Sunlit Silhouettes

Caught this beautiful sunset last minute after meeting my family (Claire & Scout) at the park after class.

Solitaire

Nick Minotti’s WRBP STI

I know, I know, I know… it’s been a while. I never planned to give this up entirely, I’ve just taken an extended leave of absence in the name of huge, much needed, life changes.

Anyhow, here’s a small STI feature. It belongs to a good friend of mine, a friend who’s responsible for most of the changes I’ve gone through in the past year. The least I could do is snap some photos of his ‘buru!

For those of you looking to spice up your dull lives, she’s for sale!

Random Photo – Tuesday Night Shore Mall Meet

This is my second time attending this meet and needless to say, I will most likely not be seen there again, not my scene.

 

Fresh Meet 2012 at Kean University

The Fresh Meet at Kean University yesterday was a great turnout, it far surpassed my expectations. Despite being exhausted, hungry, dehydrated, sunburnt, and soaked in sweat to say the least, everyone including myself still managed to have an amazing time. The staff did a good job organizing everything and more than half of the cars were actually worth seeing (an unusual occurance). I took over one hundred pictures in between taking breaks to dry my face and find water, and edited nearly fifty that I felt best portrayed the day in a nutshell.

Independence Day in Ocean City New Jersey

After spending a few hours on the boadwalk eating polish ice and giant slices of pizza with Claire, an amazing fireworks show ended our lovely night with a “bang”! I was fortunate enough to claim a good place on the beach to set up and shoot. I captured nearly a hundred photos, and was suprisingly happy with almost all of them. I tried to pick the best of the best to keep this post to a minimum. Enjoy!

Thunder off the Coast

Another storm rolled through Ocean County again early last night. As the storm subsided, I prepared to head to Long Beach Island to take another stab at night time lightning shots. Hoping this time would turn out more of a success than the last, Claire and I headed out around 10pm and got where we wanted to be around 10:30. To my surprise, there were a good amount of spectators, so we found a quiet spot on the beach, set up, and began shooting. I was instantly happy with the first few shots and just knew this turnout would be better than before.

Sure enough, I had more keepers this time around. However, these still are not perfect. I must admit I left the aperature between 3.5 and 5.6 rather than 12 or higher. I’m not happy about it but I’ll be sure to get it right next time around. At this rate, were sure to have at least one good storm a week.

Thunderstorms at 2am

Overtired from lack of sleep the night before, I laid in bed staring at my phone. Around 1am I noticed non stop flashing lights outside and was obviously interested. You rarely see lightning quite like it, heat lightning. The sky lights up like a night club, but until the storm draws closer, you can’t see any actual lightning bolts.

Only minutes before the rain and hurricane-like winds hit us, I ran to my car, grabbed my camera, and set up in the front door, semi-sheltered from the storm. I preset the exposure time to four seconds and began shooting away with my remote trigger. After about an hours time and almost 100 pictures later, I managed to capture 11 images with lightning in them, and over all was only happy with 3. I plan on going out to the beach after the next storm passes and getting some shots of the lightning over the water. Practice makes perfect, and being that last night was my first time shooting a storm, these images are far from perfect, but, nontheless, interesting to see.

7 Series Wheels on the 350z

It’s been quite a long time since I’ve done something, or had the money to do something, with my Z. I’ve wanted wheels from the start but opted for slightly cheaper exterior mods first. A couple of months ago, a buddy of mine showed me a picture of a blue Z with white BMW 7 Series wheels, something I’ve never seen before, and, to my surprise, something that complimented the Z quite well. Next thing I knew, I was searching Craigslist for a clean set and after a few weeks, I was lucky enough to find a set not even an hour away. I dropped $1,000 like it was nothing and brought them home.

The next day I decided I wanted to be original and hand polish them. Terrible idea. I spent another $100 on stripping and sanding supplies and got to work that night with a few friends. All was well until one of my friends got anxious and made a very costly mistake the next morning. In an attempt to speed up the stripping process, he took a metal grinder to one of the wheels, putting enough deep grooves into it to put an end to the polishing plan. I returned whatever supplies I could and brought the wheels to a place in downtown Toms River called “Rusty’s Island”. The new plan was to have the wheels painted Pearl White (similar to the color of my car). I found a deal on new tires on Craigslist ($400) in the meantime.

After all was said and done, the bill was $800 for repair, paint, and tire stretching, bringing the grand total for these wheels to $2,450 after purchasing the $250 19mm adaptec wheel adapters. I do regret having spent so much, but shit happens. What truly matters is that I’m happy with the turn out, and you can’t put a price the amount of compliments I’ve gotten thus far.

Exterior Mods
-Paint matched eye lids
-INGS+1 replica front lip
-Stillen roof spoiler
-06-08 oem LED tail lights
-Blox shorty antenna (no radio recpetion what-so-ever)
-30% tint all around
-g35 rear mud guards (to be installed)

Interior Mods
-Blox spherical platinum shift knob
-Pioneer AVIC x930bt navigation headunit
-Black trunk carpet

Wheels/Suspension/Brakes
-Drilled & slotted Stillen rotors
-Stance GR+ true type coilovers
-Borbet style 95 (OEM 745i wheels)
Front: 19×9 +24 (+5 with 19mm adapter) on 215/35/19 Falken 452
Rear: 19×10 +24 (+5 with 19mm adapter) on 235/35/19 Nexen n3000

iPhone 4GS Sunset VII