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100 Acre Woods

I made a mistake last weekend.

That mistake was finding a new hobby that will inevitably cause me to buy more car parts that I probably don’t need.

That mistake was rally.

Rally (noun) : a form of motorsport that takes place on public or private roads with modified production or specially built road-legal cars. It is distinguished by running not on a circuit, but instead in a point-to-point format in which participants and their co-drivers drive between set control points (special stages), leaving at regular intervals from one or more start points.

In the small, quiet, and often cell-service-less towns of Salem, Potosi, and Steelville, Missouri there comes a time during every spring when the air is filled with gravel, rev limiters, and exuberant cheering along many backroads. A closer look will show fearless drivers throwing their cars throw corners at insane speeds and seemingly sprouting wings over crests, all surrounded by exuberant (and often times relatively drunk) fans standing on the side of the road amongst the towering trees of the Mark Twain National Forest. This was 100 Acre Woods Rally. And it was exhilarating.

A handful of us had the privilege to tour the Subaru Rally Team’s staging area with a private tour the day before the entire rally, giving us an up close look at their cars and a chance to speak with their techs to learn more about the half-million dollar (PER) machines in front of us.

Day 2 had us at the Parc Expose as each team arrived, offering fans the opportunity to spend some time with both the teams and cars. Among the familiar faces at the event were drivers and teams like Ken Block with Hoonigan; David Higgins, Craig Drew, Oliver Solberg, and Aaron Johnston with Subaru Rally Team; and a surprising appearance from Mike Lovejoy who I had a chance to meet at the 2017 Subaru National Business Conference in Denver. At the end of the Parc Expose was the Special Stage that highlighted the
general spirit of what rally is and gave the teams a chance to show off their vehicles for all the fans, from which they departed off to the stages for the day.

Heading out from the Parc Expose – our group decided on Stage 3, which consisted of a long straight followed by a sweeping upwards right hand turn into a tunnel of trees. As this was my first rally to shoot, I experimented between capturing frozen motion along with some tracking and panning shots. Throughout the weekend, I wanted to experiment with the panning, both during the day and night stages. This resulted in some more artistic shots than I usually shoot, but am relatively excited about the results.

The last portion of the day had us at an amazing night stage. We arrived a few hours early and after a few drinks and a chance to finally get some food in our systems, we patiently waited for the sun to drop below the horizon and the safety cars make their way through the stage. As soon as the safety cars made their way through the stage and it was hot, the sounds of “CARRRRR!” from the fans radiated through the stage as each car lit up the long approach into a tight lefthand hairpin turn. This was a challenging stage to shoot at night, so I took some liberties with shooting a little less traditionally.

After a long, exhausting day, we all hit the sack relatively early as soon as we got back to our cabin (albeit, “early” being midnight or just slightly past). Our earliest, and last, morning offered one of the most exciting stages that has made a name for itself as a result of both amazing footage AND potential crashes. Thankfully, all we had this time was the former. The Cattle Guard Jump. The name is pretty self explanatory.

And now, after only a little after 48 hours of experience… I want a rally car.

Should I do it? Road to Rally on Youtube? 😉

Classic Simplicity

There’s something to be said for simplicity…but there’s even something more special to be said about combining simplicity and luxury. That’s the line that makes so many classic cars such joys to drive. In their day, they represented the luxury of all things modern and yet still maintained the simple, connected feeling behind the wheel – man and car.

Now, this didn’t happen overnight, nor was the design and elegance of the car considered simple. But in comparison to today’s bells and whistles on every single car, from consumer to performance, the simplicity that classic cars offer is becoming more and more of a luxury to many modern car enthusiasts. We’re seeing a significant shift in thought and feeling about older cars, even among the younger generations of car enthusiasts. Maybe it’s the desire to get back to our roots, maybe it’s just the simple ability to get in and wrench on every aspect of the car with a minimal amount of issues or difficulty, or maybe it’s just the feeling of truly being free and relaxed behind the wheel.

I’ve spent some time with my friend Brett over at Thompson & Co. with a handful of his cars over the last few years, and it’s always a joy to jump in a classic like this beautiful 1959 Pontiac Bonneville and just cruise… We were right in the middle of shooting a 1973 Mustang Convertible when we ran out of gas, so we jumped in the Bonneville and cruised to get a container of gas to finish up the shoot. Even just a simple, mundane task like getting gas in this car emanates a feeling of just pure enjoyment from a machine, something that doesn’t seem to resonate with many modern cars.

We couldn’t pass up the opportunity to roll up to West Fork Whiskey Co. for a quick couple pictures on the way back to the shop…and ended up more than happy with the result. If you’re in Indy or ever passing through, stop in and check them out!

lifeclockone

If you’re a movie nerd like me, chances are when you hear the name Snake Plissken, you know exactly which movie I’m referring to – Escape from New Yorkâ„¢

One of the iconic objects in the movie itself is the timepiece that Snake is required to wear in order to remind him of the urgency of his mission…otherwise he literally loses his head.

I was contacted not long ago by the company that has obtained the rights to only officially licensed Snake Plissken replica countdown timer from John Carpenter’s 1981 film, Escape from New York™.

The prompt for the shoot was to showcase the watch as a fashion statement, yet also wearable for everyday use in it’s differing variations. I don’t often get a chance to shoot very styled portraits like this with the majority of my work coming from commercial product work right now, so I jumped on it as quickly as I could.

Introducing LifeClockOne – I am beyond thrilled with how these came out!

Fostech 2018

Had the chance to work with Fostech Inc. again this year on their yearly catalog creating some badass images – went a little bigger this year than last, and I’m very pleased with how the results have turned out…

This year we had access to an empty warehouse with some really interesting piping fixtures and industrial looks that we utilized to bring some of the images and scenes to life, which also meant setting off significant amounts of smoke bombs inside… I feel bad that the new tenants will have a lingering sulfur smell, but also not really because it made for some amazing images.

This year I wanted to stretch my legs and dive a little more into some composite work, so I modeled a few of these off of some Call of Duty style images and was pleasantly surprised with how they turned out! Definitely want to work more on these and learn as much as I can about making these as seamless and perfect as possible…

Ended up having a few of my friends come down from Indy to help with this shoot, and I couldn’t have done it without the direction from my Marine friend Nich, my coworker Andrew, and Shane for providing the badass Jeep below…

Last but, definitely not least, the main selling images for all of their products…

We’re going to go bigger next year…

Happy Thanksgiving – Get Wide

Happy Thanksgiving friends!

A few weeks ago I had the chance to spend a rather rainy day with my friend Jimmy and his Pandem v3 Rocket Bunny BRZ when he was down in Indy. Had a lot of fun with this set, definitely makes me consider going widebody as my next plan for my own BRZ.


Just a reminder to everyone on this holiday – we have a lot of things to be thankful for in modern society, so please don’t take that for granted…take some time out of your weekend to be force of good and positivity in someone’s life, because you never know what someone else is going through. Be kind to each other, make memories with friends and family, and never forget that each new day and every breath of life is a gift that should be cherished and lived to the fullest with.