Tag: Long Beach

Automotive by Narita Dogfight
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Event: Wekfest LA 2015 v.1

Whenever I archive photos from events that I attend for the site, I always save them by dates so when I go back to create and edit collections in Lightroom, I’m not scouring the thousands of files I have on my hard drive. That’s probably pretty common amongst most photographers, but in doing so it allows me to see just how many times I’ve attended a particular event. In this case, this was my fifth year attending Wekfest LA (amongst SF and New Jersey as well).

Continue reading Event: Wekfest LA 2015 v.1
Automotive by Narita Dogfight

Event: Wekfest LA 2012 – Long Beach, California V.4

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It’s almost been a week since Wekfest LA, and I’ve just about wrapped up all my coverage.  I’m going to try and squeeze everything I’ve got into this final post – so it’s going to be massive.  I went ballistic on this one so, by far, you’ll see the most diversity in cars throughout this post.  I’ve also included another slideshow gallery at the bottom for the masses.  Hope you see your car!  Also, if you want some special VIP only coverage of the show, check out our friends down under at Street-Cover.  I supplied them with a few shots to help spread the Wek love over in Australia.  You should probably check the site out anyway because it’s pretty rad.  Again, special thanks goes out to all those at Weksos Industries involved in organizing such a massive tour, as well as the city of Long Beach for being cooperative.  Let’s just jump right into the coverage.  You know the drill – click the break for more.

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Automotive by Narita Dogfight

Event: Wekfest LA 2012 – Long Beach, California V.3

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I’m running out of ways to start these posts, as usual, so I’ll just start off by saying…here is part 3 of NDF’s Wekfest LB (A) coverage.  I even had trouble coming up with that.  I think from now on, literally this second, for the rest of the show coverage, I will highlight a handful of shots and then post a slide gallery of some cookie cutter coverage of the show towards the bottom of the post.  There are really way too many cars to try and put them into this format.  This will allow you guys to see the show in a more timely manner as well.  As a side benefit, it will also allow me to concentrate my commentary on just a few memorable shots.  After previewing the new layout, I think you’ll like it as it allows you to briefly preview a lower sized picture, as opposed to loading an entire page worth of pictures.  Once you click a thumbnail, a slide feature will pop up allowing you to view each shot in the gallery in succession. Typically, towards the end of posts my comments turn from semi-informational to just blatant observations (e.g. here is a civic on Volks).  You’re probably reading that type of stuff and saying, “Well, no shit”.  I think I left off around early afternoon, just before the gates opened and the flood of show goers rushed the grounds.  I think it was right about this time I decided to break off from the guys I was hanging out with and start taking photos again.  Click past the break for continued coverage.

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Automotive by Narita Dogfight

Event: Wekfest LA 2012 – Long Beach, California V.2

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Let’s continue the Wekfest LA 2012 coverage, shall we?  I left off somewhere around early afternoon just before the gates opened to the public.  By this time a line had formed at the entrance that wrapped around quite a ways towards the Queen Mary.  I don’t think it was as profound as the San Francisco show, but it was still pretty large.  The good thing about it being an outdoor venue was the amount of people that could come in wasn’t limited because of fire law restrictions.  Although Fort Mason is a cool location to have a show in the city, it limits the capacity in several different ways.  After I made my first round through the cars, I was getting pretty hungry.  My buddy Jon had ordered a pizza, so I took a break with him and some other guys and ate a little bit.  Sitting in the grass, under the cover of the mornings marine layer was extremely relaxing.  After a good 30 minutes though I decided it would be best to do another walk through before the crowds arrived.  Check the second round of coverage past the break.

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Automotive by Narita Dogfight

Event: Wekfest LA 2012 – Long Beach, California V.1

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This past weekend the Queen Mary park in Long Beach played host to the second stop in the 2012 Wekfest Tour; Wekfest LA.  It’s hard to believe that it’s already been a year since the show stormed the grounds in 2011; and as I was expecting, the show was unreal.  Honestly, if I could choose one show to attend for the entire year, there is no doubt it would be Wekfest – LA specifically.  There really is no better venue than the Queen Mary; great weather, beautiful ocean and downtown views, off-shore breezes, shaded grassy areas to relax, and plenty of room for the 300+ cars and the thousands of attendees.  The Wek get better at organizing these shows with each event’s passing and for like minded people, their efforts don’t go unnoticed.  I’d like to give a big thanks to Kenneth Li, Adam Luong, Geoffrey Nguyen and all the other behind the scenes people at Weksos that make this tour what it is.  I had a blast checking out the builds, catching up with familiar faces, and meeting a handful of new people.  With that said, I need to work on getting more sleep before these shows.  I’ve slipped into the unconscious habit of getting a maximum of 2-3 hours of sleep before any particular Wekfest show I’ve attended.  Somehow I managed to arrive a good two hours before media was allowed in; two hours I spent sleeping in the parking lot.  With about 30 minutes to 11am, I walked towards the entrance where I saw my buddy Jon.  As we were talking Geoffrey came up to say hi.  We talked for a few minutes, got my stamp a little early, and I slipped into the fray of glossy metal that is Wekfest.  Check out the first part of coverage past the break – hope you enjoy!

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Automotive by Narita Dogfight

Event: Formula D – Drifts Cars In Static

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As I type this I’m watching the qualifying of the F1 Chinese Grand Prix, and Vettel just got pipped in Q2.  He’ll start the race in 11th place; It’ll be interesting to see how he can pull himself through the pack.  On a semi-related note, I get to watch Rubens Barichello race his Indy car around the streets of Long Beach tomorrow afternoon;  I couldn’t be more excited about that.  Lastly, on a note more related than the first, here is some more coverage from Formula D in Long Beach this past weekend.  I mentioned before that I didn’t have a media pass, so I apologize for not having action shots, but hopefully you’ll enjoy this look at some of the drift cars in the pits and at the show.  Click past the break for more.

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Automotive by Narita Dogfight

Event: Slammed Society x Fatlace Car Show – Long Beach v.1

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Like I had said in my previous post, I hadn’t planned on going to Formula D, and I really didn’t plan on inquiring about a media pass (although from the looks of it I probably should have!).  So, to say I was lucky I got in would be an understatement.  I didn’t get many great shots of the actual tandem runs because the track was pretty well fenced off and the parts that you could have possibly shot through had huge banners covering it.  That, and my zoom lens is a piece of shit.  Seriously, worst lens ever.  I don’t even know why I bother lugging it around.  It’s OK though because I have another new prime on the way – a must for the Super GT & Taikyu races I’ll be shooting soon.  Anyway, there was some serious down-time in between rounds so I had some good opportunities to snap the show that was going on in the parking lot.  Every year Slammed Society and Fatlace put on a car show concurrent with the Formula D event.  I never really bothered with it all the other times I went to Formula D here, but since there was nothing else to do I decided to check it out.  There was the usual mix of awesome and not so awesome cars.  I did get a chance to meet up with a few people, and make friends with some new faces which was great.  Take a closer look at the show past the break.

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Automotive by Narita Dogfight

Event: Wekfest LA 2011 v.3

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I might as well just dive into part three of Wekfest coverage.  This post is going to have a lot of Honda’s, and a lot of S2000’s – as if that were a bad thing.  I was pretty surprised at the amount that were in attendance, and all of them were awesome.  By this point I pretty much lost all determination to cover this show in an organized fashion, so most of these will appear scattered.  Enjoy.

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Automotive by Narita Dogfight

Event: Wekfest LA 2011 v.2

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Let’s get on with some more Wekfest LA coverage from Long Beach, CA.  I ended up writing this entire post before I even wrote the introduction.  I never know how to start off the second part of event coverage.  This second part has a huge variety of cars, which is pretty cool, but it made it look kind of sloppy.  The grass section was gigantic and hard to cover methodically, so my pictures are a bit scattered.  At this point I was also running purely on Red Bull and Skittles, so it’s likely that I got a little sidetracked. Oh well, enjoy.

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Automotive by Narita Dogfight

Event: Wekfest LA 2011 v.1

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Up until Friday I wasn’t even sure if I was going to be able to attend Wekfest LA.  Requesting days off isn’t as easy as it used to be with my new position.  Somehow, last minute, I managed to get my shift covered; so what did I do?  That’s right – I went to Las Vegas.  Good idea right?  I hopped on a flight out of LAX Saturday afternoon, chilled on the Strip for 10 hours, and made my way back to Long Beach in time to shoot Wekfest.  Well, it turns out it wasn’t such a good idea.  I ended up losing way more than I intended, got no sleep, and smelled like cigarettes all day.  I gotta say though, Wekfest more than made up for it.  On top of that, it was probably the most beautiful day in Long Beach this year.  Unbelievable cars, good food, music, friends and great weather; can’t ask for much more.  I’ll  do my best to try and walk you through the show a little before I go ballistic with the pics.  Click past the break for more.

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Automotive by Narita Dogfight

Event: 6th Annual JCCS, Long Beach V.2

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On to round 2 of the JCCS coverage.  Like I mentioned in the previous post, engine swaps are all to common at this show;  and this coupe is no exception.  This is Steve’s car.  Steve drove 2,000 miles from Alberta, Canada to show at Long Beach.  This is the way I like to see cars; put to use!  As if that wasn’t special enough, Steve had something out of the ordinary at the disposal of his right foot.  How does 260 ft/lb.’s of torque sound?  Yup, a 4.0 liter, V8 taken from a LS400 sits in place of the stock engine.  I got to talk to Steve for a little bit, and to my surprise, he said that the first generation UZ engine fit rather easily in the bay.

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Automotive by Narita Dogfight

Event: 6th Annual JCCS, Long Beach V.1


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The warm sun, the cool ocean breeze blowing through the trees;  Downtown Long Beach makes the perfect venue for just about any get together – and the 6th annual holding of the Japanese Classic Car Show is no exception.  Without a doubt JCCS is the show to go to to see the best in classic Japanese cars.  Datsuns, Toyotas, and Mazdas from the 70’s and 80’s are littered throughout the grounds and parking lot.  Some are daily driven, and some have been restored to show quality; there is definitely something for everyone.  Take this Corolla for example; old school parts, executed with modern drift styling.  It took me about 2 hours to walk through the show, and I tried to get a little of everything.  Some photos will have a more retro look (i.e. warm temperatures, desaturated);  I did this as a throw back to the era of the cars.  Hope you enjoy!

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