look at that, look at that cadillac

so when i was getting my degree in graphic design, i took a few photography classes. both photography and design classes required that you put your work up on the wall so everyone could pick it apart. the theory was that if you knew what wasn't working, you'd know how to do better next time.

you also learned pretty quickly how to defend your work, why you chose to put it up. started to put only what you considered your best, what you were willing to stand by, irrelevant of other's opinions. so there's the reason i never do a photo dump. don't waste space with every little fart in the wind.

i post these few cars up here because they please my eye. they're a record of where i've been, memories of light on that day. i hope they delight you as much as they do for me.

so i've spent the last few times out chasing sunsets. longer exposures make it harder to get shots without some blur of a person walking into the frame. but still having fun, so i'll keep shooting, at least for now.

drive-in, get down

sitting here, growing bored. i think my better half would sit on me if he could, to keep me from going out. no, really, he would just strongly suggest that i stay put. just because the doctor told him to. pfft.

so maybe i'll post a couple of pictures. going to work tomorrow. i sit all day anyway, and i think they'd be in trouble if i didn't show up for another day, with the tradeshow cycle going again.

liked this impala's parking space. i like when i can get the car and the building in the same frame. kinda wish i'd been able to get a little more off to the side on this, but this will have to do.

i'm going to go ambulate uptown later, getting out of this house. for dinner. though disneyland sounds like a lot more fun than uptown.

bird's eye

quick post again. tired. too many late nights starts to catch up eventually.

here's another from sunday's fuddruckers show in lakewood. don't believe the owner ever was around. maybe he/she/they were inside overdosing on burgers and fries.

not completely happy with tbirds, but slim pickens' at this show. and it was so nice and shiny.

heavenly shades of night are falling

i've shot this car a couple of times now, on a couple of occasions. not particularly one of my favs, but it is clean, and it is shiny. wasn't going to bother posting it, until my better half mentioned something the owner said to him. well, he didn't say it to me, so i won't retell it here (yet).

he just so happened to have parked his baby here, in one of my favorite spots, with a conglomeration of lighting. apparently, there was too much of a fluorescent light hitting it, and it effed with the blue of the paint. colorful, and the white fluorescent still manages to wash out the island too.

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on another topic, my better half and i stopped by the irvine farmer's market car show last sunday at the irvine "great" park. i think it was maybe the second week. weather wasn't too bad, just a bit chilly. hadn't rained yet. hauled all our stuff out of the trunk, and with tripod in hand, headed over toward the "car show lot."

was maybe a total of 5 cars that i would consider trying to be a show. only one maybe worthy of shooting, but the doors were open, and there were kids hanging around it and welcome to sit in it. some sort of 1920s or 30s car, kinda chitty chitty bang bang. skipped it.

then the same silly pt cruiser i see often, with fake bullet hole decals and gangster dolls in the back, instead of sitting in the driver's seat. never shoot it.

couple of '60s or 70s beaters and that was it.

so the show was a bust. didn't even take a token shot, which i usually try to do. so we walked quickly around the market place. noisy vendors, shouting as you pass by. food vendors were particulary obnoxious, and their wares were more pricey than other farmer's markets we've been to. so pfft.

i worked on a proposal back in the day for building the "great" park. our proposal lost, but the winner had so much overreaching promise, and it's so disappointing that it's been hung up in red tape and politics for this long. poor use of the money they talked us out of in taxes. would have been better for them to have kept the marine base open (thanks clinton), at least the air shows and men in uniform were pleasing to the eye.

sunshine on a cloudy day

another day, another dollar. i am having some difficulty balancing work, family, and hobbies. i've spent a little bit of time shooting other stuff, but your old cars seem to be my favorite subject. they all have their own personalities, but i don't have to try and make them smile. they look good even on a bad day. and they don't complain that i'm taking too long.

tbirds aren't the top of my list, but give me a shiny hood and a cloudy day, and it's my new bestest friend...at least until my next post.

can, can

so another busy week at work. quick overnight in san fran for a business meeting. kinda fun going to the other offices once in a while, but two within a couple of weeks of each other is a rare treat. but the travel and long hours do keep me away from shows and posting, so that part is sucking a bit. shout out to my coworker adrian in the sf office, proud new dad of a sweet baby boy.

here's another from last weekend's show in riverside. the owner was kind enough to close the trunk for me. he said photographers are always shooting those tail lights. i guess i agree —here's another one from the broiler in downey.

he wanted to point out that this was a rare 4-speed model, but said you can only really tell from the dials and stuff on the inside, which i didn't take the time to shoot. i did kinda do a commando run through this show as it was (not that kind of commando). if i remember the story of how he got the car, i believe he said he was the second owner of the car, and obviously the original owner had taken good care of it. but now i can't remember the specifics of the who and the how he got it; gotta take more notes or post these sooner/quicker.

no, the owner wasn't wolfman jack jr there on the left...and i could've removed that drink in photoshop, but i kinda like the random junk people leave around. it's not a perfect world, though some of the cars get pretty near perfect.

newport news

can't let my better half get all the glory on his page. here's one of my shots of a sultan's car.

hadn't seen this one since last march in lakewood. back when i was just getting started and took the majority of shots from low angles, as shown here. i think it needed to be redone at a higher angle, to get a better view of the flames on the car.

still very clean, and the paint really reflects the lights from various sources in interesting patterns. glad i got the opportunity to shoot it at a different time of day.

da boyz cad

this was a very nice caddy parked where it shouldn't be parked at the garden grove main street show. found it in the college lot, adjacent to the back throughway, off the side street of the show, with a handicapped tag hanging from the mirror, but backed up on a sidewalk...makes me wonder what kind of "handicap" they might have...

was a lovely green, almost perfect condition. then i noticed there's a scratch up the side from the wheel toward the tail end. wonder what they parked too close to that was that low? i could remove it digitally, but then maybe the owner hasn't noticed. it's for sale, btw, but i didn't write down the number.

ah well. was in the midst of saving the file when my computer locked up and crashed. so my master for this file is effed up and all i can get out of it is a larger version of this, or start all over again. ugh. i need a new computer...damn POS hp. which reminds me, xmas is coming...buy a print, 'makes a lovely gift'...or holiday cards of your car, just drop me an email for pricing...oh hell, just tip the photographer if you've enjoyed seeing your picture here...at this point, i'm taking up a collection to keep this blog going. lol. "ain't too proud to beg, sweet darling..." or not.