what's up?

back to it

we decided to get of the house today. try to get happy again, after the terrible stuff earlier in the month.

got up early, and headed out to the southeast classics fundraiser at pico park. i figured it would have enough cars to keep me happy, while i figure out how to use my camera again. better half came with me, he’d never been to a meet up at that park, and he wanted to play with some of his lenses that he’d never really had a chance to test out.

we started around the side of the building, after finding a bench to pull the cameras out of the bags. better half thought we should have left earlier, once he saw the cars already there. official roll-in was at eleven am, but here we were at just past eight.

this was the first car i took shots of. i liked the color. i took some pics of the back end, but didn’t like them so much, with a couple of modern vehicles in the background.

the owner enquired where he might see a picture of his car, as i was waiting for my better half to finish taking pictures, for a change. the sun came out after ten, so i was overheating, as usual, and was ready to go.

overall, it was a good turnout. more cars were showing up as we were leaving, but we were done.

three hours

i headed to hawaiian gardens early this morning. not too early, and not sure i'd get in anyway. had to be somewhere else after ten, so had my fingers crossed.

my usual parking over there was already full, so i had to find somewhere else in a nearby neighborhood to park. that put me closer to a different gate than i usually go through. pass the guys at the crosswalk, directing traffic, ask them where i could get in. they said it was kinda early. i said my time was limited. they pointed me to a gate with a security dude in front of it. i think the vendor gate.

asked the security guy if i could get in, that i only had a short time to shoot, etc. he says there are hardly any cars there yet. i can see a dozen from the gate. i should have been a smart ass and said is there one? then that's enough, but i just said there was enough for me. more will come.

anyway, he asked some other guy, and they just said sure, so wizard, i'm in.

moved as quickly as i could. it was already really hot, and on the grass, it was just humid.

got over here near the new life club cars, heading back to my exit. was shooting the fleetline, and the owner of this impala came over and chatted a bit.

loves his old car. talked about the sentimental value that gives him his happy place. old cars remind him of when he was younger, memories of his parents who are gone now.

he is still working on it, seems to never be finished, even after spending so much money on it. time, just takes time. looked ok to me.

i told him i love the classics. they just make me happy. i'm not beyond shooting other cars, so i took a couple of his car.

hope he sees this and likes it.

seemed like it was going to be a very good show. sorry i couldn't stay.

party time

harley davidson

niece is having her first birthday party behind me. so i guess it's time to go eat cake.

posting this quickly from last sunday's unidos show at walnut high school. i'll write more tomorrow.

hope it was a good friday for everyone.

Update

on 2016-03-27 00:21 by kathy

we bailed out of the azalea festival show, just after noon, just before the sun came out. better half wanted to get lunch and maybe check on his mom. he worries when we leave her alone, before the sun comes up, and she's still asleep.

i offered to drop him off, that i was going to stop briefly over at the unidos show in walnut. he compromised by giving his mom a phone call, and we stopped for lunch first, at the subway near the show, where we usually go after.

i think this was the fourth year i'd been to this show. not sure my better half went last year.

sun was out in full force, and it had really heated up. really sucks, being that this show is on the pavement in the high school parking lot. i was not prepared, no hat, no sunblock.

better half wandered through the cars at the front, i headed to the back lot, and worked my way back. i did end up skipping a few rows...just didn't see anything i wanted to shoot, and i was in a race with myself...how long i could stand the heat.

finally packed it in, when i started feeling my skin tingle with that feeling like bacon frying in a hot pan. i was only slightly pink, but it felt worse.

shot a few bicycles, lots of the old chevys and buicks, but only this one motorcycle at this show. i think the color and the light just caught my eye.

call me wednesday

not my usual car, but i really liked the paint on it. and it was out here by itself. unfortunate that the other club's banner is up there on top of another car's convertible top directly behind it. oh well.

i liked the way it smiled too:

oh ya, regarding the title, anyone watch the addams family movies? my better half remembers seeing the first one, and upon seeing the girl, wednesday, he thought, "holy shit, that's kathy." especially when they come out from the little cabin and she says something to the effect of wanting to be perky, and then tries to smile, thereupon scaring everyone.

ya, that would be me. dark and twisty, and i don't smile a lot unless it's for real...the continuing arguement/discussion of me not smiling at car shows or on demand. i can't fake one. really, i will, if there's a reason.

hell, that's not true either. i have wedding photos without a satisfactory smile plastered on either. sorry d. photoshop can fix that...joker joker joker!

only sometimes

i started out a small show in montebello, with the intention of going to work for a few hours to try and wrangle my deadlines to something slightly more bearable on monday. but no, someone at the show mentioned to me about a show over at legg lake going at that moment.

i dragged my feet. hung out at this show for the raffle [didn't win anything], stayed for the trophies, then left for lunch, still intending to go to work. making it more difficult, was the fact that i was literally eight minutes away from the lake. the lake was next to a freeway onramp, so if it sucked or if i really intended to go to work i could.

well, it was an ok show. loosely coordinated, more of a picnic with a bunch of car clubs. many cars i've seen before, but still took shots of. sort of an assortment of classics and low riders. i shot a few of the low riders, if i liked their paint jobs. i'll show you this one, because one of the guys from the club came over and talked to me and asked for a card.

oh, and after two shows under the hot sun, and it being almost four when i left, i didn't make it to work after all. the freeway also went too close to home, and thought i'd just download my pictures instead. maybe tomorrow.

new life

here's another of the few images i took from the showlow's st hilary show. don't really pay attention to low riders unless they have some exceptional, eye-catching something that compels me to stop.

there weren't too many at the show, at least that i noticed, being lost in a reverie of old chevys. i liked the artwork on this one, and that it was low enough i didn't curse the day for not bringing a ladder to get it. per their facebook, the club has reformed from a long ago disbanded group.

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so i took a week off with my better half, on a road trip from san diego to sausalito, with stops in between, celebrating our fifth anniversary. makes it difficult to post without a computer, and from an ipad or iphone, formatting is a bitch. i managed to only post once while on the road, and have since fixed what was screwy with the previous car post.

i did check for car shows, but only found one near us in san diego, and didn't want to drive over to oakland for another at the end of our trip. i'll post a few pictures from san diego soon.

taking the day off to sleep in and take care of laundry, etc., after the eight hour drive home yesterday. not looking forward to going back to the office tomorrow. it's always such a shock to get back into the swing of things, that we really only take time off once a year or so. i think they managed to get by without me, but hopefully they missed me anyway.

here's a shot from pacific grove, up by monterey, at sunset. nice, but needed some clouds or something. it was very windy, other than that, a pretty average sundown.