I’m Finally Uploading My Photos!!
Fall leaves in Japan are called Koyo. It’s truly something to behold all over the country. I was lucky enough to be able to travel around the country due to my tour guide job. Sadly the latter photos were shot in JPEG because of RAW. The format is friendly for my hard drive, but not your eyes.
As the day winded down crews began swapping tires, relaxing, and preparing to leave as the sun started to set over one of the best days I’ve had. The Fuji Speedway Drift event was coming to a close. I had wished that the sun remain where it was forever and that this day wouldn’t end. This wasn’t just a golden hour of the day for photos, it was one of the golden moments of my life.
Drivers make laps around the track was mesmerizing. With their driving ability, stickers, and chassis adorned with aggressive upgrades you could see the hours poured in. The jealousy bug bit me hard because I knew there were people who made a living from driving cars, meanwhile I couldn’t make money off of anything I tried. I imagined myself in the driver’s seat of one of the cars as it made its way around the small track.
I had missed the rain and arrived to the pleasing sound of engines roaring, tires squealing, and turbos hissing. In the parking area were people relaxing, chatting, and cooling down their cars after their time on the track. The atmosphere calmed me despite the loud noises of all the cars. I’m glad Japanese Drift Events are Chill.
Tokyo Auto Salon so I was a reluctant to want to go to the drift event the following day. Money is getting to be a little tight. Low pay and my growing list of expenses made me hesitate to say yes. The continual debt that I owe my parents hung over me like a shadow as I put gas in my car. Stress stopped me dead in my tracks when I had to pay a tolls. Hungry I was hesitant to feed myself after watching the bills from my pocket drain.
I’ll be more stressed about money moving through the rest of the month. Feeling truly happy was worth it. At the same time it was also emotionally painful to be so close to a dream and constrained to the sidelines. In that way one of the most pleasurable moments in my life cut deep with a poisoned blade.
Some of the “highlights” of Tokyo Auto Salon, were things that didn’t excite me at all. I was immune from the hype surrounding newer modeled cars, exotic cars, and even the new Toyota Supra, but there were some things I was really happy to see. I’d never thought I’d say this in my life, but. . .
My dad actually owned a Yaris Sedan in 2008 and although it was a cute car, it’s one purpose was fuel efficiency and economy. Even with the SE trim, which came packed with a spoiler, fog lights, and 4-wheel disc brakes, there was no getting around the safe design that Toyota went with. The one exciting thing about it was that its 1.5 liter engine used the same VVT-i technology that the 20v 4AGE, although it’s numbers were well below that of the legendary 4a Engine.
When I saw that Toyota not only had gotten back into rallying(please come back subaru), but won the manufacturers’ championship I was really surprised. I was actually happy to see a Yaris in person, and it gives me hope that Toyota will go back to the ways of making cars for car people as well as continuing to sell cars that the general public can enjoy. My hope is that they will roll out a tamed down version of their rally car, as well as put an inline four cylinder in their 86.
To those of you who don’t know the WRC is the World Rally Championship, and they used to hold events in Japan. I was happy to see that I wasn’t the only one who wanted to go to an event(although I want to go as a driver even if I’m at the bottom of the standings tee hee). Japanese roads are perfect for rally stages, the touge is where many driving legends are born. One legend that even laymen might know is Colin McRae.
When I saw Colin McRae’s subaru and Tommi Mäkinen’s Lancer, the boy racer buried inside me had been resuscitated. I was reminded of one of the reasons I fell in love with cars when I was young. It wasn’t just because the WRX was one of the main cars in the Colin McRae rally and dirt series. It was because of what Tommi and Colin stood for as drivers as well. In the same vein as Ayrton Senna, to them it was never about driving just for points.
When in doubt flat out
Colin McRae
They drove the fastest they could all the time, because they loved cars and driving. It was weird to be standing next to the cars which were painstakingly realistically modeled in numerous games, and that I had spent countless virtual hours in the cockpit driving, crashing, and racing on roads. I wasn’t sure if life had turned into an game, or games were just getting realistic, because for me it shattered reality a slight bit.
Was seeing the D1 drivers talking on stage with their cars proudly displayed in the same room. Another codemasters game, in GRID I had gotten pretty good at drifting the C-West Silvia virtually, but what these guys were here doing it in real life. I resisted the urge to want to ask them how to be a driver in my bad Japanese, not like I understood much anyway, but what I did understand was the massive ability they wielded. I was a little jealous that they had gotten to live a life that people like me can only dream about as I studied their cars, which resembled fighter jets with all the switches inside of them.
The weird thing is I don’t even really like competition drifting, but the fact you can make a living from drifting makes me a little less cynical about life.
As always Much Love <3 LaidbackMarco
Here’s The Second Round Of Photos at Tokyo Auto Salon!
Now that you’ve seen the shots, here are the mistakes I make.
The dynamic lighting indoors with the various lighting conditions really lends itself to the uncompressed data in the darks and lights that the RAW image format captures. When making adjustments in Lightroom adjusting the sliders too far on JPEG images leads to some artifacting where the loss information occured.
I thought that I would be using the burst function more than I actually did, so I ended up shooting compressed shots for the faster in camera processing, but that ended up being a really bad mistake!.
Was not having a wide angle lens, which made it very difficult to get the kind of shots I wanted with the limited space. Being broke, it’s not like I could afford a wide angle lens, but I really hope to be able to bring one in the future.
was bringing my tripod! The camera, extra lens, and my backpack were already a burden in itself. I thought that I might be able to take some cool shots with the combination of the phone app, tripod, and camera. The wireless connection doesn’t work nearly as smoothly as it should so I was left feeling a little encumbered. Especially when I had to do things like pay for my ticket, recieve a map, or the free goodies handed out.
When I was invited to go to Tokyo Auto Salon, it was an offer I couldn’t refuse. Not a fan of big crowds of people, or really leaving the comfort of my own home on the weekends, it was my love of cars that made me leave my shell.
In my pursuit to make a living from creative work, I often hit walls where it feels like I’m failing to improve at a certain thing. I’m glad I went to tokyo auto salon because I really got my ass kicked.
There are moments in life where you get destroyed so badly that it sparks a paradigm shift. That day made me realize that I had so much to grow as a photographer as the crowds of people forced me to work my Camera’s controls more rapidly than I had ever before.(I shoot in manual mode) The lack of time,space, and the random strangers who apparently don’t care that you’re taking a put me in a position where I had to come up with more creative compositions.
These are some of my best shots, stay tuned for part two where I’ll write about my mistakes!!
Initial D Tour In Real Life! We go from Usui pass to Mount Haruna, called mount Akina in Initial D. Also we go to the family restaurant where it would often show the characters hanging out.
