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.

Hotel Window View of Downtown San Diego

Josh, Alexandra and I spent the weekend in San Diego. This was the view out the hotel room window. Sorry about the reflections on the glass. Not much I could do about them. I didn't have my polarizing filter with me.

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.

Queensland and Northern Territory Aerial Service - AirButt Greg-380

As of the time of this posting the cost of an economy class round trip flight on this QANTAS A380 from Los Angeles, California to Sydney Australia is $1,497 USD. I recently had the opportunity to tour this aircraft and while it was huge, the economy seats were small and leg room tight for someone as tall as I am. I know this for a fact because I tried one on for size.

The aircraft itself was amazing. I was stunned by the incredibly high-tech cockpit and at its massive size.

The A380 has an range of 9,756 miles which would guarantee that I would run out of ass before it ran out of gas.

The Three Muses

This lovely statue stands directly in the center of the rotunda in the Los Angeles Natural History Museum's original building which opened in 1913. The rotunda has been featured in many movies over the years including Spiderman and Born Yesterday.

Temporary Parking

The Space Shuttle Endeavour in repose while awaiting the funding and construction of it's new exhibit space at the California Science Center at Exposition Park in Los Angeles.

1947 Chevrolet Fleetline

There were so many great cars at the Point Fermin car show by the sea, Kathy and I didn’t know what to photograph first. We arrived a couple of hours before the show was officially opening but there were already more than 100 cars parked and hundreds more flowing into the large ocean front park that hosted the show.

I walked around trying to sort out which cars I definitely wanted to photograph from those that while amazing, were already well represented in my growing photographic archive. This proved nearly impossible to do because so many cars had custom features that were very interesting and unique.

I just couldn’t pass up this immaculate 1947 Chevrolet Fleetline. I love this model and make a point of photographing them whenever I have the opportunity. I spoke to the owner who explained to me that other than being lowered with air bags, the car was restored to be completely stock. That includes the color of the paint and the material used in the upholstery of the seats and headliner.

There’s just something about these long low slung cars that just capture my interest like few others do. I took several sets of shots from various angles so I’m sure I’ll post the others if they look ok after post processing them.

Self Evident Truths

Thomas Jefferson was only 33 years old when he became the principal author of the declaration of independence. That along with being the third president of the United States makes for a pretty impressive resume. Pictured here is the Jefferson Memorial in Washington D.C. Beautifully situated at the edge the tidal basin and surrounded by cherry blossom trees which bloom to life each April, this memorial which is housed in a pantheon like domed structure is not a sight to be missed. The walls contain excerpts of Jefferson's most notable writings including an one from the declaration of independence.

Remembering Jae Bueno

I really felt sad today when my wife Kathy told me that the great car culture photographer, Jae Bueno had passed away. I knew he was sick and that he had cancer but I didn’t know how serious it was. I only spoke to Jay on a handful of occasions, but when we saw one another, he always made time to wave or pause for a minute to say hello or something encouraging about Kathy’s work which really made me happy. That’s pretty nice given how accomplished Jae was. Not all photographers I meet at car shows are that nice. I guess they feel competitive or something. Jae always seemed… humble. He was usually smiling, chatting and shooting great images. I’ve followed his work in Low Rider magazine, his photo stream on Flickr and his website www.JaeBueno.com and usually found them to be inspiring. Kathy often would mention to me that Jae had posted photos from a show she couldn’t attend or wasn’t aware of and I know she admired his skill as well.

 

Jae, I’ll miss seeing you and your wife at car shows. I hope you didn’t suffer. I know your family must be devastated. I know your many friends in the car culture scene will miss you too. They always seemed so aware of your presence. Often I would be at a car show setting up my tripod and camera to photograph a car, and the owner would say “Jae Bueno is here too, do you know him? Do you shoot for magazines too?” to which I would have to answer “I’ve met him a few times, but I just shoot for fun. I’ll leave the professional photos to Jae”.

 

This photo was taken on a blazing hot day in September of 2012. Kathy had heard about a car show at Mayfield High School in Bellflower, California and we decided to go. We ran around shooting photos and tried not to get overheated. I was heading for a shady curb where Kathy had already taken refuge when I saw this motorcycle. I don’t typically shoot them, but this one looked super cool. When I got home and reviewed my photos in Adobe Lightroom, I saw that I had inadvertently also captured Jae and his wife in this shot. Jae is the guy in the grey shirt holding a camera and smiling. His wife is just to his left. Here he looks happy, healthy and in his element. I’m glad I have this photo to reinforce my memory because this is how I’d like to remember Jae Bueno.

Darkness at the Edge of Town

I spotted this beautiful four door 1939 Chevy Master Deluxe at the Run Whatcha Brung 20th annual car show in Rialto, California. It wasn't entered in the show but instead was just hunkered down in a restaurant parking lot at the far end of the downtown shopping district, it’s low slung chassis managing to look dark and foreboding even while sitting in the bright sun.  I didn’t really intend to walk all the way to the edge of town but I'm glad I did. This turned out to be my favorite car from the show. I mused that the gangsters that owned her were just getting a bite to eat before continuing their daily mayhem. 

Since the car was a deep reflective black I decided to use Nik Software's SilverEfex Pro to bring on the pseudo silver halide goodness and  dispense with the saturation altogether. Once I saw the result, I was reminded of a phrase I saw written on the back window of another low slung machine “Praise the Lowered”