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.
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!!
