Ensenada

The purpose of this trip was not so much photography but rather to assist my daughter with planning for her wedding in late December.  She and her fiancé have selected a wonderful B&B called Villa del Valle.  Being a very small wedding of 14 or so people (immediate family and uber close friends), she wanted to make simple arrangements and keep the weekend a relaxing mini-vacation for her guests.  We did get some shooting in but as I look at the images they are certainly not focused in any way.  Rather, we shot what presented itself!  Nice change.

We stayed at the Estero Beach and Resort hotel.  Nice and inexpensive but the location put us on the south side of the bay and too far away from the wine country area to the north. Lovely grounds, pretty good food and reasonably priced. There is no beach here, just a rocky ledge with clear sea water.  Across the small inlet we could spot pelicans in abundance but our glass won't get us there.  Every morning there was fog cover to some degree.

Ha! A great omelette with Green Ranchero Sauce.  Instead of hash browns (boring) he gets chilaquilles with salsa roja.

We headed out to the wine tour route and stopped for lunch at Monte Xanic.  They are a bit different architecturally and with a nice large pond in front they are quite an oasis in the desert.  Lunch is served in a garden with a waterfall.   The chef, Diego, cooks in a clean shed and everything is grilled to order.  Diego is from Argentina and serves up platters of grilled meat or salad.  We had the best grilled Romaine salad!  I went back to talk to him about how he prepared it.  So easy!

The kitchen!

Talk about reflections!

This is for Cory.

As we drove towards the winery we could not figure out what was on the front of the building.  It shimmered, had shadows . . . Turns out that it is covered by very thick rope that hangs from the top and is tethered loosely at the bottom.  Very different.

Tom loves to ask, "Which do you like better?"  It is always a rhetorical question.  I have found that the best answer is, "Yes."  So, which do you like better?

TD Ensenada 18.jpg

The next day we finally headed to the Villa to check it out and meet up with my daughter and her fiancé, Bill.  The Villa sits atop a hill and to get there we had to drive 4 km on a rutted, sometimes deeply, washboarded dirt road.  Think not Prius friendly!  Once there, however, we were glad we took it slowly and quit complaining!  Of course, we found a few things to shoot along the way. 

Along a dirt road, a home with its own chapel.

Muy elegante.  

The villa.

The soon to be couple.

The back of the villa.

Facing north.  Short patio.

The inside was filled with details, books, art, colorful and comfortable benches . . . These photos are shared, but they are really for my mom so she can get an idea of what is coming up as she will not be able to make it to the wedding.  Mom, this is your heads up!!  Erica will be a princess and we will all be taken care of in this royal palace.

The fireplace would be an excellent alternative if the outside patio is too cold on the wedding day.

The artwork on the right is a self portrait of the owner of the Villa del Valle.  He is quite the Rennaisance man.  Artist, winemaker, author, traveler . . . This image graces one of his winery's bottles.

This was a very tough shot.  It is a very large painting (self-portrait?) across from the stairway going upstairs.  I simply could not get the full perspective in the space that I had.  Maybe next time.  But, you can get the idea.

Every villa has a dog, or two or three.  This is the one my mom would love.  Just look at his majesty as he carefully looks out of the corner of his eye at Tom.  He has full run of the villa, inside and out.

We interviewed a florist, a photographer and a guitarist.  My favorite was the guitarist who simply took out his guitar and started playing compositions that met my daughter's request for something sort of classical, sort of smooth, out of the way . . . slow before the ceremony and maybe peppier, more celebratory afterwards.  He simply played away.  Smart move on his part.  He is in!  Oh, and when not playing solo he has a flamenco band.

Just down the hill from the villa (easy walk) is the Vena Cava winery.  Guests get a tasting and tour there as part of the package.  We hope to have dinner the night before the wedding inside the winery!  Fun or what?  The winery is built with reclaimed sailing ships, placed upside down over carefully constructed rooms to create a cave effect.  All the materials are reclaimed.  It is just awesome to see in person.  Four days a week there is a truck that serves up delicious tapas-like appetizers.

We had dinner at the world famous (yep true) Corazon de Tierra restaurant located on the property.  If you research it, look for the photos on Trip Advisor.  We did not take photos this trip.  The food . . . . well . . . . unbelievably great.  The villa also has a website at lavilladelvalle.com.  Looking for a place to be a prince or princess . . . just might want to check these places out.  For now, we are slightly into feeling comfortable that the arrangements are made.  Note the word 'slightly' . . . not to be taken lightly.  Thanks for sharing.

Bearizona

While I recovered from Ann's hike up Bill Williams Mountain, Tom went with the fully recovered Ann and Greg to Bearizona.  Ann works there during the summer season and knows everyone and everything about the venue.  This is more than a drive through park, although it is a very good one for that, as it also has a walk through section, a great gift shop and raptor shows.

Tom did not have much time there.  He is happy to share what he shot.

Bearizona is just one of many good reasons to head to the Williams area to shoot.  The other two are Greg and Ann!

The Rodder's Journal Revival

Tom recently flew to Austin to join his friend, Lee Pratt, on a road trip in Lee's '55 Chevy Nomad.  They headed to Baltimore to attend the 3rd annual RodderThe back story is that Tom and Lee have been friends since they both showed custom cars in the sixties. In 1967, Lee approached Tom about painting this same Nomad and, as a result,  their collaboration won paint awards at over a dozen shows across the country. Lee sold the car, regretted the decision soon after, and spent the subsequent decades trying to find it and buy it back. He was convinced that it had been through the crusher because all promising leads turned up nothing.

Four years ago Lee started building an exact copy of the car. He was over half done with the “clone”, when a man who had the original car, recognized it and found Lee on the net. They struck a deal and Lee had his Nomad back. Those who know the value of the highly collectable “55 Nomad have told them that this car was in the worst condition of any junk Nomad they have ever seen. Lee abandoned and sold the “clone” Nomad. Then, he disassembled the original car down to the bare frame and rebuilt the it from the ground up, replacing over half of the parts. Last winter, the car was 95% complete when Tom went to Austin to help Lee with the paint job, 46 years to the month that they had done the original paint job! The car had 100 miles on the odometer when they left for Baltimore! 

Tom puts his 14mm lens to good use while cruising I-40 in Tennessee.

In the hotel parking lot the first night. Notice the bug debris on the front of the hood. The Nomad has hydraulic front suspension which allows for a lower stance when it’s in a show, but is raised in this photo for adequate ground clearance. Tom reports that Lee has learned over the years how to create a car that rides low while also having a smooth ride. The cushy 1950’s seat was like a sofa and after riding all day, Tom said his back felt better than it has for decades of riding in “modern" car seats!

At each stop, people were taking phone shots of the car! At this gas station, a man approached Tom and asked, “Whose paint did you use?”. He said, “I don’t know, probably House of Color. What kind is it, Lee?”. Lee said, “PPG!”. Then they both saw the PPG Paint Company Logo on his company golf shirt!  He was happy and Lee kiddingly “asked for some free paint”. 

"We asked for free paint and all we got was this lousy sticker!"

Fun while passing polished aluminum oil tankers on the interstate!

Arriving in the Baltimore/DC area, they drove to their friend Richard Glymph’s house in Silver Springs for the evening. Several other cars convened there as well and Richard's excellent back yard provided a great backdrop. The green Model A sedan was to have accompanied Lee and Tom from Austin, but they weren’t able leave until the next day, so they arrived trouble-free at Richard’s the following day.

Lee with Austin friends Steve and Brian, who drove the Model A from Austin. Richard is barely visible.

The first official show activity was on Thursday night. The show producers managed to secure parking for 200 of the show's cars on the harbor waterfront in the very popular Fell's point.  It is an historic district with narrow cobblestone streets.  The cobblestones arrived in Baltimore from Europe being used as ballast in wooden sailing ships.  

The 1932 Ford below was driven from San Francisco by its owner, Roy Brizio. He operates a second generation hot rod building company started by his father Andy, in the 70’s. Roy is known for building specialty cars for ordinary millionaires as well as celebrities such as Reggie Jackson and Eric Clapton. Roy is himself a rockstar in the car building world.  He normally sends a large semi-truck loaded with his cars to all the large shows as a booth.  It takes the attraction of a special show for Roy to drive his car across the country for fun and leave the booth at home. 

The cloudiness and rain of Wednesday and Thursday gave way to sunny conditions for the Friday morning cruise to the Havre de Grace area along the Chesapeake Bay. This exquisite pin striping job still carried a coat of early morning dew! Over 200 cars participated in the parade and there were camera phones aimed their way at every intersection. They all laughed as Tom started hanging out the window with his camera, shooting them taking their picture!

This shot was taken out of the back window of the Nomad during the cruise. The black car is owned by new friends, Scott and Jane. It’s a total showcar work of art, much too perfect to be driven much and risk damage, but they drive it a lot of miles anyway!  Riding with Brian in the Model A are new friends Bruce and Clive. They flew over from London just for this show and for the Race of Gentlemen the following weekend. They had planned on taking their rental car on the cruise until Brian offered a ride! 

Clive was instrumental in setting up the first hot hod beach racing in England many years ago. Their event inspired the Race of Gentlemen started just three years ago. It has quickly became one of the bucket list items for hot rod fans in this country.

No story for this one.  Just enjoy the old cars.

One of the main problems with shooting a car show is that the background is usually messy, with other cars, people, wrong lighting, etc.  In the shade, you can barely read the license plate.  It means that the car was an old race car “exhumed” from the junkyard and given new life as a show car!

As a first time photo-shoot organizer, Tom was flying by the seat of his pants! First of all, when he asked several cars to stay late, he did not know that the organizers would be on the PA system announcing that all cars must leave the grounds by 6:00. Not really a problem since Tom knows the organizers and all was fine, they “let themselves out”.  But at least one of Tom’s favorite cars obediently left the grounds as both he and Tom missed out on a great opportunity. 

The car below was Tom’s favorite car in the show, owned by his new friend, Kevin. The car, a ’63 Buick Riviera, has had extensive, but subtle alterations. 

Below is Tom’s crew saying goodbyes before heading back to the hotel. The barely visible orange ’58 Thunderbird is owned by Richard and his son Brandon. The blue ’62 Impala is Richard’s, while the Green Impala belongs to Brandon’s girlfriend. Tom wound up driving the green one home as she had left early.

Below is a full shot of Richard’s Thunderbird in front of their hotel.  It is one of Tom’s favorite shots. The 1958 Ford “Squarebird” is extremely rare (when’s the last time you saw one?).

That is all for my blog.  More cars from Rodder's Journal Revival can be found on Tom's website: tomdavisonart.com.  Head over there if you would like more eye candy!!