SEMA Show 2009

The SEMA Show in Las Vegas is a yearly gathering of the automotive world. It is easily the largest aftermarket automotive parts showcase in the United States and maybe even the world. It is a week long event filling up the entire Las Vegas Convention Center separated into different sections. I spent most of my week hanging out in the Wheel & Tire area with Konig Rims. These guys are great hosts and a bunch of fun guys to hang with. 

What happens in Vegas stays in Vegas so I'll just fill you guys in on the photos posted. 

We scheduled a photoshoot with Falken Tire midweek. On the agenda were the new line of tires and of course the Falken Tire models. First off the tires, Falken had just released two sets of all-terrain tire along with a 60,000 mile all season OEM replacement tire and a full line of big rig truck tires. This is a huge step for Falken as their line up consists of mainly performance tires. Big props to them. Of course, we did a semi-exclusive photoshoot of the Falken models. Hopefully these'll get featured somewhere, anywhere. Big thanks to Joyce Ho for direct and keeping googly eyed passerbys out of the way. That's about it for now. San Francisco International Auto Show coming up next. 

Shot with : 

Nikon D200

Tokina 12-24 f/4

SB600 with the Gary Fong sphere tupperware cereal bowl

Falken Performance Tire

The ever popular Azenis Tire

Nissan Cube

Please check out : 

www.intunedonline.com

www.falkentire.com

November Randoms

Ahh...Thanksgiving is done. 2 pot lucks couple of dinners and lunches. A ton of food and food coma. And no Black Friday shopping. With the combination of trying to build my DJ career and photography career, everything eventually gets backed up. Fortunately still found time to hang with some friends and shoot their car. David's RSX and Kingston's TSX. Our bad for having you wash your car and hope for a car shoot, all to be shot down by too many shots of soju. But we made it up for him. Headed over to Treasure Island just as the sun was going down. We've mastered the art of the $2/2minute car wash. One person does the coins, one does the hose and one does the soap thing. Pictures are a little dark and wasn't really thinking when I shot these pics. Should've set them up better and did a better job. Hope you like it guys

Shot with : 

Nikon D200

Tokina 12-24 f/4

SB600 with Poverty China Wizards + Umbrella

David's Jade Green RSX Type S

Kingston's TSX on mismatched rims

Was hired to do a little body painting model shoot at Fluid Ultra Lounge in San Francisco. Honestly had no idea what to expect, just show up and shoot. Didn't expect what I saw. All the girls were airbrushed with a sort of animal or primal look. Was pretty interested and as we were rushed for time, I'd have to work with what I had. I think there were 7 girls total and I was giving 1 1/2 hours to shoot. Things were backed up with make up since we were shooting inside a nightclub, I'd have to be done before doors open. Sorry to the girls that finished up late, wasn't able to have ample time to get proper lighting set up, poses, etc. Learned a lot of directing skills that night. Wanted to do a cross between that animal-instinct style imaging and a bit of glamour shots. Repeated a lot of the same poses with different models, just to speed things up. Creativity was on the low end. Let me know what you think. Still learning. I DJ'd at Fluid Lounge the following week. Yay.

Shot with : 

Nikon D200

Tokina 12-24 f/4

SB600 + wireless + umbrella

First model I worked with that night

Probably my favorite of the night

Really behind

Hey guys. This was supposed to go up a month or two ago. I'm super behind. Enjoy the pics. First set is from the final round of Formula Drift at Toyota Speedway Irwindale. Shot most of this with a Canon 5dmkII and the 70-200 f2.8 IS. Thing is sweet. 3200iso is perfect. Focus isn't as fast as I'd like but man...3200 useable iso. Second set is a re-edit of my previous model shoots with Aiko and Janelle with the PM Girls. 

Toyota Speedway @ Irwindale

Far East Movement

Chris Forsberg, winner of the 2009 Formula Drift season

Ken Gushi

Robbie Nishida lining up to go

Mike Essa dragging bumper. Supposedly he's competing with a BMW 3series next year. Should be sick.

Kenji Yamanaka dragging bumper as well

Top 16 in front of a sold out crowd

Hubbinette with the Shaun Carlson special livery

Ryan Tuerck advances as TMac spins out

Ryan Tuerck wins round 7 of Formula D competition

Samuel Hubbinette vs. Joon Maeng

Tommy Suell

KMR (Kyle Mohan Racing)

Alex Pfeiffer vs. KMR

Ken the Gush vs. Ryan Tuerck

Battle of the Z's. Forsberg vs. Nishida.

Everyone and their mom hit the barriers of the last turn

Winner!

Re-Edits of previous model shoots with PM Girls Aiko & Janelle

What have I been up to lately?

So what have I been doing lately? Keeping busy. Very busy, which is odd as it feels as though I have a lot of downtime along with a ton of busy time. October was one hell of a busy month. Back to back weeks of automotive event coverage along with photo editing and DJ'ing. Things pile up. Here's a brief run down of what's been happening.

My buddy Kong's sister is getting married next year and they decided to hold a small engagement dinner party for family and friends. I was the hired gun for photos and let me tell you, I've never freaked so much during a photoshoot. Ever. It was bad. First off, I had sold my two camera bodies (the D80 and D2H) and picked up a D200. First time using this camera. It's basically a combination of the d80 and d2h in one package. Without a solid portrait lens, I went out to rent a 17-55 f/2.8 monster lens. This thing is heavy and my hands cramped up during the dinner. Got to the dinner with just minutes to spare. Hoping to do some off camera flash set up, I set two Nikon speedlights on each corner of the room with my poverty wizards. Bad move. Not having my camera set up, I had to go from standard room shots to portrait shots. Me, being super freaked out and having no people skills, went to panic mode. Nothing was sharp enough, vibrant enough or exposed properly to me. I set the camera to super contrast, super sharp and super vibrant and shot away. Good god did I royally mess the photos up. Sweating like a pig and hands shaking like a coffee addict, damn near every shot was blurry. Managed to save a few but man it was a learning experience. Need to calm down and take things easy next time. Here are a few pictures. Sorry for taking a while to finish up the rest of them Liv and Shafeen. I'll give Kong a usb drive with all the pictures. These guys are cool. Hope to shoot an e-session and *crosses fingers* wedding for them.

Shot with :
Nikon D200
Nikon SB600 + Nikon SB800
Blood sweat and tears. Well just sweat and tears.

Beautiful flower arrangements at every table.


Group portrait time. Big thanks to Shafeen's dad (I think?) for getting everyone set up.


Gift table


Shafeen + Liv


That was almost a month ago. Yes taking a while to post process the pictures. Photoshop is saving my backside whoa.

A week after the American LeMans Series at Mazda Raceway, I was on the way to Irwindale California for the final event of the Formula Drift 2009 season. I'll post those pictures up in a bit or check them out at www.intunedonline.com
This is how the rest of the weekend went.

On Friday, we were invited by fellow photog Allen Chu to help out with a fashion shoot for Meister watch. Originally planned to be shot on a yacht, Allen opted for the restaurant which provided some classier looks. Alien Bee lighting for the win. After the shoot, we were offered a ride around Newport in the yacht. Hell. Yeah.

Quotes of the week?
"Can we smoke on this boat"
"Um..yeah. As you can see we really don't give a sh*t about money."

"Don't you just hate it when cops pull you over in your Lambo at 3am?"
"...nope can't say that I do."

Anyway, this is a $1.6 million yacht.


Our captain.


Our crew.


Sigh one day.


Random sea lion tanning on a dock.


Captain on the left, baller on the right.
(Don't mind the funky post processing, trying something new)


Mr handsome dude. Allen Chu with the camera.


Formula Drift coming up next

In the mean time, our Sunday adventure brings us to some random mountain between Fontana and the desert. Hard to explain this one other than I feared for my life and the well being of Allen's Murano. Made it to the top and never got stuck once!



The crew


Mr Kallusive Clothing Chaz


View from the top


Random bolt on the ground


North to the desert


Sunset to finish off the weekend


And what else?
Attempted to catch the meteor shower. Almost failed as there's not nearly a dark enough spot within the Bay Area. Drove out to Tracy and there was still a ton of light pollution. Got some cool star shots.






That's all for now. Gearing up for SEMA in Las Vegas. Hope things go well.
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