Been busy...

Dan doing his thang!, originally uploaded by Tom Hickmott.

Sorry for the absence of attention to my blog the last week or so.

Been a busy time for me working on a few projects and doing lots of photoshoots of various stuff, so its been pretty cool and productive :D

anyway I was out doing some pics for a group of guys and their cars on Thursday, and my photographer friend Tom was there too, and he very kindly took the time to get some shots of me, which is just pure awesome for me to see!

Anyway just wanted to show I'm still here, and doing "my thang" as Tom put in his title :D

Toms photostream can be viewed here:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/tom-hickmott/

And this is what he has to say about this photo:

"These are a few final images for a project at college called 'people at work' I have chosen to shoot in Black and White for all of them because I just like the effect it gives off and the emotion you can capture!"

Some more BDC footage by Stephen Brooks...

Stephen Brooks is the amazing film maker that did the wrap of video of this years BDC series, that video is simply amazing! & can be viewed if you scroll down a few previous posts in my blog ;)


Awesome bit of work though and I was seriously impressed by the talent this man has for his art!


So I looked through some of his older videos and found this fantastic video from Round 2 of the BDC at Silverstone!


Some more fantastic footage, and put together in such a way that I feel it really does share with the viewers how exciting a motorsport series such as the BDC is to be part of! 



MAXXIS Tyres BDC Round 2 - Silverstone Pro Class from Stephen Brooks on Vimeo.


Coverage of the second round of the British Drift Championship held on the Silverstone main circuit. 

Congratulations to Danny Eyles for taking the win with Shane Lynch coming second and Phil Morrison and Declan Munnelley taking joint third.


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Anyway that's all I have for now...


I've been busy on a few projects recently though so I have a lot to share with you! Pictures and videos to follow once I get some time to explain properly :D 


Thanks for looking!!!

Crazy Clothing Advert...

Saw this mad advert by the clothing company Havaianas, made me chuckle and then amazed me all in the same 2:22 of footage! 


Enjoy! 



Havaianas welcomes Winter from Havaianas Europe Official on Vimeo.

Madrid, Spain - Wednesday December 2nd 2009
Lucy, a Havaianas brand lover, reports to our consumer service her concerns about wearing her pair of Havaianas in winter time, in order to keep the Mental Holidays spirit all year long.

La Plagne, France - Monday, December 14th 2009
The ASTF (Always Summer Task Force), a team of experimented scientists decides to leave Madrid headquarters for the French Alps with the aim to answer this question by achieving several cold resistance tests.

Madrid, Spain - Monday 21th December 2009
A commitee of international scientists are gathered in Madrid to publish the results of the experiments.

Here is the video of our experiment

The conclusion is clear: HAVAIANAS IS WINTERPROOF
From the beach to the mountains, from the sand to the snow, it doesn’t matter: it's always summer with Havaianas.

Relentless Short Stories...

Thanks to my brother I have been shown some magnificent videos done for a competition run by Relentless energy drinks. The idea is to create short stories outlining something important to you and your life.


The premise is awesome, and the inspirational and heartwarming content of this footage is just mind blowing! Seriously this has to be seen!


The first video of two that I want to share with you today is a brilliant story about the life of a UK Surfing photographer, the ups and downs, and why his experiences drive him to further his passion of photography and the sea. I think anyone creative in this world can relate to some of the fantastically composed commentary that is contained with in this video, its beautiful!


However I warn you now, you do have to be in the right frame of mind to witness these amazing videos, so if your feeling up for watching something truly awe inspiring then turn the volume up, go full screen and enjoy ;)



DARK SIDE OF THE LENS from Astray Films on Vimeo.


This next one I must have watched about ten times already! Its all about Jenny Jones who is a triple gold medalist from the Winter X Games and this talks about her life as a snowboarder and what she's gone through to achieve what she has.


I love the emotion that shines through in this one, the love for the sport and the dream that she went for and realised. Simply amazing, enjoy.



More Snowboarding Videos


"Jenny Jones is a triple gold medalist from the Winter X Games and here's a view into her life.

Filmed by Johannes Ostergard, it shows an honest story about a woman choosing to live her life snowboarding. A sport that took her from a dry slope in Bristol all the way to the top of the podium at the Winter X Games."


These two short stories to me are actually incredible, I can't honestly put well enough into words how they make me feel and truly inspire me to do whatever it is I want to do as long as I put my mind 100% to it, no second best, no second chance. 
I hope you enjoyed witnessing these lives just as much as I did.


Thank you for looking!

Mission for Maccy D's

Mission for Maccy D's (Sound), originally uploaded by Tom Hickmott.

Here is another quality piece of work by my friend Tom, a time lapse inspired by an old one of mine :) pretty cool I thought!

Here is what he has to say about it:

"This was an animation project for college, I got the idea from a good friend of mine who's Timelapse video can be seen here: www.flickr.com/photos/danfegent/3259620616/in/set-7215761... ...Basically i wanted to just do a trip to McDonalds and film it using pictures...My tripod was set up in the back and I tried to get the camera as central as possible! I shot on ISO 400, 1 second shuter speed and F2.8 and i believe its 631 images... Enjoy"

I think the pace of the video really works with the song he has chosen to use, seems frantic and I like that :)

Enjoy!

Beat Bullying

Beat Bullying, originally uploaded by Tom Hickmott.

Alarming, morbid and striking are three words that come to mind when I saw this excellent photo by my friend Tom!

His words on the photo are here:

"Don't be alarmed, this was done for a project at college and the sculpture in the picture is made out of selotape ha! Just to advertise a bullying campaign!"

I personally love the lighting in this one, very eery and when I heard it was done without a tripod I was even more impressed! Excellent work buddy :)

If you want to see more of his stuff, then head over to his photo stream which can be found here
http://www.flickr.com/photos/tom-hickmott/

Enjoy :)

Street Culture + Cars + Clothing companies = ...

I've taken a huge interest recently into a group of brand names and logos that have appeared all over the USA car scene, I'm guessing it is only a matter of time until these brands hit the UK, and I'm expecting it to be just as big as the effect they are having in America!


The brands and logos I'm talking about are for example "Hella Flush", "Illest", "Fat Lace", "Simply Clean"   among many others already wide spread among American car culture.


Some of these you may have heard of already? In fact I've seen the stickers pop up a few times at various shows, so its coming ;)


What I love about it, is that its a way of motivating people to get out there and do stuff, to group together under one brand and enjoy being around cars at events usually sponsored by small clothing companies and even independent clothes shops!


So that brings me to my first video I want to share with you...


Its the story of a clothing company outlet store called "Reign" which decided to bring people together under one banner, which is the "Simply Clean" logo and stickers that you'll see throughout this next video.


I absolutely love this production, its inspiring in so many ways! It really shows what you can do when you put your mind to it! The guys have worked truly hard to achieve what you see in the video, and its almost like they cannot actually believe what they the actual outcome is! And that, is awesome :D


So enjoy...



Simply Clean from Bluemotion on Vimeo.

Simply Clean car meet video edited by Quan Vu of Bluemotion. Music production by Soy is real

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Also I absolutely love that music in that one! Fantastic work.

The second film on the same topic and idea is one of an event put on by the clothing company "Fat Lace" using the branding "Hella Flush", this truly looks awesome! I love the fact there just like the video above, there is live music, competitions and prize give outs, as well as some fantastic looking cars! Pretty sweet event for a clothing company to put on I reckon :)


I'm really liking the editing in this one, you'll know what I mean when you start seeing how well it flows with the chosen music track! Definitely some inspirational editing to be witnessed in this one :)

Hella Flush III from iPhilms on Vimeo.


Hella Flush III at BlackTrax in Milpitas put on by Fatlace. 

Song Title

Video Tapez - AmpLive ft. Del the Funky Homosapien 

Saturdays - Cut Copy


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And lastly but by no means least, here is some brilliantly edited footage of a Formula Drift event in sponsorship with the clothing company Fat Lace.


The music in this vid rocks as well :) Some of the panning of the drifting is ace and very involving, but what I really love is what he does towards the end of the video with the tour of the show cars, very very cool technique and has definitely given me some ideas! 


Enjoy!



OneofOne x Formula Drift x Fatlace Round 1 Streets Of LB from Daniel Kruthanooch on Vimeo.


So this seems to be the way, clothing companies are coming up with these awesome brands / movements and bringing people out and together for meets and events once again! Its wicked to see and shows true motivation by the people behind the scenes, I love it! 


What we need in the UK, is for a small internet based clothing company, or maybe even a clothing firm itself to create a brand to bring together, street culture and cars and create what you've witnessed in these videos... which to me is something of pure awesomeness :D


Thank you for looking!

Awesome work of Joe Ayala

Joe Ayala is actually the guy I blogged about a few days ago that did the fantastic video with the tilt-shift lens.


His Vimeo page can once again be found here ;)


Well I feel some more of his work is definitely worth a mention!


First off there is this fantastic piece, which brings together some amazing footage of the USA drift scene, brilliant editing and an awesome track by the band AFI! Which all together results in an awesomely exciting bit of work!


Also I'm loving some of the cars in the current USA drift competitions! Stand outs for me are the red mk4 Supra that keeps popping up and of course Mad Mikes Red Bull sponsored RX8!



Formula D Irwindale | MotorMavens | The Prelude from Joe Ayala on Vimeo.


Pretty cool huh :) 


What I absolutely love is the different approaches to this motorsport that exist throughout the globe, everyone does it in their own way which is brilliant!


Another one of his videos that I really want to share is one of what looks like a drift day in a large open space, ok so its a lot more light hearted than the one above, but its still awesome to see people having FUN doing what they want to do with their cars in a safe environment!
I also think I like it due to the music :S quite a catchy tune :D



Drift Evolution "Fancy Footwork" from Joe Ayala on Vimeo.


Will definitely be keeping an eye on what else Joe produces!


Thanks for looking!!!

The Art & Soul of BDC

I was looking at some work on Vimeo by someone called Stephen Brooks, and found that he had only just posted up this amazing video on the 2010 season of the British Drift Championship!


His vimeo page can be found here so be sure to check out all of his stuff there!


I absolutely love the editing in this video, and I feel it shares with us all the atmosphere that is present in a motorsport series such as the Maxxis BDC.



The Art & Soul of BDC from Stephen Brooks on Vimeo.


This is my last film covering the British Drift Championship , shot throughout the 2010 season I hope it portrays just how special this series is. 

I'd like to say thanks to Paul McCallum and Mark Buckle for allowing me to shoot the championship over the past couple of years and giving me complete creative freedom to do what I wanted. I'd also like to thank all the drivers / crew / and supporters .. you make it what it is. 

Some of these shots were provided by Al Clark from Trackday Films who covered the final round of the championship up in Knockhill. Thanks man :) 

Stephen

Intro - Al Pacino speech : 'Any Given Sunday'
Music - Peace : Paul Kelly & Fix You : Coldplay


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The only sad thing about this, is that it's his last film of the British Drift Championship! Amazing footage and beautifully edited! A credit to the UK drift scene! 


Also this film is racking up blog posts and viewings all across the internet, so check it out and enjoy :) 

Drifting from a different perspective.

I've always found Tilt-shift lenses fascinating, there is just something about the way they make everything look like kids toys, and how they show a completely different impression of something that you may well be very used to! 


I feel that they provide the viewers with something different and out of the ordinary and I love that!


I haven't had a chance to use one, but I think a rental may be necessary so that I can play and see what I make of it :)


Anyway I found this video on Vimeo, done by an American Photographer by the name of Joe Ayala, and his Vimeo page can be found here.


I won't take away from any of his story about this video, as he explains how it came about perfectly, I will simply say that I was mesmerized by it and found it hugely soothing! A mixture of the audio and the filming perspective just allows you to chill out for its duration and enjoy what your witnessing... 



Formula D Sonoma | Mad World from Joe Ayala on Vimeo.


Formula Drift made its yearly stop in Sonoma, California last weekend. I’ve been looking forward to this event, simply because I live less than an hour away and I had a guaranteed bed to sleep in. However, the weekend was not without snags.

Upon my arrival, I found that I was not on the list for media, since KP Race and Victor Moore were unable to make it to Sonoma – this rendered my credentials were void. Therefore, I made the best of my bad luck and decided that if I couldn’t get the really close action shots, I would take a few steps back and shoot a different perspective. The next morning, I drove down to Borrowed Lenses in San Carlos and rented a tilt-shift lens. Over the past few months, my interest in these lenses has grown quite a bit and when I saw Mister Geoff Pitts from Thunder Drift taking photos with one at Formula D Las Vegas, I knew I had to try it. Fate truly couldn’t have presented me with a finer opportunity. Enjoy!

:: Joe Ayala


Song
Mad World : Michael Andrews & Gary Jules

A cake with a difference...

A few weeks back one of my closest friends set about making a cake, but not just any cake, this was going to be one modelled around a BMW 1 Series Coupe.

Reference picture taken from Roadfly.com

His plan was to make it for a friends birthday and surprise her, which worked an absolute treat as it is one of her dream cars!


I didn't get too involved with this project of his sadly due to other commitments, but he spent a couple of days and around 12 hours in my kitchen getting it all together from scratch!


Just also want to point out that he had no experience with doing anything like this before he undertook this task, I was so impressed with the end result! Amazing what you can do when you put your mind to it :)

The attention to detail he put into it were awesome, the door shut lines, the clear glazing on the windscreen, the sculpted door mirrors, the lights, the trim, I could keep going but you get the idea! 

I apologise for the quality of the pictures, I was using my iphone for some reason :S should of made more of a fuss of it and done a little shoot but these at least show you the result of his hard work!


Looked amazing didn't it!? hehe the thing is I have no idea how it tasted... hopefully as good as it looked! 


Awesome to see someone do something outside of their comfort zone and pull it off, I found it very inspiring and I hope it some way it can help to inspire others!


Thanks for looking :)   

A little shoot of a Japanese monster

I blogged that picture earlier of me taking a shot of my friends Evo 6, and that made me think... how rude of me! I haven't actually properly shown you all the pictures from that shoot! 


Well anyway so as to make it up to you, here goes... 

He has what I can only describe to you as an absolutely beautiful Mitsubishi Evolution VI Tommi Makinen edition. 

The way this thing handles the road and the power it can put down is simply amazing! I am in awe of it every time I am lucky enough to get to go out in it... seriously if you've never had a go in one, then you definitely should make it your mission to try one out or at least have a ride in one! 

His one is pretty much standard, but has been kept to a very high level, it's running a dyno proven 300 odd bhp and handles beautifully. 

Spot the orange MR2 in the background ;) yep its the one from my earlier blog, more pics on that car to come in future blog posts :) 

So anyway back to the shoot, so I'd been planning to have a go at taking some shots of this gorgeous car for a while, and I started off by doing a bit of an intro to it, which is why there are all these photos of his Brembo brake calipers and Enkei alloys in this post. 

So anyway I put together a plan and then I organised for us all to go down to my brothers old farm and find a good spot for it so that I could try and do it justice! 

I really enjoyed doing this one, I hadn't had much luck with black cars in the past, but I just felt that I knew what result I wanted and went for it until I achieved it! Hells yeah :D 

Absolutely loved shooting this car, and I hope to do it again sometime soon!

I've really enjoyed sharing this little shoot with you, so I hope you have enjoyed checking out these photos!
If you want to look at the whole set, then feel free to head over here to my Flickr set ----> Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution 6 Tommi Makinen


Now I'm nearly back on my feet (after the whole broken foot incident), and my new camera is nearly here... therefore it'll soon be time to get back to what I love and aim for greater heights! I mean if I don't believe myself and don't constantly strive to achieve more then I'll never succeed ;)  


Thank you for checking out this post!

Evo 6 Tommi Mäkinen - Myself at work :)

My brother Gav ( whose photostream can be found here... www.flickr.com/photos/gavinfegent/ ) just passed over a few photos of me that he got whilst I was doing some car shoots earlier in the year :)



Evo 6 Tommi Mäkinen - Myself at work :), originally uploaded by Dan Fegent.


Pretty cool I thought as I rarely get photographed as it is, so to see me doing what I absolutely love doing is quite a buzz :)