let a little sunshine in

i used to like the holidays. really, i did.

then i spent a decade not liking them so much. i have my reasons. i'd become accustomed to it. and now, its just hard to get the spirit back. without a place to run off and be alone anymore, and with another person that wants me around, i just try to sit in the background and keep my mouth shut, or at least grumble quietly. for now. maybe it will take another decade to care about it.

does that mean i'm depressed? holidays are just manufactured traditions, or religious celebrations. not so religious, never really was, so why be a hypocrite? for now, i'll distract myself as best i can.

i see the light. i've joined the thousands that chase the light. try to catch it. it would help if i could manage to get my ass out of bed early enough like i used to for shows. other commitments now make it more difficult, but it really is just a choice. like this one. we chose to get out early to shoot. really is easier when the show is just down the road.

stumbled upon

after melting over at the shakedown show, we were hungry. i suggested pizza, and remembered that there was a round table a couple of freeway exits up. coincidently, in the same plaza as the fuddrucker's show in lakewood. and hey, the show there was just getting started.

just kidding. i knew it was there. just dragged my better half over there to have a peek. still wasn't that busy yet, but this one did catch our eye as we drove by. originally sitting there with nothing next to it, but by the time we parked and set up, a clown car drove up and parked next to it...not the mg, that one was sweet...on the other side. a whole parking lot, and he has to park there. so i squeezed in and took this shot.

don't think i've got one of these before, and the blue and white paint job made it more striking. happy accident.

glowing

why is it they say that women don't sweat...they glow? bullshit. i was definitely sweating the other night at ruby's. not that it was that hot, but more that it felt humid. probably should have just worn shorts and a tank top, and expose more skin. levis just don't "breathe" even if they are made of cotton.

i purposely waited until later in the evening to hit this show, hoping it would cool off enough to persuade me away from the fans at home. and so i could start taking some sunset shots, with summer officially coming to an end, and the sun going bye bye earlier and earlier.

there were many cars i walked by because of their location, or owners parked in chairs in front of them. running out of room on my hard drive makes me more picky i guess.

i came back to this one before i left, and probably should have just kept shooting while the sun went south. the hood was so reflective, and the colors changing in the sky just glowed off of it. this shot isn't picking up the rose colors that i saw later.

winning

went to the uptown show today. three times. at 6am-ish, 10am-ish, and 2pm-ish. as i said, it's up the street. got so damn hot as the morning went on, just had to stop and go home to sit in front of the fan for a while. not so bad in the shade, but i still felt icky after a while each time. too hot.

anyway, the so cal tribe guys seem to always be the first ones there, and get their choice of spots. so the group parked it over by that smelly cigar bar. but it did stay pretty shady most of the day for them. reine even brought his bitchin' cadillac, which i have not seen in months—thanks dude. i'll post one soon.

their website says this buick belongs to one of their newest members. my mom had a riviera when i was a kid, and i learned to drive in it. not this model year, but close enough, and definitely not this cool.

end of the day, after the awards had been given out, i walked back past the cars and they were gathering for a group picture under their banner. the owner was there holding a trophy, so i assume he won something for this baby. congrats, guys.

killing time

i had gone to ruby's this evening, expecting to take some pictures of a certain betatted aquaintance's car. well, he had said he hoped to see me there. i arrived a bit earlier than i'd told him, but had waited until a bit later than i said i'd be there at the latest.

well, to kill time, i did what i'd do anyway, and went up and down the three or so aisles of cars, shooting as i went. i suppose many people are still away on the theoretical holiday weekend, so a lot of the regulars were not there. i consoled myself with some cars like this buick. well, you know, when you gotta, you gotta. (da vida baby)

after making the full circuit, i hid in the shade for a bit, while my better half went off with my (our) macro lens to shoot hood ornaments. he always vows to keep the lens for himself when he reluctantly hands it back. i guess it takes really awesome pictures when slapped up front of his big ass camera.

when he returned, i went through the aisles one more time, looking for said betatted man and his car, but no luck. if was going to be there, it was going to be after i left. maybe he'll be at the broiler on wednesday...

cool riv

yeah, i don't usually shoot many models older than the early '60s, but every once in a while, i yearn for something different. this one was quite lovely, in spite of it's simplicity.

so angel tells me the other day (that's his name, not one of the filmy wing-ed ones), that the lot at the broiler was actually very full, even all the way out in the back lot. oh, stick the knife in and twist...i couldn't go to the show that evening due to other commitments. i've been lamenting how empty it's been the last few months. and tomorrow is the 4th of july, so suckage, no one will be there.

perfectly imperfect

went to the broiler yesterday. was feeling a bit wobbly and warm, so bought a coke and walked around before pulling my gear out of the trunk. the usual suspects were there, a few were missing, several new ones to be found. a few too many muscle cars for my taste. too many hoods up.

out of all the cars i saw, this was the one that really caught my eye. was the first one i had to shoot before i lost the light. i'm sure the guys with the shiny, wonderful cars were watching incredulous that i'd bother with this one, and not even give theirs a thought. location, light, character win over perfect most often. can't pay to have this done to your car. only time can do this. eh, and an owner that doesn't pay attention. maybe it sat in a yard for years; i don't know, didn't talk to the owner, wherever he was.

did chat with a group of betatted guys, one of which came over and said he'd seen me shooting pictures for years here, and always wondered what i did with them. didn't catch his name, but ya, i recognized the indelible girl on his right arm. i believe i've got him lurking in the background of a number of pictures, inevitably. showed him my book, handed him a card. welcome to my digital garage, if you haven't lost the card yet, and make it this far.

recovered yet?

  

originally took this picture a couple of years ago. hell of a hot day. somewhere in lakewood. says on the window real small that it belongs to the sultans of long beach club, and also that it's "in recovery." not sure if that's referring to the car or the owner.

been to a couple of shows, briefly, this week. another weekend balancing family time and baseball games. hoping to squeeze in a car show or two, on the way to the field. hoping to see some different stuff. hoping to get some good, fresh pictures to play with.

saw several really nice chevy bel airs driving the opposite direction today. seeing old cars always turns my head, and makes me want to make a quick u-turn or shout "where are you going?" followed by a quick thought of whether my camera is in the car...

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.

le sabre

i don't typically shoot these, but this one was just an outstanding piece of work. how could i pass up all that chrome?

i was shooting pics of an old packard and la salle across the street from this buick, which i had shot the back of earlier, as i had walked up the sidewalk behind it. no one was really paying any attention to it, so i figured i could just finish with the packard and cross the street and do what i wanted with this one.

of course, as soon as i set up my tripod and set the white balance, a horde of guys decided it was a good time to take a close look at it. i could wait until they left, or i could just take the shot, and get over it. my time was limited, so i took the shot. still came out all right even with everyone milling about. i got what i wanted, the shiny chrome, the reflection on the hood, the overall ambience of the weather and location.