what's up?

shopping

random car from the dukes car club’s blessing of the bombs show yesterday at mission san gabriel. found it mentioned on a video on youtube, at the fourteen-fifty-six mark. all of the cars have interesting histories, and it was nice to hear about them on this channel.

lots of spectacular cars out here, though the lot wasn’t as full as it has been in the past. was also not as hot as the last time i was there either, thank goodness.

was the first time my better half was able to join me out there at this mission. he’d visited the mission itself, long ago, with his mother.

i was actually not going out yesterday. i’ve been so tired. i slept in. better half was supposed to work, and i had accepted that i was just going to do laundry all day. hadn’t even charged my camera batteries.

better half’s work evaporated, as he was told they weren’t ready for him. he asked what i was doing for the day, and i had mumbled about going to this show, then we could stop and look at some car dealers to find cars that will fit him, or we could go to pomona the next day and do the same. he said yes to either or both, happy to not have to be working and wanting to get out of the house.

his car is not working, and he is seriously in the midst of researching new cars, though the thought of getting something at pomona is appealing too.

i think he also wanted to play with his camera lenses too. we didn’t leave the house until nine in the morning. normally, i would have been there at seven, as cars would be rolling in.

i’m sensing a pattern here. i just want to sleep in on weekends. it’s a problem not leaving earlier, when it’s only going to be too hot for me to be out later. we’re an hour away now, so it’s just that much worse.

at least my better half was there to make me drink more water, and fetch the suntan lotion from the car when i realized i was starting on a sunburn. [she rubs the lotion on her skin…] thanky d.

also, thanks to the guy that offered me some cold water—i think he was with the south side bombs. i appreciate it, thanks for your concern.

better half was done before me, as usual. i had gone into the shade again, and he was encouraging me to stop as he said my face was red, but then a few more cars drove in. a few more shots, and i packed up.

we went to lunch at lunas restaurant, about a block away. it was very good, would go again, but kinda pricey.

following that, stops at various car dealers in whittier and buena park. most cars he didn’t fit comfortably, they tag teamed him with the salesperson and finance officer. he asked questions. he made them squirm. he didn’t buy. he did like the tesla sales team, who seem to have a different sales model, and answered questions directly, and no bs upcharges that are pure profit.

he’ll still take six months to decide. didn’t make it to pomona today, so maybe next time.

back to it

i went to a couple of small car shows this weekend. better half had to work, and otherwise was unable to join me. he thinks the transmission is going out on his car, and is spending a lot of time researching cars to buy. should just go to pomona swap meet…

drove up to the show at foursquare church in whittier on saturday, for which i had considered waking up early, to drive an hour and to find parking, since in the past, it has been a busy show.

it got hot so early, but also, because of the temperature, i knew i wouldn’t be able to stay very long. can’t take the heat. i should shave my head, and get rid of this mop on top that holds the heat in, but my better half kinda likes it.

there really wasn’t much there, so it was probably the perfect size for the time i did spend. this beauty was sitting up at the front of the parking lot, with the kustom oldies cc. basic black. nice. took a few shots, came back around later, took a few more. i liked this one best.

there were a few cars from clubs i recognized, and a couple of new ones i’d never heard of. all huddled under pop ups, or watching the live band. they were live. i’ll leave it at that.

also a few guys from a club that i don’t post because of a past incident i posted about at the time, and also because the guys that were there were being creepy in a joking way. i ignored them. nice to know it wasn’t just the one guy that was a swine; i’ll just steer clear of their cars in the future. deleting the one picture i did take. take that candy, and suck it. you ruined car shows for me for a long time, i’m so over you.

had a short chat with a guy inside the break room, selling model cars, and with a display of his hot wheels collection. they all looked well-loved. he said he liked the red baron the best, of which he had two. none for sale, just to look at. better half still has his collection somewhere in storage. has one of those old cars with the little surfboards that one of his coworkers once offered to take off his hands for ten bucks…then one hundred. he thought better of it, and locked it out in his car for the day.

i am guessing that a good majority of people went to the roadsters show in pomona. thought about going, but instead walked around in my old hood in uptown whittier. the restaurant i’d intended to have lunch at was gone, and replaced by a much busier establishment with a line of people waiting to get inside.

also nice to see greenleaf is open again. didn’t see any flyers for the uptown car show on business windows, but one can hope they’ll start up again. just won’t have a home base to head back to when it gets to hot.

ended up at california grill. the renovations that started at the beginning of covid are complete, and nice to see they are still in business.

well, back a week from my trip and already back to the grind. i think i have three calls scheduled for tomorrow, as well as a rush job for the ceo. fun times.

mr bill

i met mr bill at the show in riverside.

i saw his car the evening before, as the sun was going down. he turned his lights on for me.

(it wasn’t my favorite shot of the car, but i’ll include it here in the gallery.)

i saw him again the next morning, about six-thirty. he asked if i remembered him. yes, of course. turned your lights on for me.

i shot around the outside of the car, then he said i should check out the inside. saw the mr. bill doll, and said in the voice from saturday night live, “oh no, mr. bill!”

he said his name was bill, and i think he said his wife or a friend had given it to him.

he told me he’d taken three years of classes from some well-known craftsman of upholstery, at a college, until the college said he and the other students were just using it as a car club hang out.

mentioned that his wife had given him the task of sewing up some pillows, thinking that it would keep him busy for a while, and that he’d actually enjoyed it, and quickly finished the project.

he said he had reworked and stitched the interior of the car himself. it’s immaculate, and for some reason, i can’t find the pictures i took of the seats.

it is a beautiful car, and he was quite charming.

the turquoise and white paint job reminded me of the keds tennis shoes i had as a kid. you know, the ones that dyed your socks and feet turquoise blue. those were the days.

split

this chopped, custom, slammed hudson was out at riverside last weekend.

shooting into the sun, doesn’t show you that it’s actually blue, with blue metallic flake on the roof. they even split the back window. just a tad different than your average hudson.

red

ya, ya. i had this picture ready a week ago. i got busy, places to go, people to see. forgot.

just getting back to sifting though pics, before i have to run off to my mom’s house. going south again to have mothers’ day dinner with my bro and his wife and friends. really not looking forward to sitting in traffic.

nice car. red. does this look red to you? bane of my existence. red cars are a hassle for my camera. does this look a tad orange to you? my eyes are getting old and tired.

stood up

instead of going to dino’s cinco de mayo show at lincoln park, i ended up out in long beach, at a little car show in a church parking lot. no idea what types of cars would show up. my reason for going there is that my daughter is living out there somewhere with her boyfriend and her dog. in a room at his grandmother’s house. her stuff lives in my condo, which at this point is just an expensive storage unit that smells of stale dog piss. but that’s another rant for another day.

i figured since i was over there, we could do lunch. talked to her the day before and she said she’d “be down for that.”

got a text message that morning saying they’d been up late, she couldn’t sleep and was too tired to come over. sort of typical.

made the best of the situation. not knowing what to expect, and show hours said starting at nine a.m., i was there about an hour or so early, so i could get parking. thought cars would already be arriving for roll-in, as you do. nope. bunch of vendors setting up, but no old cars.

and did i mention it was a sunday? church was holding mass. nah, didn’t go in, but did splash some holy water on my forehead. very least religion i can do.

i wandered around until i found a bathroom. walked through the little garden area and looked at the various altars and statues. went back to my car and listened to music.

about the time i said i’d give it five more minutes, an old chevy truck showed up. told myself i’d at least get a picture of that one. by the time i found him parked he’d already popped the hood. shit.

then an old ford galaxie pulled up, so i settled for that. by the time i was down with that one, i noticed the owner of the truck and his daughter were going to walk away, and they closed the hood. got that one too.

closer to ten cars finally started showing up. but there was only a small area coned off for them. who plans a car show at a church on a sunday? so as mass ended, they started shufling cars and casually pushing cones further out.

sun was already high, and i figured i’d never find parking at lincoln park, so i stayed for a couple of hours and shot all the cars i liked.

seen this cadillac before, at an xmas toy drive late one evening in december. it was dark, and it wasn’t the best location. here it is again, in a circle, center of attention. interesting use of pinstriping and painted on “cadillac,” as well as metal flake paint. liked it well enough.

did i also mention there was a stage? when the live “band” (i only remember seeing a singer and a guitarist) started screeching out some zz top lyrics, i totally laughed at the dichotomy of the harpy belting out rock tunes and knowing the mass was going, with the side door open. no way the priest and parishoners couldn’t hear the profanity as they got their dose of gospel.

i couldn’t take the singer’s voice any longer, and just had to leave. headed over to the together car club picnic, since it was close to home.

magnet

was slowly easing my way around cars at the front sight show a few weeks ago. run into tudy, who asks if i’d shot his friend’s zephyr yet, as they are about to head out to another show.

nope, i was starting at the back of the show and working to the front, which happens to be where that car is parked. so i finished the car i was focused on and headed on over.

sure it is a beautiful car. beautiful cars attract people, which were surrounding it like metal to a magnet. i guess it could be a chick magnet, but i’ll just be crude and also call it a dick magnet, there were so many guys admiring it.

the owner was following behind me slowly, so i set up to shoot a few of whatever i could get before he got there to drive away.

the other shots are ok, cliche even. i sort of just like the front here for now. that’s the owner, there, just about ready to get in and disappear.

dark water

started my day off by walking into a spider web. nothing like doing the heebee jeebee dance at five in the morning, imagining a giant [1/2”] spider with a big bulbous ass is somewhere on you, pissed that you ruined his masterpiece and his breakfast.

days are flying by, and my poor pictures and blog are being neglected. stuff happens, and i gotta pick my priorities. these fall pretty low lately.

only have time now because my kid’s doberman is currently occupying the bed at my mom’s house, and i haven’t taken the time to move him off. my hair needs to dry anyway.

i’ve been spending the last few days here, cleaning my mom’s carpets with our carpet cleaning machine. third day, and my back is feeling all the carrying of the water and the clean up. moving furniture is fun too. not. they have too much stuff. gonna need help moving the couch and other big stuff, but she seemed more concerned with the main paths through the rooms.

i thought her carpet in the front room was brown, but it’s really a ninteen-seventies orange on the deeper side. yep, original stuff. and never cleaned, only vacuumed. let me tell you, the water tanks on the machine are pretty black when i dump the water out of the machine.

did a patch in the back room today. lime green carpet. lovely.

other than that, i’ve got too much going on at work, and an unplanned vacation to prep for. totally, just now realizing that i’m gonna be out of the country for several of my favorite car shows, my eleven-year anniversary, and my kid’s birthday. go me. not my fault. i’m just along for the ride on someone else’s trip.

anyway, gotta get some sleep. looking back, found this picture of a car from the viejitos’ carshow a couple of years’ ago now.

thought it was a pretty car, and parked off out of the way for a bit, so got a few shots while there was the opportunity.

sonic

it has been a hell of a week at work. sometimes being salaried sucks.

on the plus side, working late on monday, afforded me the opportunity to stop by an evening car show for a change. i'd been forwarded a flyer for it a few weeks ago, but usually, my schedule just makes it impossible to get to weekday shows anymore.

out at the sonic in anaheim, i initially pulled up and only saw a few cars under the drive-in lights. that's disappointing, i thought, but figured i'm here, i'll shoot what there is.

one old chevy, i'd seen before, and initially skipped it. i went to the other side, to shoot a nice mauve colored thirty-eight olds. of course, as i set up, the owner decided that was the time he wanted to leave. he did wait for me, so that was nice of him. as he drove away, i noticed another parking lot behind some bushes. that's where the action was, so i headed over.

there were about twenty cars over there, and a lot of people. the flyer mentioned all photographers and models were invited. needless to say, there were at least two crews of full up lighting and camera gigs trudging through the cars. big friggin octabanks of lights, and additional light peons, serving the man behind the lens.

only a few models sitting on the vehicles, though i heard the week before there had been more. i really don't care, as i'm more interested in the cars, but there are definitely a few photographers more interested in the models. hope they got lucky, for what it's worth.

the overflow from the lights and activity surrounding them, messes with my shots, so i mostly went to cars opposite side of the lot from them. and the darker it got, the more the people walked through my long exposures.

all that is to be expected. i haven't been out shooting at sunset in a while, so i'm rusty on my settings, and determinely persevered with my typical setup, whereas i should have turned the dial a bit. i really hate the noise bumping the iso up though.

anyway, i waited out the people, and managed to get a few decent shots that night. here's danny's car. pretty sure he and his friends took off not long after i got it.

looking forward

a shot from last year's whittier car show. been seeing the flyers posted uptown for june second...on my calendar...on my street. i think the owner of this car stopped polishing it long enough for me to get a picture.

always up and out early, before the crowds. later in the day, it just gets packed, and typically really hot, so i'm done by ten. head home, download pics, then head back, with the macro lens, looking for hood ornaments and detail shots—at least no need to bring the tripod.

planning out my weekend, assuming all the elderly peeps in the family stay healthy and out of the emergency room. my dad has been there several times in the last month; patch him up, send him home, not really solving the problem. really frustrating.

mom just sits there, quietly supportive, not really challenging the doctors with questions. i usually don't pipe up, but it's getting kind of ridiculous, so i'm asking for second opinions, other options, tests.

my dad has his own theories, and it's interesting to hear him telling the doctor about anatomy and how things work, the cause of his issue, and how they could fix it quick. doctors really have a lot of patience for their patients...don't know how he kept a straight face.

but anyway, hoping to get out to the chino cornfeed run on saturday, and if i have any energy left, up early on sunday to pomona swap meet. we'll see.