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I shot some photos for a local pressure wash company earlier today. The owner, Bob Mckown, contacted me to get some quick images of his truck. We will soon be working together more and I will be photographing his full extensive fleet of equipment. Future plans also include photos of job sites and short films featuring staff and work. They do great work and I look forward to capturing their talent.

I stopped by my friend Sterling’s house yesterday and took some quick video of his daughter, Kynlee.  This was my first time using video with my new Canon 60d. It wasn’t much, but I thought it was a neat video for them to have.   Watch the video here.

I recently had the opportunity to shoot a car for a notable online site dedicated to low, modified cars.  The site, StanceNation.com, is one of the most popular online blogs dedicated to this style of car.  I met the owner of this site a few months ago after posting some pictures on Facebook.  We talked about working together and developing some images for features on worthy Virginian cars.  Before talking to Elvis, the owner, I had just taken pictures of this particular car. Elvis liked the car, but the pictures were already public.  Becoming viral quickly, we missed the opportunity to make the car StanceNation exclusive.  After a few months of planning, we coordinated another shoot for StanceNation and got the ball rolling.

The car will be featured soon, and I’m excited to be a part of the release.  I love when I can meet new people through photography, and I love when I can contribute to a partnership.  Daniel Bonomo, the owner of the S13, has brought the car to an amazing level of detail.  I tried to capture this car’s presence through the lens, but it really is an extraordinary piece of work in person.  Battling the hardship of shooting a black car during the sunny, clear noon time, I managed to get a set of really good photos.  I was worried about the scheduling issue of this car’s shoot, but I got through it and bared the difficulty.  I’d love to get ahold of this car at night and give it a fresh shoot with external lighting.  I plan on arranging that in the future because I know the car would sit beautifully under a session of light painting.  The feature will be live on StanceNation soon.  Until then, enjoy the pictures here.

I’m quite excited about these photos.  I’m excited about the car, the location, the shots, and the experience.  The car is absurd and ridiculous, and it just leaves me in awe.  The magnificence of this Civic goes beyond any other one I’ve ever shot.  Trevor Charbonneau owns this crazy car, and it gives him a mix of love and contempt.  He loves the car’s character, but sometimes hates its temperament. Scraping the ground 24/7, burning tires and fenders, and taunting Trevor with it’s obnoxious electronic tendencies, the car’s personality  has become a normal thing for Trevor.  This EK Civic started life conservatively boring, but has gone through stages to become a truly unique car.  After learning his hand at cars, Trevor dropped it to the ground and along with other in’s and out’s, converted the car to right hand drive.  Actually, this WAS Trevor’s attempt at learning cars.  He used this Civic as his guiding textbook, and this is how he became familiar with taking a car apart and putting it back together.

During the shoot, Trevor let me drive the car, and I was in heaven.  I’ve always wanted to drive a right hand drive car.  It was a weird feeling, but I could definitely get used to the novelty.  The attention and funny looks this car generates are quite funny.  I can honestly say that this car gathers as much attention as a Ferrari F430 I drove around in.  So many people are curious about the car, and a lot of people get caught off guard.  At red lights and parking lots, we had quite a few double-takes.  That kind of amusement left me fully entertained.

The shoot was fun, and the location worked perfectly with this car.  The downtown setting felt right, and I tried to utilize a strong sense of color with the editing.  We shot for a few hours, ate some Mexican food, and chatted about everything from the days of Myspace to the Canadian pronunciation of words and letters.  This was a good shoot, and I hope these pictures make their way around the internet.  I look forward to seeing this car in the future, and I look forward to using the downtown setting again.  If we shoot this car in the future, hopefully Trevor will  get his interior put back together so I won’t have to sit in the back seat/floor.  Enjoy.

As I mentioned in my last blog post, I’ve been working on my current project covering Virginia Beach’s Team Sumospeed. We’ve been planning for further filming and arranging more cars in their roster. Sumospeed also recently participated in Drifwater, a drift practice event in Moyock, North Carolina. I travelled down with the participants and battled the 30 degree weather to film coverage of the event. Although everyone was miserably bundled up from head to toe in jackets, masks, beanies, and gloves, the day proved successful for tire shredding and sliding. We had some car difficulties, but managed to get a few good runs in throughout the day. I filmed, the drivers got wild, and everyone had a blast as usual. The next Driftwater should be warmer, so the day might be a little more enjoyable. Watch the coverage here.

I’m working on a series of pictures and videos for a local car group that I’ve known for a few years. This team, Sumospeed, consists of a group of friends that share a love for modified cars. Sumospeed has organized many charity events, car shows, drift meets, and tournaments. Sumospeed is growing and heavily impacting the car community. They are a big local name, and are soon becoming an even larger iconic group of enthusiasts. As this team consists of approximately 30 cars, and we will continue this project progressively. This set contains pictures and videos for Sumospeed’s Mike Torres and James Beck. Both cars are two extremely diverse examples of a very popular platform, the 240SX. Sumospeed grew from a love of this particular Nissan chassis, but has since diversified and grown. I’m eager to get this project together and to conclude with a finalized compilation film. After this set, I will begin working on a video I filmed of a drift event in which Sumospeed participated. For now, enjoy these sets of pictures and watch the two videos here.

Last week, I decided that I needed to give my buddy Joe an updated video for his GS. This GS was the first car that I made a video for, so I wanted to give him something newer and better. I have learned a lot since I made that first video, and I have been able to utilize equipment, editing, and shooting at a greater level. I’m still learning, experimenting, and trying to understand video, but I took this as an opportunity to see my current state versus my beginner state. Granted, it has only been a few months, but I’m very happy with my rate of progress and I can only keep pursuing. Watch the video here.

At this time, I also wanted to make a closing recap of my videos from 2011. I’ve done a few and learned a lot. I’ve gained some sort of personal style and tried to learn various techniques. Although I got into video kind of late in 2011, I still wanted to built a small demo reel of my work. I used some footage that I had in other videos and I used some footage that I didn’t put in anything. I’d like 2012 to continue in a positive way and I’m eager to strive in my future video endeavors. Watch the demo reel video here.

I just got a new lens that I’ve been eager to shoot.  I only used it once before I took these pictures, but I’ve still yet to go out for more than a few minutes and really shoot around.  As I was getting some Christmas shopping done, I drove through downtown Norfolk and got a few quick pictures with the new lens.  I raced my 3% battery and got a few good ones before my camera gave up on me.  I absolutely love this wide angle lens and I plan to utilize it frequently.

LS1′s are the popular V8 swaps in the 240 scene.  Even Toyota’s 1UZ motors have been swapped numerous times over and over.  However, Dan Hillian wanted to try another V8 route for his purple S13 coupe.  After swapping in Nissan’s own VH motor, he has created a drift ready monster.  Painting the whole interior and engine bay in metallic gold, Dan’s loud personality can be seen inside and out.  As purple as the car is, people can only smirk for so long before the dreadfully magnificent scream of the VH terrorizes them and leaves a thick aroma of gas and smoke in their face.  I wanted to get this car in a more planned location, but we had to roll inconspicuously to a low key spot due to no plates or registration.  However, we shot some quick pictures, and I got to try out my new Sigma 10-20mm wide angle lens. While shooting, we may have blown some smoke and stirred up a quiet community, but that’s what made this short photoshoot so much fun.

Brian Crook is an established name in the Volkswagen community.  Owning a number of VW’s throughout the years, people have known Brian to be one of the early supporters of the scene before today’s current popularity struck.  I have shot some of his earlier car’s, but I was very excited to shoot video and pictures for his most recent Cabrio project.  This car started life as an ordinary MK3 Cabrio sitting on some generic wheels.  Since buying the car, Brian has transformed the whole front fascia with a Jetta front end, shaved parts of the body, painted the whole car in a glossy wine colored paint, and lavished the car with a rare set of aggressive, chrome treated BBS RF’s .  The car itself is a very notable, high profile car online.  The car sees a big following on the Internet.   In result, this shows much love and support but also brings much hate and criticism.  People love the style and direction, but many others simply don’t “get it.” Brian loves how much conversation this car can spark, and others have taken note, too.  These pictures and video are making their way around the forums and blogs quickly.  As Brian continues his journey with this car, I hope I can capture it more as it gets farther down the road to completion.  Watch the video here in 1080p.