A few days ago, the Santiago Fire (which started in Silverado Canyon or something) got a little too close for comfort. Around 7PM on Sunday, you could see the sky glowing red further down the hill. At that time, I got about 4-5 phone calls in a row asking me how close the fire was. I calmly told everyone the fire wasn’t that close, but that it seemed to have gone away. An hour or so later, a friend called back and asked me if I was sure because the fire looked really close to my house. I went outside and noticed the fire had started burning further up on the hill, closer to our community.

Anyhow, I grabbed my camera and 70-200 lens and ran outside. I was out there for about 2 hours and captured about 120 pictures. I must say that the Image Stabilization was worth its weight in gold for this situation. I didnt want to roll out there with a tripod. I messed around with the metering and exposure compensation. But capturing a bright fire in an otherwise dark neighborhood just isnt going to show that much. But here are a few of the pics that I thought cleaned up nicely. I was shooting ISO 1250 so a little bit of Noiseware Pro went a long way.

This was a close up of the fire on the hill, courtesy of 200mm + 1.6x crop

The fire as it crossed the 261 Toll Road and was making its way to Jamboree. The buildings in the foreground are the Salvation Army Church

The fire, approaching Jamboree

This was the view overlooking Pioneer Road (and Pioneer Road Park). At this point, the fire had already burned down to Jamboree. Most of the cars you see are curious on-lookers.

I submitted one of my photos to NBC4 and it made it into their slide show!

Its actually no big accomplishment, they publish every user submitted photo I think

General, Photographs | No Comments »

0-60 in 3.5 seconds
11.7 second quarter mile
192 MPH top speed
473 hp/433 lb-ft

Autoweek has more information and pictures posted

From what I’ve heard, when Nissan commissioned the design of the cylinder heads and block, the design spec specified that it must be able to handle 1,000 horesepower. With the stock configuration putting out 473 horsepower with 11 second quarter mile performance, I can’t wait until some-one who “knows what to do with it” gets a hold of that car.

Hopefully Toyota has something lined up that will be just as exciting when the Supra makes a return. If they stick to the normally aspirated route, then they’re just plain stupid.

All hail the new King.

Cars | No Comments »

Rockstar/Nitto Nissan Silvia S15

Originally uploaded by arics

I had the opportunity to go to the Formula Drift Finals this year on a DSport press pass. One cool thing that Formula Drift did this time was to limit “press vests” to magazines only. Meaning, if you weren’t there taking photos for a magazine, you don’t get a press vest. The press vest allowed you to get on the in-field. I think that did a lot to keep the in-field relatively open. In the past, there’d be like 50 people cramped in the confines of 4 concrete barriers. If you didn’t head down to the in-field an hour ahead of time, you weren’t going to get a good spot. During qualifying, there was probably only like 6-8 people on the in-field.

Anyhow, I was pretty excited about going this time since Robbie Nishida qualified 1st out of the non-seeded drivers the day before. Ed was pretty excited about the prospects of the next day’s main event. Robbie ended up qualifying 7th overall, under Rhys Millen, JR, and Tanner Foust (not in that order). Unfortunately, Robbie was too aggressive during the first round against #10 qualifier Bill Sherman and spun out just before the finish line.

Anyhow, this was the first time I’ve seen the Rockstar/Nitto Nissan Silvia S15. And I must say, its my new favorite car in the Formula Drift lineup. The Nissan Silvia S15 is just a nice car, period. Throw on an aggressive color scheme, some wheels and a good ride height and it looks crazy. Prior to this car, I really liked the RS*R Nissan Silvia S15. The white/red color scheme looked really good on that car. In contrast, I’m not too cool with the Hankook Nissan Silvia S15. It just looks old or something. I think its just too black/white and the orange makes it look “dated”.

Anyhow, I think I got a fair amount of decent pics. Here’s one of my favorites so far. I still have a few hundred to go through. But I posted a few on Flickr so far. Check ‘em out.

Cars, Photographs | 1 Comment »