either that or I’ll make you keep fake laughing until I get the right shot. Shot on a Canon 6D, 70-200 f2.8L with a Mola Dish and softbox on the bottom on camera right. Advertisements
Value Proposition: BMW OEM Performance Intake:
With E46’s majorly coming down in price, we’re starting to see performance products made for the car do the same. From overstocked items that need moving to used items coming off old e46s, now is the prime time to make a bid on certain parts that used to cost much more when the e46 was in its prime popularity.
For example, take this awesome oem performance intake made for the M54 engine. 10 years ago it would have cost $1,000 and that’s for some extra noise and 3 more horsepower. Hardly worth the $1000, but I was able to score one for only $300 off of a used 3 series that was being converted back to stock in preparation to be sold. For this low amount, the extra grunt the engine made and the smoothness and extra refinement in throttle response was well worth the price.
For anyone who is interested in this modification. GET IT. You will not regret it. The car now has a very mean and deep growl to it especially from 1st, 2nd and 3rd gear. There is a very slight woosh! noise that sounds really cool and very different from the high pitched whining noise that come from cheaper after market cold air intakes. Usually it’s pretty vague what kind of power aftermarket intakes produce, but the oem BMW one makes a verifiable 3 horsepower which, of course, can’t be felt at all but it’s nice to know that it’s an actual quantifiable result. 187hp > 184hp am I right? Add some headers, an exhaust, a larger Dinan throttle body and this car could produce just about 200hp which would basically make it keep up with modern day entry level sport sedans. The difference is that this engine actually sounds good, and not like a turbo 4 cylinder 😉
The good shit is going into the car.
Besides Redline, Royal Purple is the 2nd best MT Fluid that you can buy out there. This stuff is so slippery. Put it in your manual gearbox, forget about it for 30,000 miles and just enjoy the silk smooth shifts.
I hope this one makes it to NYC.
Introducing Abigail S. with a local agency here in North Carolina.
I really enjoyed working with her. She was quiet and demure but very responsive to direction despite only being 14. She has a vulnerable look but her features convey strength, especially her eyes.
We shot 3 looks and I can’t wait to share the rest!
Newish Ride. 325i 5-spd MT. No options.
A pure driving machine. I’ve always wanted one of these and found a bare bones no option 2003 model with only 85,000 miles on the clock. One requirement though, it had to be a stick shift.
The E46 chassis of the 3-series is by far and will always be my favorite iteration of the famed sports sedan. One doesn’t need a ton of power to how fun in a 3er. The engine, despite only being a 2.5 liter putting out 185 horsepower and 176 lb ft of torque, sings as it screams towards red line in each gear. Making trips to the gas station more frequent unfortunately.
Compared to the 4 cylinder turbocharged models of today, which sounds like listening to Taylor Swift on a pair of shitty Jawbone bluetooth speakers, the snarl of the M54 inline 6 sounds like a tube amp producing the warm, thick but raucous guitar notes of a Rolling Stones anthem. Sure the 4 cylinders produce power, but it’s not all about power. Sure you might get to the next stop light or on ramp 1 second faster than me, but it’s not about the destination. It’s about the journey.
It’s 1am in the morning as I write this, but I think I’ll go take it for a spin one more time before having to think about all the preventative maintenance I’ll have to do on it to keep in tip top shape.
Latest Acquisition!
Been eyeballing one of these for a while…
Recent Work
I think the quality of my work has really picked up after I met Andi who is my go to and incredibly talented make up artist. She understands make up, she understands fashion make up and she understands texture, highlight and dew and how it reacts with the light. There is a huge difference in her technique compared to every other make up artist I’ve worked with. I’m glad she and I connected
Harkening back to the film days
Harkening back to the film days. I bought this a few months ago on a whim because I made a lot of money and I thought, eeeehhhh I always wanted a $1500 film camera that I will most likely rarely use.
The camera club did an activity where we were able to develop our own film so I ran this through all its abilities and came up with some really great prints of my friends. I’m glad I was able to lens them with this camera.
Shooting in NYC again
Made an incredible push with 2 huge agencies and a very well known model scout in New York City. We shot a total of 4 models, 1 from Ford, 2 from Supreme and 1 from Red.
It was a CRAZY trip and my make up artist was driving me fucking crazy because she was not a trooper, but I had to being the photographer means you are also the leader of the team and I pulled our asses out of the hole and got shit done at the expense of my own sanity and money. Because really…it isn’t THAT HARD to learn how to take the subway.
I’m too tired to even rant about this trip…I’ll do that in a later post.
So I finally met her!
It wasn’t suppose to happen, we were going to miss each other by a couple weeks but since I’m freelance I took control of my destin–er i mean, schedule and made it happen.
I really wanted to stand next to her in this photo, but alas it was my camera so I took the sides without making it too awkward for everyone else. She’s the cutie in the glasses.
I like her a lot, she’s really smart, outgoing, confident and physically very attractive. This is one definitely another who is above my pay grade in terms of a quality human being. I just find her so interesting when she talks about her aspirations or even when she’s complaining about her life. There was though, a sense of dread from not knowing how it would work out (which I was constantly thinking about while I was hanging out with her which probably came off as coldness on my part for most of the time that we were together. I really didn’t loosen up until the very end of our time together) If I was younger I would have dove into this in a heartbeat. I want to still try my best to make this work because I think she’s worth it and there maybe more opportunities in Atlanta anyways.
Seeing her stride away at the airport after I dropped her off, the way she walked with her cute little hat on, her hips swaying side to side, walking with purpose…I don’t know, it was so endearing to me. Like she was happy to go back home but knew she was going to see me again soon. That we were both going to try. That meant everything to me.
Why is that as we get older, we fear more as if we have more to lose from falling for someone who seems so right for us. Shouldn’t we have nothing to lose? Now that I think of it, work picked even more for me ever since I started talking to her in April. Even though I had never met her or even talked to her on the phone, she put me in a good mood just through text messages, which made me enjoy everything else about life more, especially work. I think as a creative, this feeling was reflected in my photographs. The agencies seemed to like them more which in return meant more people sent to me. In my line of work, it is important to feign happiness even if you’re not, or else it shows in the photographs. For once I didn’t have to feign it, she made me happy on all fronts and this was all before I even met her. After having met her, i hope I can do the same for her.
I wish I knew her two years ago when i was still considering places to move to in the Southeast. I really hope this works out, but with all long distance relationships, I have only known failure and I don’t want the past to affect my thinking.
It really is better in California
This shirt says it all really.
