nfs lexus (2020) (Patreon)

This is a shot from the first commissioned car review I ever wrote, for Hemmings.  This car, the 2003 Lexus IS430 SEMA build concept, was basically the launch of my official career. I was there to do a retro-review, so I did get to drive it (at extremely low speeds around the Toyota campus in Plano), and I shot so, so many photos of it, nervous I would forget something important. The review came out pretty well, and it definitely wasn't a bad way to kick off a career. 

Ironically, if the upload quality on Hemmings weren't so squished, my shots would definitely be the most detailed and highest-quality in existence, because this car got trotted out for one round of SEMA in '03 and then was promptly shoved in a warehouse. As as result, there's hardly no shots of it around the internet except for a handful of (I think film!) press photos from its debut, and some snapshots from the show or scans from long-defunct magazines. 

This one was always my favorite I took of it, though. I had just gotten my extremely old Nikkor 20mm lens (not a great lens; I've since upgraded to a much more modern Nikkor 20mm) but I managed to coax one perfectly-sharp shot out of it. I took it in the style of all the Super Street and Import Racer magazines I'd read growing up, distortion encouraged, with a hilariously dramatic dutch angle and all. This photo practically plays Limp Bizkit when you look at it, it's so painfully 00s. 

It's one of the only times I've ever taken a photo of a car like this. It probably will remain one of the only times I'll take a photo of a car like this, unless I end up shooting the cast cars of the original Fast and Furious or something, but that makes it fun. I got to shoot a time capsule, and I shot it like I was sitting in the capsule with it.