Wedding: Neslyn + Rich

July 30, 2015 in Weddings

Location: Padua Hills, Claremont, CA

Randy Lew's Evasive HKS Supercharged Berlina S2000

July 07, 2015 in Cars

Good buddy of mine Randy has had his 2007 S2000 since new and it has gone thru a few different setups. It is always blinging with some new JDM toys. I drove it last year after HKS Japan came to Evasive (http://www.evasivemotorsports.com) to install the very first supercharger on his S2000.

The car feels so strong and pulls hard all the way to redline. I drove it in the cold of SoCal winter lol so the tires were slightly loose driving late at night. If I had to supercharge my S2000, this is definitely the one I would go with.

Randy has wanted some nice photos of his S for some time but he's always busy and I am always busy. However we were able to sneak in 40 mins late one Tues morning at 1am. I just shot two angles and we called it a night.

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.

Wedding: Maryanne + Manny

June 19, 2015 in Weddings

Location: Lytle Creek - Green Mountain Ranch

Wedding: Christine + Michael

May 28, 2015 in Weddings

Location: Diamond Bar, CA

VIP Access to the 2015 Long Beach Le Mans

April 18, 2015 in Cars

Earlier this week, my good friends invited the family to the Long Beach LeMans with VIP access... as many of you guys know, I am a huge car guy but I never been to the event. It was awesome because we had access anywhere on the track but what was really badass was that I was able to enjoy it with my family and friends.

Typically the only way to get access like that is with media credentials and well you know... you got to being working and when you are working, you aren't enjoying (typically lol). In the future, I will be better about capturing the little things that give you a sense of the day as opposed to focusing on the "main event" stuff.

It was cool hanging out with the pitcrew and checking out all of the extra parts in case of accidents. You know, just super expensive carbon fiber components, racks on racks of tires, etc. Anyways I hope you enjoy the photos.

Wedding: Rithika + Jesse

April 18, 2015 in Weddings

Location: Claremont Colleges

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Wrightwood Mountains, Mitsubishi Evo X and Snow

March 03, 2015

This past Sunday was such an awesome day to go explore a familiar place that I have not visited in some time but the twist was fresh snow.... well that is what I was hoping for anyways. But even bigger than that was to photograph the Mitsubishi Evo X in the snow and come out with a photograph that I could add to my portfolio.

Right away I knew the expectations of finding a good location to shoot at was gonna be tough. Mountain roads usually lead to a small town and small towns do not have a lot of room of "exploring". Usually small town people all know each other and pointing out people who do not belong is so easy to do. I guess finding a spot was apart of the "fun" of exploring.

The biggest thing I was looking forward to was, it was Calvin's (my one and only boy) first time experiencing real snow so his enthusiasm was getting me excited! The joys of experiencing something old with a new pair of eyes. Perhaps that can be a future project :).

So back to planning. It had been raining all weekend and forecast said that it would rain for the next two days. So what does any photographer do with a dirty car? I go and wash my dirty Evo in the pouring rain. Yes! I can knock that one off the bucket list lol...

I love getting weird stares from people walking their dogs

Gear prep: So Hector and Nancy gave me their old camera bag the other day. Coincidently, I was on Amazon the other day and liked this bag. As I considered buying it, Hector tells me he has that bag and he would give it to me. Now I knew this bag was meant for me. Outside of the rental shop gear, I don't own too much or my own gear anymore. So I stuffed the bag with all sorts of misc stuff that I always need. Such as allen wrenches, remote triggers, memory cards and such. I own an old school Canon 1Ds mark II and a Canon 5d Mark III and a Canon 24-70mm 2.8 Mark II plus a borrowed Canon 40mm 2.8 from the shop. I brought along a monopod that doesn't get much use in the shop and I found my old Gitzo G2227 Carbon Fiber Explorer tripod. I didn't want to lug around my heavy RRS BH55 ballhead for this shoot so I brought my arca swiss monopod head which I will regret up in the mountains. FML. But this is all I packed for the day trip.

I need to spend time on getting my personal gear in order. This was not ideal

Ideally I would like to have left the house at 5:30am but I know my wife and son weren't down to play that game, so 7:30am was a good compromise. We didn't do much planning. In fact, with Hector and Nancy, we actually agreed on going the night before at dinner. So we were a bit unprepared with clothes but that should never stop anyone from going on an adventure, right?

We didn't have time for no breakfast, so a quick stop to the donut shop is in order. 4 chocolate bars and a ham/cheese/jalapeno croissant was scarfed down quickly.

This photo got more likes on my Instagram page from that day than the photos of the Evo and Snow. Maybe I should just start a donut page

It was a glorious day and the combination of clouds and mountain was stunning. I was trying so hard to drive and shoot at the same time but that was a huge fail. So I had Nancy shoot some shots as we drove by this awesome view of Wrightwood.

Looking at the mountains from a distance, we knew we were in for a treat. The severe drought that we have been faced with has been a constant reminder of climate change.

The Evo's MPG is pretty crappy. I usually don't drive freeways cause I take the streets but my average MPG is about 14-15 mpg's. So I did a quick pit stop for fuel. California fuel prices have spiked over a $1 in the past week! Almost $4.00 a gallon for 91 octane. Sigh.

Rear shot cause rear shots are always nice ;)

So many of you know the benefits of a car like the Mitsubishi Evo is it's turbo and AWD (All Wheel Drive) capabilities. However I was nervous because I had summer extreme Advan tires meant for dry weather performance. For snow, probably not a good idea under icy conditions but luckily the roads were covered with gravel for additional traction. Yay Caltrans!

Lots of cloud coverage... meaning hopefully lots of snow coverage

We took the Lone Pine backroad and this was the first glimpse of snow and it was so awesome!!!

When we finally got to the residential area of Wrightwood, I was faced with the concern that was bothering me the night before. Where can I find a nice spot to photograph that is not fenced off, have homes in the background or is not by the side of the road. So we slowly drove around and found this spot. It wasn't ideal but Calvin was so excited for the snow, I made a stop here and this is where he first met snow and made his first snowman with Nancy (who is originally from Canada). Love all of the welcoming signs... "stay off", "private property", "no trespassing".

Just a few miles down, we found our second location where we were greeted by more welcoming signs so I just parked as close to the signs without actually encroaching on to private land. Luckily it seemed a lot of people weren't home. As I was backing up into this location, I noticed the foul smell of my clutch burning. FML.

The location was not ideal but once again, as photographers we do what we can with the circumstances we are given. So I played around with shots from the front and a few behind the bush. (Note that I will post the final edited photos in another blog post.)

As I started to setup my tripod and such, everyone else decided to have some fun in the snow. I felt torn because I want to be out there playing too but I also wanted to capture the moments of Calvin interacting with snow. So hard being a parent. lol. In the end, it was worth capturing it.

As we ventured off to our third location, it started to hail and then we finally got snowfall. It was both Hector and Calvin's first time seeing snow falling. It was so cool to witness two people watch snow falling for the first time. As we were driving deeper into these residential streets, I quickly stopped when I found an empty lot in between two occupied houses. I quickly popped the car into reverse and parked the car into the lot. It wasn't what I wanted but was better than the previous two locations we were at. Since everyone has "welcoming signs" posted everywhere, I wanted to be quick. When a neighbor was in his backyard looking at us, I asked if it was ok to be on the land. All he kept telling me was that it was private property. I asked if the owner was around and he said "no" so I said let's be quick and get out. Don't want angry mountain people getting at us. lol. Here is the only behind the scenes shot from this location.

One of the best things that happened when Calvin saw all that snow. He immediately jumped on the ground and started to make a snow angel. I got to tell you the things that kids learn nowadays from watching shows is amazing but here she is in all her glory

Please watch over my son Calvin for all his life.

The rest of the locations were filled with spots close to Mt High Ski Resort. It was good to see how busy they were that day. I heard reports that they were thinking of closing down early this season cause they lacked real snow. We spent time being silly, throwing snowballs, falling down and just being young at heart. It was such a gorgeous day!

I got to go back soon before all this beautiful snow melts away. I hope that in the future I can take better documentary type photos to give you guys a better view of the small intricate details from the day. I was organizing and driving so I was not able to document the way I wanted.

Stay Tuned.

Andrew Manley

Gear rented from:
IE Photo Rentals
Canon 5d Mark III
Canon 24-70mm 2.8 Mark II
Canon 1Ds Mark II