A friend recently asked me if he needed to be worried. Apparently I’ve been shooting a higher number of stance cars than most other enthusiasts in my part of the country care to look at. I get it.. They aren’t everyone’s cup of tea. At one point in my life, they certainly weren’t mine. After all - I’m nearing my 40’s, have three kids at home, enjoy traveling and commute from one side of town to the other on the daily just to get to work. What I mean to say is, if it isn’t “practical” it’s not something I typically give much thought to.

I guess that’s why the last few months have been so important to me and to this.. my creative outlet. Rather than ending up in a rut, shooting the same stuff that I’ve been shooting, conversing with the same people I typically engage with, I decided to move in a different direction. To step outside of my comfort zone and see where it takes me. If I told you it has been easy to meet with complete strangers at night, with half a plan, a camera and a flashlight.. Well.. how’s the saying go? “Nothing worth doing is easy.”

So here we are. Another local Pavement Killer, added to my portfolio. After an impressive and completely bumperless run at a relatively mild looking driveway - he was off the street and tucked safely inside the shop. Once inside, he asked me how I wanted the car positioned. When I mentioned turning it around, he grabbed the floor jack, slid it gingerly under the rear of the xB, lifted the rear of the car up to a height the casual motorist would still find concerning, and began to spin the entire car around in a circle. (No matter who you are or what you think you know about stance car owners and builders, I promise you they’re more resourceful than you realize.)

We spent about an hour and a half inside the shop, spinning this brave little toaster like it was on a Lazy Susan, in various directions to help me create the images you see here. During that time, I prodded the owner with questions about his cars, his kids and even his job. He responded with just enough information to be polite and respectful and suddenly I felt like a reporter digging for dirt. The irony here is that I’ve mostly grown to ignore people when I’m shooting, because I become too wrapped up in what I’m doing and I forget about the human experience. So here I am.. paired off with the perfect client that can respect that, and I can’t seem to keep myself from making small talk to fill the silence. Looks like this new direction has me growing more than I realized.

Gear: Sony A7RIII, Sony 24-105 f4 G OSS, B&W CPL, YN360, Sunpak Tripod

Post Processing: Adobe Photoshop