saw this cadillac out at the moon eyes open house. seems to be a work in progress, and i'm not quite sure where its going. bits and pieces sliced and spliced, and chopped.
someone said that back bumper is just a cadillac bumper flipped upside down and stuck on there. it is quite different, but can only hope they have some good air bags to keep them from dragging the ground going up a driveway.
i've been busy all day. walked uptown for an hour or so at lunch...shopping for a graduation gift. really difficult when you don't know what someone likes or needs, or what is appropriate for the occasion. me, i like toys—monsters, aliens, weird stuff. don't think that would work for this girl.
still need to pack my bag for the trip. haven't decided when to leave. so i've been sitting here playing with my pictures. was trying to find a specific car, a black bel air. looked through the last few years of pictures. i think i have it, but no doubt i've labeled it wrong. probably on a hard drive i don't have here, a backup drive at a different location. oh well. this merc will have to do.
chopped and differently stylized flames than i usually see on cars. it was sitting at the edge of the park, stopping traffic. even got a crazy guy from a passing bus to get out before his real stop, to come over and make loud exclamations. i think the general thinking was that he might have been on something, but maybe he's just overly enthusiastic.
kudos to the pinstriper/airbrusher. somebody named vandemon, at least that's how they signed the back end.
and check out al the louvres. that looks difficult to do, without effing it up. also had hubcaps with cadillac emblems on it, and a desoto grille. guy sitting next to it, who seemed to know the owner, said just because they were cool.
looks fast just sitting still, no?
not quite sure why it was sitting all alone in this parking lot, here in chino, on the edge of a very big car show, but i took full advantage of it. no people, nicely framed by the trees, i like this shot the best.
i did notice later on, that other cars moved in next to it, so i just got lucky, i guess.
went uptown for dinner tonight. saw a couple of very nice cars. took pictures with my cell phone. i put those up on instagram: #randomcarsuptown. service in the restaurant was soooooo slow.
this one was sitting across the street from the restaurant. i kept an eye on it through the window. it was still there after the meal. got all the way home, and decided to get the camera and wander back uptown, to see if either car was still there.
my better half came along to keep an eye on me, i suppose. or maybe he just enjoys my company. he was suggesting i try shooting some different settings, being that it was night time. told him i'd give them a try after i shot them with my typical settings.
guess i got lucky. they both were still parked. just barely. shot a couple of a pontiac before the owner came back and took off. then continued down the street, to see if the other car was still there.
yes it was. this really cool ford. but the owner was sitting in the driver's seat. looked like he was texting, so i went ahead and started shooting, hoping he wouldn't leave before i was done. takes longer exposures when its dark.
i guess he saw me set up, and was just stalling until i was done.
my better half got his attention, mainly to thank him for waiting me out. he got out and introduced himself, and we got to talking about all the work he'd put into the car, and the plans he had for improving it, and making it go faster. dude just got his hair cut and was dressed for a night of cruising, i guess.
a few random facts, that i can remember: same owner for fifteen years and his daily driver; suicide doors; working on a bigger engine to drop in -- 400 something, sorry don't remember the specific model. (if only my bro were in town with his photographic memory); will be adding additional exhaust pipes on the sides with laser engraved skull and bones; chopped three inches; no back window; flames look fairly prominent here, but earlier were more of the ghost variety; after market racing skirts on the rear wheels.
talked quite a bit about the paint job. said he should have listened to the paint guy about the clear coat. apparently he opted not to follow the guy's advice, and there's some rust starting up under the paint. i suppose he'll eventually have to redo the paint.
i didn't shoot it from the back end, which i should have done while my better half was talking him up. had really unique tail lights. rare, he said. after market add-ons from the fifties, that he got lucky and found on ebay from the original owner. original packaging and screws even. some old dude cleaning out his garage. it happens sometimes. anyway, haven't seen another like it anywhere.
so much info, and i had hurried out of the house without my phone, so couldn't type in some quick notes, before the details fell out of my head. so this is the best my recollection of the info. can't remember the engine specs, but the new one will definitely be faster.
very nice guy. kept him talking about his car for a good fifteen minutes. all the while, he kept ignoring his cell phone ringing; hope his girlfriend didn't get too pissed. really appreciated him taking the time to chat. hoping to see him and the car at the dam on new year's day.
i'll put up the other car tomorrow.
nope. don't like this truck. its not the color—matte, no shine, plus a glitter top. its slightly chopped. simple color, plain hubcaps.
i don't like the lines. i don't like the headlights. there's just something that makes me queasy about it. i suppose it just isn't my cup of tea. no offense to the owner.
but i do like the pinstriping work, which is the only reason i bothered taking a picture of it. it happens sometimes.
i think it's a customized buick. or a misshapen watermelon. i dunno. its all curvy, and i've never seen another one, unless it was the same one, which is entirely possible, since i get to so many shows with all the same cars, but let me put an end to this run-on sentence here. <breathe>
caught it waiting in line to get in to the uptown whittier show back in august. the later the organizers are getting organized, the more time i have to shoot the sitting ducks in staging. so yay for the disorganizers! sucks for the people waiting. didn't last so long this year, but still got quite a few ducks that day.
saw this and thought, "wtf?" it is interesting. the seat must be down on the floor to drive it, no?
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got my test results back. they found nothing, but there is something going on. i can opt for a second opinion, someone else who will ask for more tests, or just wait and see. i think i'll wait a bit. i'm really tired of the vampires taking my blood every few months anyway.
it's so late. had issues logging in here.
long week already, and it's only tuesday. and so very busy at work, i've already put in a couple of overtime days. more to come for the next several weeks. will keep me out of trouble right up until the chicano park show in april, then back for more following that weekend. hamster on a wheel all right...
so quick recap: did three car shows this weekend, though not necessarily all that i wanted to go to. i was extremely fatigued, and i'm suprised i even got out of bed to go anywhere. but i did, and i'm glad, or i would have missed a couple of very good shows.
saturday, got out to the chino corn feed run. liked it a lot. i can't judge the numbers, but there were at least a couple hundred cars up and down the main street and in the parking lots and lawn of city hall and the area surrounding the civic plaza.
bonus that it was just the perfect weekend weatherwise: overcast and cool. so no harsh shadows until later in the day when i was about done anyway, and i didn't die of heat exhaustion.
problem with doing several shows is that i got so many pics, and having to copy them over, back them up, label them, etc. takes a lot of time. and then i'm running out of space on the puter again, so having to back stuff off of that as well. and then deciding which to post...
my better half liked this buick, so it's mostly here for him. he was home all weekend taking care of his mother. good boy. greggie loves his mama...greggie loves his mama...
ok, tired and going to bed for five hours of sleep.
i missed a chevy show in tustin for the dia de los muertos show down the street from the house here in whittier. sure i probably could have had a lot more cars to choose from, but probably not many as interesting as the dozen or so that turned up here.
i'd been to the show a couple of years ago, and only the showlows and some arbitrary cars had shown up, and maybe a couple of blocks of vendors.
this time, several blocks of vendors and food peddlers shutdown the main street and a couple of side streets. we found some cars as we entered the closed off main street and shot those. then i noticed further down, what appeared to be a few more. seems that a new store on the corner, which will be selling t-shirts and other low rider themed accessories, is associated with a car club and some of their cars showed up, as well a few of their friends.
they had about five cars parked on the street by the store, so we busily got to shooting them. then this puppy, which we'd seen a few nights previously, drove up and dropped down on the corner here. i mean down, scrape the bumper on the street low. heard it loud and clear.
flipping through my collection, i found i've seen it a few times in various places, but only really shot it from the front. wasn't until we passed it uptown that we noticed this funky pinstripe job on the back. who knew you could make praying hands with rosary beads kinda cool. so lemme hear a hallelujah.
found more cars at the other end of the street by the movie theatre and cigar bar, including the usual suspect, whom i am not stalking. at least he'd put a cover back on the spare wheel thing on the back of his chevy, just not the fancy pinstriped one.
it was mainly the pinstripe work on this chopped chevy that got my attention. the owner told me he'd asked for something naughty, but nice from the artist. i guess he got that.
these girls were on the hood, the trunk and the roof. when he opened the back door, there was a girl there too, but more of an airbrushing instead of pinstriping, but i didn't have my camera ready for a shot of her.
it was parked near the road sinners club, but i'm not sure it was actually with them, so i apologize for not taking notes.
here are a couple of closeups of the front and the back art.
