't seen it in forever, and here it was a few weeks ago.

seems they added those big ass headlights, but the pattern i hadn't noticed initially on the roof is the same. pretty sure its the same car. pfft.

so someone tell me, is it a '39 or a '40?

tired now, so i'll go kick myself and get over it. i'll find another picture tomorrow.

so fine

california is great. great weather, even if it is being blown by a cold breath from the arctic this week. still beats where i grew up on the east coast, though i do miss snow just a smidge. but then, i can always drive up to the mountains for that.

the one thing i don't like, the last few years, i've been working in tall buildings. they're built for earthquakes. the buildings "roll." maybe it's just me. maybe my ears are extra sensitive to the movement of the buildings. but i feel it more often than not. usually just the wind blowing against the building, but it makes me queasy just the same. on some days, i have to check the usgs website to see if there really was an earthquake or how far away it may have been.

when i leave the building, i always take my purse, my keys and my phone. just in case. if the building falls down, i tell myself, i could at least maybe get my car and drive home. but then i think, if the office fell down, it would probably fall on the parking garage. if i have my stuff,  i could at least walk and get in the house.

the last couple of weeks, if i wasn't driving out for lunch because of rain, i was out for a walk. took some cash, in case i got hungry or thirsty, but otherwise, i only took my phone. i still feel strange without the keys in my hand, but i tell myself, that's mostly because i have nothing to fidget with while i walk. my inner introvert needs something to help ignore all the people driving by. so instead, i'm out getting some fresh air without my things, and hoping the idiots stop for me at red lights.

anyway, i have a cubicle not quite on the top floor of the building now. it was windy today. i got a headache. and i went for a walk. and the building was still there when i got back.

------

another car from an old viejitos show. swirly pinstripes all the way down the sides and across the trunk.

not much going on

i stopped by the broiler this evening. albeit, it was early, there was not much more than the die hards there. could be the cold, or maybe people are still out of town. anyway, i didn't take my bag out of the car, and only walked around the lot to see if there was anything interesting, or a car in a different spot. no luck. being more picky until i get new hard drives.

i did chat for a bit with an acquaintance about hard drives, cameras and printing, until his other club buddies called him inside for dinner. decided not to bother staying to see what else might show up. i had to have dinner myself, and my better half was waiting for me at home. he worries sometimes. well, most of the time, when i'm out on my own.

found this car in the archives from 2010, a duke's show and shine car show. from the broiler, so i can pretend it was there tonight. parking lot was overflowing with awesome cars. only time i've seen this one and for all i know, it's been sold and repainted by now, but it did have a really interesting roof job. one of the first cars that i wished i had a ladder to shoot.

merciful

so i hung out at the broiler for a few hours. its a different crowd now than there used to be. the vibe is different. maybe its just me. maybe its just the cold, or the holidays. i really intended to stay later than i did, but i just wasn't feeling it. 

there were a couple dozen cars there. some of the new clubs tend to gather in front of their cars and don't move. kind of bovine, just standing there. i didn't feel like out-glaring them out of the way, so i skipped them. shame.

i'd already spent time shooting cars i'd taken before. mainly, if they were in a different location, or the light struck them different than before. fricking richard's car got in a few shots, but i'll pretend it isn't there, since it doesn't exist in my universe.

sometimes, you just need to look at something differently, and it will be a lot more interesting. i've shot this one before, but i wanted to get some of the roof, then noticed the neon, then the sky, and angles and colors. just wished that the soccer mom van and other newer cars were not there, since they were hiding some other nice old cars.

this one seems to be for sale now; tiny tiny "for sale" on the window doesn't really scream that you're trying too hard.

delayed gratification

there's something to be said for waiting. "all good things take time." "everything's eventual." there's the an-tici-...pation. a delicious, squirrelly itch, which you're sure will never end. sort of like love.

i suppose that there are a lot of pictures i take, that will never get posted here, mostly due to a lack of time and attention. and i apologize to any of the guys who have waited endlessly to see their car here. really, if you've been waiting that long, i wonder why you've never bothered to send me an email to ask about it. otherwise, i'm left to my own devices and whims as to what i post. and i hear that a woman's heart is a mysterious thing, at least my better half has me thinking so. let me know when you have me figured out, d. 

some days, i have no idea which car i want to post, i love them all. other days, i just want to delete them all, and go in search of new cars and new shows. and then i have days, sitting here, worrying how many more can i play with before i run out of space. come on after xmas sales! i need new hard drives.

anyway. taking a break from the legends of san pedro, to post one from the other show i went to that day. i found the token lifestyles car, of which there seems to always be one or two, at some of the better advertised shows. always immaculately painted, pinstriped and/or airbrushed. this one just seems so bright and cheerful in the craptastic background of santa ana. not one of my favorite chevys, but i liked it nonetheless. why ask why?

legend in his own mind

i really liked this truck, but i didn't like the location when i got there. sun was rising, and it was next to a light pole, with a big, strong shadow across the hood. and a group of guys that were standing around in front of it.

so i walked away from it, and started shooting the other cars, the ones in better locations.

still frustrating was that from the good side of a car, there was the tent, or people, or the public bathroom, and from the other side, my shadow would fall across the cars, unless i got down low enough.

sometimes patience will solve a problem. i went back to this one before i left, the sun had moved, the guys had moved a little farther away. i didn't like what was on the other side of the truck, but i did like the palm trees. so there you go.