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.

Holga Meet Cars; Cars, Meet Holga

I had to remind myself this weekend that regarding my work, I make the rules, and the rules are subject to me changing them at any time.

The intent of this blog was to be for my work in progress that involves pro/pro-minded shots of cars. When I first started photographing cars seriously, professionally, I decided that the digital cameras were for pro work, and the Holgas and old cameras were reserved for my creative fine art work. As art is true to life (or life true to art?), both bled into each other. I started creating art with my digital and car shots with the black and white film.

So while I'm cleaning up the shots of Philly and DC Auto Show public days for my client, doing a quick load of laundry before packing for Chicago Auto Show, and waiting for the framer to *finally* finish framing a print going to a gallery in Texas... I give you Holga. There's no theme or common thread other than the camera that took them and that the subject matter is cars.

VW bug, Odessa, TX:

Tesla IPO, Times Square, NY:

Rumble in the Country, CT:

Display at Woodward Dream Cruise, MI:

Mustang in Mustang Alley, Woodward Dream Cruise, MI:

Details, Greenlawn, NY:

Rat rod, Greenlawn, NY:

Found in my 'hood: Astoria, Queens, NY:

...and someone's project car that I really really want to see uncovered:

...Eventually, I plan to make some of these available for purchase; I'm currently exploring options between Red Bubble, Zazzle, Etsy, Etc.

2.2.11 - Snow.

Most of the country has been getting snow; we've got tons of it in NYC. I walked around today with my camera, and here's what I got.

Lots of slush and even more mountains of snow with nowhere to go:

Snow fauxhawk!

....aaaaand a pretty shot of the RFK/Triborough to wrap it up.

Houston Garages, December 2010

Houston, TX

As soon as I bought my plane tickets to visit my family, my mom got on the phone and told me that her friend John had invited me over to visit and shoot at his garage. The day after I arrived, we piled in the car and drove out to meet him at JLD Classic Enterprises, where he does stainless steel restoration as well as restores his own cars. He keeps everything as period-correct as possible.

John and his '41 Olds:

The ration sticker was still stuck on the inside of the windshield:

Detail and engine of his other Olds:

He took us for a ride in the '41, and I just kept shooting. There were no seatbelts as they weren't required yet in 1941... the seats were nice and bouncy. The car had some pick-up, and you felt invincible speeding down the road. It's huge!

Come on, if you grew up in the 70's like me, you know I had to take this shot as John Travolta sang "Greased Lightening" on my internal soundtrack:

After we admired the Olds', he uncovered the Packard:

The walls were covered with parts, as they should be:

And then the Studebakers:

We took the '41 down the street to his buddy George's shop - GAP Racing - to see the muscle cars he was currently working on:

Are you drooling yet?

Then across the street to another to see a Skorpion Crosley in the process of being restored.

Special thanks to John Doerfler and his friends from the Gulf Coast Region Antique Automobiles of America for sharing their enthusiasm for classic cars and their history. I *will* make it to Houston on the second Monday of the month for one of your cruise nights. Thanks also to George Palazzolo of GAP Racing for letting us poke around and generally get in the way of his mechanics while drooling over his Chevelle. And, of course, Mom, for bragging about me taking photos of cars and getting us invited in the first place.

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I hope you like my shots. I prefer to keep my shots realistic, bordering on documentary, and don't do any special post-processing; I'll leave the HDR and desaturated shots to those who do it well. I think real is what I do well. I took over 200 shots in an hour and a half on this day, and it was hard to edit down to 20 for this story. If you want to see more, please visit my gallery on SmugMug by clicking this link.