El Mirage

It’s a fever, it’s a disease, it’s an addiction…It’s a lifestyle! I’m talking about land speed racing, racing on the dry lakes of the southern California desert or on the salt beds of ancient Lake Bonneville. Yes, I guess I have to admit it is a lifestyle for me.

When summer time rolls around most folks dream of taking vacations in an Exotic Island location, a distant shoreline, or some overpriced theme park where a rabbit mouse siphons’ money from your wallet! I dream of heading for the hostile parched climate of the dirt or salt to watch purpose built cars go really fast in a straight line. I’m not alone in this affliction thousands around the world are hopeless victims as well, there is no cure other than looking forward to the next race. I have now passed this affliction onto my two sons. I’m surprised that they will willingly spend countless hours in the desert sun watching roadsters move along at 250 mph!

This June the weather was perfect at El Mirage! A great time to take photos!

Film

Do you remember film? How about slide film? I remember just 10 years ago when I would go to the Bonneville Salt Flats to catch the races, and besides a case of my favorite cold drink, I would have a case of my favorite film. Usually it was Fuji Velvia. (Yes….I did keep the film in the Ice chest till I was ready to use it.) The brilliant colors of that chrome film are still unparalleled today. Here’s to the good old days.

Today, I have about five rolls of unprocessed film sitting in a cabinet just waiting. There’s no close places anymore to get medium format rolls processed! It used to be that a couple miles in any direction you could find a lab to process your film. Now the nearest place is twenty miles away! Twenty miles there and twenty miles back. Then you got to go pick up the film in a week so there is another forty miles tacked onto the trip. Add $4 dollar a gallon gas into the mix and a vehicle that only gets 15 miles a gallon. It gets expensive. On display are a couple of frames from a roll I took about 11 or 10 years ago on good ol’ fashioned Fuji Velvia film. It’s fun to reminisce isn’t it? Were the good ol days really that good? I have to admit I love my digital camera when I think of the instant gratification of photography.

Working on the Book!

Ok, I'm excited about this one. The proofs to the coffee table art book arrived from the publisher yesterday. I'm going through making the final corrections. More or less here is what the cover will look like. This will be my first book. Never mind the magazine biz (which I still dable in) this will be my first book! Of course I don't think it will be available for sale till the end of the summer.

1949 Mercury Revisited.

It doesn't happen very often...well, to tell the truth it does not happen at all. But I received a request to post more pictures of the 1949 Mercury. Not just any request, but a request from a man in England who is having the said Mercury shipped over to him. He found this blog quite by accident and found the pictures of his Mercury on here. So, here you go Mr Steven, these pictures are for you. I hope that Mercury looks just as good cursing the London streets as it does the Los Angeles streets.

Well now, it has been about a month since my last entry, so I figured it is high time for another. The weather is warming up in the northern hemisphere and that means race season is upon us. I’ve been thinking of Bonneville for several weeks now and appropriately enough Car Culture Deluxe magazine ran one of my stories about Bonneville in their latest issue. Strangely enough they didn’t use all my pictures, but instead chose to include a few snap shots from another photographer; thankfully they are only a just a few snap shots. Be that as it is, I think the story is ok.

1949 Mercury

South Central LA, a section of the City of Angel's who’s reputation is anything but angelic. It may seem to some that this part of the city is about as far south of heaven that one can get. Still, it is home to many residents of all types. One such resident, this 1949 Mercury, daily prowls the south central streets and attracts all types of stares from passersby. As I write this blog, the Mercury will be gone within the week. Soon, it will be packed into a cargo container and on its way to the United Kingdom. I’m glad I got to shoot her before she disappears from these shores forever.

Once again sorry for the lame watermarks, but some bone smugglers have been stealing my work and posting it on their blogs!

Classic Chevy Truck

It’s all about the quality of light. Whether it is natural or artificial, well placed light can make any vehicle attractive. I must admit, it does help if the car is attractive to begin with…it might be a tough sell to make a Datsun B210 look good in any type of light. Thankfully this is no Datsun! Take for example this ‘39 Chevy truck. The soft golden light of California’s setting sun worked its magic on this former farm hand. A classic look for sure, the outer darkness black suede paint combined with the brimstone red steel wheels and the angelic glowing halos of the wide whites. “They” may say this look had been beaten to death like a rival fan in the parking lot of Dodger stadium. Who cares what they say anyway? I call it beautiful, and the golden light with the black suede makes it an ideal piece of eye candy.

PS. Sorry about the watermarks on the photos, some dumb bastards have been stealing my photos and putting it on their blogs! So now I have to ruin my photos in order to ensure thieves don’t steal my work and repost it as their own.