Sunrise at Chicano Park

Kathy and I arrived at Chicano Park around 5:30AM but found the area swarming with cars and people in the early morning light. We had to park about 6 blocks away. We should have arrived at least an hour earlier. We had talked about taking the train but at the last minute I found myself driving Kathy's car to the park. Oh well. I caught this Chevy station wagon rolling into the park just as the sun was rising. Normally it is not recommended to shoot directly into the sun, but I like breaking the rules. 

Spectacular Sunrise Worth Waiting for - Port of San Diego

Kathy and I spent a weekend in San Diego in late March. We stayed on Shelter Island which is only an island in name. It is actually a man-made peninsula built with material that was dredged up from the San Diego Bay in the 1940's. The dredging was needed to make the natural harbor deeper to accommodate, shelter, and protect big the warships transiting the Pacific during World War II. It is located quite close to Point Loma and the Cabrillo Point Monument. Today, Shelter Island is a world apart from San Diego. It is a quiet, serene place in the center of urban sprawl. There are several resort style hotels and nice unique restaurants nearby. We had stayed on the “island” a few times before and enjoyed it. As is normal for me lately, I went to sleep early every evening and was wide awake 2 hours before sunrise. On the morning after our arrival, freshly showered I walked out onto the balcony of our hotel room at just after 5:00am and saw that the morning light was violet in color and heavy clouds were moving slowly overhead. I had hoped I would be able to photograph a beautiful sunrise from the fishing pier. The chances of doing so didn’t initially look too promising. I took a few shots including the one below from the balcony.

After about an hour and a half, breaks in the clouds started turning very slightly orange so I packed up my cameras and headed downstairs, walking across the street and onto the fishing pier. From this vantage point, I could clearly see the San Diego Bay inlet channel and the US Navy North Island facility across the way. Some of the lights on the base were still on and the San Diego skyline loomed forebodingly under the dark clouds.

12 minutes later the rising sun began pouring light down onto the downtown buildings through a long, narrow tear in the clouds. It was a dramatic sight. The glass walls of the curved roof hangers at the Navy helicopter base were beautifully backlit. This unusual and stunningly beautiful scene only lasted about 3 minutes. I was shooting images the entire time with both of my cameras. So glad I got up early and didn’t miss this sight!

This is Not Your Mothers Station Wagon

Kathy and I came across this amazing 1957 Chevy station wagon at the Majestics Car Club show in Norwalk in late March 2023. To say it stood apart from the other cars at this show would be a significant understatement. The paint job on this car was nothing short of spectacular. We both chatted with the owner who told me he orignally wanted to go with a solid blue color but the painter convinced him he would regret that decision and be back to have the car painted in the look it now wears so well. He decided to go for it and wow I'm so glad he did. This paint treatmentcovers the entire car including the roof so I had to hold my tripod over my head to capture the beautiful design on it and trigger off 9 shots, trying to hold the camera steady. 

"If you want to make a statement, wear purple." - Baron Davis

Kathy and I went to the Azelea Festival car show in Southgate California on a recent Sunday morning. While that show is now just a shadow of what it once was, there were still about 50 very nice cars to photograph but we were done fairly quickly. So something very rare happened. Kathy asked me if I was done and ready to leave. Usually, I am the one that asks that question of her. As we were walking back to the car, she told me there was another car show being held that day in Norwalk. Not too far from where we were. It was being hosted by the Majestics Car Club and when we arrived we found about 50-75 spectacular cars parked in the Civic Center Plaza parking lot. I found this 1953 Chevy Truck parked in front of one of the store fronts and it really stood out with that highly refelctive purple paint. 

Taylor 414ce Guitar

I acquired this beautiful acoustic/electric Taylor guitar from my local (now out of business) guitar shop. I had wandered in one day just to browse and was not shopping for anything in particular. I quickly saw they were having some type of issue with their point-of-sale terminal and were unable to make any sales because of this. I asked a few questions and they seemed receptive to obtaining some help, so I was able to troubleshoot what eventually turned out to be a network connectivity issue and ran to a local electronics store to buy an ethernet card and some network cabling for the balky terminal. Long story short I was able to fix the problem for them in a about 3 hours. They were very grateful and asked what I was going to charge them for resolving things. I told them just to reimburse me for the ethernet card and we could call it even. They insisted on compensating me for my time and expertise, so we mutually agreed on bartering my time against some store merchandise. The owner asked what brand of guitar I preferred; I told him I admired Taylor guitars. He informed me that they had just received a shipment that had not yet been opened or inspected. We looked at 4 guitars and I chose this one. They inspected the guitar and had their luthier make sure it was intonated properly. They then returned it to its case and handed it to me. Honestly, this guitar is much nicer than a player of my ability requires, but I have loved having it and it’s sound has seasoned beautifully as the years have gone by. It features a Sitka Spruce Top, Ovangkol Back and Sides, Tropical Mahogany Neck, West African Crelicam Ebony Fretboard, Expression System 2 Electronics, Venetian Cutaway and included a Taylor Deluxe Hardshell Black Case.

STROBIST: I photographed this guitar in a completely dark room using 5 wireless flash units slaved to my sony camera. The one hidden behind my guitar had a blue gel to give a splash of complementary color. I took quite a few tries to balance the power of each flash and to get the exposure I wanted.

Thanksgiving

 

 

Here Comes the Sun

Another view of this beautiful 1940's fleetline I came across at the Pomona Auto Swapmeet. The color of the sky at sunrise was changing so rapidly, I felt the need to capture multiple images of this car that morning. Each set of images looks significantly different with the changing light.

Love

1950 Buick Eight

This beautiful buick eight which i think is a 1950 model year, was either very well cared for or expertly restored. This is yet another car I stumbled upon just after sunrise at the Pomona auto swapmeet. 

Pieta