Day 4: Building the network.

Today was pretty busy, but it was fun. The weather was nice, and I was around good people for the better part of it.   I started off in Santee at the Executives Garage bikini car wash at 10:30 am.  The guys and girls at Executives have always been good to me and are fans of C. Withers Media,  so it was a great opportunity to make my way to the shop and hang out for a bit.  I arrived and helped out with the set up, chatted with some of the employees and grabbed a few quick shots.  Unfortunately in the 2 hours I was there, the bikini car wash never really developed.  No cars to wash and no girls in bikini’s.   Either way, it was cool people, and they were happy that I came out to support them.  Sure they have cool cars, sure hot half naked chicks were going to be running around, but isn’t the whole point of this to support the people who support you.  Plus, I got to see my old friend Anna aka. Uglee, as she enjoyed some Olde English malt liquor for breakfast.

Decided to make way down to Qualcomm stadium in Mission Valley, the heart of San Diego,  for Socal Euro’s annual BIG meet.  I pulled in and noticed two things right off the bat, there were a lot of cars and there were a lot guys walking around with cameras.  This is mutually beneficial to me as a photographer. I find shooting cars at an event like this to be  pretty irrelevant.  There are hundreds of people with cameras taking pictures of several hundreds of cars, and ultimately when everybody starts posting the same pictures of the same cars, it becomes counterproductive to them.  So I just let them shoot the cars and ultimately they saturate themselves out of the market.  I go to network, meet new people, and try to create and nurture client relationships.  A car has never paid me to shoot it, but several car owners have.  Inevitably, I end up shooting a few cars, but its not my purpose for being there.  I have come to the conclusion that the DSLR camera is the gold chain of this decade, everybody has one and in most cases it just looks cool hanging around someone’s neck.  As the pictures from the event begin to filter out, it’s simple to sort the photographers from the fauxtographers.  I saw and visited with several of my clients and chatted it up, these events are always about the people for me.  I enjoy people much more than I enjoy looking at cars, and then of course, there were hot chicks who recognized me and wanted me to get some shots of them.

I met up with Mark, owner of http://www.zhpmafia.com, to hang out for the rest of the day and shoot it with a lot of our old friends in the BMW community.  I want to give a shout out to 420LTD, 2M autowerks, and http://www.Euroautospot.com for combining booths and bringing out the best girls and the best dj we saw all day.  As always, those guys were getting crazy and having a good time.

While Mark, Gary, and myself walked around the lot it became apparent that our reach is growing. We were continuously stopped to give a dap or a handshake to someone who knows one of us or is familiar with the work. Even I was surprised by the amount of people who approached us to say,”what’s up”.   No snobby attitudes, no running away in fear, and no negativity.  Just hanging out, having a good time, enjoying some cars, and most importantly having the opportunity to catch up with a lot of our friends who we wouldn’t know without this car scene.  The cars are what bring the people together, but the people are what’s important.  Eventually, these young guys will figure it out.  Photography is the same way, when you make it about the client or the person, it’s more than just a bunch of pictures.

I did figure that since I was around a sea of cars, I would get a few shots.

Stanced hard and was still hitting the High Performance Drivers Education course.

The E30 M3’s had a strong showing.

I see a lot of people trying to cut the booths out of their shots.  That’s cool, it makes it easier for me to market to a vendor when I have a photo relevant to them.

I don’t know what happened, but it looks expensive. Expensive damage = Street cred.

This E30 was putting in work on the skid pad at the HPDE course.

I was digging the color combo on this car.   I also have a nice appreciation for the level and quality of work in that engine bay.

An upper radiator hose leak is a bad thing to have to deal with before heading back to Arizona in late July.

Fan and client of C. Withers Media, Jim Powell’s Porsche 996 TT.

Not sure what happened here, if anything, but tow truck companies need cool photos too.   If Jerr*Dan Star Towing can handle this Ferrari, they can handle your Prius…

Ultimately, we had a great time, saw some old friends, kicked back and enjoyed doing what we do, networking.  I somehow also managed to end up in the winners circle…..Seemed appropriate.

The heat was beating on us, it was getting late, the lot was clearing out, so Mark and I headed up to a local taco shop called California Burrito and picked up 10 rolled tacos and took it back to my place for a bite to eat, more market strategy planning, some light editing on the photos, and the wonderfully working AC courtesy of Arnulfo.

July 31, 2011 | Categories: Life from behind the lense. | Leave a comment

Day 3: Adventures with Ruby.

Always a light schedule for me on Fridays, after all I work close to 70 hours a week including weekends and Friday is a great day to just hang out at the beach and have a little fun.  Seriously, it’s San Diego and Friday is when I cash in my sunshine dollars.

Ruby (my mom) decided that she wanted to go check out Coronado and see what the fuss was about that all of the “foreigners” like to vacation there.  So we packed  up and headed  out  to let her visit some of the local shops and then we were off to the beach.  Our first stop was at the Ferry Landing, and Ruby was pleased with the volume of trinket shops that she could scour for crap she doesn’t need.  I was pleased with Spiro’s Gyro’s and opted for Greek lunch.

After finishing my lunch, the ferry loading dock was our next stop.  I was stopped by two men of Middle Eastern descent and was handed a Canon 7D and asked if I would get a few shots of them with the city in the background.  It was no problem, and being courteous I asked them where they were visiting from.  One gentleman replied Kentucky, the other Laguna Beach.  No big deal right, but then Ruby asked them, “Where are you reallllly from?”.   I have said it before and I meant it, Ruby means no harm, she just has a bad delivery.  My jaw dropped, both of their jaws dropped, and they looked at me, then looked at Ruby and answered, “Palestine” and “Cyprus”.   As if that wasn’t enough, Ruby then went on to tell the two gentleman about her Bosnian neighbors and her friends that are Russian.  I gave them the apologetic nod and they thanked me for the photo, and I knew that today was going to be a winner.

Then I caught Kailey enjoying the city.

It became apparent that Ruby and Kailey were hungry so we started making our way back to the shopping area.  This is where we  met Boomer.  Boomer is from a good home, his previous owner developed severe allergies, and now Boomer is currently residing short term at the Coronado animal shelter.  If you are local to San Diego and looking for an awesome pup, Boomer is available for adoption and is looking for a great home.

On the way to Kailey’s choice of Burger King for lunch, Ruby and Kailey decided to hit a few shops and touch every item in each store.

Then Kailey roped her Grandmother into an $8 candy apple from an upscale chocolate store, and before lunch no less.  I wish I was ballin’ like that.

Finally making our way to Burger King, I ask Ruby to buy me a drink.  When she arrives at the table, no drink, she forgot.   More on forgetting in a minute.  Let me explain this, Ruby assumes that every city or town is the same and has a hard time adapting to change.  The ladies pull out their food and immediately I see a french fry fly by in my peripheral vision.  Keep in mind, we have signs everywhere in San Diego to not feed the birds and disrupt the ecological cycle.  Especially in Coronado, where feeding birds is illegal and punishable by heavy fine.  So the fry flies by my head and my initial is reaction is “What the hell are  you doing?”  Ruby’s carefree response, “Feeding the birds.”  I point at the sign directly in front of her and explain the severity of doing that and getting caught as pigeons began landing on our table.  Her reaction was priceless.

I think we better get out of the area as the birds have now found the one person in San Diego willing to feed them fries, however, Ruby wants to make another stop at a trinket store.  In this trinket store, Ruby removed her sunglasses to view a price tag evidently and then walked away so we could leave.  Within three steps of the door she feels her head for her glasses, but they are not there.  At this point it’s pretty simple, you were wearing them when we ate and then we  made one stop and now you don’t have them.  Ruby had a different plan, she ran back to the table we were sitting at in the BK dining area and yelled at the people who had replaced us in the seats.  They had no idea where her sunglasses were, my attempts to calm her were ineffective, and the people actually seemed scared.  I  corralled my mother and veered her away, explaining that the table was empty when we left the area.  Still convinced that the people at the table had stolen her prescription sunglasses we made our way back to the store she had taken them off in, and low and behold if they weren’t sitting right in front of the shirt she had been looking at.   It’s definitely time to go.

We headed West to the ocean side of Coronado for a visit to the beach.

Kailey and Ruby had found a hot spot for sand dollars and Kailey rounded up about 20 still alive, and then decided she could bring them back to our neighborhood and sell them for a dollar each.  I was cool with that.

As we made our way back to the car, I was approached by a beautiful young lady holding a point and shoot camera who asked me if I knew C. Withers Media, as I was wearing my shirt.  She had a heavy accent and I responded politely, “I am C. Withers Media.”  It turns out that Elena from Spain was already aware of the work and recognized the name on my t-shirt and asked if I could take some shots of her with her camera.  I agreed and got a couple of cute shots of her, then I asked if I could get one with my camera and gave her my business card.  I am not sure if Elena knew of us before she arrived from Spain, or if she heard of us while she has been in San Diego, but it was really one of those humbling moments when you start to realize the scope of your reach.

We made our way back to the car safely and did not have any more crazy encounters thankfully, but at least I can rest easy knowing what I will be like in the future.  Ruby is a blast to hang out with, and there is never a dull moment.  Thanks Mom for an incredibly fun and funny day.

July 30, 2011 | Categories: Life from behind the lense. | 1 Comment

Day 2. Lifes simple pleasures.

Throughout my life I have worked at big corporate jobs, served 2 combat tours in the US Army, worked for local mom and pop shops, traveled, been married for 15 years, have 2 great children and had a number of “big events” that seem to landmark points and time.  As I get older though, the big things are still there, but its little occurrences of my daily routine that seem to fascinate me.  As you will see that today’s entry is not about any major occurrence, its about all of the little simple pleasures we often take for granted, get excited about, or find solace with their presence

Today started off like any other day: Wake up, check email/twitter (@cwithersmedia)/facebook/ZHPMafia.com and the other places that are important to my business.  Watch a few videos to find my inspiration for the day and then delve into photoshop to process images for clients.  I was putting the finishing touches on infant shots of Zippy Martinez when my batteries in my wireless mouse died.

Mouse needs batteries, not a big deal, just head to the local Target and pick up some AAA’s and get things moving again.  As I got my socks and shoes on, I noticed a drip coming from the fan area of my ceiling and called maintenance on my cell phone to come fix the problem with my air conditioning.  Pretty routine stuff, but as I had a little drive ahead of me to get the batteries, I started reflecting in the quiet of the car.  I need batteries to function a tool that allows me to be efficient in my work, I had to make a call on a cell phone that had the maintenance number pre programmed in it so I could have someone come fix my air conditioning unit,  I am driving to get the batteries in a car with my cell phone and air conditioning both on.  These simple pleasures  alone saved me massive amounts of time and rather than be upset that  I was knocked off of my routine, I just basked in the convenience of technology knowing that it could be much worse.

Batteries now in hand, I headed back to the dungeon to meet up with Arnulfo who was going to fix my AC.

Arnulfo is a cool guy, he speaks little English, works his ass off and always has a smile on his face.  When he came downstairs to tell me that he had to remove the closet flooring to fix a broken hose, I was a bit perturbed.  Yet, I took a minute to realize that here is this guy, looking like the Mexican version of Ron Jeremy sweating his ass off, doing his job….I have nothing to be fired up about, I just told him no problem, we moved stuff out of the closet, and he pulled up the floor and fixed it.  Here is where simple pleasures will bite you in the behind.  It was warm, the AC was off, and Arnulfo was looking pretty beat up when he came downstairs.  I offered him some water and he declined, so I offered him a Dr. Pepper.  Dr. Pepper in our house is liquid gold.  The dilemma, I only had one left.  Of course, Arnulfo wanted a Dr. Pepper and I willingly gave it to him for his efforts.  I went ahead and had water.

Having had a highly productive day and wanting to get out and shoot, I convinced and eventually dragged my mom to La Mesa for the 50’s night car show knowing she would have a blast and I would get content.  We arrived in historic downtown La Mesa to see streets lined with cars ranging from the 40’s to the 70’s, rat rods to rolls royces, and enough muscle to make Arnold tremble in fear. Music from the 50’s was blaring up to keep the mood right and we saw many people getting into the role with era appropriate outfits.

This was one of the cars that quickly caught my eye as we made our way up the street crowded with nostalgic onlookers.

As we continued looking I noticed a super clean VW bus with its doors open and a beautiful young lady sipping some wine in a small chair, I peeked my head in and introduced myself.  Justin and Cache were more than willing to let me grab a couple of shots of the interior and we talked for a few.  I then warned Cache to watch out for Justin because people with a couch and curtains in their van cannot be trusted.  Justin laughed as obviously I was joking, this perfect example of a Southern California Surf Cruiser was not typical of the Free Candy type of van that we warn our children about

If you like characters this is definitely a place to meet some,  we saw several vendors up and down the streets including the beautiful Jackie Henry, who is known affectionately to me as #100 as she was the 100th person to like my facebook fanpage.  We also met a cosplay pinup model, an Elvis looking dude, and the “Don’t Shoot, or I’ll Shoot” laser tag guy.

This was just my type of event, all about the people and not so much about the cars.  However, there were some cars…..

This was the type of event where you could just go kick your feet up, lay back and hang out.

I even found time to enjoy one of my favorite little simple pleasures.  Bacon wrapped, cheese and onion covered, hot dogs.  I only had one, but man, talk about 5 minutes of unhealthy heaven.  Even the sign to the left seemed to be directing toward the stand as if to say, “there is only one way”.

Then of course we come to Ruby.  Ruby is my mother, and she is pretty funny.  She is a simple person with a complex personality, but I am sure that will come up later.  For now, lets just focus on her simple pleasures.  Ruby collects antiques and loves anything red.  I was not there to go into all of the vintage apparel, wares, and furniture stores that line the streets of La Mesa and did my best to contain Ruby, but this next  series of pictures will tell the story.  As we were leaving, something caught her eye, and like a mosquito to an electric zapper, we were in the store.  The rest is history.

That was it, knowing my mother and her willingness to part ways with money for stuff like this, I figured she had taken all she could handle and I got her out of there before we left with a trunk full of goods.

July 29, 2011 | Categories: Life from behind the lense. | 1 Comment