what's up?

into the frying pan

better half and i spent last week in san diego.

busted our asses at work, for the weeks leading up to time off, lots of overtime and stress. it’s almost like we shouldn’t bother taking any time off, as we’ve already made up the week and then some by the time we go. same when we come back. we’re both getting burned out, and were so ready for time away.

should change our titles to design jugglers.

anyway, our mini vacation really started about six in the morning on a saturday, with chicano park day. first in-person show in a couple of years. heard they might limit the number of cars to something ridiculous like one-hundred and fifty. by the time we left around eleven, there was at least twice that, a hot sun, and thousands of people.

didn’t even get to shoot the cars up by the majestics’ house…just too many people. walking in front of the camera, almost knocking over our tripods, bumping into the lens…and it got so hot out. day before, and the days after…all ten degrees cooler. figures.

the illegales car club includes the car above. i’ve been acquanted with the owner for several years now, and i found him later in the day, over in the grass field surrounded by cars, and chatting with some people, as usual. i butted in to say hello.

known as el abuelo, he had two of his cars there that morning. i think he said he arrived at four a.m., and always seems to get spots by the freeway on-ramp.

here’s another shot of it from a different angle. the sun was coming up, and there is some lens flare, that sort of bugs me here.

feeling generous, so here are some other random pictures i shot until i find some time to work up some other cars to share, starting with the few people that did chat with me, or my better half.

the street was full, the lawn around the playground was full; the grass near the basketball courts, had very few cars, which was odd. i know there were plenty of cars driving round trying to get in, but either didn’t have registration or just showed up too late. just weird. all the space available is usually just crammed with cars and bikes.

also, for chuckleberries, i found us in the crowd of the headline pic in this article, better half talking with someone about his lens collection, in front of the chevy truck, in the sea of people.

cookhouse

this one is far from perfect, but it’s a perfectly fine car.

i love the crustiness of the paint, the imperfections all over. the beat to hell ornament. i wonder if it still lights up?

i think it fits in with the surroundings far better than the perfectly shiny impala to the side there. oh it’s difficult to choose one over the other.

i’m enjoying the gloom outside the window. more rain coming. i’m bundled up and feeling sleepy, but it’s too early for bed. i guess i’ll watch some random television until a more proper time to sleep. back to the grind tomorrow, at least for half a day. we’ll see if i’m feeling up to a full day of work yet.

still coughing up some bitter lung butter.

weekend in riverside

here’s a brief selection of images from the riverside show and go last weekend. started with friday evening cruising around several blocks of downtown riverside, followed by more of the same and competitions on saturday. i have a few more pics, i or my better half promised to upload…as soon as i can get the time.

compared to the last time i went, this show had more than expected. lots of cars that i was interested in, to balance out the newer cars and hot rods that i could care less about. saturday’s cars overflowed the streets. i think they may have actually sold out, with six hundred cars cruising and parked along the route.

since we stayed at a local hotel, we were able to come and go as we wanted. it also allowed me to skip the sunrise shooting i’d typically want to get, since we’d gotten the sunset pics the night before.

better half ended up staying in the hotel on saturday while i went out, as he’d hurt his back. he literally couldn’t move without searing pain. figured it was best to just let me go and get my ya yas out, before it got too hot. he waited for the ibuprofen to kick in, but it really didn’t help. think he has a slipped disc.

we took it easy for the afternoon, when it really got too hot for me to deal with at the show.

got up early on sunday, and out of the parking garage, just before the gate guard got there…free parking for the weekend! yippee. and off to see a doctor…

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.

and then...

the hood ornament off of one of my favorite cars...a fifty-six pontiac wagon from the old times car club. sort of futuristic, and vaguely reminds me of the logo my dad had for his business back in the day.

————-

only took a day before the effects of twelve hours in a petri dish, known as an airplane, became apparent. yep, as typical, i caught a cold of sorts. and the bitch of it is that i have no more sick time, and am in negative numbers on that now.

so i’ve gone to work, mostly keeping to myself, tired af, and trying to avoid talking so i don’t go into a coughing fit. my usual colds, don’t give me a fever, so i mostly sound deathly, but otherwise feel ok. i think now that it’s friday, i relaxed a bit, and i’m really feeling it heading into the weekend. i just want to sleep!

had already been evacuated from the house in whittier...suggested, not forced...for better half’s mother’s health.

seems she caught something anyway, and i was called back to help take her to a doctor. stayed for a night and am again staying away, so maybe my better half doesn’t catch it too.

kid is out of town with her dog and the new boy toy, so i’m hiding out in my own house. not much of my stuff here, and not a whole lot of furniture either. never started up cable for her, so really there’s nothing between me and the bed and that sleep time i’ve dreamt of all week, except this here ipad and me flicking my fingers across the screen.

hoping i feel much better tomorrow. still haven’t seen my dad since i got back from vacation. i want to get back to doing a car show once a week at least. and i still haven’t been home long enough to sift through vacation pics, that invariably will never get seen. well, better half wants to see...his vicarious means of going on a vacation by imagining what i saw via photos, video clips and tv documentaries to fill in details that i won’t tell him. no doubt when he asks about the trip, i’ll just say it was “ok.”

one more week

is it a good vacation when you can’t remember what day it is? good thing cell phones keep track of the day and time shift or we’d be screwed.

it’s saturday here in positano, italy, and i’m taking a day off to do laundry and rest. sooooo tired, and i have an earache. everyone else went back down the hill, which is really all this place is, to the beach to rent a boat for a couple of hours. kid never drove a boat before, but doesn’t plan on going out very far, just far enough to jump in the ocean, and knowing him, he’ll probably pee in it.

if you’ve seen my pics on instagram, we’re in an airbnb halfway up this mountain. great view. hell of a walk and too many stairs. couple of days ago, we climbed both the duomo and the bell tower of an old church. four-hundred plus stairs in each, i really was only psyched up for the dome, and just couldn’t quite make the top level in the bell tower. better view in the duomo anyway. tight stairs to climb in both, as they were never meant to be open to the public.

so, my legs are not really wanting to climb up or down this hill very far today. fortunately, there is a breakfast place just down around a bend, and pizza not far up for later. a few shops if i want to venture out, but i’ll probably just take a nap.

not posting a lot from here, since we are limited to one gig of wifi data a day between the four of us. not sure what we are doing tomorrow. i think the kid mentioned capri and a grotto. hopefully i’m up for that...we’ll see.

another pontiac ornament. i don’t post enough hoodies, and pontiacs are a fav.

on a streak

randomness:

women who can't walk in high heels. sort of just stomping their feet up and down instead of normal steps. they sound like horses walking across the marble lobby floor. but they look good.
two weeks / three doctors: latest guess is that i have a sinus infection with none of the standard symptoms. still look like i got slapped in the face without the red hand mark. yet another med to throw at it, and the side effects... oh and the male receptionist looked just like the weeknd...i so wanted to tell him, 🎶 "i can't feel my face when i'm with you..." 🎶
dad made his decision for surgery, now just has to schedule it.
one brother in the path of hurricane irma but hoa won't let him shutter windows until last minute--likely to pull a leiutenant dan to get it done; other one thinks it will miss him, so goes diving...logic?

hoodies

a few hood ornaments from last weekend. quick and dirty, and straight from the camera. i should take more hoodies, like i used to. maybe i should just shoot something totally different. i need a change in attitude, maybe a change in subject matter. just don't see a vacation anytime soon.

have been otherwise busy and melting at home today. skipped mooneyes, though i was up at six-thirty this morning. took a walk around the block and through uptown, just to stretch my legs, but have otherwise been holed up in the house all day.

heard about a death in the family today. never met her, had alzheimers, went peacefully. still sucks, even when the closest people were expecting it, they were not prepared.

saw there were a couple of other tempting evening shows, but since i said i was only going to do one show a weekend, figured i'd go tomorrow. but now it's getting late, and it's still warm outside, and i just don't know. i gotta find the sunscreen. my arms are getting all freckly from the sun and all that vitamin d.

on the other hand, if roll-in isn't until eight in the morning, is it even worth getting there before the sun comes up? especially for shows that aren't out in the open; there's always that chance that the people at the gate just won't let me in. i'll pay the entry fee, just let me in early. i guess i could always look for some club that knows me, and try to bum a ride in their car, through the gate.

i don't have time to deal with that right now. either i shoot very early, before the heat, and before i have to be home to help with my better half's mom, or very late in the afternoon. if i can't get in, i'll just go home, and watch cars drive past the house or something. maybe i should set up my tripod at the stop sign and wait for the cars to drive through uptown.

bass ackwards

i did shoot this ornament from this side, but feel like it needs to be flipped, so it's "looking towards the future." but the drivel filling the space below, is looking back a few days, about a photography class i attended, here in hot, but not yet sultry, florida.

i've always done things in not quite the proper or expected way, be it kid first, wedding second, changing my name for one but not for another. my mother must have been disappointed at the time, and continues to be confused by my choices.

sitting here in florida for the past three days hanging out with hundreds of photographers, wannabes, and world-renown experts in photography and photoshop, taking in my annual training/improving my skills/learn how to do stuff better at work thing. while not feeling like a complete idiot with a camera, i am surrounded by not just a few camera snobs. if it ain't canon or nikon, it ain't shit.

i'm sorry. your camera has a sony sensor...look it up.

first day, i took a class on posing people and lighting. need to learn more about it, since i will have to shoot headshots for work. three hours of the instructor's explanations and examples, then an hour letting us take turns with four studio setups with lights and models.

here i show up with the only sony i have that will accept their flash trigger. even tested that it would actually work with the lights before class. no problemo.

before she lets us loose to work with the models, she gives us the camera settings for iso, shutter speed and so forth, in manual mode. check, check, and check, but then there is one setting blinking on my screen--m.m. -2.0. i'm in line to shoot and i cannot figure out what the camera needs to make it stop. to me, a negative exposure is going to be dark. i can't find any setting in the menus showing anything but zero.

i ask the people around me, since many actually do take pictures in studios and/or have some intermediate knowledge of what we're doing. camera settings are camera settings, regardless of brand name; it's the menus that are different, that freak people out.

they all take a look at my screen and get a strange look on their face, not recognizing the display. when they see that it's a sony, they back away as if i've brought a voodoo doll to class and i've already shoved a pin in it. fine. i get out of line and ask the instructor. she can't help either, but says the other settings are good.

i head back to the line i was in, heading to the end, but they had saved my spot, and i was next. fuck.

i'm seriously shy, and out of my comfort zone as it is, but i go for it, cuz it's my turn, and we're all pretending like we know stuff.

i walk up and shake hands with the model, in this setup, it' a guy who might as well be ryan reynolds' twin brother. sure i can work with deadpool.

i tell him my name and confess that i am completely out of my element and haven't worked with directing people before. these models expect that, and will help by doing some initial poses to start you shooting. great, right?

no. i put my camera up to my eye and i see...nothing. it's dark. hmmm. ok, then open the screen on the back of the camera, same thing. hold it up and blindly point it at the guy and squeeze off a few frames, and yes, the big ass lights fire as they should. but i can't see what i'm shooting, so i pass the trigger to the next guy and quickly go back to my seat, not bothering with the other setups.

i know it is probably something simple but i don't know what term to look up to fix it. i send my better half a picture of the flashing display, but he was really very busy with work at that moment and didn't know off the top of his head.

aside from that, i've only brought two lenses with me. one is perfect for close-up headshots and/or stand from a good distance to get more of the body or motion in the frame, being a prime lens on my crop sensor. not enough space for that, but i really want it's sharpness.

the other was my wide angle, which, is good for cars, but i really didn't want to be all up in their faces or want the distortion.

i ended up changing back to my usual settings i like for car shows. everything normal, screen and viewing through eyepiece just as expected. wtf. i just watched everyone else and fired a few shots of models from where i was. then class was over.

wasn't pissed that it didn't work, because it did...there was just a setting that i didn't know and no one to help think it through.

i was back at my car, trying to decide where to get dinner when my better half calls and says he found out what i needed to do to fix it. really was just a matter of making the camera not use the "live" view feature which was trying to interpret the settings given by the teacher, and making it a very dark screen, as the flash hadn't fired as i looked through the eyepiece yet. a simple menu setting to turn it off, but not in an obvious place when you don't know what you're looking for.

oh well. not a completely wasted day, but very frustrating.

i did enjoy the older gentleman, who seemed to like to brag about his experience and what he does, in a very loud, deep voice, to anyone and everyone. not only that day, but over the next couple as well. bloviating, self important, and obnoxious.

i guess he is that insecure, he needed to hear everyones' praises when he showed off some of his images. even submitted one for an instructor to critique. teacher said it was ok, not great, more of a lucky shot. he argued with the story behind the picture, how he had to wait to get it, and that the company had used it for a calendar and other things, with him getting paid in benefits like a free membership for a year, etc. i wanted to tell him to just shutup.

headed out again

back at lax, in an apparently newer terminal. work is paying for this trip, so i enjoyed breakfast from wolfgang puck, but there were also options from the habit or wahoos. interesting. lax has always been more of a run down dump before. maybe i've just never flown this carrier before. anyway, nice so far. acoustics suck for announcements and someone keeps opening a security door, setting off ear searing alarms.

i only worked three days this week, but i feel like i packed forty hours into them, staying late trying to get stuff done. zero time to play with my pictures, so i just snagged this one straight from the camera this morning, no editing...didn't even have time to slap my name on it. oh well.

going to miss chicano park day, and i'm really bummed. one of my favorite shows, and better half and i usually make a weekend in san diego out of it. responsibilities keeping him home, and here i am off on another trip without him.

off to florida, where both of my brothers are, so maybe i can catch them both somewhere in the middle of the state. my mom wants me to be sure and take pictures--she was peeved that i took exactly zero pictures of relatives last week. seriously.

has been a crazy month, but i guess i did it to myself. i needed to get away and do the stereotypical recharge. missing the cars tho...

i have a few other hood ornaments to get me through the week, if i feel the need to say anything. ttfn, my flight is boarding...