Aimgain

AIMGAIN x Lexus: Andrew Kwong’s IS-F – Now BAGGED

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OK I finally have a few minutes to spare to do a write up on this shoot a few weeks ago I did with Andrew. He finally did it… He finally bagged his IS-F and it looks fan-fucking-tastic. It’s literally the icing on the cake for his VIP build and it’s just too good. When you look at a VIP car, it’s easy to say – well that’s just wheels and a drop and maybe a nice lip kit but underneath it all, there’s a lot of work (and money) that has to go into getting it to look like that and I think that’s why VIP builds are a little underrated at times.

Anyway, here’s the shoot we did last year around this time prior to him having his suspension all dialed in if you want to compare:

https://lifewithjson.com/2020/10/06/aimgain-x-lexus-andrew-kwongs-is-f/

It’s a night and day difference, really and it’s too bad a lot of the cool components that really cost the most are invisible to the naked eye because it’s all tucked underneath…

So good. It’s tough finding a really nice bagged car these days…

A little hint at what’s underneath is shown in his lug nuts… Any guesses?

A little closer… The orange might be a giveaway if you recognize it.

T-Demand lug nuts and there’s some T-Demand suspension components underneath as well. Too awesome.

The sun was setting at just the right time for us that day so it made for awesome shots.

That tuck.

Even the ass shot looks so much better sitting low to the ground.

Andrew mentioned he’s going to work on dialing in the fitment down the road to look less sunken, so we’ll see what he comes up with…

Special guest appearance – the FIT! hahaha I’ll have a blog post on the Fit down the road. I did manage to capture some shots of it while we were out.

A closer look at the T-Demand lug nuts.  I don’t typically like orange, but I do love the T-Demand orange…

Good to see he’s still looking back at it. Means he’s not selling anytime soon LOL

Side profile looking good…

Reflections everywhere that night.

We ended up randomly driving around and finding this sweet spot by accident and captured the sun just at the right time.

And just over the edge is a little lake. The closest we’ll get to some water-type photos LOL

Had to capture the T-demand decal though…

Carbon fender garnish…

And to end it off, we just snuck into a little loading dock to get some last photos…

Finish! I bet next year, there will be another photoshoot update LOL! I don’t think I’ve ever done this many photoshoots with new updates with any car other than mine hahaha

AIMGAIN x Lexus: Andrew Kwong’s IS-F

/ jasonhoang / Leave a comment

Another lowkey car around town is Andrew’s IS-F. He just recently got a full makeover with the full Aimgain bodykit and it’s looking hella fantastic. Andrew has been working on putting this car together over the last few years and I don’t blame him – VIP parts are expensive AF. Every little thing seems to have some premium price so you gotta pay to play. That’s the one good thing about the VIP scene though – if you cheap out, EVERYONE will know you cheaped out. Whereas you could probably get away with cheaping out on a ricer build or something and not catch too much attention.

We went out last week to see if we could capture what we have of Fall since we never really get it around here. This time last year, it was snowing and there was a huge snowfall that would’ve made it impossible for shots like this. It was super easy for us to meet up too since he lives like 2 minutes away from my parents. I rarely see this thing come out either so it was nice to spend some quality time shooting it.

I think the final step in completing this build is for him to go on air which I believe he’s planning on doing… Once that’s done, this thing will look absolutely killer.

It’s also super nice to shoot a black care that has been meticulously maintained. No swirls, no scratches, just some nice slick black WAP. (LOL)

As I mentioned in my previous post with Tiegan, I enjoy the foreground/background usage. Fall colours make it better.

That rear though…

I always say it and I’ll say it again – these Leon Hardiritts are still some of the best VIP wheels out there. I don’t know another person in this city that has LH wheels. Come to think of it, I don’t know anyone in Canada that has LH wheels… Not that I know a lot of people, but you know…

The one thing about shooting black in the middle of the day is all the god damn glare. Doesn’t help that his car is shiny AF LOL. Turned out great though

Not a front end you see too often these days…

Just to the left of this picture was this big ass house surrounded by big ass trees and nature. They were just sitting around a fire and watching. I yelled out “we’re just taking some shots” and they were like “oh yeah, go ahead!”. Rich people can be nice sometimes.

Now imagine this slammed to the ground. Can’t wait to see that

Up close of that awesome color

We positioned quickly together as Andrew set up to get some drone shots…

Way up high… I’m scared of heights so just seeing this thing all the way up there made my palms sweaty. Just the thought of it falling… LOL anyone else? No? OK.

There it is…

Andrew working the magic

And one last parting shot before this thing is probably put away for the year. Hopefully some big changes to come next year!

                       

Spotlight: David De Borja (@Deborja) x Lexi x FRS x BRZ

/ jasonhoang / 2 Comments

Well that was a mouthful.

Anyway, David finally sent me all the photos from the photoshoot we did a few weeks ago that I did the BTS shoot for and he gave me his blessing to share on here with everyone else. As you might have already seen/read – the shoot was an amalgamation of a whole bunch of other shoots – Jason Tang’s BRZ, Steve’s GTR, some rolling shots, and some of Lexi with the cars too and the below is the result of all that.

I mentioned many times before as well that it’s interesting to see another photographer work their craft – you only get to see where they’re standing and what they could potentially be taking a picture of, but you’ll never really ever get to see what they see through the viewfinder at that moment in time. When I photograph and when I look through the viewfinder, I try to envision the endgame or the result that I want to end with the photo. Before going into a photoshoot, I like to imagine the location, the car, the colours, the time of day and the lighting and put it all together in my head to know exactly how I’m going to colour-grade the photo, what look I’m going for, what angles will look best and when I finally get to shooting and looking through the viewfinder becomes an easy task – it just comes down to pointing, aiming and shooting. The idea and the way the photoshoot is going to turn out has already solidified in my head and I “know” what it will look like before it’s even done. I know – it sounds like blasphemy and crazy shit – but that’s truly my way of preparing for a photoshoot.

With that said, being an observer at a photoshoot almost causes me a small level of anxiety – only because I don’t know what’s going to happen, I don’t know what it looks like through the viewfinder and the always-prepared-photographer in me wants to know! And so after bugging David a few times – he finally got around to doing the photos and I know he’s a busy guy – the guy is doing a photoshoot every hour of the day it seems. I’ll be eating lunch and he’ll be shooting one car and when I hope on the gram again, he’ll be shooting another car before I’ve digested my last meal. Anyway, I was stoked when he sent me the photos today and I was stoked to share them with you. I was particularly excited to see the photos with Lexi because my car has never been shot by many people other than myself, let alone with a model. In short – it’s a different perspective for me and it’s refreshing to see my car in a different set up than its usually in. The mood and tone of the photos paired with the colours of Lexi’s outfit turned out great!

Check out David’s instagram here: https://www.instagram.com/deborja/

Photoshop: Aimgain x Rocket Bunny

/ jasonhoang / 3 Comments

Playing around with some ideas last night and I think I actually lost sleep because yesterday because I’ve been thinking about how I can put the FRS together in a way that’s even the slightest bit different than the rest of the crowd but still love it. There are a ton of kits out there but very few are actually aesthetically good, and then you have the few that are very popular because well… They obviously look good. The good thing about it all is that you can mix and match parts (kind of like the S2000) and still have it look well-executed.

Even before I owned the FRS, I’ve wanted the Varis Arising II kit and I had envisioned every single part I was going to put on it from top to bottom… It was only a matter of time before I got to actually getting there like all things that take money and time. A certain something has started swaying me from the kit (as much as I love it) and it sucks that it’s the only reason I don’t want it anymore… But I digress…

Second in line of course is Aimgain – I love the look of the front bumper the most and while a duckbill spoiler would look good, I’m a GT wing kind of guy. So last night, I thought “hey I’ll chuck the red TE37’s on there and see if the Rocket Bunny wing would look good with the Aimgain kit”. Below is the result.

aimgain

While I did keep the TE37’s red, I doubt they’ll stay red. I love the design of the Rocket Bunny but it doesn’t flow with the kit. You can kind of see the predicament I’m in (if you’re as anal as I am about making sure all the parts go together like they should). Maybe I’ll come up with a different idea and photoshop it again…

What do you guys think?