crackle jack

all right, another post tonight. up goes a shot with the new lens, no thanks to my insurance company. told them the truth about the old one – a piece that worked the autofocus broke inside it – and it wasn't covered. whereas, i think many people would have purposely dropped it or misplaced it and then reported that damage and would have been paid...but that's another rant that doesn't belong here.

so stuff was going on at the broiler tonight...a photo/video shoot or mini concert in the parking lot. lots of girls dressed in '50s garb and makeup milling about. i assume more cars would show up, but there really wasn't, at least while i was there.

anyway, this old pontiac drives up. i've seen and shot it before elsewhere. while the owner isn't the friendliest dude to run across, and had grumbled at me last time, he never had a problem with it before. not sure why he puts a fugly flyer advertising some other vehicle for sale on his windshield.

anyway, as i set down my tripod in front of it, he came over and asked that i not shoot pictures of the car. some drivel about it showing up all over the internet lately, and please don't. ok, no problemo. he didn't really say it in some intimidating, anal sort of way, as a former posting mentioned. since i haven't posted any of the shots of it i've taken, he can't blame me for any real or imaginary postings of it coming from here. of course, doing a quick image search doesn't turn up his specific car

i did ask him if i could take a shot of the hood ornament, and he said yes. told him i had a new lens to test, though by that point i don't think he could care less. then he returned to the pack of car owners, which also included my everlasting nemesis, richard, so there was some explanation for his cantankerous attitude.

so here it is. wish he'd parked around the corner, so the sun could have hit it and made it glow. i think the lens is a keeper.

by early evening’s light

made it through the week at work. very tired and ready to sleep in tomorrow. raining tonight, otherwise i'd have been over here at chubby's diner with the latin gents.

i can't remember seeing one of these plymouths in such fine condition before, and especially here amongst all the chevys. just a nice, simple off white, yellowed by the sunset.

it's owned by a very nice gentleman, who took some time to chat, introduce his young son, and look through my picture book. he seemed familiar with several of the cars in the book, knew the owners or had otherwise seen the cars elsewhere.

chief

oh this one is cool. i've seen it several times now at the broiler. just usually not over here by itself. usually over by richard's non-existent car. maybe they're buds.

i really liked how the light was falling on this and making it sort of glow, but then again, the paint is pretty fluorescent green as it is anyway.

it says star chief on the side, and has cute little feathers painted over it. nice touch.

soopa sta

well, it's a new year, but i'm still perusing last year's pics. i haven't been to a car show since the beginning of december...family obligations, rain or cold keeping cars away, or just holiday cancellations. i'll be going bat's ass soon, if i can't get out and take some shots. gonna have to go shoot flowers or something. maybe i should pick another obsession for this year. i think it's supposed to rain tomorrow. shit. tomorrow is another day...

this one was from the show that also was attended by the infamous richard. no, not this car...i wouldn't dare share one of his precious baby. nuff said of you, richard. be gone with you. we are not amused.

there were actually two of these pontiac star chiefs that evening. probably from the same club. this pretty purpley one, and i think the other was green, but unfortunately didn't get a picture of that one – every bit as purrty, but bad location. the owner and some other guy were sitting at this end for quite a while, and seemed disinclined to move, so i thought i'd only get the front with them in the shot. they weren't in their seats the next circuit around the show, so was able to catch this shot. i do love when they got something goin' on in the back, don't you?

heap big injun

found this pontiac early at last summer's whittier uptown car show. it was overcast that morning, which kept all the stark shadows away. this was parked in the shade, so bonus.

there were a number of pontiacs at the show, and i, of course, had to get shots of all the hood ornaments. but i did also shoot a number of them full body like this. somehow the ornament on this year seems a bit big on the headdress. must be freudian or something.

fuddy duddy

another i usually walk by. too modern for my taste. but this one was in the right place at the right time...sunset, the reflections, framed by the fuddrucker's signs...i don't know. i just liked it at the moment. sometimes, you just gotta give in to it.

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raining here. hubbie in central ca. to quote the little ghoul at the exit of the haunted mansion..."hairy back, hairy back..."

paranoia will destroy ya

story time, boys and girls.

the other night, i went to the broiler. really hadn't planned on it, but my better half wanted to go, so off we went. was pleasantly surprised to find a fair number of cars, especially after my last couple of trips there. so we did a walk-through to see what was there worth shooting, and sat down to get the cameras ready.

probably spent an hour shooting various cars, my hubbie being mr. marketeer and showing off past images on his ipad in between his shots. i did my thing while he did his. several cars from the sultans car club showed up; a couple of them i've shot at other places in the past. some of the cadillac guys also showed, as well as this hot rod. there were a couple of really beautiful 1957 pontiac star chiefs in the lot, one you can see pieces of here.

anyway, to get to the point of the missing piece above, it was my last shot of the night. ready to go, but waiting on my hubbie to get done taking a shot of the pontiac (that's his tripod off to the left). i'd seen this particular unnamed car elsewhere and even taken some shots of it's pinstriped details. it is really a well done pinstripe job, and the car is not bad either, but i digress.

i was just finishing the long exposure for this shot, when this guy, whom i'll refer to as "richard" here, walks up between the cars (in my shot, i'll add), and gets in my face and says in a not so friendly tone, "you taking a picture of my car? what do you do with the pictures?" dude is practically looming, all puffed up like a bullfrog. my hubbie hears/sees this guy talking and walks on over...

"richard" proceeds to insist, loudly, that he doesn't want any photos taken of his car, and that i not post any pictures of it. he'd be happier if i deleted them, but doesn't wait/ask for me to do so. at this point, i'm wondering what he intends to do. if he plans on grabbing my camera, my hubbie will make him very sorry about his choice, but he backs off a bit instead.

he blathers on about how thieves will see the license plate, look it up on the internet, and get his address, then come and steal his car. claimed three of his buddies' cars had been stolen, and apparently, they'd decided this must be how it was done. seems like too much effort and intelligence for the average car thief to me.

of course, i'm sure that happens, but to get on with the counterpoint to this lame excuse for a non-picture. not getting into a pissing match with an <insert obvious expletive here>, we countered with the fact that he'd made the point of driving from his home, or wherever the car is stashed, through the city, to this show, for the sole purpose of people seeing and admiring it. pointed out that it was in a public place, albeit a restaurant lot which happened to be hosting this car show, with many people taking pictures of all the cars on the lot. he didn't hassle any of them.

i can only assume he zeroed in on me, because i had a tripod. probably thought i was with a magazine and was going to publish it without getting a model release or something. i did tell him, it was for fun, and that i post stuff i like on my website. told him, had he wanted, i could have removed the plate or blanked it out, but he insisted it not be posted.

he actually had the balls to tell us we should always ask first before taking pictures, because most people would not want their cars posted anywhere the bad guys could see the plates, and thereby steal the cars. pull your head out, "richard." seriously.

didn't matter that anyone could have followed him at any point on his route to the show, and copied the plate down, or just do what someone did to my ex's truck...followed him home, then do the thievery while the owner slept. if he's so worried about it, just stay home in your garage, and keep it all to your little bitty self. no one would ever know...

anyway, didn't want to argue with him, he's not worth it, and since i respect his request (or anyone else's, for that matter) to not post a picture of his car, here's a picture of all the other stuff that was in the shot. too bad really, because it was a decent shot of this "richard's" car. big mistake, richard. big.

kma

night vision

this beauty was just sitting there by itself, mostly being ignored by everyone at bob's last week. maybe it had just got there and no one noticed, or maybe everyone was caught up with all the cars coming into the main lot. i don't know. i only know that for night shots with long exposures, no one walking into my shot is a good thing. it isn't perfect – at full resolution you'd see the dust spots and blown out highlights – but i like it anyway. pretty much captures what i saw, the reflections, the traffic speeding by, the colors...cool.

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on another note, i've been working some 12+ hour days, which leave me very little time/energy to post, though i really am missing it. probably will do a few this week as well, so apologies for being negligent here...i'm having posting withdrawals. i've purposely left earlier on a couple of days to hit a couple of shows, to get my butt out of the chair at work...was at ruby's the other day with prints for some people that actually paid for the them beforehand, but hey, there was another show somewhere, and i was 0 for 4 on delivery. makes it difficult when i don't have a contact number, or they don't have a computer, or they send an email, but my response bounces back for whatever reason, to figure out what images they will want or when they will be there to pick them up. well, i think one of them was sick maybe...guess i'll just carry stuff around with me until i run into them again.

i did get to show some people a very nice, big print of the dodge – i went ahead and ran one in full color (because that's the way i like them and they really do look awesome on the paper i get them printed on), though they will probably want it with the background all grayed out, so i'll have to order another for them. thinking about someday soon having a show at a local gallery, and figure i'll start printing out some of my favs as i can afford it. i have so many to choose from, but that's not a bad thing, now is it?

shaken, not stirred

the color of this pontiac reminds me of an olive, with just that dash of red from the tail lights.

this was at the broiler back in march. haven't seen again since. much more interesting from the back end than the front. and that's all i want to say about that.

such a prix

not posting on tuesday, as i plan to have dinner with my boy, then perhaps hit the fuddrucker's show in el toro. so here's a second post for today. enjoy!

the pinstripe detail on this ‘76 pontiac grand prix is amazing. you really must see this one in person. the color is gorgeous and the wavy cross hatching on the center of the hood is so meticulous, it's hard to imagine how painstaking it was to achieve, unless you are familiar with masking for airbrushing back in the day.

found it this day in the back lot of the downey broiler, but also saw it two days later at ruby's in whittier. should have got it a ruby's with the sun setting on it...the color was irridescent....but i didn't...don't know why. should've would've could've. maybe next time.