It's Mid-June already.... Astoria Cars 6.18.11

It's mid-June already. Amazing. I felt pretty stale and burned out after NY Auto Show and Viva Las Vegas. I've been going down to Shore Boulevard pretty regularly to talk with car people, document the car culture, and ultimately take pictures of cool cars - and while there have been cool cars, I just wasn't taking great shots. In May, I got a few more shots of a Corvair that I've photographed before. Here's a cool-ish one of the badge:

I haven't seen my buddies on Shore either, and I've got some prints of the Challenger and Pete's '55 Bel Air that I want to give to each of them. While I've seen Sean in his Challenger drive by, he hasn't parked, and I haven't seen Pete at all. Hey Pete! If you see this, I've got a cool print of your '55 for you!

Last Friday I hopped on the train and met some friends out in New Jersey for Somerville Cruise Night. There were a lot of muscle cars from the 70's and 80's, and even a few current Mustangs, but there were also some pretty cool classics and hot rods. When I went through my shots, I was pretty disappointed, again, in my work. But then I realized that when I shoot at these events, I need to slow down. Just slow down and See... not rush through and dryly document the cars. It's not a press conference, I don't have a deadline, I'm not shooting for a client and having to get the standard car shots for them, so just slow down and photograph for me. There are a few good shots from the night:

On Monday (June 13), I wandered out into Times Square for my lunch break from my on-site temp job. I've always got at least one camera with me, and it paid off big-time! MHN, I suppose in order to lure guys over to their booths to encourage them to get prostate checks and all, had three classic cars roped off. The first was this gorgeous Buick from the 40's. I somehow deleted the photo with the sign containing model and year information - argh!

...and shot this really incredible shot of a 50's Packard ornament (I was shooting RAW and had very little room on the card - so I deleted the pic of the sign again with the model and year information by mistake.) (The other car was a 70's era Porsche 911T.) I'm going to start offering some shots for sale on RedBubble - more on that when I actually do it. This will be one of the shots offered.

I sat on the boardwalk along Shore for awhile yesterday, and saw about three classics drive by, but no one parked - then they all turned down the same street. So eventually, I just got up and started walking down that street. I didn't find where they were all going, and Serino's was closed, so it was only a long walk. However, I saw this beater Cadillac along the way, and the cracked paint, rust, and utter disrepair of the car inspired me to take it's picture.

MINI! KISS! + another one of my quirky film cameras

New York Auto Show ended up being the two scheduled press days plus two days of pre-press-day reveals. After four days of reveals, parties, sleep too little, repeat, I got on a plane at ouch o'clock in the morning Friday to go to Viva Las Vegas Rockabilly Weekend. I hit the ground running and photographed the car show - all pre-1963 cars - two days in a row. Four days of photographing, watching bands, too little sleep, repeat. Throw in Frankie's Tiki Room and lots of sun for a perfect working vacation. I hit the ground back in NYC and crashed... hard. I picked up some horrible chest infection from which I'm only starting to recover.

I have tons of photos, so many that I'm overwhelmed thinking about processing them.

While I recover, here are some shots I took at the MINI press conference from press day two of the NY Auto Show. KISS was slated to be there, so I got there at 9 a.m. sharp - yes, I was the first dorky photographer there. I don't care. I wanted my spot and I wanted my shots. I also threw in my bag, as I usually do, one of my random toy cameras. This time it was the Sprocket Rocket available from Lomography.com. It was loaded with some special effects film by Austrian company Revolog called Tesla which creates random lightning effects. KISS? Sprocket Rocket? Random lightning? RAD!!!!

Of course, I got the important shots for the client first. See them and a classic shot of Gene Simmon's tongue here.

The film is rated 200 ASA. I had a flash on the Sprocket Rocket, but the fixed exposure didn't let in *quite* enough light for this shot. It's still cool.

More when I can breathe again.

Shore Blvd, 3.12.11 and Astoria Garages, 3.13.11 (cont'd)

Saturday the 12th was a gorgeous day. I walked along Shore for awhile, and it seemed to be Mopar day - I spotted a lot of late model Chargers and Challengers. Then - a rarity in Astoria - a bunch of people on horseback. I followed as fast as I could, hoping to get a Mustang I saw with the horses in the background, but my Sketchers... well, no horsepower. I was able to get this shot, though.

There was also an MGB (circa 1979?) following a red Porsche 911 (not in frame) that passed, but other than that, a slow day on Shore. I started home, and ran into P., the '55 Chevy owner. He was on the way to Serino's and promised to take me someday.

Someday ended up being the next day, Sunday the 13th. Serino Hot Rod is a shop in Astoria - write about them in my previous blog post.

The walls are filled with license plates from all over the US and nostalgic photographs of their father's - and grandfather's - racing years.

The block was lined with cars from different eras in various states of restoration:

An expanded gallery of shots can be found here.

Astoria Garages, 3.13.11

I wandered down to Shore Blvd., and P., the '55 Bel Air owner, drove by and said he was going to Serino's. So off we went. Serino Hot Rod is a shop in Astoria that has been around since 1935 - this is the 3rd generation running it. Beaters in various phases of restoration lined the street; it was car and photo heaven. They were kind enough to let me poke around, uncover cars, and shoot at will. I'm feeling a little sick of digital, so here are a few Holga shots... I plan on doing another post with the digital shots.

All photographs ©2011 Megan Green, All Rights Reserved. Do not copy, download, or screengrab without my permission.

Shore Blvd, Astoria 2.27.11 - Early Signs of Spring

Sunday was bright, sunny, and slightly above freezing in Astoria. Since it was a brutal winter, I had an inkling that some car people would be anxious to take their hot rods out of the garage and cruise a little. My intuition proved right. There were some later model muscle cars sunning along the river as I walked, but I didn't see anything that truly caught my eye until I backtracked and walked north - and spotted a '72 Charger. I took a few shots, and then the owner came along and had to take off. I kept walking, and got to a '55 Bel Air just in time to take a picture of *it* driving off! I watched it drive away... then I backtracked, and it was parked again. I started chatting with the owner, and he let me have the run of it - get inside, open the hood, the works - and then as luck would have it, the Charger came back and parked. Yes, spring is hopefully in the air.

'55 Bel Air:

'72 Charger:

For all you Mopar people, his 440 engine:

Note the sticker: right here in Queens, the Connecting Highway is legend in street racing. Check out the history here.

The House of Tires - Odessa, TX

This post is a little unusual in that I only took two of the photographs. It's a cool story, though, so I'm putting it here. My sister and her husband are building a house... with dirt and truck tires. The other day, I got a text from her that they had filled the last tire and they were done with that portion of the house. Cause for celebration, indeed! I had previously encouraged her to post a blog, but between being a Mom, a wife, a vet tech, and, well, building a house with a lot of dirt and a lot of tires, she just didn't have the time. So I'm telling the story in my blog while she gets comfortable with a celebratory glass of champagne and this blogger software.

The details (I have to check my phone, she texted it all to me):

• Concrete for foundation poured 11/17/09, and they started packing dirt about 5 days later
• 539 tires
• 67 tons/130 cubic yards of dirt, around 90 of which got sledgehammered into tires. the left over dirt will get spread inside the perimeter to raise it to a 4" slab
• Approximately 250-300 pounds of dirt per tire. That was about three wheelbarrows full of dirt per tire, until after the third tier was complete and the fourth tier was too high. From then on, they used kitty litter buckets, and most tires used about eight kitty litter buckets full of dirt
• Now they are going to "slap some concrete mixed with dirt in the v's between the tires utilizing three soda cans to take up space to further the energy efficiency"
• Last tire packed 4/12/11

Without further ado, here are the photos.

J. measuring:

Frames for the concrete:

Foundation and first tire:

First tire filled:

The process:

Third tier:

My sister said that as they built the wall of tires, people would pull up and ask if they were building a track for go-karts.

Filling the last tire:

J. with the completed wall of tires:

My sister will take on the story from here, since there is a lot more house to build. You can follow the story at Tread Lightly - H.O.T.