2014 Rewind- Offset Kings Chicago (Part 1 of 5)

Yesterday I was on the phone with Felix from Fatace to discuss our next collab show. I was feeling a bit nostalgic, so I went on the blog to re-live last year’s event. After going through a few of the pages I realized that I never posted up our photos! Anyways, sorry for the delay and enjoy the shots taken by Greg Szoda of Glock Photo. There are a ton of shots, so we’ll post these up as a 5 part series. I don’t really have too much time to do much of a write up this time around, but I want to say thanks to our great group of volunteers and the supporters of the event. We have something big planned for this year, so be on the look out for an announcement soon.

RWB Meeting- Roppongi, Tokyo

A few weeks ago I met up with my good friend Michael Braeuner before he left for Japan. He wanted a few pointers on how to use his newly aquired DSLR. I gave him a quick tutorial on how to properly expose photos, and how to use his camera timer in conjunction with a tripod. I crossed my fingers and hoped for the best. I’m happy to say that his shots came out really nice. We’ll have more shots of the Tokyo Auto Salon later on from Mike, but for now here are some pics from Mike’s first stop in Japan- The annual RWB pre-TAS meet. Enjoy the pics-

Team Proceed

Now that the January issue of Super Street has passed, I thought I should release some additional pics of Team Proceed that did not make the magazine. What you guys don’t know is that this shoot was insane. It was nice to take an editorial approach for once and leave my lighting at home. However, this was probably the most tiring feature I’ve done to date. The shoot started around 7pm, and I didn’t get home until 6am the next day. The goal was to chronicle the team on a typical night out, and we did exactly that except for some small hiccups. So without further ado, here are the pics. Be sure to check out superstreet.com in a few months as they’ll most likely post up the original article.

We all decided to meet at Leigh’s place. I think a few of the guys were unsure if they would be able to clear Leigh’s steep driveway, so Josh decided to setup some last minute cleaning across the street.

Chob’s Aristo and Ilia’s Cressida.

Leigh’s supra was parked inside as we discussed the plans for the evening.

Ilia with a very rare car wash.

We brought all the cars across the street for final adjustments.

Petrol stop before the cruise to the city.

Jos A. Banks… the official outfitter of Team Proceed.

Virtually no lighting outside, so I needed to crank up my ISO to around 2000 or so to get these rollers.

There were a ton of these confused looks as I tried to explain what I was looking for with hand movements.

Josh’s 180sx on the Eisenhower expressway.

Once we arrived in the city, we ran into some bad luck. Luckily Josh was able to call a homie for a new tie rod.

Chob’s Aristo with the brilliant proceed livery.

The back of Chob’s bride seat lit up courtesy of a cell phone flash light.

Simba’s car staged for some solo shots. Loving the “Great Wave off Kanagawa” hood.

Aggressive SSR Vienna Courage- just one of the many wheels Simba has in rotation.

Leigh’s Mk3 Supra- “The good side.”

Rear angle of Ilia’s Cressida on Work XT7’s and Advan T6’s.

Josh’s 180sx

Great attention to detail with Proceed’s “rose” livery.

Gotta give Ilia props on the “art direction” of this shot.

We moved locations to this spot after Josh installed his new tie rod.

Last but not least, one of the final shots that night…

-jdmchicago

Rocket Bunny FD

Here is a teaser pic from the current issue of Super Street Magazine. Check out the feature at your local newsstands for more details and pics of this incredible FD build. We’ll release more after the current issue passes.

Vegas Baby, Vegas- Jeffrey Nguyen’s 1991 Acura NSX

Here are some bonus pics from Jeff Nguyen’s NSX featured in last month’s Super Street Magazine. Back in April this year things were fairly busy with my freelance photography. I knew things were going well because time management was starting to become an issue- Family life, photo shoots, the “9-5” gig, managing this website, and organizing local events was taking a toll. Regardless, photography is a passion so I always make room for a shoot.

Honda Tuning was a magazine that launched my freelance “career” several years ago. I built a solid rapport with their lead editor; Matthew “Rodrez” Rodriguez, so I generally knew what kind of cars he would feature. Being an NSX owner myself, I was usually aware of all the current builds and happenings in the NSX world. Jeff’s NSX was a car that he has been slowing building over the last few years and I felt it would be perfect for Honda Tuning. I was going to be in Vegas for a good friend’s bachelor party, so thought I could crank out a feature while I was out there. I emailed Rodrez a few snaps of the car and he gave me the go-ahead.

Unfortunately at the end of May, the publisher of Honda Tuning (along with dozens of other publications) filed for bankruptcy and left thousands of people job-less and a void in the creative world. Although the writing was on the wall (Modified Magazine was shut down a month earlier), I was a bit shocked because HT was doing well.

I was bummed out for my friends who lost their jobs and my other freelance photography colleagues who counted on these magazines as their sole source of income. At the same time, maybe this was a good opportunity for these individuals to move on with other life goals and seek a change?

After the initial shock had passed, I was going through some of my work and almost forgot about Jeff’s NSX. I was bummed out for Jeff because as a car enthusiast myself, I know nothing beats getting published in a magazine.

I told Jeff not to fret, and that I would be pitching his car to the LAST (US-based) remaining Japanese import car magazine to see if they were interested. After sending the pics to Super Street, they told me they loved the car and would be privileged to feature it!

So after 8 months, Jeff finally saw his car in a magazine.

The backdrop for this shoot was at the beautiful Red Rocks Canyon about 30 minutes outside of Las Vegas. I’m still surprised I was able to make this shoot with little to no sleep. I definitely do not recommend shooting this early during a bachelor party trip!

To see more of this car and to read Jeff’s story, head over to Super Street!

Congrats again to Jeff and please support print!

-jdmchicago