California Dreaming...

...from a photographer's notebook

The title hasn’t much to do with the lyrics of the Mamas and Papas song…just the fact she was wearing California plates and – of course – had me dreaming…or at least dreamy.

On the way home from mounting my 'Scapes exhibit and later exploring some beachy stretches along the Severn on a great summer late afternoon, I realized I was running on fumes – not the car, the tummy. Easy to forget eating when otherwise so occupied…so stopped at an AppleRubyFriday’s type restaurant to fill my long empty tummy-tank…great big salad, a rack of ribs, some high octane iced tea of the Long Island variety, and a fudge brownie and ice cream concoction for dessert. Sweeet…no longer hungry.

But what was quintessentially “Shweeeeeet” as I stepped outside was this iconic example of mid-‘60s Detroit Iron that yanked at my eyeballs like a high powered electromagnet turned full up.

We should all look as good at 50! See her without the Blogger clutter here

There, next to the restaurant’s parking lot – with a nice dark glass building as a backdrop! – was this 1965 Chevrolet Impala SS (Super Sport) convertible, obviously lovingly maintained. Naturally, I had to shoot her from every angle (if the owner had been present, I’d have asked for a look under the hood!), and I’ll share some more images with you down the road…

Ahh, yes...she left me dreamy! See her in higher definition here

Call me sentimental, but as I edited this image, I could hear a heady audio mix, comprised of the gutsy rumble of her 396 cubic inch V8 engine through dual exhausts at idle and wafting from her radio into the air of this lovely summer evening, Bert Kaempfert’s “Strangers in the Night.”

Ahhhh…

©2015 Steve Ember