Quick Randoms.  Took it the other day.  Great concept since my car is filthy and so is the background haha

Few days ago I was supposed to take some casting shots of our cars for the new Fast and Furious movie… yes there’s a new one and I think they’re calling it Fast 5.  But then since High End has been having some domain name issues I ended up trying to fix that shit before I get the chance to catch the sun and take some shots.  I ended up shooting this.

Yes yes it’s my car again and yes it’s another HDR but I dig it.  It came out pretty good.  And just in case you’re wondering, yes my roof is fucked because of my carbon hood slamming on it at 50 mph about a month ago.  I’ll post some of those photos later hehe.  So check this and lemme know what cha think?!

So I chilled at starbucks the other day when it was raining furiously.  Didn’t want to stick around at home doing work.  Rain can’t stop me so I just went out, chilled, took this colorful picture and made this rainy video.  Check it out.

a quick HDR pic of my favorite Starbucks.  It’s funny how it freaks them out when I order something else other than my usual drink.  God I should really hang out on new places lol.  Oh starbucks, where everybody knows your name.  Oh and down below is my little rain video that I made.  Freetime today?  Yes sir… lots of it!

Been working on cars for the past few days and the other day I was lucky enough to get a hold of a new American Muscle.  I was able to mess around the Dodge Challenger the other day and well, what can I say, I was way disappointed.  I was actually expecting too much with these new cars and I was let down by my expectations once again.  What’s the driving  experience you ask?  Well it felt like driving a tank with a 4 cyl engine.  Heavy and slow and it’s pretty much the interior is built with no other material but plastic.  Granted this was the 6 cyl version of the car.   I’m sure the V8 would be a lot more fun to drive but, quite honestly I’m not expecting more than I have experienced.  I am still stoked about the Camaro tho so that’s a car I am yet to drive.

So what did I end up doing with the car?  Well, like any other man armed with a camera and a portfolio without American Cars I only did the logical thing to do.  Took pictures of it of course.  Well not much really I didn’t want to waste my time on this car.  But hey turned out I can do a thing or two with it so here’s what I came up with.  The mighty HDR Image…

I’ve been doing a lot of these lately and I’m really fond of them, obviously.  These are the three shots I used to create the image down below.  Although the car is pretty much shit, I think I came up with a pretty good picture.  It’s not the best but it worked out pretty well.  To be honest tho, creating these images are pretty easy.  The hardest part on this project is taking the license plate out.  I’m still not quite 100% satisfied with the end image so I should be working on this soon enough when I find more time.  All in all I think it came out pretty good.

Another day another photo tour.. Messing around the beach and taking shots of the waves.  Chill place till the wind started to pick up and blowing cold air.  Still loved it.  Waves were strong but the break water was there to calm it down a bit.  Still an amazing sight to see.  This was mid afternoon and I was thinking about staying till the sun actually touches the water but it was getting ridiculously cold.  Next time maybe I’ll actually bring a jacket.  In any case here’s what I captured.

Since I’ve been shooting a lot of cars lately I figured I should switch subject and shoot something else.  So I grabbed my camera bag head to Blenders in Channel Islands and chilled for a little.  See the thing about Blenders in Channel Islands is that it sits right beside a dock.  Nice and chill place and also a really good view.  I’ve been wanting to go to this place and shoot it so but I haven’t had time to do so.  I pass it once in a while but just too lazy to jump down the car and snap a pic.  Wish I was using a wider lens so I could have gotten the whole circumference of the seats.  I should post a full resolution photo to see the details but that’ll be a 60 megapixel image LOL.  Check it.

Since I worked late tonight, something I never do btw, I had the chance to take a quick HDR of the local service center at Toyota of Oxnard.  I was actually about to walk out but I had the opportunity to take the shot so I figured why the hell not spend another 5 minutes and do it.  Glad that I did since it came out pretty cool.  I figured I should take more pictures in 2010 since I stopped doing that last year and kinda lost the luster of photography in my brain.  Now that I have the new gear and the new gangsta camera, why not put it to good use.  Here’s the HDR of the Toyota service center.

The other day my buddy Owen and I decided to mess with some HDR’s on a lovely Saturday afternoon.  And here’s some more shots of what I came up with.  Yeah his IS300 is insanely dirty.  It is a daily beater btw but nonetheless, when it’s clean (which is in about a month or so since that’s the next Lexus Oil Change) the car looks dope.  Simple yet enough for a daily.  Simply modded with just a Carbon lip and C-West Sides and Rear bumper.  He had a C-West Hood before but the clear started chipping so just kinda went back with the OE for now till it’s re-cleared… again.  Lowered on some Tein S-Techs I believe and rocking some Gram Lights 57F’s.  Engine mods?  Hmm not really much I believe he has an intake [?] and the really nice sounding HKS Titanium Exhaust.  It’s one of those simple but nice type of builds and it’s not a bad platform of car too.

I’ve always wanted to build an IS for a daily coz you can’t really go wrong with it.  It’s now pretty inexpensive and you can make it look real elegant and cool just by adding parts here and there.  Great daily driver.  I would opt out of the 6 banger tho and get the 210hp 2.0L 3S-GE inline 4 that the Japanese Altezzas have.  Oh well, you can’t have everything I guess.  The motor or the car =).  Good job homes and … you’re welcome hahaha!

P.S.

You guys like my Ricer Angel? LOL

I’ve always like vintage photography, if I haven’t said it much, and now I’ve been messing with some HDR’s and turning it into one.  It’s pretty interesting how it makes the photo looks synthetic and fake.  The photo looks like it’s CGI.  Pretty cool I think.  Here’s the comparison of the two.  Check it!

And here’s the original… well not really the original photos but the original processed HDR photo.

I know it’s a few days late but hey it’s the thought that counts…

How have the first few days of the year been for everyone?!?  It’s been nice to me, thank god, since I rarely get this lucky with time and / or life =)  actually a few days ago, I had one of those rare chill Saturdays.  Nothing much to do but sit around Starbucks and have some tea.  Well, my friend OJ and I decided to look for a few abandoned buildings and take some pictures and here’s what I came up with.  Aaaaah HDR Love in the beginning of 2010.  Lovely indeed.  Before the whole Auto Concept/High End gig we had this group of five cars and we called it “Regent V” dope ass name don’t cop it since we’re still rocking the decals =).  Here’s the true Regent II.

Narcissistic Much? LOL

This area is a huge part of Oxnard that was abandoned.  Well, it’s now pretty torn down since apparently they’re gonna be building high rises in this area.  They’re just waiting for a few businesses to exhaust their lease and they’ll start.  I don’t know if that’s a smart idea but meh… It’s actually a really good spot for shoots.  There’s an old school western motel there that is a nice location.  Unfortunately it’s all boarded and chained up.  Wished I could climb up there and do some fashion and glam shots.  That would be ideal.  Nevertheless, nice chill day after some crazy ass partying the night before.

Angelo Ilao’s 350Z

I shot this a while back and never really released it.  Well, gave it to Super Street for a feature.  I don’t think it’ll be published since I did such a bad job with that shoot.  But check it and lemme know what you guys think.  I have more that I’ll post later.

I actually really dig this shot.  It’s an HDR image and it came out pretty clean.  I hated that shoot tho since I was getting uncool reflections everywhere.  Even this shot was a pain in the ass but this shot in particular came out pretty cool.  I realized later on that what’s screwing with me was the headlights.  Since it’s dark you can’t distinguish it from the photos making it look incomplete.  On later shots tho when I had the lights turned on, the pictures came out far better than the earlier shots.  I felt stupid realizing it much later than what I should have.

Kind of an old picture… Well, 2 months or so but I still dig this one.  Here’s what I see every time I drive the Evo… especially if i’m not wearing any glasses or contact lenses haha.

Another HDR Photo?

Tutorial on the Horizon… If I don’t get lazy