da boyz

quick post. relatives visiting here, and i'm tired. stayed up too late last night, followed by a long day's work.

i did manage to get around to finding the originals east los angeles club, eventually. not hard to miss, with their big banner hanging from the trees.

they're a friendly bunch, and i've gotten to know them a little the last couple of years. armando always says hello, and shakes my hand.

the tall dude with the pepsi, called me over to show me something in his phone. for no reason, and completely randomly, he had a picture of me he'd shot at last year's show. a picture of me taking a picture. at least i didn't look too pissed or squinty or whatever it is my face does when i'm focused on a shot. he even showed it to my better half, when he'd been over there.

i'm pretty sure he added another to his collection, as i shot his car here. shiny car. buffas, they have lots of buffas.

figured it would only be fair, that i'd shoot a picture of all of them. didn't turn out too terribly awful.

keep on knocking but you can't come in...

keeping it short, i've so many pictures to sift through.

arrived at the south gate show about six-thirty in the morning. later than last year, and not so dark out. overcast and cool. still, not so cold that i couldn't dump my light jacket in the car before too long. i'm just running hot lately, and the cold felt good to me.

fewer cars than last year waiting in the lot—only a little disappointing, still plenty to bide the time. a lady at the new registrations table in the middle of the parking lot, came over to ask if we were with a magazine, or who we shoot for. following the usual explanation, handed her a card.

still too early for the gates to be open to anyone, except food trucks and vendors, we cruised around the parking lot, shooting cars here and there, chatting with people we know, and keeping an eye on new arrivals to the lot.

when the gate opened to start letting groups in a few at a time, my better half and i went to the table by the gate, hoping to be let in, as we often are. didn't recognize any of the people organizing the show, and the young girl at the table, most definitely not. she seemed unsure of what to do.

explained we were just there to take pictures, to which she asked if we were with one of the magazines on their vendor list. nope. just wanted to take pictures. would have paid the entry fee, if necessary—we've been to this show several times, and know it to be worth the money.

she went over to ask the people letting cars in, and returned to tell us sorry, no.

so, shrugged and took our place on the same wall as last year. hoped they weren't going to make us wait until the offical open time, around nine or ten, i don't remember; would have just left after shooting what we could—there were other shows to choose from, and it was too early to sit there for several hours doing nothing.

fortunately, there was a food table nearby, so we bought a couple of bfast burritos, and munched on them, while shooting pics and watching the cars slowly ooze by toward the gate. watched a hadley tow guy help an old chevy that wouldn't start, followed by a newer mustang with a flat tire.

here's a smallish video clip i shot while we waited (click on that chevy back end). (click on this bigger is better link to see it in all it's glory.) i should take some time and figure out how to use the video editing program better, but i'm not really that interested in video anyway.

after most of the groups had entered the golf course, we tried asking again, if we could get inside, first from the lady we met when we got there, who sent us over to another guy. talked to the overstressed and tired guy, who'd been up before the sun, directing things, who apologized several times if he wasn't making sense, as he was very tired.

he mentioned they were interested in getting some official photographers and being able to use their work on the official facebook site or something, and somehow my better half agreed to audition, got us on their vendor list, with the promise of shooting not only the cars, but the spectators and band as well.

well, i shot cars. he spent time talking to people, talking them into posing with their cars, and shooting some pics of the first band. i'm not sure how much of our souls he sold to the guy at the gate, but i suppose my better half will post his pics on his web site, which has been neglected for a long time now.

i should take more pics of people. i'm too shy to ask if owners would like to be posers, errr, i mean, want to pose with their cars. so, if you want to throw down some signs next to your ride, just ask.

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anyway, i was going to keep this short, and i'm rambling. got plenty more pictures, and a few more stories to tell from this show, so i'll spread the wealth on other posts.

saw the owner polishing this car, as i shot another car some distance away. when he was done, i headed over. still fairly early, and suprisingly, not any people wandering around in the shot, in the morning fog. they're behind me, you can see them in the reflection.

it was just a pretty car, and i knew it was going to be a pretty picture. i could just see it.

brave soul

toyota corolla

made it to the two shows on my calendar yesterday. first up in my sights: the azalea festival.

i'll get to that in the next post. first i wanted to post this completely unusual car, or should i say completely normal car. what the hell is it doing here?

i was on my first go around of the show, a couple of aisles from the entrance. i went counter-clockwise, so i'm saying, i'd already been around three-quarters of the show. that early, there weren't so many cars there.

i guess the owner of this perfectly regular car had seen me taking pictures, when i'd been down his row. he'd walked a couple rows over, just to ask me if i'd take a picture of his car. he described which one it was. i had to ask him a couple of times, not quite sure i was hearing what i was hearing.

finally told him to show me, i was done shooting whatever it was i was currently shooting, so i'll follow you to it. yup. a toyota corolla. the idea of that car being in this show, with all these other wonderful cars, just tickled my brain to no end.

he was completely serious. it's his car. he wanted a picture. here you go. i salute you, brave soul, for bringing that car in, and for asking me to take a picture of it.

rock what you drive...nice rims.

gruncle gruncle

quick post. tired. again. two hours in traffic to get home today. ugh.

we were standing over by the food trucks trying to decide whether to eat, get water, or leave the show. a guy walks over and asks who we shoot for. we tell him we're just having fun.

he asks if we could take a shot of his car, and points it out through the crowd. happens to be in our line of sight, so i said sure.

better half side tracks me on the way to show me a tshirt at one of the vendor stalls. nah, it was pretty plain, so didn't need it.

finally made it to the car. shot a few, but liked this one best. so, check another off the list of cars i said i would definitely post. because they asked.

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you should see some of my better half's pics. really killer. i don't think he's posted them to flickr yet. he hasn't posted or even played with his pictures much this past year. busy taking care of his mom and working too much.

his blog isn't really working right now, since he let the domain expire before he could move it to another provider. and then some ahole bought it. blog is still on the net, just hosted under a default url until he thinks of something else.

no matter what he tells you, he's still the better photographer, technically.

and now he's a great uncle. his nephew's girlfriend had a baby boy last night. and his niece will be having a baby girl at some point today. so now he's a gruncle. twice in twenty-four hours.

sharper image

let me start this tale by mentioning how my mom sometimes comes to me with her point and shoot camera, asking me to fix whatever my dad had done to it. i've probably told this one before, but it's more relevant this time.

my dad used to buy a lot of cameras in japan, when he was in the military. mostly nikon. as a kid, i only really remember him using a camera when we'd drive out to d.c., to the washington monument or lincoln memorial. of course, he must have taken more, because we have a zillion boxes of those old slide carousels full of them.

my point is, he can talk camera talk with my better half, and understand what we're doing with our shots and tripods. but put the point and shoot in his hand, and he's lost. he fiddles with modern cameras and all the menus, and basically fucks it up.

mostly my mom just needs to know how to turn the flash back on. she just can't remember how. every time. she's kinda afraid of technology, so she just wants to be able to push a button and get a picture. doesn't everyone?

on with the story...

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we arrived at the show in southgate just about six am. beat the sunrise. beat most of the cars. they were just starting to let cars into the parking lot to stage them before the gates opened on the golf course.

we like to get the early light, as well as a reasonable parking space. finally decide to get out of the car and go shoot the sitting ducks in the parking lot.

oh, i'm finding some really nice cars, in good locations. light hitting them just right. having a fun time already. then they start letting cars onto the golf course about sevenish. we couldn't get in quite yet, so we both sat on a wall and shot them as they drove past us. fun.

got my better half to ask the ladies at the gate when or if we could get in to take pictures. they weren't quite sure about how that was going to work and kind of just let us come in with the cars. thanks for that.

better half hadn't eaten at home, so went off to get something to eat off the food trucks. i decided to start around the perimeter and was getting some really good shots, without lots of people in the way, sky overcast.

fifty cars later, on the other side of the show, i took a look at a car on the little screen zoomed in. looks blurry. i know i've mentioned that i'm not too keen on this lens, but it seems more blurry than usual. i slap on my older lens, and shoot a few. it was ok, but i couldn't push in close enough and put the other back on.

i spot my better half a couple rows away, and go ask him wtf? now i wished i'd gone to the smaller car show the day before...

my better half had said for a while that we should do a microadjustment on the camera for the lens to see if it would help. well, i had been reminding him about it for a couple of weeks, with the bigger shows coming up, and he finally did the night before. while he set up the resolution target, i made some basic settings changes for the tests. he got to work, i went to my computer to play with pictures.

later i asked him if he wanted to go uptown for dinner. then there was a thing going on at the lowdown in uptown. old cars, some sort of sale inside. a pinstriper.

he's talked about pinstripping his lens hood for some time now. after chatting with the guy, he thought it was time to try it. we went home, he grabbed his camera gear and headed back. it was late, so i stayed and took a shower, got ready for bed. put my camera away. charged batteries.

and that was it. i put my camera away. he hadn't made the final adjustment or programmed it in or whatever.

the thing of it was, he forgot too.

he remembered to tell me to put the settings back that i had made back to what i needed to shoot. which didn't include whatever menu he had been using.

turns out i had been shooting all morning with a -20 adjustment, when it should have been +5, or maybe higher, since i apparently i interrupted him in the middle the range test for dinner.

so what i'm saying, they look like i used some dreamy romance filter on them, a soft blur. so fuck. my better half took off quickly to the other side of the show after realizing what it was and fixing it, thinking he'd be safer there.

so ya, kinda sucked. i am my mom when the camera isn't acting right. he's the tech geek i go to to fix it.

the sun was winking in and out, alternating with the overcast. i had to go back around and reshoot all the cars i really liked. the light was different. there were more people around. so out of having about a couple hundred wonderful shots of cars, i end up with ninety-seven. and then whatever i shot with my other camera. happy hood ornaments and details.

but they are sharper. maybe after he finishes adjusting the camera, i may really start to like the damn lens.

so there you go. i should have just stayed in bed...same difference for my effort.

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shot this chevy over with the originals cars. one of the guys wanted to take a picture of me taking a picture, and asked first. cameras don't like me, but i said i guess so. i'd like to see it, but they always forget to forward it on.

i'm showing you mine; why don't you show me yours?

i was impressed by his young friend, i think he said he was third generation in a family of guys who work on and chop cars. owns his own chop shop, and apparently does excellent work. i guess most people don't believe he can be that good at his age, as he kept reiterating the quality of his work. i believed him. an artist is an artist, especially if you grow up around them. if he remembers to send me an email, i'll put the name of his business here.

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congrats if you made it through my blather.it's over now...go home...

candy

lifestyle cars are all extraordinary. i think its a requirement. meticulous, fantasmic airbrush, pinstriping and details. candy colors and multiple layers of clear coat paint. 

they're also usually surrounded by admirers, and i can't get a clean shot edgewise, so i mostly have to pass them by. unfortunate.

caught this one from the back, where one can often find some pretty spectacular airbrush portraits. ok, this one is more fantasy-like. dream on, big boy.

peelings

overdue posting this chevy from march at the azalea festival. owner was really friendly and chatty.

i liked it a lot, with it's small imperfections. especially liked the peely paint patches over the fenders. sort of like my shoulders used to get when i attempted to get a tan—never really happens, just a bright red burn, and a slow peel.

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so my website host has been a little flakey the last couple of days that i've tried to post. and doing the same tonight. slower than a snail, and lost the post before i saved it. second time i've typed this up, and definitely not as clever as the first iteration.

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feeling better, though still not one-hundred percent normal; but then, when am i? 

i did drive out to ruby's yesterday, but then remembered i needed to pick up a belated birthday present. decided i better go buy it before the store closed; i wander around a car show the same way most women wander around the mall—lose all track of time—though i don't end up with a car load of shopping bags at the end of the night.

bought a crap ton of chocolates over at the see's candy store, then decided it was best if i didn't leave it to melt in the car while i did the show. got it home and to the happy recipient, our favorite diabetic. happy birthday, indeed.

i could have gone back, but then there would have only been about an hour left, and people start bugging out early when they think they won't win any prizes, so i stayed put for the evening.

a bike is a bike

quick post. does anyone really grow up?

this tricycle features a popeye theme, wood paneling, metal etching, airbrushing and pinstriping.

this bike features metal etching, airbrushing and pinstriping.

both cool. both bikes. big kids.

the nerve

mother's day. got the call from both kids today. still have to make my own call to my mom. had intended to drive down to see my mom, then stop at disneyland to hang with my bro and his family, but i woke up with a pain in my back, and it hasn't gotten any better, so i'm just hanging out at the house with my better half and his mom. 

no idea what i did to make it hurt. must have just slept on it wrong. gonna go take a hot shower after i'm done here and see if that helps. happened a couple of months ago, and worked itself out after a few days. hope it does the same, or it will mess up my plans for shooting next weekend, both days.

anyway, my better half built me a better puter to play with my pictures on. it is much faster, but i have spent a bit of time transferring files from the old computer instead of playing with pictures. he calibrated one of my monitors...says not this main one, so even though i think it looks darker, he says it isn't anything he did. guess i'll have to go look at the picture on another computer to see if it's the monitor or my eyes.

anyway, he was looking over my shoulder while i flipped through possible pictures to post and this was one he really reacted to, so i'll use it for the first picture on this new puter.

he said he saw this same cadillac at the san pedro show last year, parked in front of the light house. i vaguely remember it, but maybe there were too many people in front of it for me to shoot it. i'll have to go look at what shot that day.

its just a big, long car, and so shiny; it was awesome. a whole lot of green going on here, but it all kinda works.

captain packard

last weekend, i also went to the azalea festival and car show in south gate.

i had stopped at another show the previous friday, and raynbow of the oc viejitos told me about it. so thanks, so much raynbow!

i hadn't been to this particular festival, but had been to the greenspan's show on the golf course last summer, so hoped it would be as good as that was, and i wasn't disappointed.

at least a couple hundred cars crammed onto the grassy knolls, so i got to shooting. (see what i did there...yes i did).

again, a perfect day, cool and overcast. i had a harder time getting out early like the day before. so tired...guess i'll get used to it.

ran into a couple of guys from the originals club right off the bat. armando has a very nice pontiac, and had bought some pictures from me last year. very nice guy. introduced me to his friend, and pointed out his friend's packard here. says he would be interested in getting a picture done too.

seemed specifically to be interested in a front view, and this was the one i liked best of the bunch. they also want it faded out on the edges, in a vignette kinda fashion, so i guess i'll do a little more work with it.

and i was so distracted by all the cars, i forgot to shoot new pictures of armando's car...oh well, next time, my friend.

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aside from sometimes posting bigger size pictures this year, i've started to post some straight out of the camera shots over on flickr, of stuff i may never have time to get around to polishing up, but figure some people may be interested in seeing their car anyway, if they bothered to talk to me. so go check out my digital junkyard if you're curious. no, i'm not going to post everything, but enough so if i shot your car at a big show, it may be over there.