Alright, so I got a call maybe a week and a half ago from my boy Tony Lee over at It’s JDM Yo!!! about an offer to shoot the twin Spirit Rei Odyvias over at Mastermind. One of the Odyvias (the silver one) was set to return to Japan a couple days later so the guys over at Mastermind really wanted to get some shots of the car before it left. I had mentioned to Tony a while back that I really wanted to shoot the cars but it was locked down by some other websites/mags/etc. so it just wasn’t going to happen. Tony came through though and called me as soon as he got the word that the guys at Mastermind where down. Tony wanted to print out some new posters with these cars to give out at various events for promotional purposes. If you guys have ever come by The Chronicles booth then you will probably remember the posters that we usually give out to people. Those posters came courtesy of Tony of course and featured Phaze2 Tony’s NSX and model Chaba. The posters were a hit so Tony really wanted to get some new ones out before the show season in 2011 hit full force. One of his other photographers that shot the poster the first time around, Keith aka Keychain, couldn’t make it to the shoot so Tony asked if I could go down there and assist him since I wanted to get some shots of the Odyvias anyways. Tony has done probably a million things for me in the nearly ten years that I’ve known him so I wasn’t gonna just turn down the offer, even though I was pretty busy that week. An added incentive was that the Mastermind facilities were really close to me so it wasn’t a problem for me to get over there…

To set-up the shoot, Tony once again invited two of his favorite models, the lovely Miss Amy Fay and Chaba. These girls have always been down to support Tony and his site so even though it was short notice, they came out to shoot. Tony’s resident model photographer, Gilbert was on hand to do all the shots for his site and his videographer, Daizo, was also there to capture video of the whole day. There stuff should go up soon as well but today, we’re going to take a look at the shots I got that day. Before we begin, you should be well informed that this post is probably not safe for your viewing pleasure at work. The girls aren’t like all naked or anything or even remotely implied. I just don’t know how your boss feels about you staring at photos of females at your job on a site called “Stickydiljoe.com”, if you know what I mean…haha. You should also know that I am no model photographer. All you import model fanatics should be familiar with guys like Steve Bitanga or Rey Trajano or whoever…I am not any of those dudes. If anything I should be in front of the camera because of my boyish good looks and charming personality, haha. I just merely went out there to help out Tony and to capture some shots of my own for the site. I brought out all kinds of lighting equipment that I usually use for shoots of cars for the guys to use but Gilbert had his own equipment that he was pretty set on using so I just used my own equipment. Of course Big Mike was out there to be my assistant as usual and to chat it up with the girls…

The Mastermind guys were more than a pleasure to work with as well. Those guys over there are very generous and even bought food and everything to feed everybody. I’ve dealt with Mastermind before when I first ordered my JDM Nissan Cima front bumper from them, which unfortunately, was lost in the Midnight Garage fire. Even back then when they had no idea who I was, they were incredibly helpful and I couldn’t ask for better service. Big shout out to those guys for their courtesy and allowing us to move all kinds of things around in their facility so that we could shoot. It was a tight space but we managed to make it work. Even after the shoot we were all just chillin’ and chatting it up with them about cars and the industry and what not. If you guys need anything imported from Japan, whether it be something you saw on Yahoo! Auctions or Upgarage, be sure to hit them up. They can get stuff fast and they can basically get anything from overseas….

Check out the Mastermind website here…

I have to thank Tony of course for inviting me out there to experience the whole thing. I like working with Tony because he gives me a lot of freedom to do whatever I want at shoots and whenever we have collaborations with one another, things usually go very smoothly…

Can’t forget to thank the girls as well, they were extremely easy to work with and very professional. There were moments in the beginning of the shoot when it was a giant clusterfuck and we couldn’t decide what went where and how the lighting worked out but they were so patient and willing to wait until we got everything set. Amy was on a bit of a tight schedule because she had to go to a Laker game later that day which we all found out later that whoever took her to the game tricked her because she ended up at a Clippers game but it’s all good, everybody knows that the Clippers were more exciting to watch then the Lakers anyways…haha…Anyways, Amy was easy to shoot because I have the terrible shakes and can’t take any photos without a tripod so I just set it on a timer and walked around while she did her thing. I don’t have that many shots of Chaba because Gilbert did most of the shots for her and I was still trying to figure out my equipment while she was getting shot…

The shots are pretty random actually. I ended up only getting some shots of the car and most of the shots were of Amy. The majority of the car shots as well as the video were all done by the guys over at It’s JDM Yo!!! so consider this post more of a “behind-the-scenes” type of deal. The majority of the shots where just test shots and I’ve never really shot people outside of a candid setting so don’t expect anything great. There are also various other shots after the shoot when the Mastermind guys had some fun with one of the Odyvias in the back of their closed lot…

Enjoy, and make sure to look out for links to larger versions of the pics below. Not all of them have larger versions but many do. The ones with my usual watermark are just regular sizes. At the end I’ve also included some like “alternate” edits of various shots just because I was playing around with them in Photoshop one night when I was half asleep and they actually came out pretty good…alright, enough talking…on with the pics…

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This Odyvia belongs to Mastermind and has a 500+hp LS6 motor in it, unlike the silver one, which is from Japan and has a carb’d Nissan L28 motor…

Amy Fay of course…Larger Version (933×1400)

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I think this one might actually end up being the poster shot… Larger Version (1400×933)

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Chaba with Amy Fay…. Larger Version (933×1400)

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Rockin’ the Mastermind tees…

Group shot of everyone that was there that day at Tony’s request. The Mastermind crew with Big Mike and I and the It’s JDM Yo!!! crew. Ross from Midnight Garage was there because he likes to stare at models…haha… Larger Version (1400×933)

…and a shot with the girls and the Mastermind staff… Larger Version (1400×933)

Okay, so at one point during the beginning of the shoot, Tony pulls Gilbert aside for some secret meeting. I was wondering what they were up to but it turns out that Tony was trying to get a particular shot for the poster that he wanted. He didn’t know how to describe it to Gilbert so he took a marker and attempted to draw the shot that he wanted…the picture that he drew resulted in even more confusion. I took the liberty of taking the marker and adding hair but this is what he came up with…

…I was eating a slice of pizza when I saw this and was like “what the fuck is this?” I couldn’t possibly end the day without getting Chaba to do that exact pose though to make Tony happy…

…and this is shot that we got, down to the hair and all…haha…You can see how terrible of an artist Tony is because his drawing of the Odyvia looks like an angry train…

Now for some stuff that I got after the shoot. This was when Gilbert was getting more shots of the cars and Daizo was doing his video stuff…

Vertex steering wheel, and a MSD 6AL ignition box built into the Kenmari Skyline dashboard of the S13…

Uncommon L28 swap from an old Datsun Z…

Last shot of the car before it returns to Japan… Larger Version (1400×933)

Renderings of the Odyvia that hung on the wall of the Mastermind offices…

Test shot from my camera while Gilbert was shooting with his…

Amy Fay and Big Mike pinky-swear collabo…

Below are the alternate edits that I was talking about earlier in the post. Just some “artsy” I guess you can say, style of edits that I did while I was falling asleep. Came out pretty cool I think so I thought I’d share them with you…

Really liked this one… Larger Version (1400×933)

Candid… Larger Version (1400×933)

That’s all for today folks, thanks for looking and have a great weekend…