Jordan's WRX Wagon

Jordan Porritt, of JLP-Photo.com fame picked up this wagon last year. When he picked it up it was ridding high on wheels that been abused by many many curbs, but like every WRX it had the potential to be something great.



The car is now sitting low (really low) on 18x9.5 +38 Work Emotion CR Kai's shod with 225/40r18 Hankook Ice Bear snow tires (it is winter after all). Bringing the car closer to the pavement are a set of BC Racing Inverted Coilovers with 10K front and 8K rear springs. BC Racing camber plates keep everything lined up in the back.



The 2.5 liter flat four inhales through a COBB intake and exhales through a Perrin divorced downpipe and an A'PEXi N1 Exhaust. A COBB Accessport v2 has been brought in to add some more power and a COBB radiator shroud helps to keep things cool. A set of Kartboy shifter bushings keep shifts crisp wherever Jordan takes the wagon.



The only major exterior additions have been a V Limited replica lip and a set of Audi-esque LEDs in the headlights. The LEDs get plenty of attention, especially from the VW guys.



Is it the fastest WRX around? Nope. Is it one of the best looking? It's up there. There's something to be said about a slammed wagon on a set of Works that everyone can agree about

My 2 Camera Bags and Why I've got 2

(AKA I'm too lazy to sell my old bag)

I have two camera bags. Both are backpacks. I bought one to replace the other. I had the fullest intention of selling the other, but I never got around to it. Why? I'm not sure (too lazy is the consensus), but it's come in handy.
The new bag was purchased because it was bigger and can hold all of my gear. It's got a rain cover and a dedicated MP3 player pocket. It's amazing and I got a killer deal on it. Right now my bag is currently packed full with everything I'd take to a location shoot: It has my camera body (the Digital Rebel with the 10D firmware hack), my 50mm f/1.8, the 18-55 f/3.5-5.6 kit lens and a 70-300mm f/4-5.6 I bought that came with a paper weight, my eBay wireless flash trigger kit (3 receivers and 1 transmitter), 2 hot shoe flashes, extra AA and AAA batteries, an extra battery for the camera, memory cards, neck strap, lens cloths, matches, gaff tape, a light meter I rarely use (unless I'm trying to impress someone) a notebook, some pens and both of my skate tools. It's jam packed full of everything I need when I'm out avoiding getting hit by someone's board or shooting someone's automotive pride and joy. Hell, if I wanted to I could attach two tripods and have both of my hands free to jam into my pockets. It's the greatest $70 (plus S&H) I have ever spent on a piece of luggage. But there's just one small problem with its vastness.
It's big. Not so big that I wouldn't carry it TO a spot, but it's too big to carry AROUND a spot. A spot like say, a race track or car meet. Despite however nice it is to have everything you could need in a bag it's completely useless if you only need a few of those things. “Mike,” you might be saying right now, “just take out the stuff you don't need and leave it at your house you jackass.” Well kind reader, have you ever had a big bag that's only partially full and packed in a particular way? No? It feels weird. Really weird. I don't like feeling weird, and I don't like feeling weird for hours on end which is the case for shooting track side or at a meet. So what's the solution?
Small bag. It's small, which cuts down on storage space and means I have to really think about what I'm gonna need. So far all my thinking has led me to one load out for the track and one for meets. The track pack includes the body, 75-300mm, 18-55mm, one flash, one wireless receiver, my only transmitter, extra batteries for the flash and receiver, extra camera battery, memory cards, pocket knife, notebook, pens and water/Gatorade/Powerade. It gets hot out in Tooele in the summer, and this guy needs to stay hydrated. It works perfectly, and I keep it mostly the same for meets. I only trade out the 75-300mm for my 50mm because sometimes I like running around with the 50 and trying to get artsy shots at meets. It's fun, and you get weird looks sometime.
So there you have it, my two bags and why I have them. Think of me like a family with two cars. I have the big, practical SUV to lug around the kids, lumber and whatever nonsense family men have to carry around, and then I have the little sports car: not practical but fun and will carry only what I need for a weekend jaunt.

Big bag shots:




Small bag shots:

camera phone fun time

Lately I've been shooting photos with my CAMERA phone instead of my DSLR because I always have my phone on me and it's been too cold to go out (as in not in the studio) and try to shoot with someone.

The CAMERA phone isn't too bad: it's 5MP, iso sensitivity as low as 50 and as high as 800, 10 scene modes (which I've never used) AND it's own little photo editing program. It's pretty basic, but it let's me do what I need to do (rotate, brightness and contrast).

Here's what it's done:

So, I got bored today

I got bored and decided to take some pictures of this shadow I saw last night.

A light in my parents room that, when it's on and the door is open, makes this weird shadow with the banister on the wall above the stairs... That sounds weird, just look at the pictures:

The Bad Meal

My brother and I are on the same diet, and once a week my brother and I go completely off the plan (the diet says we can! it's in the book!) and eat like complete and utter shit. Today I documented this gluttonous event. Why? Cause my other shoot fell through and I wanted to shoot.


And because some people don't believe that this actually happens.

I met up with my brother and our friend Craig at the Huntsman. From there we went off to Crown Burger for the bad meal.



Now Craig had only heard about the bad meal, but he'd never heard any details of what actually goes on. He had no idea that the bad meal is going completely overboard and then some. He ordered a cheeseburger, medium fries and a medium Coke. He paid about $8:


I, like a jackass/genius, ordered a bacon cheeseburger, Crown burger (cheeseburger with Pastrami on top), a gyro an order of onion rings and a large Coke that was about the size of a bucket. I paid $20 for this feast:


Jason, being the king glut, ordered two (2) bacon cheeseburgers, a steak sandwich (medium), a chicken finger plate (with honey-mustard. He didn't know it came with fries), an order of fries and a "large" root beer. He dropped a whopping $30 on his monument to gluttony:

By the way, it took two trays to hold all his food.

For those keeping score: there are 3 bacon cheeseburgers, 3 orders of fries, 3 chicken fingers, 1 steak sandwich, 1 Crown burger, 1 gyro, 1 order of onion rings and enough soda to fill a bath tub. And fry sauce, lots and lots of fry sauce.


And so we ate, with Craig in awe of the amount of food Jason and I were going to eat. I say "going to" instead of "attempting to" because we always eat everything we get. Well, almost. We kill the main items first(burgers, pizza, whatever) and go after the side dishes (fries, bread sticks, etc.) 2nd. Suffice it to say that me and the boy do work:



Craig was impressed and/or disgusted


And Jason was embarrassed


And that was that. We took Craig back to his car, then Jason and I went home and plopped our fat asses on the couch to watch the Eagles lay an egg against Cowboys.

My New Year's Resolutions

We're half way through the first full week of '10 (by the way, it's either twenty-ten or two-thousand ten. First person I hear call it ought ten is going to have their face pushed through the back of their skull) and I feel it necessary to explain my simplistic New Year's Resolutions. My resolutions being #1 Don't Suck and #2 Don't Die. Sounds straight forward enough, but when have I ever been one to make things easy for myself?

Let's go over the Don't Die part. Sounds simple enough, and it is: don't fucking die before the clock strikes midnight on January 1, 2011. But it's a bit more than that. If you know me then you know I call myself a fat ass quite a bit. True I've lost weight, but I'm still fat. I'm shooting for 180lbs. Why? Other than it's where I think I SHOULD be it's also where my brother is trying to get to and I'd take some pleasure in seeing him be the heavy one for once... Even if it is just 3 pounds.

Another part of Don't Die will require some doing financially or a few minor acts of insurance fraud. I haven't been to the dentist, orthodontist or doctor in a damn long time. I've got an extra molar/wisdom tooth somewhat coming in (it's stalled out half way), I'm missing two teeth (right up front) and my left knee has decided it doesn't like me most mornings. It's time for this guy to go in for his 15,000 mile check up.

That's it for Don't Die. Now it's time to explain Don't Suck.

Don't Suck really involves shooting more, snowboarding/skating more (and better) and this. Writing. And going back to school, but that'll come later.

Shooting more sounds simple: take more photos. And while it can be, I don't want it to be. I'm trying to get more model shoots and car shoots. It's a tremendious pain because #1 nobody knows who the hell I am and #2 I'm an insignificant fish in the big damned pond that is automotive photographers in Utah. It's a hell of a hill, but I'm ready to scale it. I've signed up for a ModelMayhem.com account and I've been propositioning every new member of UtahHondas.net with a clean car. And I'm going to be stalking around Miller again as soon as Wide Open Wednesdays gets going again.

Onto the next: snowboarding and skating more and better. I love both, but I feel more natural on a snowboard. I've gone 2 days this season and I had a shit ton of fun. I want to go more, but unfortunately my schedule isn't permitting me to do so. Hopefully my schedule will open up so I can get more quality time in and make some progress. Skating more will come as soon as it warms up. It'll be great.

Writing comes naturally. It helps to have something to write about (i.e. pictures), but I've soldiered on with nothing to write about before and I'll do it again. It's fun, I enjoy it and as I see it that's what I should be doing right now.

So there you have it, my resolutions of Don't Suck and Don't Die explained

Anatomy of...

My sketchy home-brewed table top shooting setup:


photo has notes, click it to see them

The Best $100 I ever spent

Yes the camera I've been using for so long, the thing that covered SEMA, shot beautiful women, brought you some ghetto trackside coverage was bought for $100. And it's quite the tale. Gather 'round children and let old Uncle Yom tell you how I got a hold of this piece of cutting edge techno wizadry*!

Almost three years ago my friend Trent (the Funnyname Media guy, you know the organized one) brought me an opportunity to take some photos of some classic American cars of one of his co-workers. I said I'd do it and so one morning we were in his truck on the way to Kamas to the guys house.



At the time I was rocking my Pentax *istDL, and I was in love with the thing. It was (and is) still a solid camera. Trent had a Canon Digital Rebel, and he enjoyed it.

After we finished shooting the guy invited us to look around his garage where we saw a '64 Impala SS and a 396ci motor on a stand. I had put my camera in the truck, but Trent had his Rebel so I grabbed it and started firing away. I enjoyed shooting with it and so, when I got home, I started looking into picking up a Canon.

A few months later Trent has upgraded to a more recent (read: better) Canon body and he offered me the Rebel, the 18-55mm kit lens and a battery for $100. I jump on it and give him all the cash I had. He gave me the camera and as soon as I had the rest of his money I took it to him. By June the Reb was officially mine, rocking a vertical grip and making me look more pro than I was.



And that's the best $100 I ever spent.


*At least I think it was $100. I'm almost positive it was because I remember telling everyone that the grip cost more than the camera, and I remember paying $135 for the grip on ebay.

Favorite photos from '09

A shot quite a bit in 2009. Not nearly as much as I wanted to, but plenty nonetheless. So here are my favorite photos from last year. Feel free to tell me your favorites. By that I mean favorites of mine, of yours, of whoever's. What photos got you going last year?



This was one of the first times Kat and I hung out. She's awesome, I hope we can hang out and shoot more in 2010





I skate with lots of people, and I love em all but if I had to take 2 guys and get tricks it's gonna be Garrison and Jeff. They just go at anything! Jeff blew out his knee, but he'll be back by the summer. Garrison is Garrison, I know he's been angry but I really only remember him having a huge grin on his face.

Side note: Brock's video is done, and the homies (which I'm not apparently) have seen it. Jovi told me about it, he said it was really good. AND it's got some of the guys in it: Glenn, Jovi, Garrison, Jeff, Nick, Matt, Hads and some other favorites. When Brock has a proper premier, or I see it, I'll let you know about it. Anyway, back to the list.



Brody's race car. I love this fuckin photo



The Legacy Bridge at the University of Utah. Everyone likes the color photo, but I like the black and white one better.

So there you have it. My favorites from '09