Silver Chevy Tail Dragger

Silver Chevy Tail Dragger, originally uploaded by big_pixel_pusher.

Kathy and I decided to go to sleep early yesterday since the annual uptown Whittier car show was being held today. It's been really hot in Southern California lately and this car show draws thousands of visitors so we wanted to arrive well before the show officially opened to beat the heat and crowds. The great early morning light was a bonus. The show is walking distance from our house so we arrived around 6 am and there were already around 15 cars that had shown up even earlier to claim primo parking spots.

This silver Chevy convertible drove by us as we were walking down Greenleaf avenue. The cool factor on this one was cranked way up and I was immediately taken with its clean lines and amazing paint job. I think the owner scored the best parking place at the show. The building you see behind it is the historic Whittier Village Cinemas which has been a landmark in the city since 1931.

You can see how empty the street was that early. Later it was nearly impossible to move, not to mention setup a tripod to make an image.

Kathy and I ended up taking a early break, had some breakfast at the Rocky Cola Cafe and then made some more images. We ended up walking home and returning to the show a few times. As the day progressed, it was just too hot to stay out for long.

1951 Flamed Mercury

1951 Flamed Mercury, originally uploaded by big_pixel_pusher.

This was from the 2011 Whittier Car Show held in August. As I mentioned on a earlier post, the organizers decided not to allow low riders at this show, and will instead hold a low rider - custom car show next year. So of course since Kathy and I love photographing low riders we were bummed. After we had walked around for a while she noticed several low rider owners had parked there awesome cars just outside the show limits so of course we spent a lot of time there.

This was probably the most spectacular of all the cars I saw this day, and I took quite a few HDR sequences of it. While I usually choose low angles when shooting cars, in this case given the spectacular flamed hood, I extended my tripod nearly to it's maximum height to better capture it. The only disadvantage was I was unable to look through the viewfinder. I'm 6'-5" tall but my camera was at least 7' above the ground. I took a couple of test shots to be sure I framed this up properly before capturing this sequence.

Take Me With You

Take Me With You, originally uploaded by big_pixel_pusher.

"...nowhere together with you is better than anywhere apart"

Reflections on a Mercury

Reflections on a Mercury, originally uploaded by big_pixel_pusher.

This was a cool car with a paint job you could fall right into.

Nomad's Border Crossing

My Favorite car from the Whittier CA Uptown Car Show

Pink Lady

My car is a little over 8 years old. This car is 54 years old and it looks better and seems to be in better shape. They don't make them like this anymore.

Pink Lady

Red 1941 Chevy

You don't think the paint job is too subtle do you? You don't think people will walk right by and not notice it huh?

Highest position in Flickr's Explore #380 on 8/27/08

Red 1941 Chevy

Crusin' in a Blue Dream...

Cool aloha plates

Crusin' in a Blue Dream...

Heavy Metal

Low slung fun

Heavy Metal

Orange Bang

I still remember walking up to this 2 tone Chevy Belair. It had the kind of paint job that made me feel like I could fall into. The owner probably spent more on paint than the car cost the original owner. Immaculate.

Orange Bang