Gilberto's RSX

We all remember our first car, and the things that went through. I remember my first car a small nissan truck 1200, and then taking my dad's celica. Last sunday night I had the chance to take pictures for my friends car. The kid is actually 16, and he worked his ass out to buy his first car; indeed it paid off, he got an Acura RSX. Car is in a good condition, yeah it has it's flaws here and there but is nothing that he can't fix, and with little money. I just can't wait for that kid to get into his car, and good thing is not a ricer, nor he knows anything about JDM, but his mentality was to keep the car clean off stickers, fugly wheels, and body kits. Thank God.

He barely knows anything about the engine, suspension or staff like that.

I looked closely at the car and the car has some lowering springs, a painted valve cover, and the wing was shaved off, oh and it has a Type S badge. Apparently the previous owner was a ricer who was starting to have fun with the car.

I just have faith with this kid, once the itch gets him the car will make people turn heads.

I hadn't talk with this kid for like six months, until my little cousin-who is Gilberto's classmate-told me that Gilberto had a new car, and that he had acquired an RSX. I knew that I had to shoot his car, one because I needed pictures for my class; second to put my work out there so hopefully people can see my work and hire me for small photoshots.

Working Under Pressure

I am majoring in Biology, pre-med to be specific, and here I am working against the clock to get an assignment done for my photography class. The final product of this assignment will come out soon.

Ok so tonight I called Irvin, I had an idea of a shot for my assignment, and I'm satisfied with the results, now I just have to choose one, or maybe a couple, but definitely one shot will set my assignment.

I already photo-shoot Carlos' bike, also Edson's EG, and I was only missing Irvin's coupe, and tonight was that night. I'm not completely satisfied with the photo-shoot, I mainly shot the rear of the car, and again I was mostly shooting for my assignment.

You guys have to see how nice and rear suspension setup looks. The color of the coilovers-off red blends nicely with the polished LCAs, and the red ASR subframe brace. I know Irvin's car is green, dark green, I wasn't too sure if the red subframe brace was going to look good; however, it did blend and nicely, I just can't wait to see Irvin putting more work into his car.

Well, the night started like a normal Sunday night for me, heading home after couple hours of work. When I Irvin responded to my txt, agreeing that he wanted to get couple pics of his car. And off we went, Irvin was nice enough to pick me up, and drop me off. Props to him even though he's always in a serious mood.

First we headed to the Marin Hedlands, I wanted to get a shot of his car with the Golden Bridge in front of the car, but at a lower level. Indeed I got the shots, but only with one of the towers.

It was windy which made my tripod shake like salsa dancer, since the legs of it are so skinny and weak.

After giving up on the shots for that location, because of all the cars that were coming, and going I went to the car to get a close up shot of the bridge and the car, when I had great opportunity to meet and socialize for a little bit with three ladies. They were really friendly, and fun. Note, they were also driving in a nice Lexus sc430.

Too bad that Irvin was too serious, I think he was mad at me when he noticed that I stopped taking pictures of his car, and instead I offer myself to take pictures of the ladies.

After we left we realized that the area where we were was just too populated at the moment. It's funny that when we got to the spot, there was no one there, only us, and five minutes later, boom everyone decided to come and join us on our photoshoot.

We headed to the park that is at the water level, on the east side of the bridge to take the last pics. Once there I took only one shot, and it started to rain, I kept taking pics, but the wind was just too strong and kept moving the tripod.

Still I got nice shots of the bridge, but mainly Irvins car, or at least the rear of it. hehe

And I know it's been a while since I last posted on my blog with some nice pictures, after getting the bad news of my beloved dog passing away, I needed to do something like this to distract me at least a little bit.

I'm happy I live in the Bay Area, is so rich in beautiful landscapes, and thank God for having the friends that I have.

Enjoy the pics.

P.S. there's a lot more pictures to come off this car.

Some cloud that Irvin fell in love with, I heard him murmuring/wishing that Ariel the little mermeid would come out of there holding the little yellow fish. Kid scares me sometimes.

some random shot that I took here, I just took it because of the clouds, yet the picture has a lack of balance and colors.

The Ladies

The ladies again, but the picture was slightly edited on photoshop so the bridge was visible.

Irvin with his car

R.I.P Skippy Martinez.

On September 16, 1996 I picked him up from a pack of 12 little hair balls with tails, and cold noses. He was the only one with white and champagne/brown fur. The only one out of 12 cockers that were white with black. He looked like his dad, he was the baby version of his dad. My dad, my brother Misael were there with me when I picked him up. He filled that empty space that we had in the house. So many stories, and trips to the lake with my four legged friend. Chasing other dogs, cats on the street, or scaring the birds and rats off the backyard.

I said good bye to him in August 15, 2004 with the hopes I was going to see him back again.

But the destiny didn't let that happen.

Today at 7:57 p.m. my best friend, the only loyal pet who loved me even when I yielded at him for doing bad things, passed away.

I don't care if all this paragraph is sentimental or anything like that, I'm sad because I wasn't with him in his last moments.

I'm sad, I've lost a member of my family.

Love you Skippy, I will always have you in my heart. Couldn't have asked for a better companion even when I left you in the last 6 years of your life. I missed you all the time we were apart.

Thank you God for giving me such a loyal friend, thank you for giving him 14 years of life.

Skippy

August 10 1996-November 16, 2010.

The EG!

Ok, I believe I mentioned that I was not going to keep, and work on the EG. But my plans for the car are changing
But before, I actually start working on making the car different I am going to list the bads and goods of the car.

GOODS:

Exterior
-Paint is flawless, is fresh paint job.
-It has all the taillights, and headlights.

Interior
-Had a clean interior. ( I said had because I gutted part of it, still working on getting all the useless things out.)

Engine
- Runs strong


BADS:

Exterior
-Fenders are shaved
- Has a 4 door front bumper
-passenger door has shaved moldings
-there are signs that the car was green.

Interior
-Cluster is riced out
-cluster doesn't work
-Shifter is broken
-no radio
-Cluster is ugly as fuck
-Cluster has no lights
-The dash has no lights

Engine
-makes a weird noice (nothing serious)
-Valve cover, strut bar and air filter are painted green
- I hate that kind of color green
- Is riced the fuck out (engine bay)

The Plans

I already got a new door, I'm going to install it this week.

Need to paint the trunk and interior, since I'm gutting it out. I also need to get fenders, and front bumper.

After the exterior looks normal. I will start on the mods.

There's no better way to start than swapping the car. That is my goal and in 3-4 months the car will have a new engine, and is going to be a B series.

After that will get a complete new suspension setup. Also rear disk brakes.

Once all the performance modifications are done, I will star with the details, which are new paint job, roll cage, seats, JDM goodies sucha as jdm headlights, corner lights, visors, BYS wing, top secret mirrors, rear diffusers, tow hooks, spoon front lips, wheels, 949's, Volks, Spoons or CPFs.

Will upload pics later I'm tired, had a long fun day, went to the local junk yard which reminds me of all the unique things that happened there. That will come tomorrow.

Bye to public transportation?

So about 28 hours ago I purchased a car, it is a honda of course. However is not the car that I had in mind, is an EG-civic hatchback 1993, white.
I bought it because it was a deal, and I needed a car for the rainy season, getting wet should not be a issue at the moment.
I don't have major plans for this car at the moment. I strictly know this car is my beater. I wont abuse it, yet I wont work or change anything on it. Maybe some little things for my own comfort.
I'm planning on selling it soon anyways.

Will post pictures soon.

More Shades!!

Well, there haven't been that much automotive activity lately. Most of my gatherings have been social-really social. I even had to be the photographer for one. Then just trips to the clubs that just didn't work out, because engines decided to blew out, etc. In the same way. I haven't got anything new, no shoes, or clothes, trying to save money for a good cause. However, the only dollars that got spare didn't last long due to the new vans spicoli collection.

They are just sick, I love them.

Flat Black with a small blue tint

Awesome combination

My favorites!

A Nostalgic Moment.

This was in my head back in 2008, when I was about to start school. I post it on my myspace blog.

P.S. Gladly it wasn't my last post haha.

So this is going to be my first Blog entry in myspace. Hopefully not the last one.

First Day of School

Ok, I started my second semester of classes this week at COM. I was excited and at the same time quite nervous. It was a short week, but it was enough to have an idea on how most of my teachers work. Most of them had a great personality, I hope they can hold it through the whole semester. I had a great week, even when weather was like crap.

For most of us, I believe, first day of school is exciting. We all are excited to see who are going to be our classmates, teachers, etc. But I bet that at some point in the middle or at the last days of the school year, we can get a little bit anxious to finish school, and be free to enjoy the summer. Therefore, we have mornings that we say: "I don't wanna go to school today." But not on the first day of school. (Thats in my case.)

Then, it came to my mind a kid from Mexico, who didn't want to go to his first day of school. To avoid that, he glue his hand to his bed with some kind of super glue. Just to not go to the first day of school and watch cartoons. Wow.

http://youtube.com/watch?v=pBqHUmmwC6U&feature=related

ARAGAN!!

P.S. Gladly it wasn't my last post haha.

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Flood in San Anselmo! February 29, 2008

On this post I remember I put quotes on the pictures, they seemed amusing at the time, and they kind of still are.

Flood in San Anselmo

About two years ago, due to the storms, the river that runs across the city of San Anselmo, flooded. Leaving many stores and homes in ruin.

On Friday night we heard that San Alsemo had a Red alert. My uncle works at a restaurant in San Anselmo. He decided to go to check it out and help the owners to put sand bags around the place. Oscar and I decided to go as well. To our surprise, the restaurant is barely 15 yards away from the river.

I thought that the place where the river pass was going to be desolated. But no, It was kind of crowded. Most of them, photographers and curious people taking a look on how big the river was. Oh yeah, lots of cops and ambulances were there. With out mentioning the reporters of many channels.

While I was taking some pics of the river, some resident of the area asked me how much time I gave to the river to overflow. I told him that 5 hours. Fortunately, my prediction sucked. It didn't overflow. And I bet that many families are going to sleep with out that stress, thinking in the water coming to their properties.

How to Eat Pupusas-The Proper Way.

Last weekend, I went to San Francisco with some relatives, and as something normal, we had pupusas at a Salvadoran restaurant on Mission st. The place was packed with people, and I noticed that a good number of people was eating pupusas. It surprised me that the people who was eating pupusas were using a fork and a knife. WTF!! ??

It was kind of surprising for me. I was born, raised and lived in El Salvador for 14 years. Every Salvadoran knows that the proper way to eat pupusas is using the bare hands. When our food was served, my relatives also used forks and knives. I started to eat my pupusas with my hands. My relatives and some people who were at the neighboring tables practically looked over with an admired look, just because I was eating my pupusas "in the proper way" with my hands.

Theres always an exception to the rule, yet that wasn't the occasion.

All I could think in that moment was:

"INCULTOS!!!!! Si siguen siendo indios Pipiles de Izalco, majes. Que esten aqui no quieren decir que son gringos. ennnndejos!!"

I knew that most of the people who was at the place were Salvadorans, I could tell for their accent. I mean, they were born there. I know if they were in El Salvador and start to eat Pupusas with a fork and a knife, they are going to be the ones who will get weird looks. Or in an extreme case - maybe even "puteadas"

Ok now, if you get to a Salvadoran restaurant and order pupusas, this is how you should eat them.

1.- On top of the pupusas, or on one side you may put the pickled cabbage slaw. (Curtido)

2.- Then add the red sauce on top, or wherever you want to put it.

3.- Rip in to the pupusas with your bare hands.

4.- Take a piece accompanied with pickled cabbage and red sauce.

5.- Eat it.

6.- Repeat steps 3 to 5.

7.- Enjoy

P.S. Never ever use fork and a knife.

P.S.S Watch out, they are usually hot when served.

Proper way!!

Black and White, and some Color.

Most of the pictures that I take are in color. And it wasn't until couple weeks ago when I started to shot on black and white. I have to admit that I was never interested in black and white photography, I didn't want to look outside the box and appreciate the great contrast and perspectives that black and white gives to some pictures.

I've been shooting a lot in black in white these last two weeks. Here are some of my shots, and the last picture is a portrait of Jose, my cousin. I have to admit that the portrait is, so far, my favorite. Why? Well, the because of all the things going on in the picture. It's a panning shot, everything is on motion except for him. Thus, he actually looks normal in that shot, he was being himself and wasn't posing-being normal. haha.

The original picture was in color and thanks to photoshop I turned into black and white.

About the rest of the pictures, most of them were taken on a Sunday, September 19, 2010. I remember just getting out of work, rode my bike to the overpass between Lincoln ave. and Dominican University. I was determine to have fun, be careless about anything else but have fun taking pictures, and unburden myself of all that drama that life brings. There are two versions of each shot, the black and white and color. I didn't edit any of the pics. The black and white picture is a complete different shot of the color shot. I would have kept going but I got hungry, and when nature calls, you gotta go.

P.S. All the pictures were taken in the last couple weeks, except for Jose's portrait. And just click on the picture to see it at a higher resolution.

VW bus, a.k.a. papa cucon

Graffitis on Lincoln ave.

The new bike path by Lincoln ave.

The overpass.

Different point of view.

Lagoon by Civic Center

Laura...chilling

Skulls....

Tungsten color

Normal colors