fortune teller

this car had a lot going on. so i took some shots of it.

the little pics show the airbrushed paintings under the hood and in the trunk. pretty nice. too bad all the chromed hydraulics and engine parts are reflecting so mightily onto the images. guess i would need a big black cloth to cover the chrome to get a proper picture, but this is good enough to give you the idea.

click on one of the pictures to go over to my flickr page to see some other details from the car if you want.

can you tell i got nothin' to talk about? too tired. thought about going to the broiler for a change, but i just didn't have the energy to sit in traffic for another forty-five minutes to get there.

just telling myself: two more days. two more days. then i can sleep in. pomona this weekend i think. same day as my son's birthday, so, thinking i can get up real early and go shoot some pictures before heading down to do something with him. no idea at all what to get him, and i hate shopping...i'm so bad.

deuces wild

this guy needs attention. i can't imagine you'd do this much to a car if you didn't want to be noticed. pinstripes, airbrush, striking color combo, tweaky bullet lights on the back, red tinted windows, airbrushed seats...ya, it's different. a little overkill. but i did take a picture of it.

actually, i liked the car to the right more, but the doors and trunk were open, and that guy kept talking to the owner about the indian artifacts he was displaying in the trunk. so, while he wasn't ruining this shot, he prevented me from taking a shot of that car.

also just noticing the dude smiling for the camera off to the left there. that makes me laugh.

chicano park

busy weekend, but fun. tired now, so i'll be brief.

even better, my better half got to go with me. his sister got out of the hospital, and she was well enough to take care of their mom.

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we got to the park around five-thirty in the morning. there were already cars lined up in staging to go into the park. so we decided to go over by the stage thing and unpack our cameras on the steps. within a minute of unzipping the camera bags, we were approached by an older woman who wanted to know who we were with, what were we doing...etc. we simply said we were just unpacking our cameras to take some pictures. she said the whole park is reserved for an event, they were setting up and that we had to leave. we replied that we were here for said event, and repeated we were just unpacking. she persisted, so whatever, we'll move somewhere else and unpack and do exactly what we planned anyway...to go back over to where they were staging the cars.

honestly, there wasn't anything or anyone there on that piece of the park, and we weren't intending to get in the way even if there had been. going to bite my tongue here, because i like the show, and want to go back again next year, but get a grip. even the cop in the car in a neaby parking lot wasn't going to bother us. hope she had a nice day. 

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took so many pictures. the weather turned out to be perfect, overcast with bouts of sunshine. never really needed a jacket, even so early in the morning. i liked this picture because it seemed to represent the show and location well.

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and as we left the show for the day, i was waiting to cross the street, when my better half started laughing. i turned around and he pointed at this painting. and OMG, it was the lady who had told us to leave in the first place. took some searching, but i've figured out who she is, and why she had the authority to ask us to leave. we still found it funny that we started the day with her and here she was again, on our way out...

blue skies

told you the weather guys can't predict nuthin. no rain last night, no rain today. 

i got up late, or i would have gone to three or four shows. so starts baseball, so starts the car show season. pretty much it never really stops in so cal, just not so many in the winter, if you can call it that.

when i went to the unidos show here at walnut high school last year, there wasn't much there, due to the coinciding swap meet at pomona. tends to suck the local shows dry. this one was busy, the lot was full, and i was happy. probably a fifty-fifty mix of 60s low riders and the bombs that i like.

right at the front were the host members' cars. i saw this one before, but i didn't like the shots i got of it. i like impalas, with their wings on the back. my preference is the fifty-nine, but this is ok too. i like the airbrush work on the wheel cover.

funny thing happening the last couple of shows i've been to. usually, its my better half telling me guys are asking where i am, if i am there; these shows, they've been asking where he is. someone even gave me a flyer to give to him for a change. he's finding that a funny twist.

junk in the trunk

i do notice these cars; i just don't always bother to shoot them. only the exceptional ones catch my eyes, be it the art, the chrome, the details.

saw this majestics car out at the oldies san fernando show last year. i really liked the glittery airbrushing on the roof, but i'm not tall enough to get a good shot usually. 

i also like the engraving details on the metal of the plaque.

there was a woman sitting behind the car, holding a sleeping baby. i thought the child was so beautiful, but i dare not take a picture, that would be too up close and personal, at least without permission.

look at all the chrome fun in the back end. what is that? stereo equipment or just the hydraulics? pretty sure they don't drive this to the supermarket.

show me the way

i've been incredibly busy this week at work. so much so, when i get home, i just have no energy to think much about playing with my pictures.

in fact, a couple of days, i drove home, booted up the computer, and continued to do work remotely. even spent last saturday doing work work instead of fun work, just to try and get somewhat ahead of the backlog at the office.

did no good, as i had to reswizzle what i did to work in some edits the following monday. oh well. such is the life of a graphic designer, right?

i had tweaked this picture over a couple of days, while waiting for the work i was doing to process. had it finished last night, but was too tired to post. back at an xmas show in santa ana. was threatening to rain, and the clouds overhead were just reflecting the heck out of some of the paint jobs.

i like this picture of a car show. the packed in cars waiting to be admired. the cars i passed by because the hoods were open, still caught because of the angle. they must have been doing the raffle, since there are so few people milling around in this shot.

anyway, got dead presidents day weekend to look forward to, with monday off. getting my taxes done too. i so hate making that annual trip to the preparer.

then, my son has decided to go ahead and set a date for his wedding. don't know why they can't wait until they've graduated from college and gotten some decent jobs. isn't that what all parents always ask? why can't they just stay small? why do they have to go and grow up?

he wants me to take engagement photos. told him i'll try now, then he still has time to get a professional to do them. i'm just more comfortable in front of a car then the happy couple.

scratcher

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.

behind the curtain

i had stopped by the impressions show at bruce's prime rib, after driving five hours back from vegas, and before i even stopped at home. ya, i could if i want. someone had given me a flyer a week or two prior.

better half was working anyway, so he wasn't just sitting and waiting for my arrival. it was way hot outside. there were far fewer cars there than i had expected, and while it was hosted by the impressions, i don't think i really saw a car with their plaque in the window. doesn't mean there wasn't one, i just didn't see one. which is odd, as usually the host club is there in force, representing. there was a tent with their banner, so ok.

i took some shots of the few cars that were there. mostly old chevys, but there was a small cluster of low rider, monte carlo-type bouncers there. none of them were too remarkable paint- or unique-wise, so i didn't bother with any of them.

and then there was this guy. the guy that i am not stalking, from the cigar bar, from the tribe club. lol. i've been going to random shows lately, and he just always seems to be there. none of the other tribe guys, just this one by itself.

so we move in the same circles, but i had never really talked to the owner, more than maybe a hello. he was getting ready to leave, and came over and explained the what in the what the hell with the back wheel cover. the car is usually so immaculate, especially with the new paint job on the roof and random pinstriping, to see it in such a state of disarray, was just too much to pass by.

his story was that he'd driven home from the ventura nationals, and the next day was going to another show, when a block from home, he got a flat tire. and then he didn't have another whitewall tire; but he just couldn't help himself, and came to this show anyway. almost as bad as me, at a show not having been home yet after a week away.

so here it is, with the spare, and the bare nasty parts you usually don't get to see.

naughty and nice

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.

aztechie

still a chevy, but one i don't normally post. i'll do something else next time. sheesh.

a ladder would have been good about now. your basic aztec and nekked girls scene.