The end of 2011 has been crazy for me. The last few months of this year have kept me very busy and one of the projects I’m looking forward to finishing up is a piece on Team Need for Speed driver Chris Rado. Here are a few screen grabs from the video. Still editing it currently between a host of other projects. I really am liking how these few frames have turned out with some simple grades.

Low fall sun and some morning time attack = nice flaring. All of these shots are from my Sony EX1R. Which I was operating hand held to get Chris as he was about to go out in his first session at Infineon Raceway.

The light even caught some of the particles in the air – check out the bottom left part of the frame. I love atmosphere like that.

FWING 2.0 ready for battle. Stay tuned for the upcoming video. I’m excited for it, Chris and Rob were fantastic interviews and it makes it easy when Chris breaks the Front Wheel drive record at the event to make the story end on a high note!

This is my car, this is me driving, this is as fun as it looks…photo by Skylar Smith.

Working on a project for K&N Filters with Vaughn Gittin JR and HPI racing – here is a little screen grab from the shoot today. Can’t wait to share the final product in a few weeks.

- Will

If you wanted to read what I had to say, this blog wouldn’t have so many pictures…less talking, more shutter clicks. My life, May 9, 2011.

Until next time. More dancing, less talking.

Been behind the keyboard and mouse a bunch lately – without being able to release much finished work. Here are some stills from videos I’m working on right now – yet to be released. Shot with Vaughn Gittin JR in Charlotte, NC and had some fun with his personal Ford Mustang RTR.

A white car and a great day for clouds = black & white treatment.

Spent some time last month directing and operating a RED One and shot at DirtFish Rally School in Washington.

120FPS @ 2k.

My girlfriend, high stepping. This is my family’s dogger, Bailey, she has an incredible personality.

More to come. Stay up suckas.

This past weekend, was the 2011 Dubai 24h race at the Dubai Autodrome. Here is a screen grab from the my upcoming edit. Team Need for Speed #76 – dominated the final 2/3rds of the race and finished first!

For the camera dorks out there:

Canon 7D 1080/30p + Canon 200mm f2.8L + my own Custom Color Grade in Magic Bullet Looks.

Six days out riding so far this 2010-2011 season, which is close to the amount of days I rode for all of 2009-2010. I was told once that you need to ride the number of days you are years old. Personally, I think that is a good guideline and means I have some more riding to do! At least I’m on pace for the month of December!

Method drop off @ Bittersweet. Photo from a screen grab by Nate & Chris Adams.

Midwest surf.

Thanks to Day Light Savings time, I got an earlier start than usual on my Sunday and started working on a few edits. The following are screen grabs from a quick assembly – for Chris Forsberg’s year in review video for NOS Energy Drink. They’re all from FD Long Beach and represent an event – we didn’t get to cover for NOS/Chris this Formula Drift season – meaning that all of the footage for the year in review – will be fresh and unseen.

At Long Beach, I was testing out my Red Rock Micro – captain stubbing rig. Which allowed me to get closer and navigate quickly – without the bulk of the standard tripod. DSLR video is not the greatest handheld and when shot handheld it can be vomit inducing – there is no image stabilization.

Long Beach has a great backdrop, being the city’s downtown. The trade off being that the entire course is surrounded by fencing and barriers. Establishing the location and surroundings is important to my style of presentation – context and details.

Excited to log some more hours on this project and a few more – then share them with you.

Until then, stay up.

Had the pleasure of visiting SUMO Power in Rye, England this month and to shoot in their impressive facilities. Both R35 GT1 cars were present and about to be loaded up for a test session in Spain. Having seen the GTRs race around Silverstone, Paul Ricard, and Algarve – seeing them in the same garage bays as street cars was a trip. I have a hard time imagining one of these monsters driving down the street. Traveling Budai also got a closer look at the Rays One Lug GT1 wheels.

Thanks to Andy and James for their hospitality. Excited to share more information about my current project(s) as soon as they get declassified. :p Stay posted and there will be plenty more behind the scenes.

Stayed in San Francisco for an extra day after Formula Drift. Explored the city and show off some of my favorite places in the city. The Golden Gate bridge was a morning stop, as the previous trips across it was covered in thick San Francisco fog.

Check out ARTPANTS, my 365 photo blog for images from the trip over the next week.

- Will

August 21st was the 5th round of the 2010 Formula Drift season – Las Vegas Motor Speedway. It is not my favorite course on the Formula Drift circuit, but it is unique because it runs later in the night than the other rounds. Due to the later start, practice happens in the early evening also the time of the day with the best light – magic hour or the time right before and right after the sunsets behind the horizon. The colors are unbelievable in the desert sky of Las Vegas.

This is a screen grab from one of my video files. Team Need for Speed driver Mad Mike Whiddett creates a golden cloud of smoke with his Mazda RX8. Mike made first appearance in the Top 16 this weekend and drove like the mad man.  Formula Drift fans will come to recognize Mad Mike as one of it’s best entertainers.

Congrats Mike. Be on the look out for a new Team Need for Speed video – coming soon.

There are some serious concrete parks here in Vancouver. Unfortunately, my skateboard setup is somewhere in Minnesota – with the Westy van. So in the meantime, I picked up this Kitsch board.

So clean, that changed the same day when I rode the park down the street and scuffed it up proper. A lot of my friends collect skateboard decks. Which are like modern day prints of artwork. Never understood it. Maybe after you’ve ridden them, I can’t look at a skateboard without wanting to ride it.

China Bones bearings are the jam. Reds are better than most cheapo ABEC 5 or 3 rated bearings out there. These Momentum wheels were a bit softer than my last set of wheels, but I wanted some more grip like I have on my sector 9 longboards – so I opted for a lower durometer wheel. Pivot turns should grip not slip for my style.

Rounded out with Enjoi hardware – with some bright colors to indicate the nose truck.

Skate or Die.

Did a quick JOB, Jumping On Beds session in Washington state during Formula Drift Seattle. We had a solid crew of bouncers: Andy, Linhbergh, Hobo Herron, and I. Above, Linhbergh gets caught mid jump in a yoga like pose.

While I practice gravity defying one-handed handstands on the wall.

Andy dusts off his break beat record collection and spins a windmill out on the wall. I never knew he could break.

Hobo gets very swan lake with his jumps.

If Andy tripped while walking across the wall, this would be him catching his fall. Reality is more like jumping from bed to bed and smacking yourself against the wall in mid air. Dedication.

Stuck in a moment, mid air. Its hard not to flinch even when you’re about to land on pillow and mattress.

That’s it for JOB Seattle 2010. Hope you enjoyed.

Its been almost a week since the 84th running of the Pikes Peak International Hill Climb and normalcy still escapes me. Waking for 4 days in a row, hours before dawn to ascend a 14 thousand foot mountain left quite an impression (as it did the year before). As the sun separated the horizon line and the lifeless gray shapes around me formed the spectacular landscape of Colorado Springs – I found myself wondering ‘ why did you sleep in all these years?’

I’m working on a follow up to 2009′s Climb Attack. New driver, new car, and same class – Time Attack 2WD. Its my hopes that the film leaves your mind with the same sense of wonder – that mine experiences being on the edge of Bottomless Pit.

Bonjour, from France. It will be strange to see Porsche 911 GT3 cars in their natural environment at Paul Ricard this weekend.

This is a still frame from some of my recent footage from Formula Drift New Jersey. Hobo and I are documenting NOS Energy Drink sponsored driver – Chris Forsberg. This weekend was the first production that I exclusively utilized the Canon 7D. The HD DSLR image quality is incredible compared to previous cameras I have utilized – like the Sony EX-1/EX-3 and Panasonic HPX/HMC.

More to come soon.

A good friend from Charlotte and a good friend from Los Angeles joined up with a good friend from Philadelphia that we were crashing with to explore West Philadelphia on a Tuesday afternoon. I’d been following the Love Letters mural project in West Philly for a while now online – so it was awesome to see the murals in person. More to come soon.

Off and on rain all day. Humid and miserable = perfect.

More about the project.

While JOB’ing it up at the Chateau Elan I smashed my head into the ceiling – FAIL.

Linhbergh got this snap mid-fall on the return. The beds were too soft and the ceiling was too low.

Gotta pay the cost, to be the boss. Or some other cheezy idiom for the occasional cost of being rad and doing goofy stuff.

Yo! One of the reasons I started this blog was to let people in on how I shoot and create my work. These two images are screen grabs from Final Cut Pro and from footage from the 2010 Formula Drift Altanta event. Since November 2009, I have been integrating the Canon 7D more into my productions. Along with my work horse video camera – my Panasonic HPX-170.

The top image of Ken Gushi is from the bottom of the hill at Road Atlanta. 1080p/24 Canon 7D with the Canon 400mm f2.8 IS

The bottom image of Andy Sapp is from the starting grid at Road Atlanta. 1080/24p Canon 7D with the Zeiss 85mm f1.4

Both shots were graded with Red Giant’s Magic Bullet Looks 1.0

More coming soon. Back to editing.

In December 2007 I was given my first name badge at a event. The badge was my credential for entry and to work as a camera operator. Now, over three years later, my bundle of badges has grown. From being a tour member of the Nation of GO team, X-Games media credentials, three years of the Sundance film festival, FIA GT races, 24H of Dubai, Pike’s Peak Hill Climb, three seasons of Formula Drift, two years of the Long Beach Grand Prix, Mitsubishi press events, Bonneville Speed Week, the launch of the Microsoft store, and countless corporate meetings – the stack is big. It makes me smile to think of the past, the friends, events, and places I’ve been. It also makes me remember the Dr.Suess book Oh the Places You’ll Go that my mom & dad gave me at graduation – and think of the future.

I’m more qualified now and hungrier than ever.