GOODGUYS: Tough Work, But We Like It!

Photos by Bob Roseberry & David Marin

Story by Bob Roseberry

One of the difficulties involved in covering an event like Goodguys’ Northwest Nationals is volume. There’s a lot to see, and a lot of space to cover, and there’s no golf carts in the CruZin’ garage, so we hoof it. Choosing which cars to photograph is affected by volume also — we can’t shoot’em all – so it boils down to what grabs us, and that could be anything from a full on show car to the most bug-covered driver in the park! No rhyme or reason, no criteria, can’t define it, but we know it when we see it! Admittedly, things like the lighting can play a part, as can positioning. The most “grabbing” car in the world loses its’ photographic appeal when it’s bisected by heavy shadow and strong sunlight, or if it’s parked “funny”. Sometimes the answer is to come back later, as long as the changing light doesn’t make things worse, or if the car is still there! Over the course of several days, though, there’s time to get a pretty good cross-section of the iron on hand, except that the cars that were passed on Friday sometimes aren’t anywhere in sight on Saturday or Sunday! Whoosh, it’s a hard job, but someone’s got to do it!

Of course, as one might guess, the complaint parts of the preceding are tongue in cheek. We look forward to Goodguys, and if something keeps us from hitting each day, we feel deprived. This year’s edition featured great weather (yes, it was hot — or “HOT” as one participant observed, but that’s better than rain), and, it seemed, packed with more interesting, and more new, different and ingenious cars than ever before. The pictures accompanying this story will give you an idea of the variety and quality. So, yes, covering Goodguys can be a “hard job”, but we love it, and ain’t gonna’ quit doing it!