Tulip Festival Bokeh

While in Seattle, Kathy and I drove out to La Connor to check out the Tulip Festival. It really was amazing to see the colorful fields of flowers spreading out in the distance. This image was taken with my new Sony a6000 mirrorless camera and the Sony 70-200 f4 G lens. I am amazed at the quality of the images this camera/lens combination can produce. Super bokeh shooting wide open.

Classic Fractures

Yesterdays post was of a perfect Pontiac Indian head hood ornament. This one, which was taken at the same show may be old and fractured but has a lot of character. I like it.

Top Notch Pontiac

Kathy and I went to the Majestic Car Club's New Years Day car show at the Santa Fe Dam in Irwindale. Having never been to the show or location before, we didn't know what to expect. The show was huge with what must have been a thousand cars on display in the various parking lots that surround the lake, which itself is encompassed by the dam. We were getting ready to leave when Kathy spotted this Pontiac from across the street. It was parked near the base of the dam's tall rock wall embankment. Regular readers of my blog and/or photostream know how much I love to photograph these iconic Pontiac hood ornaments. This one really stood out with the late afternoon sun streaming through it.  While many original Pontiac hood ornaments are lined with a multitude of internal cracks, this one looked factory fresh. I guess it's a reproduction. The owner mentioned that at night you can flip a switch inside the car and the amber colored Indian head glows. This was shot with a Minolta 100mm macro lens at f2.8 for a very shallow depth-of-field and enhanced bokeh.

1957 Chevy Hood Rocket

An extremely shallow depth of field captures one hood rocket while blurring the other into a hazy outline and a few bokeh dots.

Dia De Los Muertos

I shot this at the Uptown Whittier day of the dead celebration. While walking around, Kathy and I came across about 10 ladies all made up beautifully with face paint and I took a few images of each of them once Kathy pointed them out to me. I'm never comfortable photographing people I don't know but it's good to stretch my capabilities once in a while.

1948 Nash in Early Morning Light

I go to my fair share of car shows and I rarely see Nash automobiles at them so when I saw this beauty I couldn't wait to take make some images of it. In addition to a striking grill this car had a spectacular hood ornament. I spoke to the owners when I returned to the show later that afternoon. I gave them my contact info and told them to give me a few days to process the photos of their cars. Well that was my intention. Life, work etc. got in the way and a few weeks later I'm just starting to work on these Bomb Club car show images.

Golden Hour

I had walked by this car earlier in the day and I liked the light then but now the sun was quickly giving way to evening and the light was very difussed and full of color so I decided to walk back to see if the owner had left yet. This is what I saw. So glad I went back.

Step Right Up But Don't Call it a Swan

Two car shows in one weekend. Southern California Bomb Club show in Whittier yesterday and The Cruz'n for the Roses show in South Pasadena today. Kathy would say I wasn't trying very hard. I've known her to visit 3 or 4 shows in a single day! Anyway, this hood ornament was located on the front of a spectacular 1948 Packard Super 8 I found sitting in the sunshine on Mission Street. The owner was very cool and chatted with me for a few minutes letting me know that this was a Cormorant and not a Swan. I think I took 50 shots of this non-Swan alone. Even took a few with my new Lensbaby Edge 80 lens. I was baffled by  a couple of people who, using their cell phone's camera, stepped in front of my camera and tripod telling me "you look like you know what you're doing, let me get this quick shot". I informed them that they were being rude and to ask before stepping in front of me. Glad I look like I know what I'm doing. Mission accomplished I guess.

Bomb Club Bokeh - Plate 1

I went to a car show early this morning. It was hosted by the Southern California Bomb Club. The show didn't officially start until 11:00 AM but roll in for the cars was scheduled for 7:30 AM which is when I arrived. By that time there were already about 100 cars there and while the sun was bright it wasn't really hot yet. I set right to taking as many photos as I could before the sun drove me to take cover. There were a ton of awesome hood ornaments and since the cars were parked side by side, lots of chrome to provide the bokeh dots!

Multiverse

Just prior to Kathy and I traveling to Washington DC, I had been reading a very interesting book about Hugh Everett's "Many-Worlds" interpretation of quantum mechanics. One of the concepts the reader has to wrap his or her head around is that of the existence of a multiverse, where there isn't a single universe but instead an infinite number of them which are constantly splitting. One where you ate breakfast in the morning and one where you didn't, one where you posted a photo of an interesting art installation and one where you didn't and on and on. Anyway, there are many Smithsonian art museums but on the National Mall there are two that have a walkway between them which is located below ground level. At some point a very interesting art exhibit called "multiverse" was installed. It consists of thousands of LED lights that race around making patterns that are really compelling. You can walk the length of this tunnel or ride on one of two moving sidewalk conveyor belt thingies like the two guys in the photo are doing.