I say “Happy Monday” because I only work two days this week and I’m off for Christmas! Super stoked and I think this is the only Monday I’ve ever looked forward to this year LOL
Let’s start Christmas week off with a few unedited shots of Scott’s S2000 that I missed.
Hope everyone has a Merry Christmas!!
Finally!! I can’t believe the last post was on September 19th… I feel like I just posted that yesterday.
Been a crazy few weeks trying to get stuff done… It’s always around month end where things get hectic and there’s always a bunch of errands to run. I was up in Edmonton this past week for work and I wanted to shoot someone’s car while I was there. I really want to try and get out to shoot cars in different places because it doesn’t happen often. In particular, I want to head out to Vancouver and Toronto to shoot their local talent – which IMO is far superior than ours. I may be biased though because I’m so used to what our city has to offer or I just never see it enough.
I’ll be blunt – Edmonton is bland. There’s nothing to do except go to West Edmonton Mall, eat, or drive on their shitty roads. However, there are a few tuners there that pop their head out once in a while… I’ve been following Scott and his S2000 project for a while, and even before that, he was working on his GE8 Fit. Scott’s project appeals to me simply because it is different – it isn’t going in the same direction as a lot of the S2000 builds you see lately – no stance to make her dance, no “low as you can go” deal, not that I hate it or anything, but it’s cool to shoot something different.
Right now Scott is kind of in the awkward stage of his build – where he’s waiting for some key parts but he still wants to drive it. It happens sometimes and you just love the car so much that you don’t care that it’s missing it, you just want to drive it. Fortunately enough for the sake of me shooting his car, he’s missing his front fenders which coincidentally make it look quite aggressive given the amount of tire he’s rolling on. That’s what I like about Scott’s car – it looks different, not by design, but because of function and the lack of parts needed to complete it.
We’ll start off with this roller as the sun set…
A view from the hotel room – which isn’t all that special. Where we stayed it was mostly industrial-type areas, so this is pretty much all you get for as far as you can see
Chillin’ watching The Big Bang Theory waiting for Scott…
That was the catch for a photoshoot – I needed to be picked up from the hotel and if they wanted rolling shots, they needed to bring a friend. Scott was happy enough to do both so he got both haha
Wasted no time and we were on our way.
Now for some detail shots of his S2000…
Up close. You can see all the tire and it’s “actually” touching the ground.
335’s out back with CG rear over fenders. I love wide tires.
A shot from the side sans front fenders… It gives it quite an aggressive look which is what appealed to me the most.
From the back you can see there is very minimal camber and a lot of contact patch. Just looks so aggressive.
The CCW’s in full black are also quite a rare sight to see… You usually only see the classics in full polish.
His front end is pretty track-inspired as well with the splitter, brake cooling ducts in the bumper…
Scott also created vents in his hood on his own which turned out quite nicely as well.
Another shot of his vents – you can take a peak underneath too
All that gloss.
A shot of the rear. He’s actually on stock suspension with springs – it ends up working quite well because of how meaty his tire is…. The ride is quite comfortable.
Sun flare pictures!!
Another from the back. My favourite view.
A little blurry, but I still liked it…
Voila!
Thanks again to Scott for giving me the opportunity to shoot this and say I’ve shot a car in Edmonton… My camera hasn’t really been anywhere else to shoot cars but I’m hoping to do more of it soon…
I got a couple more shoots coming up shortly so the blog won’t be so stale in a few days… Stay tuned.
The saddest thing about winter is the lack of posts that I have and that I have to go back to old pictures and post them to make up for it. Only a few more months and I’ll be back in the groove!
However, this is an interesting post (to me, anyway) that Punit reminded me of last night. I would always go into my folders of pictures and see if there are any hidden gems that I might have missed and I always end up going into Punit’s folder and right back out again. Why, you ask? Because in all this time of knowing him, the only time I shot his car was back in 2009 and that was when we barely knew each other, and that was also when I first started shooting and started getting the hang of it. At the time though, they did beat any point and shoot lol.
Anyways, similar to JC or Ricky, Punit is/was always at the photoshoots of the handful of other cars I’ve shot. It’s not like I never see them or they never drive their cars. They do, in fact drive their cars everywhere we go… Except it’s to shoot other cars or for me to ride shotgun in to do rolling shots. We always get so caught up in shooting all the other cars that we never really think about shooting our own. Even when we talk about it, we don’t really feel like shooting our own cars and I think it’s cause we’re just around each other all the time that we don’t see the point. In retrospect, I really regret not being able to shoot Punit’s car in the various stages that it’s been in. I’m actually embarrassed that I’ve only ever shot it once and it was when I sucked balls. All other times were random shots and I think his car deserves more than that.
Last year, Punit’s car was kind of out of commission – not because it didn’t work, but because it wasn’t presentable in Punit’s mind. He was on Ohlin coilovers that were basically 4×4 height at its lowest setting, he was on TE37’s that didn’t have the fitment he was looking for, etc… He was also busy working on the GS and getting that ready so you can imagine how difficult it is to keep up with modding two cars. Over the year, he’s stock piled a bunch of parts that will be going on for this summer and I promised myself and Punit that we would go out and give his Integra a proper photoshoot once the warm weather comes our way. I’ve seen a sneak peak at the parts he’s got so far and I think you guys will love what he’s got in store for the Integra. Until then, I’m looking back through the shots I managed to get randomly over the years…
This was when I first met Punit – the Integra was done up decently and he had just gotten rid of his Rota’s for the Work Meister S1’s that are now purple and on Diana’s Fit. Unpainted carbon hood and hatch, the basic interior mods like Recaros and ITR wheel. Keep in mind this was way back in 2009 when real wheels were rare to see… This was considered quite modded back then.
His paint was and still is in great condition. This was a noob rolling shot when I didn’t know what composition meant. LOL
Soon after he picked up a set of very aggressive CCW’s and again, at that time – the wheel specs were unheard of for a stock body Integra.
You look at the fitment today and it looks pretty standard, minimal camber, it’s flush with the fenders like they should be… But at that time, let me tell you – we were like little girls in the school yard when we saw this for the first time. He also got a lot of flack for doing this…
The following year he had the faces powdercoated to a teal. A bold move for a red car but it ended up also looking deadly! This was the only picture I got of the wheels when they were teal…
And finally the next year, he did the unthinkable and purchased a set of re-barreled Regamasters from Wheel Flip. At the time, he was the only one in the world with this set. Soon after, Wheel Flip made a few more sets… Not only were they rare, but they were wide as f*** and we even wondered how he was going to fit them. You can see how much camber is needed to do so…
Even with a wide angle, from the back of his car you could see the crazy amount of camber.
Side profile was winning though. White on red was perfect.
This was just as winter was finishing up and we all went over to his place to get the wheels on and his interior back in after he had it repainted. The only differences here from the first picture is the addition of the Mugen wing, his K24 swap and Spoon exhaust. He also dialed it in a little lower and of course the insane amount of camber.
Front fitment – with more dish than my SSR’s lol *facepalm*. He also got a lot of hate for this set up too, but it was awesome IMO.
The rear wheels. Absolutely love how they look.
And that is the final shot I really ever had of Punit’s car. I didn’t even get a chance to shoot it while it was on the Regamasters which I also regret dearly. However, I think with the changes Punit has in store for this summer, the photoshoot I want to have will be perfect.
FINALLY getting around to shooting some cars. I’m starting to find “some” free time to squeeze in some photoshoots here and there in between all the new house appointments and Calgary Corporate Challenge training and birthday parties all over the place… The last time I posted a shoot was July 1st of Michael Kwan’s Toyota Supra. It’s been that damn long… I need to step it up in this last month and start shooting like crazy. I’ve been promising a bunch of shoots and honestly never really have much time even though I really want to get them all done. So for everyone that I’ve told – it’s coming!
Well a lot of you have anxiously been waiting to see what Derrick’s car looks like and how it sits or even whether it’s finished yet. Yes, it is finished and it looks great. Derrick did a great job taking this car apart, doing everything from sanding, priming, and painting it, and then reassembling it back to how it used to be. I wrote all that out in a sentence and it sounds fairly simple – which it is – but I recall Derrick saying he would never do it again. The long and arduous task of doing something like this is both physically and mentally draining. As you can see from my previous posts from when I stopped by to lend as much help as I could, the days were long and the work was even longer. Hours were spent on a panel just wet sanding it down to get it as perfect as we could. More hours were spent polishing and getting rid of the marring from the previous step. Wiping and checking, wiping and checking.
I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again – I’m proud of Derrick for doing this all himself in his own garage and having the outcome turn out as good as it did. I’m happy to have been a part of the process even though it was a miniscule part when you look at the whole picture. I’m also happy to have been able to shoot it last night as well and I know that was the first thing Derrick wanted as soon as he got it out on the road again.
Now let’s move on to the pictures. We went out last night at around 5:30PM just when the sun began coming down so it was still harsh and it was still hot as shit. The OEM Lexus colour – desert sage metallic really sparkles and shows what it has to offer when it’s in the light. In the dark, it still looks great but nowhere near as nice as when you start to see the metallic flakes shine. Derrick dubbed the colour that you see in the dark a Donatello green – for those of you old enough to remember Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, it’ll ring a bell.
Derrick’s car in all its glory. A lot of people expected a Midori green like myself at first. Derrick had thought about it but it ultimately came down to two choices – Milano Red or Desert Sage Metallic. Obviously he did no wrong with the latter choice. There was a lot of “ehh’s” and “hmm’s” when Derrick first conceived the idea, and I’ll admit that even I did the same when he told me.
I applaud Derrick for sticking to his guns right till the very end, though. When everybody disapproves, but in your mind and in the end it turns out looking great – that’s when you hit the jackpot.
Side profile shot of his car. The first thing you might notice or think to yourself is “needs moar low”. Yes, it does and Derrick knows this. The CCW’s that he got from Adam’s EK and before that – Punit’s Integra – is a very aggressive set for the DC body. He raised his coils up a bit to clear them and he’s running very little camber at the moment. In his defense, he just wanted to drive and that was his only option. He’ll be dialing in some camber and going back down to his regular, lower height soon and that will be the icing on the cake.
JC accompanied me on the trip to once again help with the rolling shots later. He’s pretty much my partner in crime when it comes to photoshoots – I can always count on JC for locations, a chaser car, and on-location instagram tags.
Another shot where the sun was coming down really hard. Still looks great.
JC doing that instagram thing off in the distance.
Another shot where you can see the gold metallic in the paint.
A head on shot.
JC chillin over to the side. More instagram…
Shot of the rear.
Derrick wiping off some dust.
Finally JC posted the instagram pic and so they stand and admire the car from the shade.
I’d also like to point out that after all that time, the instagram picture was not even centered. Amazing. (sarcasm)
Getting ready for rollers…
No artificial light flares here.
Again, the sun was super harsh but it added a fairly nice effect.
Inside the CT rolling back to the rendezvous point.
It was funny as we were driving back, JC mentioned that it always looks so weird when there’s no RPM’s. I looked over and laughed because I’ve never seen that before. Weird ass hybrids.
PS – JC your dash is dirty as f.
Cleaning his interior. I gave him a hard time before we even started shooting about not cleaning the car as much as he could have. He was too anxious to drive it… So then he cleaned it at the location.
My car all dirty and shit. I gotta clean it today… and JC’s car is always so damn clean.
Asimo. Typical Honda owners.
I took this not because it was a Nardi wheel. I took it because it’s the Nardi that I sold to him when I started parting out my Civic and he’s still using it today. The suede is worn down right to the bone but it still looks great. He was even saying he was thinking of picking up a new wheel but he would never sell this Nardi because I sold it to him. LOL brown noser.
Recaros
Type R center console.
And a closing shot of my car and JC’s car. Bug guts and all.
I decided to close with this because I’m excited about what’s going to happen this evening. Mike McConnell (MDM Visuals) will be shooting my car tonight. I’m especially stoked because in the 6+ years that I’ve been shooting, no one has ever shot my cars other than myself. I’ve never really asked anybody because I was always capable, but Mike has been wanting to shoot for a long time and I can’t turn a fellow photographer down. He does exceptional work and I would only want someone who could take great pictures to take pictures of my car too…
Stay tuned for that!
lifewithjson 