rod riguez

let's hear it for the time change...pfft. i'm going to miss that extra hour of sleep.

busy week ahead, probably won't be posting until sunday, if i'm lucky. so i'll leave you with this guilded beast. a total look at me, look at me car, so i looked at it, looked at it.

i really just liked the pinstripe picture on the back, but am including the front and back views, for those who always ask. it was a really different take on a hot rod. the running boards probably aren't that useful.

the owner offered to let me shoot the inside, but nah, that's for someone else to have fun with. i'm busy judging the book by the cover.

indecisive

i've gone to a few shows this past week. just about done doing the backup on my computer and have made some room, so i figured i'll start shooting again.

made it out to the broiler last wednesday. was relatively warm out, so hoped more cars would show up. actually, there were a lot of regular cars taking up space. good for business, bad for car shows. 

anyway, this car i'm pretty sure belongs to one of the guys that works in the broiler. i see it a lot, but usually parked over on the other side. i saw him back this puppy into one of my favorite spots to shoot, and the space next to it stayed empty for quite a while. figured i'd take a couple before someone would want to park and move me out of the way.

i walked up to it and saw this first picture, and knew i had to get that reflection in the window. the pictures are a little rough, and there's a bit of lens flarey stuff, but i still think they're interesting.

trouble was, i couldn't get the rest of the neon in the picture. so i couldn't decide which picture to post. so, i'm posting the other view, because i like it just as much. and why not, the owner is a nice guy.

merciful

so i hung out at the broiler for a few hours. its a different crowd now than there used to be. the vibe is different. maybe its just me. maybe its just the cold, or the holidays. i really intended to stay later than i did, but i just wasn't feeling it. 

there were a couple dozen cars there. some of the new clubs tend to gather in front of their cars and don't move. kind of bovine, just standing there. i didn't feel like out-glaring them out of the way, so i skipped them. shame.

i'd already spent time shooting cars i'd taken before. mainly, if they were in a different location, or the light struck them different than before. fricking richard's car got in a few shots, but i'll pretend it isn't there, since it doesn't exist in my universe.

sometimes, you just need to look at something differently, and it will be a lot more interesting. i've shot this one before, but i wanted to get some of the roof, then noticed the neon, then the sky, and angles and colors. just wished that the soccer mom van and other newer cars were not there, since they were hiding some other nice old cars.

this one seems to be for sale now; tiny tiny "for sale" on the window doesn't really scream that you're trying too hard.

night moves

a quick post. changes at work have given me lots more work to do. add to that trying to get to my kid's baseball games, and i'm feeling stretched pretty thin just now.

had to stop off in long beach tonight on business. tried to find a new car show on the way back home, but yep, another no show. screw it. though i did see some old cars in the parking lot of a public park, but i didn't stop, since i was in a strange neighborhood as it was. parked momentarily in some strip mall to consult my phone for the best route home, and got stared at suspiciously by the asian shop keepers.

i'm tired, and need to get some sleep. hoping to get to a show this weekend, before i forget how to do this thing.

you could even say it glows...

no idea what kind of car this is. they stripped off all the things i'd look for first to figure that out. another one of the awesome cars at the broiler from the magazine shoot.

really amazing paint jobs on these. can't remember if that nomad is being lit up by the lights for the shoot, or if someone's got their headlights on, but it really brightens things up, almost too much.

sweet dreams

so i went to the broiler the other night. end of january. temps in the upper 70s. weirdest weather i can remember.

anyway, lots of cars were already in the lot by the time i arrived. these pretty little things were all spit shined for an official photo shoot for a magazine i can't remember the name of, but i'm sure you'd all recognize it. quite the production, with a large team of people setting up fancy lighting and lots of cameras.

got this one fairly early on, though i was intercepted when i first arrived by someone interested in pictures of their own car. he's a regular. already had posted his car, and tried to show it to him on my phone, but the signal wasn't that great. had to go fetch my ipad out of the car, and finally found it to show to him. dude, if you're reading this, i sent you an email. waiting for a reply...but i digress...

story i heard from the owner of this lovely nomad was that it was the third time his car had been featured as a work in progress, only this time, the car had just been completed. hot spanking new paint job. perhaps it was really featuring the paint shop, as three of these cars were completely awesome and similarly pinstriped and metal flaked up in lollypop colors.

anyway, i got my shots in between their set ups and all the people milling around. only i didn't use a flash or their lights. i'll look for the magazine, but i'm perfectly happy with my pictures, even if they aren't perfect.

“it's a girl car”

this one was at the labor day show in henderson's lincoln dealership. it stood out amongst all the chevys, rat rods, and other typical vintage stuff. mostly because it was hot pink. these puppies always make me think herman munster.

so while i was taking a few shots of it, some old guy walks by and mumbles about it being a “girl car.” ya, i didn't shoot his car, so maybe he was jealous?

even has hot pink dice...ya, it's a chick car.

coffee anyone?

this is one of the regulars at the broiler. typically parks over with the other caddies in the drive-in spots. but here he was in what is becoming one of my more favorite spots to get a nice shot, with enough room between him and the car next to him.

i like that you get different colored lights coming from different sources, neon, passing cars, headlights — they look good on shiny surfaces like the paint on cars.

not quite sure what was going on weather-wise that day, but the sky looks pretty cool, so i'm guessing it had recently rained or was gearing up for rain.

chubby’s

wow. i haven't posted since monday? well, i've been busy. and i finally got out to a few shows that actually had cars at them, in spite of the cold. so i've been away from my computer and having fun.

i've taken a bunch of photos all week, so i have new stuff to play with. i chatted with several people too, but still think it's difficult to break out of my shell and strike up a conversation. i did meet a couple of dads out with their sons at two different shows. they were very nice, and i guess that's how it gets passed to the next generation. shot pics of their cars...give me a few days.

anyway, getting to the image above... stopped at the show in garden grove on friday. never have seen it that empty, and on an elvis night. i guess an impersonator comes out to entertain the crowd, but i've never hung out late enough to see him. the street was half empty, where usually they have to turn cars away. good for me to take pics, but not many to choose from that i either haven't already shot, or wanted to shoot.

briefly stopped to show the owner a picture i took of his truck, since he claimed he didn't have a computer. he told me a quick story about it being in a magazine, and his posse all said it was a very nice picture.

anyway, since i was nearby, i thought i'd go to disneyland and grab some dinner. then i remembered a show i'd stopped at once during the summer near the entrance to dland. hadn't been too impressed with it at the time, mainly because i got there late, and most cars had probably left. it still shows up on the calendar, so i drove over to check it out.

i was pleasantly surprised to find that it was very busy, no doubt due to the location. and also solved the mystery of where all the bad boys and their chevy's from the back lots at garden grove had gone. i won't say all, but many of the clubs started showing up in groups, and of course parking out back. but man, oh man, they do have beautiful cars.

not sure if this one belonged to one of the bad boys, but it was parked right at the entrance, in this primo spot. this one was very nice, but i think there were several in the back that might have been even better than this.

definitely will have to stop here again. and i never did get to eat at dland; i stayed so long taking pictures it got late, and decided it was too crowded to just go to dland for dinner. friday night traffic there is a bitch, with all the people hitting downtown disney. pfft.

roar of thunder

quick post...got things to do tonight.

i really liked the way the neon was reflecting on this car. and hey, i got both the scary burger boy and the drive thru sign in the same shot. can anyone tell me the year, please? just so i can call it like it is. thanks!