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.
Brought to you by :

www.intunedonline.com
www.dj-atraxx.com

American LeMans Series

American LeMans Series presented by Tequila Patron
Mazda Raceway Laguna-Seca

So this is probably one of the last motorsports events I'll be covering in 2009. It's damn near wintertime already! Back to my favorite spot to shoot, Mazda Raceway at Laguna-Seca. These guys take care of you. I was unable to receive a photo vest (again) and was a bit disappointed. Nevertheless, work with what you've got. Arrived at the track around 630am, having not slept the night before and ran around the paddock grabbing early morning team shots. There's a thing I love being at a racetrack early while it's still quiet, a light mist is still hanging in the air and all the race cars are slowly coming to life. That and the smell of race fuel.
Where to start. It's the last in the 2009 series for the American LeMans Series. I was hoping that Audi and Peugot would be in attendance to battle it out, but as the economy is going bizerk, Audi pulled out of the 2009 season. There would be a few races ran this weekend. Met a cool guy, Andrie Hartanto racing in the Speed World Challenge in the touring class. Insaneo tuned TSX going up against factory backed Real Time Acura TSX's. Grassroots racing at its finest. There would also be the Star Mazda race, kind of open wheel racing. And then the American LeMans Series which had 4 classes, the GT1 and GT2 and the LMP1 and LMP2.
All weekend I saw nothing but talent. If you haven't seen the Corkscrew at Laguna-Seca, its a sharp corner and a straight drop. Requires balls. Big Ones. And these drivers had them. I'll continue a write up later on. Here are the pictures for now.

Shot with :
Nikon D200
Nikon D80
Sigma 100-300 f/4
Tokina 12-24 f/4
SB600
Starbucks venti iced white mocha
Footjoy extra thick socks

Gil deFerran takes a moment to himself. This would be the last race of his career, a fitting end to one of the most celebrated and winningest drivers in motorsport. Big congrats to him as he took the win this weekend.


Team deFerran unveils their special paint scheme on the Acura. The historic cars that took deFerran to victory in years past were also on display. Gil deFerran will continue managing his racing team.


Media and fans surround the deFerran unveiling ceremony.


Parade lap for deFerran and the historic racecars.


Mazda Raceway Laguna-Seca is awesome for fans as the paddock is just wide open. You can walk in and out of staging areas and get up close and personal with the cars as well as the mechanics and teams.

Yokohama sponsored Panoz


Porsche GT3 Cup


Lowe's sponsored Acura gets a push after being safety checked by IMSA officials.


Corkscrew claims another one.


Exits the corner too hot and pushes out wide into the gravel.


Real Time Racing's TSX, 5 in total, battle it out at the top of the Corkscrew.


Gil deFerran takes the Corkscrew


Classic battle between an F430 and GT3


Raw American muscle.


The BMW factory backed M3 LeMans Racers


Turbo'd NSX running in the Speed World Challenge GT Class