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.
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