Growing up in my high school and college days, I was HUGE (massive) into cars. So much that I started a car club when I was 15. The legal age for a driver’s license in SC used to be 15 (insurance companies get confused about that). During that time I made a very good friend who is the North American distributor of D2 Racing, which is primarily a performance suspension parts manufacture.

My buddy wanted me to take a few pictures of his new inventory. Being the good friend I am, I gladly obliged… However I’ve never really tried my hand at product photography. I’m NOWHERE near as patient and talented as my friend Jeff Creech, but thankfully the pictures were requested to be a simple white background.

So, I took a quick trip to Micheal’s crafts store, picked up two pieces of big white cardboard (I asked the young cat-crazy cashier if she could put them in a bag… she didn’t think that was funny). Set them up in an “L” shape, flanked the 2 alienbee large softboxes, and was amazed at how easy it was to snap away beautiful solid shots. Now I’m not going to write a book about product photography, I’m just letting you know how simple it was to get the following shots:

As you may imagine, a little bit of photoshop was involved to nuke some of the trailing shadows out. Other than that, the images are practically untouched. Not bad for half a days work!

I never like to shoot alone, so I brought my talented friend/neighbor Ian Curcio who helped GREATLY. For this assignment I braved the direct sunlight, and to overpower the sun I had to have a sophisticated VAL (Voice Activated Lightstand) to circle around the car and combine exposures in Photohsop for the final results you see below.

Mad props Ian, you were a BIG help!!

ADV.1 already has a very impressive lineup of outstanding photography, so I had to be on top of my game for this photoshoot. This was my first time trying the technique of light painting. Basically leaving the camera open for 10-30 seconds while I “paint” the car with light. Learned a lot, looking forward to my next car shoot. Feels like the good ‘ol days when I first picked up a camera.

Photographing cars was the reason I got my first camera. I’ve always been a big car guy, but you wouldn’t be able to tell by my current ride; a Scion xB. Maturing sucks. My brief 10 year driving history includes having my name under an 87 300ZX, 96 300ZX, 94 RX-7, 99 Subaru 2.5 RS, and now…. the box. Unfortunately a fire-spitting RX-7 can’t haul all of my photography gear.

Back on point, after a 2-3 year hiatus of not shooting cars (focused on people and designing), I got an itch to shoot Lauren’s new Volvo C30… that, and I had a day left of renting the Canon 15mm 2.8 lens for the Ashley Knights Jr. photoshoot (hence the same location!). I wanted to focus on just 1 shot, a motion/rig shot. This technique used to be a super tight-lipped secret up until a few years ago. I like to think I was one of the first digital photographers to figure out how to take this kind of picture. Along with names like Easton Chang, Luke Munnell, Josh Mackey, and Jason Siu come to mind as well. Back then I was using a 2.5mp “state-of-the-art” Olympus camera lol. In fact it was a rig shot that gave me my big break in the automotive industry, and opened a lot of doors. Now with the spread of blogs, tutorials, and every photographer out there willing to share every shred of knowledge in a youtube video for any kind of fame, the secret isn’t so, secret.

Unedited image. Despite an occasional car at 3am, the famous tunnel had very little traffic.

My trusty rig, totals 12′ in length. Got the piping specialty cut at some NASCAR shop in North Carolina years ago.

The two 6′ poles are connected with a slightly smaller diameter metal sleeve, and held together by… yes, paper clips
I may not have the fanciest rig on earth, but I dare say it’s the most practical!!

I almost felt like I was 16 again shooting my buddies cars long after midnight. In hindsight I would of done a few things differently for this Volvo image, but it’s a good starting point to my revamped interest in shooting things with 4 legs instead of 2.

BIG thanks to UrbanRacer.com for getting me media access. Shamefully I spent most of my time having a few Yuenglings in the paddock area, but hell I was mainly here to have fun. On to the pics:

I have this foot thing I’m working on… trust me it’ll be cool. But this shows where I was shooting for most of these pics.

One of my favorite shots; 2009 Champion Chris Forsberg leading 2004 and 2006 Champion Samuel Hübinette around the horseshoe.

Forsberg ripping around the horseshoe again.

Ryan Tuerck blowing smoke in my face. Thanks

Ross Petty smokin’ around the horseshoe. One of my favorite cars of the crowd.

Vaughn Gittin Jr. showboating for the crowd. The sound of this mustang’s V8 almost makes me want to buy one… almost.

Dai Yoshiahra against Chris Forsberg in the semi-finals.

Close-up of how beat-up these cars can get over 2 brutal days of drifting.

The big weiner; Dai Yoshihara. A crowd favorite.

Formula D has been around for nearly a decade, and the sport of drifting much longer. It’s one of the few motorsports where I see absolutely everyone associated with the sport having fun. Any attitudes that flare up over an unethical bump or crash is dissipated as quickly as the smoke just made. Drifting was founded on having fun, and when the sun goes down and cars are trailored away it will still be based on fun. Long live drifting.

MUCH credit goes out to Olly Howe for the cover illustration. We have collaborated before. I sent Olly the pics and art direction, and he returned one of the most incredible covers I have seen in my life. Chris Forsberg and Ryan Tuerck have never looked better! That added with a spot-uv for the black areas made this a fan guide that couldn’t be left behind. Literally. At the first Formula D event of 2010 in Long Beach, I made a mental note to count how many fan guides were left behind on the bleachers and ground. Flyers and litter were everywhere as usual, but said fain guide? Zero. None, NADA!!!!

Thanks goes out to Olly Howe, Jacob Leveton, Bob Hernandez, and Jackie Ling.

My buddy Jeff Creech, the cover car photographer for this issue, proposed for me to do a step-by-step guide on how the Import Tuner covers are pieced together. The idea had been itching the back of my brain for a while so this felt like the perfect opportunity. I’ve done a lot of covers in my 5 year span of being an Art Director, so why not go an extra step.

Since the Import Tuner covers literally take 4-5 days to complete because of back and forth company approvals and basically lots-o-work, screenshots were taken over the time period and pieced together later instead of doing a time-lapse video. It’s a lot to cover in just 7 minutes.

…and yes I know I accidentally said “if you have any questions, hit me up, i’ll try to ASK any and all that I can” at the end, sigh lol.

At the time of this blog post, this issue is on newsstands.

Out of nowhere, Ken Block’s Gymkhana Practice popped up last year on the car forums and blew our hats off; Raw power, endless pavement, incredible driving skill… it couldn’t be topped. It was just TOO badass. After the announcement that a 2nd Gymkhana was being filmed, I scoffed at how it’s not going to live up to the first, ESPECIALLY if the main car is the Ford Focus-esque looking Subaru STi. Oh how I was wrong, so very very wrong.

Nissan 370z – TAKE2 from WWW.TAKETWOWEB.COM on Vimeo.