OneOffShots!

2011 brings a whole new power tour

2011-06-07T19:47:00.001-07:00

Not sure if anyone even reads this but if so you might be wondering where the exciting posts are from my dad and I cruising the highways on yet another adventurous power tour??? Well this year brings a change to my life that put a stop to the cruise this year. Turns out the due date for my first born child fell right on the start of the 2011 tour. Of course much like his father, my kid is running a little bit behind. We are anxiously awaiting the arrival and I am sure you will see some pictures of the little one when it arrives. But for now I will leave you with some fun shots I took the other day in the shop again with the lovely and talented Roxie Red who no longer has the red hair as you can see...

And then we turned up the heat a little...

End of the road for now - Day 6

2010-06-10T21:47:00.000-07:00

So the end comes a little earlier for us this year. Dad and I decided to bring the party to a close and head back a day early. We made it Birmingham but we didn't go the distance to Mobile AL. I think Dad was nervous that the farm might be falling apart without him after being gone for almost a week... That and the really long drive from Mobile to MN!
We actually were thinking of skipping Birmingham as well but after a lot of back and forth we got a late start and just took the freeway straight to the next stop. Of course along the way we hit yet another couple of out of the blue rainstorms. I think if there had been an exit right there we might have turned around and headed back. But every time we got to an exit it had already cleared up. When we finally got to the event we parked right next to the guys that we had seen spun out the day before.

After talking with them we found out that they didn't just spin out, they hit the median head on and bounced off. They actually left black tires marks a few feet up the median from the front tires and the front frame rails were all ground down. The engine had been slammed a few inches ahead and the pulleys were actually touching the frame so when they started it to get it off the road sparks flew all over. I guess they were able to get it to the next town and the motor medics got the motor back in place. They were going to keep on going even though the frame was shot. The rest of the car still looked great though so it certainly could have been worse...

After that we ran into Frank and Robert. We had a hotel room next to them back a few nights and had seen them a few times since on the tour. Frank was going to take his car out on the track they had set up but he was having trouble getting it started. There was some interesting adventures with a can of ether but it turned out to be a lack of spark. After a little hot-wiring they got the car running. His car had a pretty sweet endgate. The glass pulls up into the roof and the tailgate folds down under the car. Anyway, we said goodbye until next year and moved on.
From there dad stopped to look at what appeared to be another twin to the yellow Nova. This one had some trim, a smaller hood scoop and of course smaller tires but it was at least a cousin if not a sister to our Nova ;)

Finally it was time to hit the road for home. Luckily on the way out we drove past our friends from Texas. I jumped out, ran over and we traded badges. They had car problems when they first left texas that caused them to miss the first day. We had punched our badge every day but were not going to make it the rest of the way so we figured if they took our badges they could get into the long hauler awards on Sat. I mean if anyone deserved to be considered a long hauler it should be those guys and even if we didn't get to the end our badges did ;)

2010 HRPT Day 5

2010-06-09T23:14:00.000-07:00

Today was the wildest day yet on the crazy ride that has been power tour 2010! First we get up and look out the window only to see the rain was still going strong. Nothing too crazy but enough to make for a little slow going. The new tires proved themselves last year but we still only trust them so far. We hit the road right away and Dad was behind the wheel to start out. I was playing around with a few photo ideas which included opening the door and shooting with my camera an inch or two off the highway as we were going like 60 down the highway. Turned out kind of cool...

After that we hit this cool drive in and had a little early lunch. We ordered a couple of burgers and they had them out to us before I could walk across the street to take a picture. They were some tasty burgers too!

At this point we had switched and I was now driving. Of course for some reason whenever I get behind the wheel at least once every power tour it seems like we get hit with a downpour and on the worst roads for it too. We are going up and down these mountains and the roads are curving all over the place. I feel like I am just crawling along because I don't want to loose it on these roads with no shoulder. Then it starts to clear and I think it's going to be good. Oh no, then it starts coming down worse than ever. I can hardly see past the end of the hood. We come up over the hill and I can just barely make out cars going every which way, what looks like a car facing us in the center lane of the freeway and people running towards the median waving their arms. Somehow everyone misses everyone else and I made my way over to the side of the road. Turns out a 32 or so coupe had spun out and killed in the road. I guess the guys got out because they probably thought there was no way they were not get hit. They were able to get it started though and back of the road with really no incident. I certainly made for one wild minute or two.

From there we stopped at the store to get some umbrellas which of course ended the rain instantly. The sun came out when we got to the show and it was hot as can be. We also cut out a little early and headed over to the Coker Tire block party. They had their shops and museums open and the place was amazing. There was a ton of stuff to see and the best part was very few things were roped off. You could walk right up to a car they had on the lift and look at everything they were doing. All their machines were right there with people to answer questions and show you stuff. Every time you thought you got to the end of it you went through a door that led to yet another giant room of something cool. It was certainly a cool block party! The only downside was it looked like a big bad storm was rolling in so we got the heck out of there before we normally would have.

2010 HRPT Day 4

2010-06-08T20:11:00.000-07:00

Well, we lived through the night in our questionable motel. We did bring in our sleeping bags and slept on top the covers but it could have been worse. Replenished with our restful nights sleep we headed out down the road. Our directions mentioned a race track we could check out if we wanted. Last year there was a track we stopped at and it was pretty cool so we thought this was worth checking out. We got off the freeway at the listed exit but there were no signs. So we went over to the nearest gas station. The gave us the go that way take your first left then a right at the stop sign and you will see a sign. Well we followed those directions and it took us pretty deep into the country. We did finally see some signs and found the place. This is what the scene looked like...

Yup, not a person in sight. Well there was a caretaker who told us the dragstrip had been closed for some time because the medivac choppers didn't like all the abuse to the track. They did have a circle track there too but it was not open. The guy told us we could go light up our tires on the strip but we declined due to the fact that is something broke I don't think anyone else would have been able to find us! After that we didn't make anymore stops until we arrived at the show. It was there that I captured another one of the rare and elusive shots of dad washing the car as seen here...

It's unbelievable but there you see it for yourself ;) Don't worry after cleaning the wheels things went back to business as usual!

ah if you can give your dad a hard time who can you? Actually, once we got back to the room dad even wanted to wash the car. We should have known that would lead to no good because as soon as we were done it started raining. It was just a little bit though. For the most part it was a pretty calm day and a little rain was kind of a nice ending...

2010 HRPT Day 3

2010-06-07T18:11:00.000-07:00

The day started out with us over sleeping but we still got going in time. We tend to get up earlier than we have to a lot of the time. Then our parking ticket would not work in the machine but they ended up letting us out for free then. So the morning started out with a roller coaster of emotion. First you think something is bad but it turns out to be good. What would the rest of the day hold???
Well after hitting the road we stopped at MidAmerica Motorworks. Then had a kick-ass lunch with fried chicken and other tasty things. On the way over I was talking to dad about how I had been thinking about that movie "Corvette Summer" and we were trying to remember what the car looked like. Turns out this place had the actual car in their museum! I felt the same as I did when I was a kid when I saw it. It's an interesting car but I would never do that to a corvette...

After seeing that dad needed to take a break so he sat down in front of the gas station for a little break from the excitement!

From there we went on a tour of their upholstery area where they cut the fabric and mold everything for all these interiors of Corvettes and Volkswagen Beetles. I don't know about you but I cannot think of two more polar opposites to service. Once you get past that it is a very interesting place.

After seeing that both dad and the Nova needed a break so they both sat down in front of the gas station for a little break... and then we took of down the road once again!

After that we rolled into DuQuoin which had a really nice old fairgrounds. We found a shaded spot with a nice patch of poison ivy right behind us. I'd have to say the one thing I like the most about the power tour, besides the wild rides, has to be the people. So many of the people are just really fun to talk to. Dad and I were just talking about these guys we saw on the trip last year. When we slept in our car the first night we thought it would have been great to have that nova I posted a picture of last year with the pop up tent. Then today we ran into them and didn't even know it until we started talking for a while. Then when we got back to the hotel I was walking around taking some pictures I ended up talking to all kinds of great people. Everyone is out in the lot talking or helping someone work on their car to get it ready for the miles to come the next day. Of course, if their room smelled half as bad as ours they probably are just doing anything to stay out in the fresh air! Needless to say we are at the other end of the spectrum hotel-wise from last nights place. I guess one of the rooms down the way from us is being refinished because people were renting it by the month and cooking meth. High class rooms tonight!

I'd have to say the best guys we chatted with today though were these guys from Texas. There car was definitely a stand out so I had to stop and talk with them for a while. Turns out they pulled this car from the pasture 3 weeks before the tour and got it all going in time for the show. Drove it all the way from Texas and plan on doing the whole thing. With comfortable seats like this I think it is safe to say this car was made for cruising long distances!

2010 HRPT Day 2

2010-06-06T23:27:00.000-07:00

Okay so I don't recommend sleeping in your car for the best resting experience. We did get some sleep but between the trucks and the general poor sleeping environment we were ready for a hotel the next time.

Once on the road it was a smooth and uneventful ride to Springfield. We even could tell how fast we were going finally because Dad brought along a GPS unit. I installed a cigarette lighter attachment while dad went in for breakfast so we would have power. I even found a fancy three slot one with a USB plug as well. Now I can plug the I-Pad in as well. The 69 is sooooo high tech now! As I was installing it I was having that old familiar feeling but we have a lot of Novas that I have installed a lot of things on so i didn't think much. After it was all installed I opened the ash try and there was the factory lighter I installed the year before I think! Oh well, now we can power 4 things at once! This is us powering over a kind of cool bridge on the way to Springfield, I think the GPS might have said we were speeding at the time but it's hard to say...

It was a great town and getting into a parking spot was smooth too. We walked all up and down the streets and saw a lot of unique rides. This guy is prepared for a breakdown so he can still get home on his bicycle!

He almost needed it to because at the end of the night after cranking his radio all day it seemed his battery went dead. Luckily someone came by in a cart, jumped it and he was back in business! One of the best things was our hotel ended up being ground zero for the party long after everything closed down. Not to mention it was one of the nicest rooms we have ever stayed in. So we parked our car out front and just walked around checking things out and visiting with everyone. We even met up with Clarence Barnes from hot rod magazine who said he wanted our nova for christmas. I am pretty sure he's not going find it under his tree this year but it's nice to see he has good taste.

2010 Power Tour Day 1

2010-06-05T18:56:00.000-07:00

Well, another power tour has come and it has been a long day. Dad made it up at like 11 the night before which could be the earliest yet. It was only 4 hours or so to the first stop so we didn't have to get up all that early. I'll come back tomorrow and post more but tonight we pulled the car into a truck stop to catch some zzz's and then head on in the morning... I'll let you know if we make it through the night. Hopefully the I-pad can post this. Fingers crossed...

*Updated*

So the i-pad updated just fine last night. It was giving me a little grief but it did work. I am sure all the followers (aka my wife) Has been wondering what happened because I did not update but when I did final get internet again the blog was down. Seems to be working now so I'll fill in the blanks. When dad pulled in it was obvious he had made a couple of new additions. One was the new hood scoop that he has been talking putting on for some time. It certainly gives the old Nova a little more attitude.

Of course dad still has the same look in his pictures even if the Nova does not. The other change is a little less noticeable but has made quite a difference in the ride. Dad picked up some air ride shocks from ride-tech. We didn't have to drive far to tell they really smoothed things out. Now he is talking about getting some for the front. My guess it will be something he picks up the week before next years cruise ;)

Before heading out I was looking over some of the posts from last year. I was then reminded about all the little things that broke last year and we never fixed. The broken side window handle, the car seats, and a few other little things. The Nova still ran like a champ though and we cruised down to Newton Iowa in no time. There we met up with the infamous Greg Paulsen. After chatting with him for a while we heard there was a storm front moving in with possible tornados. We decided to drive ahead a ways and get away from the storm. We out-ran it for a while but finally it caught up with us. We pulled off and found a little diner to eat as the rain came down pretty heavy. After that we drove until it got dark and then we found a nice little truck stop. We pulled the nova in-between the big trucks and settled in for a good night's sleep…

Long Awaited Pin-up

2010-04-13T06:19:00.000-07:00

Yo! Once again it has been forever since I've posted. It's that time of year again in Minnesota... That time when you can final take your ride out of the garage without worrying about the salt eating it away. I just finished putting in a new rack and pinion steering kit in the Camaro so i am looking forward to driving without worrying about my car veering off the road as it sometimes wanted to do before.

One of the things I have been wanting to do is shoot some cool pin-up style shots. I've always shot cars and I've shot a lot of models so it just seemed natural to shoot them together. Finally I met the fabulous Roxie Red and everything just clicked. She came down to the shop and we did a quick set with my wife's Trans Am. As I had a sneaking suspicion it might be, it was probably one of the more enjoyable shoots I have had in some time. Hopefully it will be the first of many! Here are a few of the photos from the shoot...

Power Tour Day Six

2009-06-12T16:11:00.000-07:00

Well we made it to the last leg of the trip and we even did it in one piece! We made it to every stop from start to finish...

Once again we got up early to beat the traffic. I think dad was a little nervous because this was probably the first time he was driving the speed limit and had both hands on the wheel. Driving through the mountains certainly was a scenic ride though. Since we were a little early we made a stop at the local parts place to pick up a few things. Dad and i ended up rewiring some ladies VW bug to help her get GPS working again. We fixed the wiring but the GPS was shot. After that we got to the track plenty early again so we checked out the rides and visited. Then we went over to the drag track and watched all the rides duke it out. It was fun watching the different cars take on each other. You had old rat rod pick-ups taking on new mustangs... Corvettes up against wagons...
Speaking of wagons I checked out some cool wagons to show to Elise. I told her if we ever had kids we were not getting some sort of minivan. One of the most interesting rides was this sweet hatchback Nova with accessories...
Another close runner up was this other Nova taken from a four door and made into a very cool custom 2 door...
After all that walking around and tense driving this morning we went back to the car for a little relaxing. Some of us were a little more relaxed than others...
Finally after a long hard road of power touring we celebrated by hitting the drive in for a little post tour dinner...
Now we just have to make it home!

Power Tour Day Five

2009-06-11T14:38:00.000-07:00

Well just when I think we can't have more of an adventure I am wrong as usual. Once again we got up really early to make it out of the city before the traffic got bad and the heavy rain hit. This time we were not so lucky though. First we got all turned around with construction. I took over driving to navigate us out of the city but just as we found the right entrance to the freeway the rain started. It started slow at first but soon the rain was pouring so hard we could not even see the road. We have no defrost either so the windows were fogging up fast and the wipers seemed to be running in slow motion compared to the downpour. After a while I was driving by watching the reflectors on the guardrails. Luckily there was not many on the road either... Finally we pulled over and parked at a hotel parking lot. We caught a few zzzz in the car until the rain passed and then it was back on the road and still ahead of the pack.
Eventually we met up with a few other groups of cars that must have left early too. Once we reached Kentucky some of the roads got a little scary. There were a few that pretty much had no shoulders at all. There were some beautiful landscapes though...
We even passed a few...
I think quite a few passed us too...
Once we got to the show we walked around and checked out a few more rides but then the rain came back again. We found ourselves back in the car waiting out more rain. After a while it started letting up again and we decided to walk for food. We were trying to remember where the restaurants were on the road we drove past. Dad of course decided to flag down the cop and ask him where the places were. Before you know it we are in the back of the cop car cruising down the road. Dad looks a little concerned in this photo but he wasn't...
Where did the cop take us? Golden Corral of course!
After all this excitement what possibly could tomorrow hold? You just never know now do you? Tune in as our adventure draws to a climactic close. Until then...

Power Tour Day Four

2009-06-10T17:02:00.000-07:00

So we have been having so much fun that we decided we needed to add a few more hours in the day! Actually we wanted to get the heck out of Detroit before the traffic got bad. We set the alarm for four in the morning and by the time the actual car cruise left town we were already 3 plus hours down the road. Of course we didn't get to cruise with as many cool cars but on the plus side we did not also have to sit in hours of traffic with cool cars. I think it was the right choice...
With all our extra time we stopped for a little breakfast. We met a guy there who works for Honda and he mentioned a place nearby that makes roadsters. It just so happened we had seen a car show on TV back in February that toured the place and I had written the name of it down in my cellphone. I brought it up on the GPS and away we went to Brookville Roadster

The place was very cool and even though insurance reasons do not allow them to give us a full tour they walked us around and gave us a little mini tour. It would certainly be fun to build one of their machines but probably just a little bit beyond my pay grade ;)

Even with our little detour we still got there pretty early. The weather held out even though it was rumored there would be lots of rain and even hail. There was a little rain but that was about it. We had plenty of time to check out more of the rides. By far my favorite was this sweet chopped and dropped bug! It looks dangerous to drive but serious points for coolness. The first time I ever wished I could have a VW...

From there we chatted with quite a few other cruisers and I also made my annual stop at Keisler to drool on a beautiful 5-speed transition to make my car awesome! So nice...
When it comes to our ride, only one thing broke today. My bad... Just after fixing the passenger door yesterday... it's back on the injured list. I went to open the vent door and the little handle just twisted right off. Hopefully we have a spare in the attic at home...

Still not enough to send us home so just two more days to the big finish!

Power Tour Day Four

2009-06-09T17:11:00.000-07:00

As I type this some moron is honking his horn in a very annoying fashion! Makes it kind of hard to focus... Thank go it finally stopped after a few minutes. Today started off heading out of South Bend at around 8. We got ahead of the main group and but there was no shortage of hot rods anyway. We made a stop at ididit for lunch and to see their set-up. Pretty cool place. I certainly could have spent some money there!After that it was on to Detroit with dad still driving. Luckily traffic was not bad at all so he did not have a nervous breakdown. Plus I was able to take some fun shots of a few cars in traffic. In other news the electric fan does seem to help but it does not seem to be a complete fix. Probably just needs a little better radiator to back up the 454.

Once we got to Detroit we walked around and checked out some more cars. We picked up a couple of t-shirts and headed back to the car. We then took the door panel off, fixed the inside handle, installed a cigarette lighter for power and fixed a few other of the little things we have been meaning to get to.

Then it was back into a slew of traffic and to the hotel. Another plus was at the hotel they had a free dinner in addition to the free breakfast. How sweet is that? Now we are looking on-line to see that there is suppose to be severe weather tomorrow and even a chance of hail. Horn honking idiot is back again...

Anyway, we might get up really early and head out for the next stop so we beat the traffic and the rain but then we will miss that free breakfast. Decisions, decisions...

Power Tour Day Three

2009-06-08T19:45:00.000-07:00

Well it rained again pretty good last night. As always it is fun to open the window and see the parking lot filled with old cars. It seems like if it were not for this car cruise, some of these hotels would be empty.

We decided after the hellish day yesterday trying to get into Racine, we were never going back there. Instead I looked at the map and found a place to cut over from our hotel and meet up with the cruise. After getting gas we zipped over and jumped in the front of the group with a bunch of other hot rods. We moved right along

with very few slow downs. Then we hit the traffic on the freeway going through Chicago... That was a little nuts but we made it through. Another little problem we ran into was, for some reason one of the wires on the drivers door opener was arcing. So as I am speeding down the road in crazy chicago traffic I had to keep closing the door that kept trying to eject me from the car... Fun fun

Once we got to the show we had a little time to look around and then it started raining pretty good. Instead of trying to get out of the grounds like most we just sat in the car and watched the cars pass. It didn't take long till it stopped and then we decided to get out, find our hotel and maybe look into getting an electric fan to help cool the car a little more in traffic. We ended up meeting a nice guy named Ernie at O'reilly auto parts that got us everything we needed.

After we got the goods we headed back to the hotel and started working on installing everything. We put in a new Thermostat that will run a little cooler and a switched fan to help cool things down in traffic. We made a few adjustments but all in all it actually went pretty smooth. We won't know until tomorrow if it works but it's all back together and I can't imagine it would be any worse... In the meantime we got to pretty much meet all the other hot rodders in the parking lot, most of which had a lot of helpful suggestions. One thing everyone with an older is used to would be overheating problems.

Then we ended the day with a nice burger and malts... Not a bad day at all I have to say

Power Tour Day Two

2009-06-07T18:42:00.000-07:00

Okay Dad and I have decided the new name should be the Hot Rod Line Tour. Today was all about being in line. Sitting in traffic in a line, standing in line to get something to eat, and of course standing in line to go to the bathroom. I mean I know there are a lot of people but it was truly ridiculous how long it took to get to the next stop on the tour. The morning was very slow getting into the first town. We saw a few cars fall to the side due to overheating. I even had to make a dash for some bushes on the side of the road so i could pee. Luckily the cars were moving slow enough I could pee like the wind and run back before dad drove to far. At least all we had to do to keep from overheating is slip into neutral and rev the engine a little.

Finally, after that is moved right along. We stopped at the drag strip and watched some of the participants go all out racing each other. They certainly were not holding anything back on the strip today! After that we kept on going to Racine. That was the most painful drive ever! I have no idea why they would choose that area for a car cruise of this size. Yeah it is a nice view by the water but it sure as hell is not worth sitting in traffic for hours. Seriously, we really didn't do anything other than sit in our car waiting for traffic to move. By the time we got to the event it was pretty much over. We got to walk around just a little bit before everyone was leaving. The one cool thing was we parked next to our twin. Well it was a Nova that looked almost like our twin.

On our way out we passed through a local car show parked on the street. It actually looked a lot more fun that the crazy parking lot we were just at. As we cruised down the street you could hear all engines rumbling off the buildings. Rumbling down the streets we were setting off car alarms right and left. It was probably the coolest drive of the day... I guess the part were our car was actually moving was pretty cool too.

Power Tour Day One

2009-06-06T19:23:00.000-07:00

First day of the power tour and so far so good. Oh there were a few snags but it all came together. Dad showed up at like 2 in the morning from the farm so we got a few hours of sleep and then got going. I think we left a little after 7. After getting gas we were on our way. Sadly it was raining most of the way so there was quite a few moments of white knuckles. The tires we used to have on the Nova were not safe in the rain at all.

The new radials proved to be as good as they promised though and the new balancing bags we threw in the tires seem to be balancing the tired perfectly. No more crazy vibrations from the tires is always a good thing. We did see one car that was not so lucky after hitting some standing water and then a little light pole action... Poor little camaro, you have to give the guy props for continuing on, that's hardcore!

Anyway, we rolled into Madison a little after noon and got our registration. Then we walked around and picked up a bunch of free stuff from some of the vendors. Checked out lots of great cars even though the weather was trying to rain off and on. We then left to check in at the hotel with the intension of coming back to go on the car cruise. Didn't quite work out that way though...
At like 4:30 we took off to meet up and go on the cruise. Of course both of us forgot to check the fuel cell. Luckily as we were going down the road it gave me a little warning before it died and there was no one around so I was able to get over to a nice parking spot first. Then as I started to walk down the road for gas a guy came out of his house and asked if we were having trouble. Him, his girl and his Dad had been watching us from inside the house. They had a couple of gallons of gas in their garage so they hooked us up and told us were the closest gas station was. I wish I had got a picture of them saving our butts but I didn't think of it. In fact since the weather was so gross I didn't take much of any pictures the first day.
We then continued on to try and catch up with the cruise but all we ended up doing was following out some cars that we later found out were not cruising but heading home instead. So we decided to call it a night and grabbed a burger at Red Robin came back to the room had some ice cream and crashed for the night...

New Year

2009-01-01T17:56:00.001-08:00

Let me introduce you to my good friend. We have a lot of disagreements sometimes but she has always made me feel like hard work does pay off. This shot was taken just down the road from where we live. It had to be quick because I was by myself and I had to work around traffic. The lighting wasn't just the way I wanted it but it was a beautiful day out for sure. I am sure you will hear lots more about this girl, but for now...

We Can Ride Short

2008-12-15T06:18:00.000-08:00

Things at work still as frustrating as ever but lets think about something else for a while. My friend Jesse put together a film project highlighting people making a positive difference in their communities. You can find the link here. Anyway, he asked me to submit a short film so i decided to give it a shot. As usual I thought I would have plenty of time but it got down to the wire at the end. Still I made it in time and they all played last night. I received honorable mention so that was pretty cool. There were some pretty good films there so I was pretty excited to be in the running so to speak. Let's see if I can get it to actually post the video now...

Another building shot...

2008-12-10T11:22:00.000-08:00

As usual my post a few and far between. I really need to get out a little more. Work, as always has been keeping me busy around the clock. In the meantime, here is another cool photo from the project I mentioned in the previous post. It was insane taking this photo cause we had like 5 minutes before the sun went down completely and the owner of the building was late getting there. Then the wind was blowing like crazy and destroyed one of the lights on an umbrella. That puppy went sailing! Needless to say I was very pleased with how it all turned out. Here is one of the quick examples we showed the client...

Every ride needs a roof above it's head!

2008-10-22T08:43:00.000-07:00

In my usual form I have been so busy I haven't posted anything in quite some time. I need to learn to not take on quite so much work... wonder if that will ever happen? Anyway, one of my new photo projects is a brochure for a local storage/garage area. It's kind of hard to explain without seeing the place but if you ever wanted to build a sweet "toybox" so to speak for your cars and such, this would be a place to check out. I have been in a few of the units and lets just say it makes me drool to say the least. Check it out here here. When the finished piece goes out i will post more pics. It's a little change of pace for me. Normally I shoot the rides but this time it is more about where the rides live! I will post a few of our test shots that feature me in all my model goodness!

First post

2008-08-09T07:59:00.000-07:00

I think I will dedicate this First post to my friends in Sturgis this weekend. Wish I had a little more time off to go with... maybe someday...

This photo was taken in my friends shop. I was home one weekend during the winter with a bunch of my lighting equipment to shoot some family photos for my friends. Late that night we rolled all the bikes out from the front and set them all up. I put a couple of strobes in the back with reflectors and grids turned way down. Just to the left of me and above I set up a large softbox. I also wanted a little bounce but didn't have any large foamcore around this place. They did however have a 4 x 8 piece of white metal that was going to be bent into the body of their late model race car the next day so I used a couple of stands to hold that up and bounce light. My friend Achilles just can't resist being in the action so he was the finishing touch! I was shooting the camera at 200 iso, 12 mm, and my f-stop was 18.

Before this photo we also did shots of all the bikes alone...

Here again my settings were the same except I think I was at f-16. This time i was just using a single large softbox to my right and up as well as the large sheet of metal to bounce a little light. I did however bring this in to Photoshop to darken the background a little. I think also, to pump in a little contrast in PS, I duplicated my background layer, Blurred it 20% and then changed the blending mode to "soft light", then brought down the opacity a little. I've found that it not only gives it that little bump of contrast but it kind of makes the metal glow a little more... Until next time... Ride on!