VIP Fest

November 10th marked another year of VIPfest, definitely one of my favorite local events of the year. Not only is it 2 lights away from my place, but its the show that brings all our friends together especially from NorCal, LA, OC, etc. I used to be in the stance scene in my G35 before it got totaled and knowing the work put into these cars makes me respect the builds in the show much more. This shit ain’t easy.

Jojo and I met up with Boogie & Janine and drove the half mile trip to Green Flash Brewery. Our good friend Jerald went onto winning Best Lexus after literally driving straight from SEMA to SD the next morning for roll-in, and you can see why below. We’d ran into Anthony who owns the bagged Lexus IS350in PUREVIP and my god it looks amazing in person. I’d shot their engagement with Jennifer just 2 weeks ago, so shoutout to these 2 and their hospitality! Our friend Jay was showing with his VW Bus selling pins for his company HDQTRS, another shout out for this mans hustle and support for the community.

I’d only shot a few snaps of friends cars like Taylors LS400 which also won Best Stance but I hope you’re able to see what the show consisted of. There was a lot of catching up with friends than shooting, haha. After the show, Randy Goco wanted to shoot Jay and Mikey (Hako skyline pictured below) so I showed the guys a spot I’d shot at before but before we could, a mandatory trip to Phils BBQ was at hand! Then the cruising to the spot ensued.

Truth

We’d gotten invited to dinner after the release of Albert’s Music video of ‘Truth’ which was a big collaboration of all of our close friends. It’d probably been 4 days of shooting all together, but it was so much fun. The new friends we made and times with each other brought everyone closer. I’ll have the link to the music video below

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OCW5f9bffl0

Always a great time with Camilo, Mark, Albert & Bianca.

The Return

Hello! Charles here. It’s been a good 3 years since my last post here and probably the last time I’d updated my website (IG/Vimeo has become the go-to social media medium). It might just seem a spur in the moment type of thing to come back and post something but I’d gone through such a burn out working for various companies this year that I’d forgotten why I shoot at all.

As cliche as it sounds, the joy of capturing memories in this fast paced life we now live in makes it so easy to lose track of time, and most importantly the moments in between. With the fortunate compact size of Sony bodies becoming more portable and powerful, its become less of a hassle to lug around and even better: more discrete. I used to bring out my 5D/6D everywhere and it’d always attract attention. And thats the last thing you’d want.

Anyway enough tech talk before I ramble some more because I love gear too much. I’ve committed the remaining days of my life to bring my camera everywhere with me and capture everything to anything like the good old days to document my life, and others. To create connections and savor this short life we have. Enjoy.

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First day out, whippin the A7iii and Zeiss 35mm 1.4.

Jojo’s cousin Marie came down to visit from San Jose so we went out for brunch at Snooze for a literal 2 hour wait even though they said 50 minutes (Original plan was Morning Glory which was 2 hours too). I’ve never waited to eat for anything for this long.. Never going on a weekend ever again. That night we’d asked Mark Mejia to join us at Punch Bowl Social so we hit up some friends who were available and headed out for a good time.