It's been a VERY busy week for the Diode Dynamics crew as we have expanded to a brand new facility that is somewhere around 6 times bigger than the previous facility we were in. This is a very important move as the inventory has been expanding like you wouldn't believe. Thankfully there is a giant warehouse dedicated to the media space in which yours truly gets to design and build a studio space. I am overly excited for this as I have been stuck in a conference room for the past few months. Stay tuned for studio and warehouse updates as we get settled in! Here's a few teasers as we began to unpack everything today!

woop woop!!!

cheeeerzzzz

Travis

Saturday morning I fell out of bed, threw some clothes on and headed to Diode Dynamics to meet Nick. I strolled in around 9AM and we loaded up the FR-S with all sorts of goodies and headed to Kansas City where we would be hitting the Annual Acura Zine event. 

Everything was going fine heading out of St. Louis until somewhere near Columbia. Then, oh my god mother nature was pissed, I mean really pissed. We drove into a hellish rain storm and it really felt like a hurricane. Despite not being able to see the end of my hood, and hydroplaning like it was my job, 80mph still seemed like a good idea, and we actually made pretty good time! 

We got into Kansas City a little after 1pm and the weather was perfect, of course. It might have been a little cloudy, I don't really remember. But anyway, I finally got the chance to go check out a couple buddies shop down in the West Bottoms called the Never done Design House. I've been tracking their progress pretty closely on this place and I was so hyped to be able to get in there and see the workings. Ryan was in there working on his transmission and was able to give me a little tour of the place. I can't even tell you how hyped I was seeing their progress. these guys are incredible and probably some of the most talented people I've ever met in my whole life. I'm very excited to see how the place turns out! 

It turns out my Aunt, Uncle, and 2 cousins were in town that same weekend so it was really nice to be able to spend some time with them and grab some dinner and catch up with them before they took off on their road trip!

Sunday was show time! Me and nick hopped in the FR-S and drove down the street (literally) where the event was. We got there around 10AM and there were only a few cars in the lot. As the clock moved, the attendance grew, and it turned out to be a pretty good show! I was really hyped to see that there were 4 NSX's that came out to play. But what really caught my eye car wise was a 1984 Honda Prelude. This thing was perfect. The owner even had the original pamphlets that came with it. I was so happy to see this car. 

Even though there was a lot full of some sick Acura's, I couldn't help but to notice the awesome architecture that the dealership had inside. There was a Lounge area which looked like a hotel lobby equipped with a bar, comfortable chairs, and a large TV. there was also a large bowl filled with candy. It was love at first sight. The glasswork was super clean, and the aluminum accents were perfect. I thought it was a little strange that they had incandescent lighting in there, but the warmth of that light when reflected off of the glass, aluminum or squeaky clean tile floor was a really nice touch. I walked around in there for probably 30 minutes just observing, and touching everything. I had heard that they redid the whole place about a year ago and they were pretty proud of it. As they should be. It was fantastic. Well done Jay Wolfe.

After the show, Nick's parents cooked up one of the greatest dishes I had ever consumed in my whole life. Also, our buddy Greg came over with his M6. Greg is an ultimate detailer, and I swear to god it could be pouring rain, snow, hail, or whatever and Greg's car would still be exceptionally clean and as smooth as silk. I don't know how he does it. But it makes me feel bad about the neglected paint on my car. Thanks Greg, haha. After a fantastic meal and kicking some tires, we headed back to St. Louis for another week on the grind before we hit a few car shows next weekend. Here's some images.

cheerz to the longest post I've made so far!

Travis

Friday night after work we set out for the Motor Mania event over at one of the Acura dealerships in St. Louis. the event started pretty early in the day and it was a little hot, but later on the temperature dropped a little bit and the attendance went way up. This was the first Motor Mania event ever and I'd say it was a pretty good turnout! The parking lot was full, the spectator lot was full and there were a couple of food trucks and a dyno The only other thing I could have asked for was a cooler of beer. 

There were a wide variety of makes and models there, which is becoming one of my favorite things about going to all of these St. Louis shows. I had the opportunity to see in person the ///M 235i which I've been reading about for the past few months, and let me tell you this thing was sweeeeet. I was so wrapped up in talking to the owner and couldn't take my eyes off of it long enough to take a decent set of pictures. 

The highlight of the event was seeing the cars up on the dyno. But my favorite and I'm sure everyone else's favorite ride to hit the dyno was a 1915 Liberty Roadster. This thing was insane. 12 cylinders, loud as hell, and my favorite part about it was that the shift lever was outside of the bucket where the driver sits. This thing was all around nuts. I think it threw down something like 200 something horsepower, but like 900 ft/lb of torque. Jesus. 

Anyway, here's a few shots from the show, I didn't take as much as I would have liked, but we can't all win every time!

cheeeeers

Travis

Diode Dynamics just released their new line of Offroad LED light bars and I must say they are prettttty slick! The fellas threw a few on Ryan's Jeep, wired everything up, and we set out to get a few shots to showcase these bad boys. Ryan had a spot in mind that happened to be pretty close to Diode so that ended up working out pretty well. We arrived to the spot and it was everything I could have hoped it would be. Little bit of sand, little bit of mud, it was perfect. We drove around the place a few times to set some ruts and throw a little dirt on the Jeep to fit the off road look. Then we set the camera and started to fire away. It was a pretty easy going shoot and the overcast day made for perfect natural light shooting conditions. I was pretty hyped I didn't have to carry out a bunch of heavy stands and strobe heads, haha! aaaaanyways Here's my favorite image from the shoot! Enjoy!

Oh! Do yourself a favor and head over to www.diodedynamics.com and grab one of these light bars, or a set of work lights, or any other sort of LEDs you might want for your car!

cheeeerz!

Travis

After the European Auto Show, me and a few of my buddies regrouped and headed to a pretzel place called Gus' I've never heard of the place but my buddy Ryan and his wife Amy swore it was the mecca of all pretzel places. And my God they were right. We walked into this long skinny hallway with some windows that allow you to view into the pretzel making process. there's some pictures framed on the wall that indicate this place has been around since the beginning of time, and I see why. We got some hot dogs and bratwursts wrapped in the most delicious pretzel I've ever consumed. Needless to say. Go to Gus' if you every find yourself in St. Louis.

After we devoured our pretzels in the alleyway next to Gus' we headed across the street to the Budweiser Brewery. Now, Being from Kansas City, Boulevard is obviously my beer of choice. but as they say: When in Rome, do as the St. Louisans do...or something like that. 

This place was amazing. I don't know too much about the history of Anheuser Bush, but this place was simply amazing. The Clydesdale collection they have is unbelievable, and the buildings are even more astonishing. I was definitely super impressed with the place, and might even go back....maybe....probably. The tour was a pretty standard brewery tour. This is how we make our beer, this is why our beer is better, blah blah. Just give me some free shit and show me how cool your stuff is! haha. All in all, we had a good time checking the place out. Here's some pictures of us eating pretzels drinking beer.

cheeerz!

Travis

oh yeah. then there was this guy.....

I had originally planned on heading home to Kansas City for the KCH2O Meat and Greet, but unfortunately, my wallet didn't agree with that decision. So I stuck around good ol' St. Louis, and I'm pretty happy I did. 

I swung over to my buddy Ryan's house a little after 10, we sat on the stoop for a minute then headed out to the European Auto show. I had heard this was a pretty big deal, but didn't really know what to expect. When we arrived I was shocked. Euros as far as the eye could see. I was in heaven. We didn't even make it 10 steps out of the car before running into a sick ass beatle in the parking lot. I knew I was in for a pretty good day. 

Exotic Motors St. Louis had a couple of their Gold Rush Rally cars out there, a sick ass SLS Gullwing, and the Liberty Walk Aventador...there's only 1 of those in the country. Pretty hyped to see them in the Rally coverage. 

I also stumbled upon an E30 wagon....there's 13 of those in the states...as you can imagine I was beyond excited to see that rare beauty.

Despite the 237 degree temperature and my fantastic decision to wear black jeans and a black shirt, the show was great! I felt like a kid in an upstairs boiler room of a candy store.

I try to keep the images within a reasonable number, but there were too many good ones to keep all of these in hiding. Here's a few of my favorites.

cheeerz!

Travis

Sunday rolled around and I found myself waking up much later than I should have. After an awesome night out with a couple of my buddies that were in town I fell out of bed, stepped on my watch, threw myself together and set out to the Gateway Alliance Memorial Car Show put on by a close friend of mine and his car crews. I was lucky enough to be chosen as the Official photographer for the event. (woo!)

I arrived pretty early (930 am is early, I don't care what you say) but the lot was filling up quick, so I had to act fast. I chugged my monster drink and jumped right into shooting everything in sight. 

It was a great turnout! the weather was nice, and the lot was full. There were a lot of great cars there, and even better people. I had a blast meeting a few new people and having the opportunity to talk in depth with a few car owners.

There was one low point of the show however. As I stood on a wooden fence that looked like it was from 1924, I proceeded to photograph the rear of a car until the fence broke throwing me on the ground like it was its job.  Unfortunately my camera escaped my death grip and also got thrown to the ground. Thank god it was grass, otherwise my lil guy would have been toast. Oh, I did break my speedlite though....that kind of sucks...oh I also got sunburned...that kind of sucks too...

Anyway, here's a few of my favorite shots from the show.

Cheeeeeerz!

Travis

After Cars & Coffee me and a couple of my buddies headed out to Maplewood for A Taste of Maplewood. I still haven't really had a chance to truly explore St. Louis so I was hyped to get out and see a few new things. 

First we stopped and ate lunch at the Schlafly Brewery. It was awesome. I've been to the boulevard Brewery several times in Kansas City, but I was still impressed with how awesome this place was. Its tucked inside of a little shopping district and is one of St. Louis' many popular microbreweries. 

After we filled ourself with fantastic food and craft beer we set out to the section of the town that was closed off. There were vendor tents and live music. We didn't really mess around too much with individual vendor tents, but just being out in the atmosphere was pretty cool. 

After we smelled some 20 year old scotch we headed out to Chesterfield where iTap was hosting some sort of Beer tasting convention. We met our boss up there and threw back a few tasters.  A couple of my buddies happened to be in town for a Bachelor party and swung through iTap to hangout for a little bit. 

All in all, not a bad saturday afternoon, here's some shots of people drinking beer.

Nick mighta had a little too much of that whiskey...

Somehow I was able to wake up early enough to catch the St. Louis Cars & Coffee get together. I threw the pelican in the bed of my truck and set out. When I arrived the lot was already jam packed with all kinds of makes and models. 

Being the Audi lover I am, I always ended up back at the Audis, even after walking through the whole lot to see all of the other cars that came out. 

Cars & Coffee is never a bad time, I've only been to 2 of them this year and have been blown away by the amount of variety that shows up, not to mention the great conversations that are held while kicking tires and sipping a cup of joe.

Here's a few of my favorites from Saturday morning. 

After messing around a little bit with my buddy Nick's dads Aston Martin Vantage and BMW M3, we threw a few beers down and decided we were going to hit the Royals game. Our old friend Mike came in town to hangout and it was only fitting that we celebrate the only way we knew how: Drink lots of beer, and watch baseball. With the plan in action, I ran by my house grabbed my Royals hat (of course) and we were off. 

While we were waiting to get tickets I spotted my old Drum Major from high school, Sean McCarthy. He and his band just finished playing at the game and were about to head in to enjoy some baseball. I probably haven't seen Sean in 5+ years, it was awesome catching up.

We also ran into an old friend who we grew up with: Tyler Bell. Of course we were all way hyped to see him and exchanged a few loud hellos and caught up briefly, I think there was a beer chug in there somewhere also....who knows.

After watching the Royals get stomped on by the Tigers we decided it was time to take off, and of course, I run into another familiar face. Jerod Clarke, and he tells me Seth and Jordan are there also. I used to intern for a studio in Kansas City, where Seth and Jordan work, Clarke works for an AD agency and was always around, needless to say I was beyond hyped to see all of them.

All in all I'm not too bummed out about the Royals getting killed by the Tigers, I couldn't believe how many people I ran into. That alone made up for the heartbreak from the loss, haha.

here's a few shots. 

cheers!

Travis

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Diode Dynamics sent me and my buddy Nick to Kansas City for the first Fast Friday of the year. Fast Friday is something I've known about for quite some time as being a pretty insane car show in the Kansas City area. We loaded up our Scion FR-S with some gear, gatorade, and fruit snacks and set off. When we arrived it was already a little crowded, but about an hour later the whole block was littered with people and cars of all kinds. I couldn't even tell you how many people were there, but there were a shitload. 

Being that I'm from Kansas City, it was good to run into a lot of my friends who I hadn't seen since I moved out to St. Louis. Always a bonus!

Here's a few shots I snagged while I was walking around picking my jaw up every 3 feet. It's always exciting seeing the Ferrari's, Lamborghini's, and exotics alike. Never a dull moment at a Fast Friday show. 

cheeeeerz!

Travis

Last week was the first time in awhile there was a bubble tea meet. Ryan of Rival House threw out an event post about getting a few people together for a bubble tea meet that my buddy Steve started back in 06ish. His birthday was that week so it only made sense to have a meet in his honor, haha. I was quite surprised at how many people showed up, the back lot of the tea place was full! I had a good opportunity to mingle around and meet a few new people, not to mention drool over several cars while I was at it. Looking way forward to more things like this, St. Louis isn't so bad...haha anyway, here's a few images from the get together.

cheeeerz!

Travis

I spent a couple of hours with Justin driving around town shooting his Chevy Camaro SS for the Diode Dynamics summer catalog. I'm just getting into the automotive side of photography, and had a blast shooting this beast. 

The shoot started off as any shoot would. Justin met me at Diode Dynamics, we kicked tires for a little bit, then loaded up the gear and set out. The Creative Director wanted a night shot, but when Justin and I met up we still had a couple of hours of daylight to kill. We rolled around town a little bit until we found a pretty dope little warehouse with an alley that was perfect. 

Luckily for us, we were in there for long enough to get a few shots popped off before the property manager rolled in and told us the area was still occupied and we should probably take off. Lucky for us the guy was super nice and we ended up having a nice conversation with him about LED lighting, haha.

I'm having a lot of fun messing around with these images and making them a little hyperrealistic. I'm looking forward to see what the future brings, and hopefully I can get together with some other photogz and create some pretty killer work. 

You should probably go check out www.diodedynamics.com and grab some lights for your ride, I heard they got the best selection out there!

Here's a couple of shots from the set. Enjoy! and of course, comments and suggestions are more than welcome! (suggestions especially!)

cheerz!

Travis

Spent the day out at Gateway Racetrack for the Midwest Drift Union Round 1 qualifying set. this was my first time shooting automotive in action, I had a great time and met a lot of really cool people. Congratulations to Ryan Harrison and his new bride (they got hitched at the track) and another congratulations to Brian Peter for taking first place!

I'm really looking forward to shooting more events like this, summer can't come soon enough!

cheers,

travis

I decided it was time to freshen up the website game. It's a little bare right now but I will be posting to this blog after every shoot to keep everyone updated on what's going on. Stay tuned for behind the scenes videos of shoots as well! 

cheers!

travis