So I was recently asked to shoot a friends car for a blog feature.  We finally met up on a Wednesday evening in the downtown Dallas design district area.  Immediately after meeting up w/ the car owner, we headed out down the street to one section he had scoped out before.  We had stopped next to each other on this two lane road to chat.  The road wasn’t well traveled at that time of day, but a car eventually pulled behind us, so we had to get out of the way.

I was in the left lane, and my friend was in the right lane.  There was also a car parked on the street ahead in the right lane, so my buddy pulls in front of me, we travel a few hundred feet past that parked car and we both change lanes into the right lane.  Next thing you know, his car sinks into the ground violently and I hear a VERY loud bang followed by loud pop and hiss….aw jeeze…pothole from hell.

Damn you parked car!!

Evil pothole angle #2….

Evil pothole angle #3….

Needless to say, his front passenger wheel did not fare too well when faced with this evil behemoth of a road hazard.

On the bright side, he did need to change out the tire soon b/c of camber wear.

Moral of the story…if you have custom wheels and you’re lowered…ALWAYS been mindful of unfamiliar roads.

So I’ve been thoroughly neglecting the blog, so I thought I’d throw a snippet of what’s been going on in my life.

I started a new position at work and it’s given me the opportunity to work from home.  Working from home offers its own set of challenges, but it also gives me the time to run errands, hit the gym, and avoid a 40 mile round-trip commute each day.  I’ve been back in the gym for a good 3 weeks now, and have been at least 4 days per week.  Slimmed down about 4-5 lbs and my lifts are all increasing back to where they used to be.  Still not 100% back, but I’m very happy with the consistency I’ve been able to achieve.  That daily sense of accomplishment from physical activity is something I’ve missed dearly.

Beast mode activated

Got the chance to take a few shots of my buddy Chris’ car, these wheels are insanely wide and there’s more lip than I’ve ever seen before in person.

Weds Kranze LXZ (silver/polish) FR disk
19×10 -25 (-20 with 5mm spacer to clear brake)
19×12 -32

General Tires
225/35/19
255/35/19

Custom metal widened fenders
Cusco camber kit
-4 degrees camber front
-5 degrees camber rear

I had the opportunity this past weekend to cover the World of Dance event here in Dallas, TX.  I’ve always liked dancing in all forms, and I used to love watching my friends battle it out.  Although I never battled myself, I enjoyed throwing some amateur popping moves while out at the club. The event was being held at the Palladium Ballroom in downtown Dallas, and I knew the photography was going to be challenging for me.

I’ve never shot an event of this type, and I didn’t know what to expect really.  I brought out my Canon 40D, Tokina 11-16 f/2.8, Tamron 17-50 f/2.8, and my Canon 550EX flash.  I think the hardest part of shooting this type of event is hand-holding shots at slow shutters speeds.  Also shooting with a wide open aperture caused some depth of field  issues, if I didn’t nail down the focal point properly.  I think after this event, I may end up selling off my Tamron 17-50 to be replaced with the Canon 17-55.  The Canon lens will allow me to hand hold shots with more precision, since it offers 3 stops of Image Stabilization.

Here are a few shots I took of the event.

These cars belong to fellow 16niss members Tommy (GS430) and Chris (G35).  The Lexus features a Carson Tuned lip kit, Weds Kranze wheels, and a custom UAS air suspension kit.  The G35 features a full custom metal widebody, custom UAS/coilover air suspension, and  aggressive J-Line wheels.