The day before yesterday I was on the hunt for a 35mm film camera as my pentax mz-50 and canon elan7e sadly died. Justin Power from Melbourne kindly donated his perfect condition eos30 to me as it was just a dust collector. The body has had around 5 rolls of film through it so it’s practically brand new. It even came with a roll of film, so I went and shot it last night.
Myself and Robo followed the Christmas buses around the local suburbs which lead us to some amazing houses. Some of the creations are just indescribable, the competition gets better each and every year.
Merry Christmas everyone, have a safe and fun holiday!
On the first day, we made our way into the centre region of Tokyo City, planning to visit both garages and shops such as Super Autobacs. The previous night, being our first night in Japan we were unable to find any accommodation, therefore we slept in the car in between a number of rice fields. Definitely one to remember. Arriving in Tokyo earlier than expected, it turned out we had about 3 hours to kill before anything opened. Most shops open around 11:00am in the morning, rather than 7:30-8:00 here in Australia. We took the time to walk a few kilometres around the city. Crossing paths with thousands of businessmen and women this image captured the early morning rush perfectly in my eyes.
Since my return back home in Australia, I’ve been struggling to gain enough motivation to go out and shoot some cars. After yesterday’s Christmas Bash at Queensland Raceway myself, Robo and Nick drove to the opposite side of the city for the JDMST end of monthly meet. As we entered the car park, the first car I laid eyes on was Chris Pang’s immaculate S15 slammed on a full set of TE37’s. It was great to see the car out as it received a manual conversion only last week. My levels of motivation climbed instantly. It’s good to see some tough cars getting around Brisbane.
On the way home from Nikko Circuit, Nigel and myself came across this card yard on the side of the road. The first car that caused us to pull over was this FC RX7, so we parked the car and had a closer look. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again. It’s honestly unbelievable how many cool cars you see anywhere and everywhere in Japan. There where a number of cars throughout the yard, but it wasn’t particularly large. A number of JZX’s and a couple of RX7’s which I snapped off with the last couple exposures of film.
Jumping back in the car about to leave, out the back was the old BN Sports FD parked up amongst a huge amount of carbon aero. It’s so amazing seeing a car this famous just parked up in a car yard late at night. I didn’t have a pop-up flash or even an external flash on me at the time, so I’m really happy I had my little film camera handy to capture these amazing machines.
Over the duration of the past few weeks, Summer has started to take it’s toll on Queensland’s South-East. We have been hit with an immense amount of rain, and up until yesterday some very fierce thunderstorms.
To be honest, this is what I enjoy, and look forward to each and every year. Sitting on the balcony on a steaming hot summers day watching a storm brew out west. The storms generally make there way around the western suburbs, but the wind suddenly made a drastic change yesterday turning the skies green and pouring hail. Here are a few photos I managed to capture.
Today the mercury managed to climb to 36 degrees which brought more thunderstorms along the east coast. Managed to catch today’s sunset, but by the look of the forecast, it’s nothing but storms for the next 3-4 days. I am really looking forward to Summer :).
Having some spare time on my hands over the Christmas break means I can now sort through my images from Japan. To be honest I haven’t even had the chance to look through even a quarter of the photos I captured.
The first event we had planned to watch was the final round of the MSC Challenge for 2010. For years and years I have dreamt about spectating a specific team that generally take part in MSC, which of course is Team Magician. Early in the morning during the practice sessions I setup my camera and positioned myself in a spot to which allowed me to shoot the entries. Looking through the viewfinder, tweaking settings to suit the conditions, the Team Magician R32 suddenly made it’s way into my frame.
I immediately swiveled my camera around and took this photo of him exiting the final corner, almost clipping the pit wall.
After the first practice session came to an end I made my way up to the pits to see what other cars were competing. The first car that I saw was the Team Magician JZX110. There is no other explanation other than that I was lost for words. I literally stood there swearing inside my head. It is just a completely different feeling seeing these machines in person.
I really do have a thing for stickers, I purchased quite a collection during the trip. Check out all the stickers on the rear window!
As I wondered around, I noticed the R32 had been driven off on a truck. I was really thankful I got some shots of it before it left. As one team car left, another entered. This S13 was now the second member representing Team Magician.
After paying 500Y and receiving my media vest I climbed 4 flights of stairs to the top of the office building. From here you have such an amazing view looking down onto the last corner. This is by far one of the most favourite shots I’ve ever taken.
After some Yakisoba, the Tripple Class began. One of my mates from Melbourne was off borrowing my big lens to shoot girls. At this point in time I was stressing as I only had my 24mm on me. I also noticed another Magician team member in the middle of the pack, being the ever so famous S14.
I eventually found him and my lens. Here is a shot with the 400mm of Team Magician showing how it’s done. I tried my best to achieve the ‘MSC’ style photograph. Bit of a higher shutter and tight in the frame, this image is pretty much straight off the camera.
In between sessions I ran across the track into the infield along with the official MSC photographer. I introduced myself and we chatted for a little while before the competition began. I couldn’t believe my eyes, I watched a couple of laps and just couldn’t get over how close I was to the action. I was standing on the inside of the competition corner. It was actually really scary, but it was all worth this shot!
Lap after lap, getting closer and closer.
Both silvias got knocked out quite early in the competition, which was unfortunate for them. On the other hand the JZX was powering on.
The sun had began setting behind me which gave me some really even lighting! Here is the JZX in one of the final battles of the afternoon. In my previous post I was talking about the Run Free AE86’s which did extremely well in the competition knocking out the JZX from Team Magician. This was the best battle of the day.
This would of have to be one of the best days of my life. Shooting a MSC round in Japan at Mobara Twin Circuit with teams such as Team Magician. It really doesn’t get much better than this.
