A cruise down to San Diego for Big Socal Euro Meet

Life is an adventure... go out there and meet new people, seek new lands and make fond memories that you can talk about on your death bed. It's so hard to break away from the norm and when you do get away, its hard to ease your mind of all the work you have to do when you get back... you  know what I'm talking about right? Makes it worse since I am Korean and Koreans are workaholics. I try not to be but it's in my blood. 

This past weekend was Labor Day... trying to take it easy on Labor Day seems unproductive so I had to find a way to relax but get some work done at the same time. Where does one begin to do that? 

Apparently there was a big car meet in San Diego on Sunday hosted by a Purist member. Open to Euro enthusiasts, I asked a few Euro people if they were going to check out the meet. Sure enough Darren (@creaminz_official) and a whole crew of Porsche and BMW boys were down to roll so I cleared my Sunday to check it out. 

Darren hangs out with some really cool dudes... and since all of these guys ball so hard, I had to get my #mbn (must be nice) hashtags ready to hand out. Here you go, and here you go.... thank you, must be nice sir... lol but as hard as they all ball, they are very gracious and humble dudes. Pleasure meeting the group, their significant others and their sons.... James and Rob both have one boy so Calvin felt right at home with it. 

There was definitely traffic heading down to SD from OC but a majority of the traffic came from people rubbernecking on the 5 freeway when the Marines at Camp Pendleton area were taking their hovercrafts from the dirt to the sea. It was super badass, sorry no photo, we were just mesmerized. 

The rollers below were shot by me while I was driving. Left the Canon 24-70mm 2.8 Mark II on 24mm, center focus and I shot over my shoulder. I have a pretty good idea of what the lens sees so I was able to get some shots this way. 

Stopped by our 2nd Shell Gas Station in SD where we refueled, snacked on packaged goods and waited for Rob from Crooks and Castles. 

Rob's Lamborghini Aventador in white and HRE's made quite the entrance with his wife sporting the murdered out Merc AMG G Wagon. 

I never attend car shows even though I love cars... not sure why... probably cause of the crowds, the commitment and the heat are at the top of the list. A lot of respect to those that run the circuit of shows... definitely a lot of work. My 964 ended up getting into the show cause the boys know everybody they need to know to get people in. There were two other air cooled Porsches out there, a 930 turbo and a Carrera RS in beautiful RS green. 

This Audi with the Volk ZE's was one of my favorites from the day.... even comes with a stack of firewood. How nice.

I didn't shoot too much on this trip for a few reasons: 1. I was driving 2. Phil (@handsomeandphilthy) jacked my Canon 24-70mm 2.8 Mark II cause he brought a broken lens to the show 3. I actually wanted to be a spectator and not a working photographer.... so you get what you get. lol

Ordered some Thai basil and chili chicken over rice and a Thai Ice Tea. I was let down by the use of breast meat... so dry... ugh. Our pick up sign was "Havoc".

We ended the night with some chicken wings at Wing N' Things and some spirited driving back up the 15N around 10pm. We took some photos... Kevin with the Polaroid and sticking his body out half way around 85mph was fun!

Photo Credit: Kevin McDonnell (@himynameskevin) shot on iPhone

Awesome day with some great people... I hope all of you had a great weekend!

All the images were shot on Canon 1dx and Canon 24-70mm 2.8 Mark II with a Marumi 82mm Circular Polarizer unless otherwise stated. All items can be found at IE Photo Rentals

Til the next,
Andrew Manley

Creaminz RWB Widebody 993 in Downtown Los Angeles

My halo shot of the night. Profile shot of the Creaminz 993 RWB. ©2015 Andrew Manley

Southern California is the epicenter of so many sub-cultures and trends, it's no wonder why people keeping flocking to this state. Cool weather, warm beaches, gorgeous mountains, barren deserts... we got it all.

In California car culture, Nakai-san of RWB has gotten a lot of attention and no wonder, if you have ever seen a wide body air-cooled Porsche from behind, you will get feelings in your body you may normally not get when you look at cars. Those wide hips, low stance, beautiful exhaust tips... (sorry I just had a moment) mixed with the unique sounds of ITB's (individual throttle body), you get the same dunzo face from every car enthusiast. Pure sex.... 

So Darren aka Creaminz got his 993 built by Nakai earlier in 2015 and has been seen all over car meets/shows in Socal. I met Darren last year thru Dionne Mascunana when Darren would come to IE Photo Rentals to grab gear for Dionne. Back then, he had a gorgeous Turquoise 997.1 GT3 with a Vollkkomen Kit on it. Recently when he came to grab something for Dionne, I asked him if I could shoot his car as I felt like I could use it for my portfolio. Darren is always down for the ride so we set a date and met up in Downtown Los Angeles.

In a better effort to give you guys better behind the scenes (BTS) footage, I asked fellow car enthusiast and photographer Danny from JDMzipties if he would help out with the candids. He gladly accepted along with fellow car super mechanic, Kristian Wong aka @studytuned who has a great eye for photography. Both BTS are below and will be noted in the description. 

Thinking about dinner... Danny @jdmzipties

The lightbulb was cold, so Kris took his sweater off for her and warmed her up. Thanks buddy lol... Danny @jdmzipties

Steady... do it again! Slower this time... Danny @jdmzipties

Love Alec our tall and handsome lamp, oh and he gives off beautiful light. Danny @jdmzipties

I don't get to exercise enough during the day, so here I am like a little monkey. Danny @jdmzipties

What an eagle would see if he were perched up. 3 dudes checking out a car. Danny @jdmzipties

We super hard now. Gangstas. Danny @jdmzipties

Use your friends as a method to keep your shots steady. Stabilization at any cost. Danny @jdmzipties

When in doubt, just shoot in the middle of the street. Danny @jdmzipties

Our evening started out with us meeting at 10:30pm. Kristian, Alec and I got to the location a bit early so I could location scout a bit. Every spot I wanted to shoot at had cars coming every 30 secs or so, so that was a bust. Bit by bit, people started to show up which put more pressure on me to perform. So we got back in the CR-V had drove around to see what we could find. 

I didn't want to shoot at a spot that was pretty well known for shooting cars. Why beat a dead horse right? I had a great idea of Darren to be exiting a parking garage but they were either all closed or had security. I like to call them cock blockers smh. So we kept driving until I found this garage that we used to ride our bikes thru years ago. No security, check. Little to no cars, check. Was a win in my book so we headed back and let everyone know about it. 

For the most part, the shoot was almost a straight shooter. Took my Gitzo and RRS BH55 Ballhead out and placed the Sony A7RII and Canon 24-70mm 2.8 Mark II on top of the ballhead. Took a few ambient shots at different exposures and then had Alec hold the PCB B800 monolight with the PCB Vagabond VLX Lithium battery to power the light. Just to have what I needed, we did two types of light paint. First off, we had Alec stand around different parts of the car while I fired the strobe off thru the stripbox. The second round, we ran the hot light of 150watt and light painted with a long shutter speed. The garage bulbs were really bright so Kristian being the gentlemen he is took his sweater of to put it over the light to stomp out the ambient. It was perfect. 

Setting up the shot... love the lines and textures of this spot. Kristian @studytuned

Testing and getting the composition right. Kristian @studytuned

Sometimes with a sea of help, the best person to get the job done is YOU. Kristian @studytuned

Dionne setting up the Sony A7s on the DJI Ronin. Kristian @studytuned

Tsk tsk tsk, video guys have it so tough... didn't have the right cable. Kristian @studytuned

Sitting pretty. Kristian @studytuned

Also double, triple check all your settings. I am just thinking about what to eat for dinner TBH. Kristian @studytuned

Left, more left, I mean right, your right, I mean stage right... lol. Thank you Alec Nguyen for your assistance! Kristian @studytuned

Good thing this boy is tall! Kristian @studytuned

Love this shot, the back lighting adds so depth. Kristian @studytuned

Sony A7R II. I love this thing. Kristian @studytuned

Somewhere close to Pasadena. Roadside. Kristian @studytuned

Dionne noticed a nice long perspective between two garages so that is what we used for location #2. Darren told me his favorite part of the car was the front but I had a hard time getting away from her butt. It's just so awesome. So went with what my heart told me to do. Never let me down lol. This location was perfect cause it had nice long lines, had a staircase if we wanted to get higher up and had sky scrappers in the background. Did light painting with the Westcott Ice Light for this shot. 

Last shot was for Dionne mainly. We were going to get freeway rollers. Good thing they brought a minivan cause it was so much easier to get low shots hanging out a sliding door. Dionne had some mad skills poking his body out at high speeds. Life is so fun! Dionne wanted to nail the LA skyline in the background so we made a few different passes on the 110 fwy. Money!

I had others with dominant skylines but I think Socal freeway signs say CA so well, don't you think? ©2015 Andrew Manley

Those hips don't lie. Andrew @andrewmanleycom

Rolling thru Chinatown. Andrew @andrewmanleycom

More Chinatown. Andrew @andrewmanleycom

110 fwy and street fans. Andrew @andrewmanleycom

110 north heading to Pasadena. Andrew @andrewmanleycom

Inception, picture of a picture taker. Andrew @andrewmanleycom

studytuned's hair. Andrew @andrewmanleycom

Andrew @andrewmanleycom

ITB's... good lawd! Andrew @andrewmanleycom

Open your heart to me. Andrew @andrewmanleycom

Open for all to bear. Kristian @studytuned

Skip, skip, skip to my lou. Kristian @studytuned

Dionne, why so serious? Kristian @studytuned

Yes I know, I need to work out but I swear it was cold and my jacket is setup to have more insulation around my gut, no for reals. Kristian @studytuned

#flossdesign and #RWB. Kristian @studytuned

A pearl

I want to thank Darren aka Creaminz for trusting me to photograph his car even though he didn't know my skill sets. Thanks for trusting. Thanks to Danny @jdmzipties for being primary BTS shooter, Kristian @studytuned for your captures, Alec for being my very hard working assistant and lastly Jasper for helping out Dionne drive the car. Dionne thanks for putting it all together. 

I hope you guys enjoyed this round up. See you on the next.

Andrew Manley
Los Angeles Automotive Photographer