JOB, Jumping On Beds in London, England. Photos by Linhbergh. Added a pillow into the mix to do some snow & skate tricks. This was my first time doing a proper Jumping On Beds shoot in a few months.

Down the bike path from me is Playa Del Rey. Playa Del Rey is situated on the beach just north of LAX. Its a chill and relaxed little town. Dive bars and coffee shops. Plus a washed up sail boat that is now fenced off with snow fence – like a monument or tombstone to the tides.

I brought my pin hole camera and Panasonic LX2 to snap a few photos of the boat. The LX2 is great for wide images with its native 16×9 sensor.

Easy does it.

As a Christmas present, my sister Lindy gave me a Pin Hole camera kit. The kit includes a home made camera photography book and the pieces to assemble your own 35mm pin hole camera. Using the heavy paper, dowel rods, pre punched pin holes, and take up canister – you can build your own pin hole camera like min pictured above. The shutter and view finder are one piece that you manually lift to take an image. Then advance the film and repeat. Exposure times vary based on the available light. My experience has been 1-2 seconds for direct sunlight and daylight. Increasing all the way to a few minutes for night time and tungsten indoor lighting.

Keeping the pin hole camera steady is important. A nice feature of the kit is an included tripod mount. With 5 minute long exposures this is a must.

Here are some images from the pin hole camera taken with Kodak 200.

Thanks Lindy!

I’ll admit, most of the work I do allows me to travel. In the past couple of years, I’ve been able to visit some amazing places with jobs. When my schedule started to ease up towards the end of 2009 I decided to take a break, and… gasp, go on a vacation.

My friend Katie proved to be a good adventure buddy and we decided to travel to Costa Rica for 6 days.

Prior to departing, I got food poisoning from El Tarasco – which was devastating. Not only because I was puking my internals out, but because Tarasco is one of my favorite spots to grub. It felt like being cheated on… by a carne asada plate.

Our first flight got cancelled and pushed back our travel plans by 12 hours.

Once we finally made it to San Jose, Costa Rica, we stayed at the Adventure Inn – which was a great place to stay. The staff made it easy for us to pick up our rental car and get started on the trip to Jaco. This duck caught my eye at the park at the end of the street.

Hotel Canciones Del Mar was right on Jaco Beach.

Rental Car – Suzuki Alto, as the Japanese call it – a Kei car. Little car.

Ricing out cars is still big in Costa Rica. Like this Sentra with 16 inch wheels and a muffler. Made me laugh.

Heavy duty Street Fighter style fiberglass wing on an Eclipse in Jaco, Costa Rica.

The chef from a local bar and grill catches up with a friend.

Complimentary colors, green wall and red dress – make for a cool shot. My travel buddy Katie ponders what to order for dinner.

End of day #1.

A Day with Will is the post category that came out of ‘A Day in the Life of…” challenge. Which was a single day photo exchange between myself and KD almost a year ago. It has since evolved into being a day in my life. Any day that I pick and have my camera around to document with photography. This post is a preview of my trip to Costa Rica. I’m going to cut the characters and let the pixels do the talking.

Dropping in on some Jaco mush. Photo by Katie DeWolfe.

Until the end of the trip.

Moo Goo Gai Pan week 2009. The week when Brian Steele and Jason Buckley are the same age for the year. Better known as the week between their respective birthdays. This year, a bunch of us went to Ocean Seafood in LA’s Chinatown. I brought the 7D and my 50mm f1.4 to document the celebration. Here is a day with me…Moo Goo Gai Pan week style.

Happy Birthday B-Steele! Cleaned out Ocean Seafood.

I visited my home town of North Olmsted, Ohio back in December for Christmas. It had been 9 months since I’d seen my folks, sister, and friends in Ohio – so it was time to fly back and visit for a week.

Which means that I got to spend some time with my dog – Brownie. He’s an old man now and its difficult for me to see him in poor health. What’s interesting is that while I was home he would have spurts of energy and be youthful – then back to sleeping and resting all day.

Check out the Mansfield Reformatory and some other stops on my trip back home.Nap time in the sun.

My dad takes ridiculously good care of cars. Here is my mom’s Acura TL. So Clean.

Congratulations to my sister, Lindy, who recently graduated and got a job as a nurse.

Downtown Mansfield, Ohio. First time visiting Mansfield- plenty of screen printing shops and old buildings.

My Dad, Mom, and sister. Maybe you can tell where I get my sense of humor and facial expressions from?

Tourist Steez. At the Mansfield Reformatory. One of the largest “castle” style structures in the US. Also where they shot Shawshank Redemption.

Until next time.

Here is a quick photo from this morning. About 7am in the hills above Pacific Coast Highway and north of Malibu lies Latigo Canyon. Before the sun burned off the fog- I was above the clouds riding the twisiting turns of the canyon 2 lane road. More photos coming soon.

Ricky Chu and I, Medium Monster – coming soon – recently shot a video for Mitsubishi Motors USA. Mitsubishi has teamed up with Jim Russel Racing School to do the Lancer Evolution Experience. Which is rumored to be under $1,000 for the class- which is much less than comparable driving schools. Plus you get the chance to push an EVO X around the track hard.

Rik and I followed the caravan of Mitsu’s up the 5 and to Infineon Speedway in Sonoma, California.

Here we go…

Crossing over into wine country.

The signs said “no stopping” “emergency only” – does that include shooting a pack of Mitsbishi Lancer EVO’s coming across the bridge?

Mako nose of an EVO X and the FJR-50 open wheel car.

Outlander was a smooth ride.

plenty of cargo space for gear.

Taillight* detail shot Mitsubishi Outlander.

Interior.

Grilled.

Dutched.

This is my – “the third Sony EX-1 I’ve worked with now has back focus issues too?” face.

On a serious side note, the Sony EX-1, one of the best small form factor solid state professional HD cameras on the market has back focus issues that Sony technical support and repairs are un-willing to recognize. All three of the EX-1′s I’ve shot with over the past year and 4 months have lost their ability to focus through the zoom focal lengths. At the widest focal length- the camera will focus to infinity easily- then as you zoom manually and increase the focal length- the camera looses focus and blurs. Sony put a “hidden” menu which has an FB Adjustment feature. Which sets the flange back focus i.e. back focus (odd naming convention considering the lens on the EX-1 is not innerchangable). It would be nice if Sony stepped up their warranty like Panasonic- my new Panasonic HPX-170 comes with a 5 year warranty. In comparison to Sony’s 1 year. Solid state cameras have VERY few moving parts and are not subject to the wears of video heads on tape based cameras. Step up the warranty program Sony- you are making a great product with the EX-1 & EX-3- don’t let down consumers by being cheap on the coverage and support of your products.

Ricky Chu & his Pac Rim T-shirt.

Everyone into the Outlander- time to get some grub.

There is a grey whale in the marina. They named the whale JJ. No I didn’t see him. J.Buck and I did ride a mini merry-go-round.

Kayaked, ate ice cream, and people watched in Marina Del Rey. So check out the rest of my day, after the jump.

The Mona Lisa is harvesting fish from the South Bay- not just hanging in the louvre.

brightly colored buildings covered in sea gull poop.

Pelicans stand by for some fish.

Psuedo light house’ery.

Buckley’s french fries.

fun.

Brian cruises.

Jason ponders, while Jen shows Brian some modern technology.

Fine day for boating.

Big palm.

Jason paddles through the bay.

Choppy.

Paddling out to the Pacific.

Buckley post paddle to the sea.

Creepy signage.

Trucker hat meets anchor?

Mint chocolate parting shot.

More to come. Joey Redmond and I shot this super clean 1990 Honda CRX with a K swap.

As the sun sets on the south bay, enjoying a nice 32oz cerveza caguama. delicious turtle beer – hobo herron and I were destroying this stuff during Long Beach. So cheap, so bad.

I finally made it out to a drift event at Turner field. This also means that I was chillin with the coolest kids in the ATL – the Drift Mechaniks. Rockin my Born To Run DM T-Shirt. As you can tell from the photo above, Andy Sapp has added Angel Eyes to his E46 BMW – which is an awesome look.

Got a ride along with Chris in an RB25 powered S13. Shot some bananas on car, under car, in car, and on front of car Flip camera footage. Plus let the guys try out the Letus 35 setup with Andy’s new XL-H1.

So strap in and prepare to go into over drift:

Its a good thing I picked up the extra long 45cm rails for the Letus adapter. Andy notices the difference in weight with the adapter.

Cody Wellons of S3 mag has a very nice s13.

Turner field home of the Braves.

Matt Forest’s 450+ HP SR20 powered S13.

The 1996 Olympic torch and downtown Atlanta in the background.

XL + Letus + 135 prime = big rig

Close up.

Forest layin’ it down.

Wes about to drive Chris’ AE86.

Pigeon.

DMGGASD. Drift Mechaniks Gossip Girl Marathon And Some Drifting Chris’ hood.

Stickers.

Packing up.

Andy readies the ramps.

Met Kieran (spelling) from Gran Turismo East – super nice guy! Glad he supports drifting in the South East.

Teddy Pain.

Matt Forest

Still Hood.

The pipes.

Chris’ AE86 Corolla.

Pretty Bird.

Good to see some In N Out love in Georgia.

Final shot, S14 hood.

Until next time.

The S14 outside of Aaron Cassan’s shop – Import Car Doctor. Ricky Chu and I were shooting some corporate work. This gave me the chance to try out some new gear – a JVC HM100u and a Letus 35 Extreme adapter with some Canon FD lenses. 

Thanks to Will Law, Aaron Cassan, Amanda, Nicole, Jimmy, and everyone else at DC Sports for their help.

The rear three quarter of my Nissan.

Import Car Doctors.

John Naderi’s built RSX chillin at Aaron’s

Ricky getting ready to do an oil change on a Lexus.

The JVC HM100u – shared focus and zoom ring- not the best controls.

View through the LCD.

Little known fact, I was an auto tech for a summer and did hundreds of oil changes- lube, oil, filter. Ricky adds.

The JVC records to affordable SD class 6 (and higher) cards. It writes quicktime files with the Sony EX XD Cam Codec- which uses MPEG Long GOP video codec. With the difference being that Sony cameras like the EX-1 and EX-3 write to MP4 files and need to be wrapped into quicktimes. While the JVC writes directly as a XD Cam Quicktime file. Saving some time on the import process. Final Cut Pro 6 also natively recognizes the XD codec so there is no rendering (until filters/plug ins are applied).

Grills. 

Another feature I liked about the JVC GY-HM100u is the CAM/MEDIA button which is a hard switch on the back of the EX series Sony cameras. The JVC transitions quickly between write/read/playback modes- while the Sony cameras stutter a bit and take noticeably longer. 

Overall after a couple of days shooting with the JVC- the camera is insanely light- almost too light. The controls, leave more manual rings and controls to be desired- independent zoom, aperture, and focus rings. Better designed menus. Aesthetically  and functionally they are lacking. I’m interested to shoot some motion shots with a higher shutter speed- to test the CCDs. The EX1 and EX3 suffer from CMOS- heavy pan and fast action clocking/sensor refreshing- similar to jello cam- on a CMOS based DSLR or Point n Shoot- where the image comes out distorted diagonally at speed- instead of blurring horizontally- which would be the case with film or the human eye. I’m looking forward to pushing the limits and build quality of the JVC GY-HM100u. More to come…

This past weekend, I visited New Jersey for Round Three of the 2009 Formula Drift season. New Jersey and New York City are both places that I have little experience. Even though I grew up in Ohio and around the east coast. NYC and NJ were places that were always skipped over in favor of warmer beach locales. After missing our connecting flight from Salt Lake City to Newark, Joey Redmond and I were able to get on a flight to JFK. 

In the mean time, join in the location scout, travel, and rain that was this weekend.

Vasquez rocks county park. Went location scouting with Tripp Rhame from Spitfire Studios.

Very interesting peaks. Easy to see why they are used as an alien landscape in television and film. 

Tripp on the ascent.

View from the top peak.

Some names carved in the top.

More initials & names.

In the shadow.

Walking out, back to the car.

Footprints in the dirt.

Cut to: New York City: Queens. Joey Redmond tries to get his phone situation straightened out- porting cell numbers is a pain.

Easy Does It. Hustlin’ through Newark to catch a shuttle to the hotel.

Rain on Friday makes Formula Drift practice stand still.

I like hotel mirror lighting for self portraits and macro eyeball photography.

If you saw me in Jersey, I probably looked like this- which is unshaven, sleep deprived, and flannel’ized.

Parting shot. Newark Airport in the drizzle.

Spitfire Studios was set to ship their equipment to Los Angeles for a shoot this coming weekend. With StreetFire recently giving me the boot, I had some extra time on my hands. So I volunteered to drive their Dodge Sprinter van from their home base in Atlanta to Los Angeles.

I genuinely enjoy driving – anything. Little known trivia bit, I used to drive a Dodge delivery van for a florist and green house during the summers.

With a lot on my brain, I pushed off from a rainy Atlanta and pushed the turbo diesel into cruise control. 

33 hours of driving later, I would be back in Los Angeles ready to crash from drinking Rockstar, coffee, and Monster. 

Check out the sunsets, clouds, and snaps from the driver’s seat.

debatable. decently beautiful.

Future 22. Nothing ahead, nothing behind. Just open highway for miles.

One hand on the wheel, one hand triggering the LX-2

Clouds in the reflection.

Accident drive by outside of Memphis.

I think when the money comes in- I’m going to pick up this old place and flip it for CASH.

Crossing the Mississippi

Bienvenidos Arkansas.

Steam rising up in the hills up ahead.

Off and on rain collects on the side view mirrors.

All you can eat… Sunsets.

After staying the night in Texas, I hit the road and pushed through New Mexico.

Big white fluffy clouds blowing by and looking amazing.

Objects in the mirror are places you have been.

Looking for what’s next.

Windows down, FM radio on, Americana. Its funny how much Journey comes on American radio. Raised on Radio. 

In Albuquerque, New Mexico- where my Grandma Roegge lived. It brought back memories filling up the van outside of Old Town- a place we visited while I was here as a kid. Rest In Peace Grandma Roegge. It was nice to be in the shadow of Mt. Sandia.

Out into the desert.

Splat. Bugs. The sun sinks into the horizon and brings the second day to a close. California, it felt like I was hardly gone.

On the road. FM stations fade out. New ones crackle in. Keep pushing. When the destination doesn’t seem clear- remember that its all in the journey.

D1GP makes its return to the United States with its first event at Anaheim Stadium in Anaheim, California. Check out this fine Nissan Silvia S15 build by Garage BOSO and driven by Ross Petty. Frank and Ross run Garage BOSO and are fun dudes. They painted this box truck they picked up in metallic black and added the garage BOSO logo. Nice. The rasta colored S15 is really impressive. Making over 450+ HP at the wheels from a stroked 2.4 liter SR20DET. GNARLY.

Follow with me and my camera for Friday at D1GP.

D1GP set up in the Angel’s parking lot. Course featured a 3rd or 4th (depending on the car and driver) right hand initiation, into a left horse-shoe, followed by a quick chicane. Plus a couple of parking lot dips and few small K-Rails (Luckily no one really pushed them too much)

Ricky Chu and Joshua Herron get ready to wait. D1GP was behind schedule all weekend.

Patrick Mordaunt, aka slamdunk aka mordunks aka juicebox aka pattycakes – the new 350z twin turbo.

The interior is equipped with Bride seats and a really nice cage.

Speaking of nice cars, here is Frank of Garage BOSO giving me the finger. Hi Frank!

Here is Frank and Ross’ handy work an incredible Silva S15.

Attention to detail. BOSO badge replaces the SILVIA badging.

Zion Lion!?

Brakes.

Wide wheels wrapped in Falken rubber.

Clean EG Civic outside of the California Pizza Kitchen we stopped by for lunch. FF!? Wrong wheel drive?

Much better. Amazingly clean NSX in the lot for D1GP.

Dupa FRSH.

Now its time to smash an edit of the event out. Stay posted for the video coverage on StreetFire.net

I still love Formula D.

Here are a few photos from my Panasonic LX-2 Point n Shoot. From the past week or so. Starting off with the 105/110 interchange. Two days a week, I commute to the StreetFire.net offices in downtown LA. Robots, Spaceships, Black & White downtown Los Angeles shots, and more…

Look closer.

Inspiration and reminder of Round 2, coming up next week. Andy, I’m excited to see you drive at Road Atlanta.

Robots, gundams, always a good source of inspiration.

Howdy!?

Thank you to Nate Adams, who snapped this amazing photo- it only cost us a dollar. Plus we helped fix the spaceship.

Long Beach Grand Prix 2009. ALMS series has the return of BMW with the Rahal-Letterman built BMW M3′s for the GT2 class. Since I was out shooting with StreetFire.net and always am packing my Panasonic LX-2- I decided to take a few photos of these impressive machines. Here are 24+ photos of the BMW M3 GT2′s from the 2009 Long Beach Grand Prix. Enjoy.

Note. All of these images were taken with my Panasonic LX-2 Point n Shoot. RAW files. Edited in Adobe Lightroom. I’m pleased with the Panasonic’s image quality for being a pocket camera. The Macro focus also allows for good control of DoF. 

Air jacks up. Spare wheels with rain tires are put on in the paddock to roll the car out to the pits. Then the proper wheels and tires for the track are put on- to avoid picking up gravel and wear during the move.

Rear fender diffuser

I like the lines of the stock M3- but the wide body design and diffusers on the M3 GT2 are really something beautiful. Plus being an all white car with subtle “M” badging and livery gives the car a clean look. Hopefully Porsche will not complain too much this time.

Photography by Will Roegge, Copyright 2009.

April 14, 2009. Sounds like a good day for a mustache. After letting my beard go rampant for a few weeks- it was time to see if I could hang in the world of upper lip exclusive facial hair. My upper lip has never had a solo show. It feels funny. In college I sported the chin strap, the goatee, and some massive side burns. It was time to push into un-charted territory. Immediately things were different on Mustache day.

People assumed I was a non-english speaker. I am an exclusive speaker of English- I fought with espanol for a few year, but could never get beyond being able to do a really authentic sounding double “rr” sound. That’s neither herre, norr therre…

Mustache day has come to a close. So for the dude at Tacos Mexico who clearly heard me talking to my friends in english- but asked me for my order in spanish- thank you. For the bro at Dodger’s stadium who asked me in spanish about my video equipment. At least I think he asked me about my video equipment? Thank you too. You made mustache day memorable. 

I think I’ll stick to beards and burns.

Here are some photos from the day that was, Mustache day. 2010 Chevrolet Camaro SS spotting, Nissan EV prototype, and blue eyes for Kelly.

Check out the rest of my photos:

2010 Chevrolet Camaro SS camped outside of Dodger’s Stadum

Hope the Nissan folks didn’t mind me scoping out this for a few.

Muscle car revival theme from Detroit? Recessed headlights, grilles, suicide slit front windshields. Front hood cowl.

Bug splat

On pet peeve with GM- is their badging. Its impossible to forget this is a GM product- due to the badges on every side of the car. The obnoxious GM square badge on the front fender is lame. We get it already. As if the styling alone wasn’t enough of a cue. This is clearly not a European or Japanese car. Plus the Chevy badge on the grille looks like it was taken off a Silverado tail gate- its massive.

No too over-done Super Sport badge.

After being able to drag race and drive the 2010 Mustang Shelby GT500 on the road for 80+ miles- I really want to drive a new Camaro for comparison. Stylistically, I like the heavy body lines, flared rear fenders, and square back of the Camaro and the Dodge Challenger. Its just too big though. Too much mass for the sake of muscular design. 

The reason for being at Dodger’s Stadium. The Nissan EV-2 prototype. Note the lightning/electricity themed grille.

Housed in a third generation, Japanese (right hand drive) Nissan Cube. The production EV-02 will be a hatchback.

Battery gauge instead of a gas gauge. Powered by lots of batteries similar to laptop batteries.

100+ mile range on a full charge. Fully Electric.

Dodger’s Stadium is a very cool and historic place. Too bad I can only think about flogging a Camaro and a Challenger for comparison to the GT500

Familiar site, my S14′s shift knob. Time to drive to StreetFire’s downtown office and edit.

My eyes are blue sometimes. I miss you Kelly.