Dream Car

As usual, Kathy and I were very excited that the day of the annual Uptown Whittier Car Show had finally arrived. We were out very early and I quickly decided that the first car I wanted to photograph was this beautiful Chevrolet Bel Aire. The owners son sleeping in the passenger seat seemed to take all of the excitement in stride. Never stirring once even with all the noise my DSLR's shutter and mirror were making right next to the car door.

Goddess of Speed

Kathy, her brother Kevin, his son David, and I all met very early on a recent Saturday to attend the 2013 Uptown Whittier Car Show. It was really fun and I'm glad we were out early because by 2:00 PM the show was very crowded and the temperature had exceeded 95 degrees. The scene was quite different at just after 6:00 AM that morning. The show wouldn’t officially open until 9:00 AM so there were only a handful of spectators and the organizers kept all of the cars waiting in three long lines at the far end of Greenleaf Avenue. We were able to take some great pictures of the cars there. This Packard hood ornament was taken later that afternoon with my 100mm macro lens.

Excitement rides with you - Now with Turbo Thrusting Engine

Excitement rides with you - Now with Turbo Thrusting Engine, originally uploaded by big_pixel_pusher.

One look at those saucy lines and you know this new Chevy's ready to shove off for wherever you say. You'll see what we mean the first time you feel the quick-sprinting torque of Chevrolet's new Turbo Thrust V8 whisk you up a steep hill. Excitement rides with you every mile you roll in your new Chevrolet. At rest or on the roads, this sleek style-setter promises you more go, gaiety and glamor - and you'll find it keeps its promises beatifully. Come aboard and take the key to the happiest traveling on the highway!

Automobile advertisements in the 1950's are fun to read. I spotted this 1958 Chevy Impala at the Uptown Whittier Car Show quite late in the day. Kathy and I had taken a couple of walk throughs that day, returning home to escape the heat and to cool off. We decided to visit one more time so I put my fisheye lens on my camera and left my tripod at home.

I don't know how I missed seeing this beauty earlier but I did. Something must have distracted me. Wonder what or who it could have been.

Funky Cold Medina

Funky Cold Medina, originally uploaded by big_pixel_pusher.

Another early morning shot from the 2012 Uptown Whittier Car Show. Featured here is Ron Medina's incredible 1963 Chevy Surburban parked along side other amazing cars from the So Cal Tribe car club. Smart guys that they are, they arrived early and got some primo parking spots in the shade of the big trees you see here. That shade came in handy when the temperature exceeded 100 degrees that afternoon. I was moving at my usual methodical pace, while Kathy was doing her usual ass kicking, take no prisoners, get-the-hell-out-of my-way pace. You can see her and her tripod in the upper left of this image. She had already shot the four cars between her and I not to mention the cars across the street. I get too fixated on one car for too long, trying to figure out what shot would look best. I really need to work on that. To quote Ferris Bueller Life moves pretty fast. If you don't stop and look around once in a while, you could miss it.

I Dream of Fake Bokeh

I Dream of Fake Bokeh, originally uploaded by big_pixel_pusher.

My Sigma 50mm f1.4 is a good lens but it doesn't hold a candle to Kathy's Minolta/Sony 100mm f2.8 Macro lens in the sharpness and bokeh departments.

After seeing some of her great photos of these amber colored Pontiac hood ornaments, I've been on the lookout for them at every car show I go to. She usually finds them first and lets me know where I can locate them.

In this case, Kathy and I had been at the 2012 Uptown Whittier car show for a while with each of us going our own way to seek out whatever treasures the day might bring. Later when we met up again, she told me about this Pontiac hood ornament she had come across. We walked down the street so I could make a few images of it too.

I've noticed that the older the hood ornament, the more cracks it is likely to have. Here it was possible to orient the camera in such a way to capture the sunlight illuminating it's internal structure which had a lot of character.

Later when I went home and was reviewing my images in Lightroom, I could see that the bokeh in my shots left a lot to be desired. Luckily I own Nik Software's Bokeh 2 plug-in. It works great as long as you have a good selection isolating what you want to be in sharp focus from that which you want to be blurred. In this case I think it improved the existing bokeh nicely.

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.

Separate but Equal?

Separate but Equal?, originally uploaded by big_pixel_pusher.

This slammed 1951 Mercury was a favorite of mine from the 2011 Uptown Whittier Car Show. The show organizers made what I think was a stupid decision to exclude lowrider cars from the show, saying that they would hold a separate lowrider show later in the year. Well you guessed it, the lowrider show never happened. The upcoming 2012 show is open to lowriders once more, and I for one am glad they aren't going to repeat their mistake again. I previously posted another shot of this car you can see it here: www.bigpixelpushing.com/journal/2011/9/11/1951-flamed-mer...

I Dream of Bokeh

I Dream of Bokeh, originally uploaded by big_pixel_pusher.

Here's another image taken at the 2011 Uptown Whitier Car Show. I have posted images of these iconic Pontiac hood ornaments before. They always captivate me, especially if I can get a shot that is back lit by the sun which always shows off the internal structure of these amber colored jewels. I once again borrowed my wife Kathy's incredibly sharp and contrasty 100mm macro lens for this. In addition to being sharp it has the ability to create amazingly smooth bokeh (a Japanese term meaning "beautifully rendered out-of-focus areas") which contrasts so beautifully with the in-focus areas in a shot. To see more of what this lens can do check out Kathy's blog at www.tweakedpixels.com.

Big Pixel Pusher

Big Pixel Pusher, originally uploaded by big_pixel_pusher.

After more than a year of research and contemplation, I have replaced my previous computer with this monster for which I specified all of the parts and assembled myself. Ever since I purchased my full frame camera, my old computer had struggled to handle my typical 10 frame HDR sequences. This new computer rips through them with no hesitation whatsoever.

Featuring a water cooled i7 3930k CPU overclocked from 3.2 to 4.8Ghz, high speed solid state drives and a special fan controller to cool the VCORE chipset, I have been impressed and awed by the raw power and stability it has demonstrated.

The case which holds a the components is huge. It's as tall as my desk and weighed nearly 50 lbs empty. It is designed to allow for expansion, efficient airflow and tidy wire management. I'll be posting more images of the actual build and components soon.

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.