what's up?

i'll bet

great show yesterday at santa anita. bomb club has a lot of friends, i guess.

second time there for me, but i could only stay a few hours, as i had to be elsewhere, and my better half had things he needed to get out and do.

yet, i almost hit the snooze button, which would have led to me blowing off yet another show. so, tiredly, i talked myself into getting out of bed ten minutes later, still before five a.m. i'd spent the week trying to figure out how i could do this show, and get from there to the other places i needed to be, and then back in time at home for wherever it was my better half had to go, which was, initially, to his office.

weather had shown it was going to be in the nineties this weekend, and i really dreaded being out in it. instead, it was overcast and cool. the bomb club was just being allowed into the tunnel to the infield when i got there. couple of the other photographers were already busy shooting the lineup, well before i arrived.

i chose to follow the cars inside, rather than be kept out like last year. the security guard chose to tell me the tripod was ok on the infield, but i couldn't take it up into the stands on the other side. told him not to worry on that, as i wasn't going up there.

spent my time staying out of the way, shooting cars already parked, before people and cars got in the way, or the owners moved them or started polishing them. shot them again, when i found them in another location, sometimes minutes later.

liked this chevy parked here, near the track and the pop-up betting info tent. i like the curves of the back end [that's what she said].

took my time walking around the bomb club's cars. then headed over to the other areas, as they started letting in groups of cars to stake out their clubs' spots on the grass.

even stopped to play with the big lens i borrowed from my better half. i used to use it when my kid played college baseball. it'd been a while. thought i'd try it on the horses. i'd asked what settings to use on it before i headed out, as i'd forgotten what i had done years ago. wasn't that impressed, and obviously i'd set something wrong...more noise on the shots than i like, and too dark. switched it from the full-frame camera to my crop sensor, and still didn't like it. maybe next year, if i am not in a rush, i'd fiddle with it more.

upon deciding to leave the infield, and passing through the tunnel back to the parking lot, i found an equal number of cars still waiting to get inside. someone said they were being held up by the movement of the horses. i didn't understand why, since the ponies had been on the track warming up and exercising all morning.

it seemed, as soon as i stepped out of the tunnel, the sun also decided it was a good time to come out from behind the clouds. the medicine the doctor has me taking, makes me sensitive to sunlight, so that was going to end my fun soon anyway—could already feel my skin tingling.

still, i picked out a few cars to shoot, stopped to chat with a few people i hadn't seen in a while, such that, one of them had a baby that was already a year and a half old...last i saw him, it had just been born. time flies.

was nine-thirty when i finally left...an hour and a half later than i had scheduled myself. had called my better half at eight, and he said all was good, take my time, he wasn't in a hurry. so i had.

i like the venue; hope they have it there again next year. will cross my fingers for another gloomy morning, and get there before sunrise next time.

it's the medicine

i've decided that i feel like shit because of the meds i've been taking for the past week. three more days to go. because if it's not that, then there's something else, that i will not want to deal with, things being so beyond my control just now.

my dad says his one doctor is recommending that he opt for open heart surgery vs the up the leg bit that he'd settled on. i know he has more appointments scheduled to discuss it with several docs this week, so we shall see what happens.

we had been talking our tenth anniversary/vacation just a couple of weeks ago, but that is totally on the shelf now. life happens. as my better half says, it's the tenth year all year, so we can go some other time.

still hoping to squeeze in some car shows when i can, when i feel better, when it's not so hot out. i still have time to get over to legg lake, if i just feel a bit more myself. i'll think about it. batteries charging, just in case.

saw this car out at the bomb club show at santa anita. here it is, sitting out in the parking lot, waiting for them to open the tunnel to the infield. interesting paint job. color coordinated hood ornament. nice car, overall.

chill in the air

my feet are cold. i feel cold. sun was out today, a brief respite from the rain. would have been a perfect day to shoot some cars, with blue sky and puffy white toy story clouds.

took a long walk today. phone says it was three and a half miles. stopped halfway for lunch at kfc. piss-poor excuse of a piece of chicken. greasy, not much meat.

came back for revenge when i was only a few blocks from home. better half was there; he came and picked me up. home just in time, if you know what i mean.

have not done much since then. so, i'll just quickly post this car from the other day up. was cold that morning too. it's not exercise when you're having fun, right? i could do three miles at the swap meet easily.

living daylights

fleetmaster

saw this car with the lights still on, past sunrise, and the light coming up quickly, but the parking lot lights were still on. the sky was overcast, so i guess that fooled the sensors in the lamps.

wished it was a bit darker, a little more foggier, more atmospheric. would have got that warm spray of light intersecting with the wisps of fog.

better half says i have the power to make it so...i know photoshop. only, it wasn't like that when i saw it. i could darken the picture, kick the shit out of the pixels, add some fake smoke, but nah. if was going through the trouble of all that, i might as well be the guy masking out the car and having it fly through space, with george jetson giggling like a school girl behind the wheel. and a trail of stars flying out the tail pipes.

i like it just the way i found it, thank you very much.

wings and a prayer

1959 chevrolet impala

came across this impala in the midst of things. i just love the back of these cars, and usually don't pass up the opportunity to take a shot.

usually, i pull in close, up and under those fins. i did that with this one too, but just didn't get an angle i liked. this picture, pulled back a bit, still showed the curves that i want, and gives it a sense of it's place in the world, the variety of makes and years represented at the show.

is it my eyes, or does it still look a little dark? maybe it's my monitor.

pinks

1962 chevrolet impala

looking at my project for work. i don't want to do it, but i really should. will just hurt less on monday, if i get it out of the way today.

i could still make it to the car show. get my better half to drop me off. think we're going to walk uptown for bfast now, so maybe later...

impala from the new year's show at the dam. sparkly. caught my eye. one of the few low riders i shot that day. just love the details these guys add to the cars—really remarkable artistry. i think maybe this one is right on the cusp of doing too much of a good thing.

sick of being sick

so right on queue, following a week long road trip vacation, comes the annual week long cold/flu thing. usually follows being stuck in the confines of an airplane next to patient zero, but this year my better half blames it on me out on the ferry in san francisco bay without a coat and wearing flip flops too late in the evening. pfft.

i blame it on the coworker calmly telling others about the cold that's run through her family, and she was still fighting it off, but was valiently slugging through a day at the office a few days before our trip. her, or any one of the thousands of people in the city that happen to sneeze or cough or hoick in your vicinity. but no, i don't think getting chilled for a couple of hours will do it to you alone.

whatever. thusly, with said illness, i am banished from the house, in the effort to prevent the mother-in-law from catching any respiratory bug, which at her age, may not be in her best interest, which also separates me from my computer and my blog. my kid is in my house, and i'm not going to get mr. law student sick. just spent my vacation fund, so not going to a hotel. end up at my parents house for almost a week. i think i heard my dad sneezing a couple of days ago, but mostly he's just a couch potato, asleep in front of the tv.

decided i was well enough to go to the office on friday. was about forty minutes from shutting down and heading over to ruby's last show of the season, when the boss asked if i could tweak a file and get it uploaded to a vendor before i left. spent over two hours trying to ftp the fricking thing, and it was the ftp at the other side that kept crashing. file too big to use dropbox.

ended up simplifying the file and sending it in parts, only to have the last piece get stuck. sent an email to the boss, who later responded that i hadn't been expected to stay, and the guy at the other end had left the office for the day. pissed that the traffic was too effed up to tackle and get to the show in time, headed back over to my mom's for another night. glad i'd kept a couple of extra sets of things to wear over there just in case. at least when the company moved their headquarters, it's only a five minute drive on the freeway to my mom's house.

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enough blathering. sick of it now. here's a car from the show in san diego i mentioned before. they block off about five blocks right near horton plaza in downtown sd. my better half didn't really see anything he wanted to shoot, and ended up being my bag boy the whole time, pulling my gear around, but i suspect mostly just checked out my ass when he thought i wasn't looking. he also made sure i was properly slathered in suntan lotion and that i didn't forget to drink water.

really expected a lot more there than there was. i mean, i've been to shows in rialto, riverside, whittier,... with blocks closed off and they get cars out the ying yang. this one mostly had blocks segregated, by decade or type. most crowded block was full of ferraris and lamborghinis...freakin teenie peenie club members. maybe i'll post a shot of those. nah. seen one, you seen them all. just imagine the show room in all reds and yellows and whites, and that was what was on the street.

then there were muscle cars <yawn>, too many with their hoods up, so buh bye. too few chevys and low riders. really didn't take so many pictures as i'd have hoped to. guess we'll have to make a point to go the show in chicano park next spring, to find the kind of cars we like.

i was only going to shoot the hood ornament on this one, when the owner walked over and asked if i'd vote for his car. they had awards for the different categories, but also a people's choice, so he was being proactive. i shot the car while he convinced my better half to also sign for it. it was a nice car, and i liked shooting a car in a different setting, so there you go.

green machine

went down the street to la habra high school's fundraiser car show on saturday. no idea what would be there, but didn't think i could deal with a bigger show on a hot day. ya, it was too hot, and not really any shade unless you chatted with owners under their pop-up tents.

there was maybe thirty to forty cars there for the show, anything from a porsche 911 to old chevys and seventies low riders. several car clubs had cars there.

one of the guys i'd met from the fleetliners came over and asked if i remembered him—met him down at a show in fullerton, and also in santa ana last christmas. told me how his daughter had found the picture i'd shot of his car on the net, and who was kinda pissed because she wasn't able to download it. oops. sorry about that.

there were several cars from the dukes club, including this wonderful truck. it stood out, for its color, for its size, for its perfection. me standing out there with my tripod, led to one of the guys coming over to ask if i was with a magazine or something. when i said nope, his response was along the lines of "darnit," only maybe a little more colorfully.

i have a few more pictures from this show that i'll put out there, but not as many as i would have liked, because, like i said it was hot. why don't you do more shows in the winter? it doesn't rain so much here, and clouds in pictures and reflected on paint are awesome anyway.

after i did a quick run through the aisles, and a stop at the food stand for a coke, i went over and sat in the shade. i packed up the cameras, knowing as soon as i did so, something nice would drive in. yes, while i sat there, another very nice black and white chevy truck drove in, but i was done with the show, and let it go.

i keep on truckin'

for someone that isn't that interested in trucks, here i am posting yet another. apparently, i like the '51 to '53s. but they're chevys, and they're curvy and chromed out, so that's probably what it is. and hey, it's got a hood ornament. :)

shit did i just use a smiley? not me at all. my better half is coming home tomorrow from boston...he's the bright, sparkly one; i'm just the dark, twisted one. he should be doing the smileys. i suppose i'll get back to normal soon. :) ahhhhhhhh!!!!!

el canas

went to ruby's first show of the season last night. pretty good turnout—about five rows of cars with some cars up the aisles.

ran into the owner of this truck fairly early after i arrived. have joked around with him for about a year now, but hadn't seen him in a few months, since i hadn't been going to many shows. he asked me a couple of times if i'd taken a picture of his truck. not at the time, no, but i did get a few shots later, including this one. sun starting its way down, and this is from the darker side.

he asked for another one of my cards...lost the other, enjoys reading my blog...i think he's just collecting the whole set. each one has a different car on the back. lol. nah, he probably just keeps losing them.

met one of my flickr friends for the first time...hi there steve! he got some good shots too. go see a few of them here.

anyway, not sure what to do this weekend. big airshow in chino. big car show in riverside. definitely have to go to my son's baseball games. my big bro and family is in town from florida. better half is working all weekend. i think since it's getting late, i'll hit the car show before tonight's game, then do a few hours at the airshow in the morning before the afternoon game.

now if i stop at the train station in riverside, i'll call it a planes, trains, and automobiles weekend. :)