Even though I only found out about this event 2 weeks before it was happening I knew I had to make the drive to SoCal. I have been out to SoCal about 4 times already this year covering events such as Toyota Fest, Eibach Meet, HellaFlush 5 and now the StanceNation Meet. I planned on making this a 1 day trip from Phoenix, AZ and tried to get some sleep Friday night which didn’t really happen. I did get about 2-2.5hrs of sleep in before waking up at 5am to get ready. By the time I loaded up the car, checked all my fluids and tire pressure and got gas I left Phoenix around 6am. We made awesome time on our trip since I don’t like stopping unless its completely necessary. We arrived in just under 5hrs. Not bad for a 370 mile trip. We arrived to the meeting location Island Motorsports in Buena Park at around 11am. The main parking lot and street was already packed with cars by the time we got there.
I would say there ended up being at least 100-120 cars that showed up. This meet wasn’t nearly as large as HF5 but sometimes it isn’t all about quantity but quality. The quality of the cars that came to this event was excellent. There were many cars I had not seen before at any meets or even online. I have been trying to network with a lot of the SoCal guys so when I do go to events like this it makes it more fun to have people to kick it with. The first person I talked to when I arrived was Milt (CamberSC on many forums) who drives an amazing white 350z on Gold Work VS-XX wheels. His stance is on point and one of my favorite Z’s. I also think I met just about every single other stanced out 350z owner there was at the show thanks to John Park (ParkHard). I ended up meeting so many people I can’t even remember all the names!! Another person I was looking forward to meeting was Elvis who runs StanceNation. We talked for a while about the meet and just the movement of stanced out cars in general. He also asked if I was interested in being a photographer for StanceNation to cover Arizona. Of course I accepted!!! So stay tuned and keep checking out the StanceNation website for upcoming features on cars with sick wheel fitment. I can’t wait to start lining up cars to shoot!!
Here are a few pics from the meet I took. For the entire gallery of my coverage click HERE
This was my first time attending an Eibach Meet and I must say I was impressed with the Honda crowd and the amount of ridiculously clean and well built cars. This show had it all: the cleanest hondas you’ll ever see, wire tucked engine bays, gangster wheel fitment, sick ass interiors, you name it, it was there. Now, I haven’t owned a Honda since I sold my last 94 GSR back in 2005 but many of my friends drive them and I still have respect for the cars. I was originally going to drive by myself but had a last minute change of plans and ended up riding with my buddy Jay who owns the cleanest EK sedan in Az in my opinion. We headed out from Chandler, Az to Corona, CA Saturday afternoon where we met up with one of Jay’s buddies, Mike, a fellow EK sedan owner. Several more local Cali EK sedan owners arrived later that night for a little “ferio party”.
We ended up slamming down countless Bud Lights while grilling up tons of food. I was in heaven with all the steak, corn tortillas, homemade guacamole and salsa. We called it a night at around 1am so we could get up at 6am and get ready for the meet. We arrived to the meet around 8:15am and as soon as we parked I immediately started taking as many pics as I could while taking advantage of the cloudy morning and awesome lighting. Around 11am the sun came out and the amount of cars rolling in was stupendous. I heard there were a total of around 600 cars. We left the show around 3pm and headed back to Mike’s house for some relaxation and more grilling and beers before we had to head back to Az. I had a great time and I am totally glad I went to this event. I ended up running into at least 15-20 of my friends from Az which made the show even better. Enjoy the pics!!
For the entire gallery of 250+ images, click HERE
March 27, 2010
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Well the time has come for me to move on to bigger and better things. I have enjoyed my 350z for about a little over a year and a half but I have my eyes set on something better. I have always wanted to get into the VIP scene and now is my chance to do it. Luckily I know many people that were interested in buying all the parts from my Z which will help me get my next vehicle. Stay tuned for what’s next from Big C.
Here are a couple final pics I recently took. I have never seen my car rolling so I figured this would be the perfect opportunity to get some pics and see how my car looks rollin down the street. Now I finally see what all my friends have told me when they always say “Damn C, your shit looks plain banana’s rollin down the street”.
Click for larger versions.
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January 3, 2010
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I’ll go ahead and kick off 2010 with a photoshoot of a 400+ HP RB25 powered 240sx. Justin from Pure Street Photo hit me up about a shoot he was doing and asked if I wanted to tag along. Many locals here in AZ know this car and are familiar with the owner Billy who runs the business called A Quality Tire. Billy is always out at the drift events with a mobile tire changing machine to help drifters on the spot with mounting & dismounting after they’ve burned up tires at the track. He also sells used tires in common sizes that drifters use. I didn’t get much time to talk to the owner of this car about the list of mods but a few things I do know are that it has a mildly built RB25 with a big single turbo, Apex’i Power FC, Ksport Coilovers, Overfenders and 5 Zigen wheels.
Click for full res pics!
-Chris @ CMpixels Photography
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December 18, 2009
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My buddy Justin with Pure Street Photo gave me a heads up on a photoshoot he was doing with a member of azawd.org with a clean ass Evo X and asked if I wanted to tag along. Of course I accepted since I absolutely love the Evo X body style and was hoping to purchase one but at the time it was a little out of reach for me and my wallet. Mark’s Evo X is hella clean and he is one cool ass dude. We shot this car in downtown Glendale, Az which has some nice older buildings which makes for a great back drop. I played around with some HDR shots and got some awesome results. I can’t wait to see what Mark has in store for his X in the future.
Click on the images for full size.
-Chris @ CMpixels Photography
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Posted in Photoshoots
Tagged azawd, evo x
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December 17, 2009
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Saturday Dec. 12th I attended the 10th anniversary of a local shop here in Gilbert, AZ called Intense Power. Intense has a huge following here in Arizona with the local car scene and has been dishing out quality work and insane cars for several years. They decided to celebrate their 10th anniversary by moving into a new state of the art facility and throwing a car show/charity event. Intense has had several magazine features on the cars they have built including their 1000+ HP widebody G35 and 1200+ HP custom widebody Supra TT. It was no surprise that the turn out at their charity car show was HUGE. All kinds of cars showed up to show their support including Honda/Acura’s, 350z’s, EVO’s, STi’s, RX-7′s, Supra’s and even a few super cars including a Lamborghini, Ferrari and Nissan GTR.
Many local companies such as Ksport, Kyoei USA and 350z Motorsports showed their support by sponsoring the event. Members from many local forums such as azht.net, az240sx.org, azawd.org, az350z.com and probably some others I am forgetting came out to show support. Pure Street Photo, MLS Media and of course CMpixels Photography were all on hand to give the show ample coverage with the photography. I spent most of my day chatting with friends and people I haven’t seen in a long time. It was a great time and I’m glad I spent my Saturday hanging out with friends, checking out all the hot girls and being able to see some awesome cars. Han, Pete, Darren & all the guys @ Intense Power did a fantastic job with this event and I can’t wait to see how their next one will be.
-Chris @ CMpixels Photography
Check out the full gallery HERE
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December 17, 2009
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Recently I had the opportunity to participate in a photoshoot for a calendar with several girls including Mercy Gamez. Mercy is a local model here in Phoenix, AZ who is trying to get a name out there for herself. It was a pleasure meeting her and taking pics with her. She is excellent at posing and just does her own thing which makes it easier on me. Below are some of my favorite shots I captured while doing the shoot.
-Chris @ CMpixels Photography
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November 21, 2009
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I was bored the other night and my car was pretty clean so I decided to do an impromptu photoshoot at a nearby well lit parking garage near the ASU stadium. I also had a new lens I kinda wanted to play around with that I haven’t really used yet. Recently I picked up my second prime lens, a Canon 100mm F2 and figured I would try some automotive shots with it for shits and giggles. This lens did not disappoint and when I got home to review the results I was really impressed with the color and sharpness. I used it on both my 7d and 5d II and just played around with different angles and apertures. I will definitely use this lens more often now that I know it is capable of producing excellent results.
For anyone wondering the mods done to my 2003 Touring w/Navi 6MT 350z, here they are: 20×9.5 -5mm & 20×11 -5mm Work Varianza T1S wheels in Black Polish wrapped in 225.35.20 & 255.30.20 Toyo Proxes4 tires, Ksport Coilovers with 12/10k spring rates, Ksport Rear Camber & Toe Arms, Nissan 4.08 gears, Fujita Intake, Powerlab 3/8″ Plenum Spacer, Megan Racing Resonated Test Pipes, Motordyne XYZ Pipe, Greddy Spectrum Elite Exhaust, Mastergrade Carbon Fiber Rear Diffuser, ’08 LED Taillights, 6k HID Bulbs, Luxor LED lighting for parking lights, license plate lights, dome light and rear trunk, Alpine W505 Head Unit, Infiniti Kappa Components, Alpine 4ch amp, JL 500/1 amp, JL 10W7 sub in Zenclosure sealed box and Clifford 50.5x 2way remote start alarm.
Pics from this shoot, click on them for high res:
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Posted in Photoshoots
Tagged 350z, flush, greddy, ksport, mastergrade, motordyne, offset, stretch, t1s, toyo, work
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November 17, 2009
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Here are some of my images from a local VIP car meet I attended in Las Vegas Thursday Nov. 5th after the SEMA show. Some friends and I read about this meet on the VIPstylecars.com forum while we were deciding on whether we should go to SEMA or not this year. Everything kind of fell into place this year and we decided to knock out 3 car events in one weekend. First was the SEMA show, then the VIP car meet and last but not least the AutoFashion VIP Festival in San Diego. We met a lot of very chill guys at the Vegas meet, some of them were locals and quite a few guys from Cali rolled thru as well. We first met in a Starbucks parking lot which wasn’t very well lit. I forgot my tripod and flash in Az so I had to do what I could with just using my cameras hand held and bumping up the ISO but no biggie. After leaving the Starbucks parking lot we decided to get all 25-30 cars to cruise the Vegas strip together. It was pretty rad and people were staring like crazy as slammed Lexus & Infiniti’s took over the strip. After cruising the strip we ended up a few miles away at a nice quiet parking structure behind Sushi Kaya where we hung out and took some more pics. Good times for sure and I am definitely looking forward to another meet next year.
Here are a few pics from the Vegas meet. You can view the entire gallery HERE.
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November 15, 2009
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This was my first time attending this event and it was a real change from what I am used to seeing. The Paradise Valley Annual Car Show is held every year at the Paradise Valley Town Hall in Arizona. This event is for classic automobiles ranging from late 1920′s up to the 1970′s. Attendance is by invite only so I felt privileged to be able to attend this event thanks to my friend Travis who’s boss had 3 vehicles that were chosen to participate in this years show. The day started out around 8:30am where we met at the amazing home of Dennis Wise. Dennis has done very well for himself and has an impressive collection of antique and custom classic cars. This year the 3 cars that were selected that he owns are a 1929 Model A Woody Station Wagon, 1937 Packard Sedan Super 8 and a 1933 Packard Super 8 2/4 Coupe. I got the pleasure of riding in the 1929 Model A aka “woody”. It was quite the change to ride in such an old school classic but I must admit I felt pretty gangster’ish rolling in such a vehicle. No windows at all, jeans and a short sleeve shirt and a temperature of around 55 degrees in the early morning made for an interesting morning commute to the car show.
We showed up at the car show which already was underway around 9am. I heard someone say there were approximately 140-150 cars that were present. I grabbed both my cameras, loaded them up with some lenses and off I went to try and shoot as much as I could before the show ended at 11:30am. There were SO many nice cars at this event I just had to stop at each one and admire the details that each vehicle offered. I am a younger guy, so seeing these cars in person and paying attention to the detail in each car was really something. The hood ornaments had me trippin all day long, so many different ones and the detail was stunning. I tried to capture as many as I could with my cameras.
The event ended with a Police escorted cruise thru Paradise Valley where we didn’t have to stop at any street lights. The ’29 Woody Station Wagon was getting mad attention by people that were lining the streets watching the caravan go by. We probably could have picked up several fly grandma’s on the way (we had 3-4 extra seats) but we were all pretty hungry so we stayed the course where we ended up at The Hermosa Inn for lunch. All in all, it was a fantastic event and I am glad my homie Travis invited me along. I think I took 300+ pics in total. At the end I tried to capture some pics of some of the cougars I saw, so look out for those while you are browsing the full gallery. There are also some other interesting people I just had to take pics of. I’ll give you a hint for one of them…….think of the movie “Back to the Future”.
Here are a few teasers from the show, click on the images to see larger full res versions. You can see the entire gallery HERE.
-Chris
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October 27, 2009
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After skipping the last 2 or 3 years of the AZHT.net Sedona Run I decided this year I was going for sure. This is an annual event that takes place usually on the 2nd to last Sunday of every October. AZHT.net is an Arizona based discussion forum for Honda/Acura enthusiasts. This event has usually seen attendance figures in the 60-80 car range but this year was like no other. One of the AZHT members counted at one point 231 cars!! It was amazing to see so many car enthusiasts in one place. There were probably about 90% Honda/Acura’s and 10% other vehicles ranging from VIP’d out Lexus sedans to EVO’s, STi’s and even a 10 second foxbody Mustang.
Unfortunately the Posse Ground Park in Sedona could not accommodate this large of a group and the Sedona Parks & Recreation Dept called the Sedona Police Dept to inform us we had to disperse and find somewhere else to go. Several people mentioned a large state park in Cottonwood which was only about 15-20 miles away. A majority of the cars regrouped there and some stayed behind at the original park anyways and bbq’d for a while. I didn’t have a chance to take as many pics as I would have liked due to striking up conversations with so many people but its all good!
Here are some of my shots from this event. The entire gallery can be found here.
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October 22, 2009
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What is bokeh you might ask? Bokeh is the photog term used for that nice creamy, blurry background you see in certain images. This evening while browsing the photography section of a local honda enthusiast discussion forum (AZHT.net) I came across a thread called “Prime Time – Show us your 50mm“. This thread inspired me to write a quick blog entry about my 50mm prime lens. I was pretty bored tonight, so I decided to go thru some of my image folders and I found several pics I thought would be worthy of posting up to share with fellow photogs.
This lens was my first real lens purchase several years ago when I was just starting off with my photography hobby. Back then I was shooting with a Canon 300d and the 18-55mm kit lens. I was told about the “nifty fifty” from a friend of a friend and thought for only $69 + shipping, why not? Over the years this lens has stuck with me even though I do not use it as often as I should. It has served me well and even with its cheaper build quality it can still pull off some excellent quality photos. Below are a few of my favorites with the Canon 50mm F1.8 II. Enjoy!
Click on the images to view a larger size.
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October 14, 2009
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So this last Saturday I decided to try out my new equipment at the Drift & Drag event at Firebird Raceway in Chandler, Az. I figured this would be an excellent chance to try out my new Canon 7d and Canon 70-200 F4L IS lens I recently purchased. The camera and lens definately did not disappoint and I was pretty happy with the images I was able to capture. This was my first time using a zoom telephoto lens for moving subjects and I still have a lot of practicing to do when it comes to panning. I can’t wait to get out there and go to more Drift events. This event I had to cut short because I totally forgot to bring a hat and the sun took its toll on my shaved head after only an hour and a half…..lol. Next time I will go out more prepared!
Here are a few shots from the event. The entire gallery can be seen HERE.
October 12, 2009
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So I figured I would start my first blog entry off with some info on my newly purchased photo gear. I am a big Canon fan and so far over the course of a several years I have owned the Canon 300d, 30d, 50d and now the brand new 7d. I have learned a lot from my previous cameras over the years and I know that its not always the camera, but the lenses that usually make the biggest difference in the quality of your images. But I still love upgrading whenever something new comes out (not really a need, but more of a want, lol). I have also used full frame cameras such as the Canon 5d and hopefully one day I will add a FF to my list. I was actually about to order the Canon 5D Mark II but after reading up on the 7D and all its new features I decided I will hold off on a full frame body until Canon releases some new models with the updated focus & metering system.
So my latest camera was the 50d which I sold on craigslist in less than 24hrs. Thanks craigslist!!! On to the Canon 7d which offers many new features that I am still getting used to. A brand new 19 point auto focus and 63 dual layer metering system are on board along with dual digic 4 processors. Improved high ISO noise is greatly reduced with this camera, I can attest to that for sure! I have never been so please with ISO 3200 & 6400 images like I am with the new 7d. I also just bought my first “L” series lens, the Canon 70-200 F4L IS. I needed something with more reach since the longest lens I had before getting the 7d w/28-135 IS kit lens was my trusty Canon 17-55 F2.8 IS. I am extremely pleased so far with the 70-200 after only using it for less than a week. People say this lens is Canon’s sharpest zoom lens and judging by the images I’ve seen online I don’t doubt it. I can’t wait to use this lens more out in the field!!
-Chris
