If ever a truck was designed with the driver in mind...

"With scores of new time saving features, the new Ford Trucks are made-to-order for economical operations in today's traffic stream. New "DRIVERIZED" Cabs provide living room comfort and cut driver fatigue. They help save time by making driving easier. Both the Standard and Deluxe Cab have a new curved one-piece windshield, 55% bigger for more visibility."

I met the owner of this cool Ford truck at Bob Big Boy Broiler in Downey tonight. It was supposed to be the Broiler's Christmas show but only a few cars showed up. Anyway the owner of this truck came up and we chatted a bit about my photography and what I did with the photos I took. I mentioned I almost never photographed cars (or trucks for that matter) that have their hoods up. He said he would lower his hood and turned on the driving lights which looked cool in the glow of all the drive-in's neon. I had to re-shoot a few of the bracketed shots when people walked through my shot to look over the truck during some long exposures. Well I can't blame them for being impressed. It is a very cool vehicle.

The View From Here

This is the Great Hall inside the Thomas Jefferson Building of the Library of Congress, Washington DC. It's a pretty impressive space. Kathy and I visited it on a whim, walking over from the US Capitol Building after taking the tour there. As you can see it was packed with tourists. Next time I want to be there when they open. No tripods allowed so this was taken by balancing the camera on the marble railing that surrounds the perimeter of the hall. Built in 1890, this building is one of the most beautiful places I've seen in DC.

Red Pinstriped '39 Master Deluxe

Kathy and I decided to go to the Viejitos Halloween car show in Fullerton. We got there a little early in the day. It's pretty rare to find a great looking car at a show without another couple of cars parked closely on either side, which kind of divides the viewer's attention and clutters up the picture. Do I wish those chairs on the right were out of the picture? Sure I do but not enough to spend the time it would take to convincingly clone them out in Photoshop. This 1939 Chevy Master Deluxe was pretty clean. The paint was great and I liked the subtle use of pin-striping. I took a bunch of HDR sequences of it from several viewpoints.

Low Down on a '48 Fleetline

Kathy and I met at the Broiler for a Halloween car show. After a beautiful sunset the sky turned purple before fading to black. To try to get this 1948 Fleetline and that beautiful sky into the same shot, I collapsed my tripod down so my camera was no more than 6" above the pavement. To shoot at F11 I ended up not using my camera's Auto Exposure Bracketing (AEB) function and instead manually adjusted the exposure compensation value for each shot. AEB supports a maximum exposure time of 30 seconds which wasn't enough to capture the range of light I wanted for this image.

Chop, Chop, Till Ya Drop

I'm guessing those hands on the trunk are praying that this bad ass chopped 1951 Chevy Deluxe doesn't encounter any speed bumps.

Anthony's Blue '62

This super clean '62 Impala caught my eye immediately when Kathy and I started walking around the Viejitos car show this past weekend. I met Anthony, the owner and he told me a little about the car which was as visually spectacular up close as it was from across the parking lot. The paint job on this car was very reflective and all of the classic Impala/chevy emblems were present and accounted for. I photographed all of them as well as another view of the car from the front. Nice meeting you Anthony, I hope we get to see you and your car again.

Fleeting Fleetline Sunset

Kathy reminded me that there was a Halloween car show being held at the Bob's Big Boy Broiler in Downey tonight. I had to work a little late so traffic was pretty heavy by the time I headed over to the show. I had just parked my van when Kathy arrived. The sun was getting ready to make its departure for the day and the light was already looking nice so we got right to shooting some of the classic ars that had already arrived. It was a good sized show with lots of cars and people. I was talking to a nice guy with an Australian accent who was also taking photos, and was telling him how I like to shoot during sunset at car shows. Just then the sky lit up with the most amazing orange color. I stopped talking and took a bunch of HDR sequences in the fading light. The sky went from what you see in this photo  to completely black in about 10 minutes. This Chevy Fleetline looked to be completely stock. The paint was very reflective and nicely done. Hope I see this car again soon.

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.

Fly On Little Wing

Really felt like the end of summer today. As evening closed in the temperature actually felt brisk and then cold for the first time in recent memory. I saw this '59 Chevy parked facing the heavy clouds which were rolling overhead and decided to make this image.

Is This Room Stretching?

This is the Los Angeles Natural History Museum's Rotunda built in 1913. The statue in the center, "The Three Muses" was the museum's first exhibit. For those who are wondering, this was taken hand held, and consists of 3 vertically stitched shots, each being a HDR image derived from 3 additional exposures. This location has been used in films and TV shows quite a bit.