Last minute NSX cruise from La Canada Flintridge to Lake Arrowhead

August 31, 2015 in Cars, Personal, Travel

It's been awhile since I have participated on a drive/cruise and was informed of the Angeles Crest to Lake Arrowhead cruise at midnight the same day of the drive! Usually the meet up is pretty early but since I had to drive out to La Canada Flintridge, a buddy and I had to wake up at 5am and head out the door by 6 but you know how it is on a Saturday night... sleep late and waking up early is very difficult. So I think in reality we woke up at 6am and left at 6:30am but made it on time.... yay for procrastination!

A little backstory... last year in August, I blew the motor on my 2002 NSX while jammin' down ACH.... it sucked and it was expensive. It took about 7 months to get the car back and then there was the break-in period which I just barely made it over. The valves still have to get their final adjustments and such so driving the car hard wasn't an option for me. I wish I could say that I was sad to think about the unfortunate incident last year but I think I am over it as I wasn't really affected much by the thought.

I keep my gas intentionally low in most of my cars since I do not drive them as often as someone drives a commuter. So I have to fuel up almost everytime I drive her.... just so the gas inside doesn't get too old. I love shooting at Chevron gas stations because they always have nice clean light.

Odometer is just over 78,000... check engine light due to test pipes... hopefully my builder will have a fix for that.

Had to fuel the body after refueling the car... so headed to this McDonald's.... I knew that the food was gonna be terrible when I saw the large vinyl print they had of some guacamole burger... looked like some 3rd grader who learned how to use photoshop last month did the photoshoot and editing. Terrible. Perhaps I can lend my services to this franchise owner. BTW the sausage was over-cooked and dry. SMH

When we got to the meeting spot, 6 others have gotten there before us and then we were met by another 8 cars I believe. Mixed crowd of young and older NSX owners.

Since I was driving and not able to shoot, my buddy Frank was handed my Canon 1ds Mark II and I had him knock out some images with the Canon 35mm 1.4 L. Frank did a good job getting the feels for the drive.

After an hour long drive, we stopped off at location #2 where we re-grouped and gave the cars some rest. After 30 mins, we hopped back on the road thru Silverwood Lake on Highway 138 straight to Lake Arrowhead. I was just at Lake Arrowhead last Sunday but life clusters so once again a revist to a nice little place.

Do not text and drive people... but wait... is SnapChatting ok?

VIP parking is always nice.... star treatment!

Lunch at a local Pizza joint... I guess I should have photographed some of it but I was distracted. My apologies... The thing with documentary photography is that you have to take photos of everything! You start talking to friends and this is the end result. No photos.

No need to talk to each other anymore... we have smartphones... just text/chat/message/snap each other instead. It's the only way

#keepnsxghetto

Well that was my Sunday.... I hope you guys had a good one. Keep chasing your passions and work your ass off during the week so that you can party during the week and work on the weekends... wait what? So confusing.

Andrew Manley

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Dual GPW NSX at the Orange Circle

July 01, 2015 in Cars

This week we opted for a double header and had the pleasure of Nemo (Instagram: @nsxnemo) come out with his 2004 GPW NSX with very short notice. I love people who are down for last minute shoots!

Since Nemo lives in Long Beach and I live in Diamond Bar, I wanted to find a location between us and quickly thought of the Orange Circle in the city of Orange. Old town feel and a vibrant private college atmosphere was the perfect setting.

Before heading out, I asked Phil (http://www.handsomeandphilthy.com) to pack his gear and not forget anything as he did in the Cal Poly fiasco but as you would expect, we had something go array as usual but I will get into that later. As usual Phil was late yet again. When will he ever be on time??? Nemo was already waiting for us when we left the house so I was trying to drive as quickly as possible without speeding ;)

Phil gets a call from Gage and Justin from Eddi (https://www.eddi.com) who wants to join us. As we arrive close to 11pm, everyone is hungry and we head into Pizza Press (http://www.thepizzapress.com) for a quick pizza and a mug of craft beer while we waited for everyone else.

When I step outside to take a call, I noticed some Honda fanboys gathered around the NSX's. I watched from afar to make sure they were just admiring and not getting too close. After 5 mins or so, they got in a Civic and took off. I don't blame them, two GPW NSX in one spot would have me doing the same thing lol.

After dinner, we decided to get some action panning shots driving on the Orange Circle. We did that for about 40 mins before I got tired of driving in circles. Justin (https://instagram.com/justingeorgephotos) drove Phil and Gage while they shot from the trunk of the Corolla.

Canon 1Ds Mark II and 24-70mm 2.8 Mark II (Shot by Phil Awad and edited by Andrew Manley)

After I was scouting for a 2nd location and decided on Rod's Liquor which had tons of neon lights. I have become more and more obsessed with shooting with neon lights. The soft glow from them adds a new dimension for me.

Oh btw, I wasn't able to shoot much because Phil brought two dead batteries on his Canon 5d Classic and I lent him my camera. So once again, I only shot for a total of 3 mins cause there were so many people shooting but I was happy with the shot I envisioned and executed.

Note: tons of drunk college peeps coming out the bars at 2:30am and random guys trying to sell you tacos out of unmarked vans. lol good times.

A trip to Cal Poly Pomona

June 30, 2015 in Cars

When I was back in college, I remember being the most productive 1am to 4am as I had little distraction from the world around me. In recent months, I have been interested in shooting cars late at night as it adds a new dimension to the landscape when trying to shoot at typically busy areas.

Safety should always be a priority when shooting at night. Never know when some bustas will try to drive up and cause a ruckus. Safety in numbers is a good starting point so make sure that you call up some buddies to go shooting with you. In this event, I called up Alec (@alecnguyenvisuals) and Phil (http://www.handsomeandphilthy.com) to join me in photographing my 1990 Porsche Carrera 911 C4 964 and 2002 Acura NSX. Alec ended up dropping out as he needed to wake up at 6am for work but Phil was still down.

Phil eventually came... these young bucks have a hard time committing to a schedule so there is constant badgering I have to do on my end to make sure the shoot moves forward. As I cannot drive two of my cars at the same time, I hesitantly handed Phil the keys to my 964 but I knew deep down he would treat her right. You guys should have seen how his face lit up when he started her. Like a kid in a candy shop.

We made a quick pit stop at the Chevron before heading to Cal Poly Pomona. There we were greeted by a car enthusiast who was eager to check out the NSX. His truck did a great job adding a distracting element to the scene lol.

We found a overflow parking lot with solar panel roofing. Had the campus police check us out and took off. I guess we didnt look threatening. I wish I had more photos to post and show you guys but the problem is, Phil forgot to bring his own tripod to a night shoot (facepalm). So being the nice guy that I am, I handed him mine to shoot. I shot for a total of 5 mins on two locations.

Shots done for Instagram Accounts: ns2kx and 911na2

My goal on the second location was to shoot the cars like they were spotted in the "wild". In the end, i was mildly happy with the shot but it was getting late as it was around 3am so I left it at that and we headed back.

If you guys have one thing to learn from this is, prepare your gear for your shoots! Being a professional is all about being prepared. You think Phil would have learned his lesson right? Stay tuned.