My friend Mitzi, pinup and hot rod photographer extrordinaire from Mitziandco.com, has helped out MyRideisMe.com by generously supplying some of the hottest pinup pics found in our pinup model gallery and now is throwing a party!  Saturday night, 1/30/2010, after shooting pinup models wide-open at the Grand National Roadster Show, Mitzi will open her new studio to show her favorite pictures, hot rod art and a special burlesque show!  Everyone's welcome, so we'll see you there!  Some more details for you: Join us for an evening of Art, Music and Burlesque on Saturday January 30th as Mitzi & Co. along with Cherry Martini bring you Fueled The Art Show. An amazing collection of artwork will be on display and for sale from artists Keith Weesner, The Pizz, Max Grundy, George Barris, Mitzi Valenzuela, Dwayne Vance, Tiki Ray and more. The evening kicks off with live burlesque performances by Miss Rockwell DeVil, Violet Valentine and Betsey Bosen. Join us for the after party following Grand National Roadster Show on Saturday night. Only 10 minutes from the Pomona Fairplex at the Mitzi & Co. Photo Studio in San Dimas, CA. (address...

Written by Jim McIlvaine Our cars are our pride and joy. We love them, cherish them and in some cases, treat them better than we treat ourselves. Realistically, we know the relationships we have with our beloved machines usually don’t last a lifetime. Our tastes may change or our family obligations may finally win out and we eventually part ways. Still, we’ll always have memories and often photos are a great way to re-live some of those special times. Unfortunately, our love for our vehicles is often blind. When we look through the viewfinder, all we see is our car and we often overlook some pretty glaring issues that are really detracting from our pride and joy. It doesn’t have to be this way! To help out, here are three easy tips, which will, regardless of what kind of camera you own, help you take better pictures of your ride. Tip #1: Location, Location, Location You’ve spent all weekend detailing your car and finally it's perfect for pictures. Next, you break out your camera and start snapping some shots, right? WRONG! Your car deserves better than that. Take a...

It's Saturday night rolling down Main Street in El Segundo, a cute little Maybury-esque town in Los Angeles County. All of the sudden the street is lined with hot rods and some bobber-styled bikes. Cool cats pour out of a store front holding cans of Pabst beer in their hands. Have I landed in heaven?! Not just yet. It just the New Year's Nuisance 2 art show & party at Gasoline Gallery. This gallery has been growing into its own little epicenter of kustom kulture over the past couple years. Specializing in low-brow art and artist-featured t-shirts (and most recently a record label all their own,) Gasoline Gallery throws these great shin-digs every couple months when their gallery-show changes. I've been to a few of these now and am pleased to report this show was just as high quality and fun as the others - with artist, 3 sheets, taking the spotlight. That's enough of my blabbering, let me just show you the pictures! For more info on any of the work or artists shown, contact Gasoline Gallery or look em up on MySpace. I didn't realize at first...

If you can't wait until summer time Goodguys Gazette, scratch that now-time itch and check out MyRideisMe.com's pictures from the 2009 Goodguys Southwest Nationals! Did we shoot your car? Have you've ever worked at something and thought you were making progress improving your skill, then found out you were still way behind? That's happening to me with my photography. I didn't shoot alot of pictures at Goodguys, but I shot a few and thought a couple of them were pretty good! But then, just after I sent the, "Hey Swanee, you gonna load your shots?" email, I noticed he'd already loaded them in the events picture gallery. You're good people Swanee! 'Cept for the fact that your images kill mine, that is... You can tell by the logo, that slammed Caddy riding on twenty-plus wires photo above is from our Alaska-raised Director of Photography. Shown here is one of my best shots. This is the 1957 Chevy Custom that won the Goodguy/Grundy Kustom of the Year. Sunset in Arizona is frequently a, "Damn it's good to be alive" event and this Saturday evening in Scottsdale made for some great...

Here's a look at some of the coolest pinstriping found on MyRideisMe.com during 2009.  I think you'll agree, pinstriping is alive and well.  So many hours go into practicing and painting, it takes a dedicated person on top of the skill required to lay a great line.  Enough words, these pictures will tell a 1000 of them on their own.  Enjoy! Please check out the full Pinstriping Gallery to see even more works of art! Click the pictures to see them Enlarged. And a few of the stripers who we give much respect to, Charlie, Joel and Andy. So, there were so many pictures I wanted to share that one post is not enough.  Keep your eyes peeled for more!...

[poll id="3"] These pictures are a look back at my first year of blogging at MyRideisMe.com.  I've met some cool people and made memories that mean a lot to me personally.  This poll is a cool way to remember my favorites from the year.  Take a look at the pictures below and vote for your favorite.  Don't forget to click on the images to see them Full Size!  Check the links for the full stories as well. Bonnie's Bonneville Homecoming at Speedweek 2009.  The first roadster I've ever ridden in.  What a blast!  This beauty shot on virgin salt will stick in my brain for years.   Hilborn Injectors from Larry Volk's '29 roadster project.  This Hemi powered Model A will be an epic project that I plan on writing more about in the future as Larry builds his dream ride. The Hot Rods by Dean '55 Chevy at World Finals blew me away when I saw it waiting in line.  One of my favorite cars I shot all year.  Nothing like a stock bodied car with great stance!  Nick Hoesing's ex-Galaxie Custom and his buddy's 5 Window Coupe from Nebraska.  Cruising...

We've got another treat for you guys and gals from Motorbooks.  This time, we take a look at Basem Wasef's "Legendary Race Cars". "Legendary Race Cars" is Basem's Top 25 Race Cars of all time.  I dig how he's chosen cars from all corners of the globe and from all forms of racing.  The book includes an off-road race truck, a WRC Rally Car, a Pikes Peak turbo monster, Le Mans cars from various decades, F1, a Nostalgia NHRA dragster and a few cars from the early 1900's. The pictures and photography are excellent.  It includes shots taken by the author himself as well as old archive photography from the race car's hey-day.  Here's a few examples below of Basem's quality work. You can't have a Top Race Car's list without the legendary Ford GT40 can you? Here's a Jaguar D-Type which won the 1956 24 Hours of LeMans with a 200 HP 3,442 cc Dual Overhead Cam inline 6 cylinder.  The curvy lines of these 50's LeMan's cars are pure sports car perfection. Another legend, the Shelby Cobra Daytona Coupe, winner of the 1965 LeMans race.  The author explains the details...

Bonneville Salt Flat Pictures: One great thing about attending Speedweek at Bonneville Salt Flats is that there's something for everyone. You get to watch all sorts of vehicles leaving from the same starting line, all seeking to break the record of whatever class they're in. And just like in the "good ol' days" of hot rodding - the only thing anyone really cares about is going fast! But until I get to sit behind the wheel and drive down the salt at record breaking speeds, I've gotta pay attention to some of the other details that just might not have anything to do with speed! So here it is...Grease Girl's picks for Salt Flat Favorites 2009. Best Way to Get Around. This isn't a mini-sized hotwheel! This is a monster-truck sized red wagon! Best Body Type. Call me partial, but I can't help but have a little pride when the most common body type ya see at Bonneville is nearly as old as Speedweek and happens to be almost identical to my own daily driver! That's right, Studebaker Coupe's were aerodynamic when first made and they just keep on...

When you find cool hot rods like at Pomona, California's LA Roadster Show, there's bound to be great example's of hot rodding's art form: Pinstriping.  My man Swanee went nuts at the Roadster show and at the preceding So-cal Open House car show. Here's just one example of the slick pinstriping and great photos that we hope we can all learn from: What's out there in pinstriping? What colors might work on my car? (let the striper pick, you'll be glad you did) How much is enough pinstriping and what's too much? (tastes vary!) So hurry over to the pinstriping picture gallery and also, check out Pullin Lines #1: From Viva Las Vegas pinstriping gallery. MyRideisMe.com is looking for pinstriping artist to feature in a story and in our gallery.  Links to your website provided.  Let's see what you've got! And if this is your work, please tell...

Drift Day 26 Story and Photos by Daniel Lo over at Corner Speed Photo Thanks Dan! This past Sunday marked my first time shooting 4 wheels for me. My first love is the 2 wheeled variety over at Corner Speed Photo. Thanks to some professional guidance, I think it worked out! Held at USA International Raceway in Shawano, WI, "Drift Day 26" featured big names from the Midwest drift scene with the likes of Simba Nyemba of GripGambler and Mike Pollard of TMF Opposition in attendance. All this was made possible by my friend and pro shooter Danny Lim who was covering the event for Wrecked Magazine and was kind enough to invite an amateur to tag along. Check out his coverage of Formula Drift at Long Beach this year. Having had fairly minimal exposure to the sport of drifting beyond watching The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift and the odd YouTube clip, it took me a while to understand what exactly I was supposed to be shooting. Fortunately, Danny was on hand to coach me thru the basics so I had a bit of a jumpstart on...

You can't shake a stick at a hot rod or custom car show or here in the custom garages at MyRideisMe.com without seeing some pinstriping. We added a "Hot Rods and Pinups" gallery cause everyone likes the sexy vintage styled girls... The same kind of thinking made me add a Pinstriping Gallery. It's just a good fit. The gallery is LOADED with pictures. Well, not really, there's only the pictures from the Viva Las Vegas car show, put there's alot from that show. VLV's the kind of show where I'd say 80-90% of the cars have custom pinstripes. Here's just a few of the pictures in the gallery:[gallery = 27] To make the pinstriping gallery happen, we'll be shooting detailed photos of pinstripes at the shows and races we cover in the Event gallery and more importantly featuring pinstripe artist that are making their living pulling lines all over the country. Look for a story on Von Hot Rod and also my buddy Charlie the "One Arm Bandit". Charlie's also got a great community similar to us at Hot Rod Revival. Check it out! With the pinstripes on hoods,...

My new friend Justin filled us in on a car show in Australia. Thanks Justin! I arrived at the meet up for the Australian lowrider scene which was organised by one of Australia's newest lowrider club Loyalty IV Life. The event was held at Sydney's Homebush Bay. I arrived at 10 am to find great weather and about 10 or so Cars which ended up around 30 cars by the end of the day. There was various makes and models of cars at the show from Cadillacs to Buicks to even Pontiacs and Holdens. I walked around, had a chat to few of the owners whilst walking around snapping a few images. There were various clubs represented including: LOYALTY IV LIFE, OTHERSIDE, SYDNEY STYLE, OLDSKOOLRYDZ, HEART & SOUL, ETERNAL ROLLERZ and FRESH STYLZ. They had a BBQ and a hop off at the end of the day and I was glad to have made this event which will go down in history as Australia's first lowrider event. Photos courteous of Bliss Photography & Designs [gallery =...