As you guys have already read yesterday, I wasn’t able to attend the Autogallery event because I had to make a tough decision between going to this show and going to my buddy Sunny’s grand opening in Norcal. I was torn leading up to the weekend because I really wanted to support Jimmy and the Praxis Production guys. They have been planning and working on putting this event together practically all year so I really wanted to be there to witness the outcome. After going through the photos that were provided to me last night, I’m comfortable with the decision I made to go up north because my boy Sam Ip came through big time for me and covered Autogallery for The Chronicles. Sam is the owner of the black FA5 Civic that you guys are probably familiar with by now but he’s recently taken up the hobby of photography. It was a little surprising to see him pick up a camera because we’ve never heard him mention or have any aspirations of being a photographer. He’s been practicing a lot over the last couple of months so I wanted to give him the opportunity to showcase his stuff here on the site. Whenever I get coverage from other events outside of the west, I usually prefer to use guys who are a little more experienced but I like Sam’s enthusiasm so I wanted to give him a shot to see what he could come up with. Maybe the added pressure of being the sole photographer for a big event would really motivate him and from seeing the photos, I’m more than pleased with the results. I considered asking someone else to cover the event for me as well but I didn’t. I knew Sam would be able to handle it and the shots are honestly pretty good. I’m not saying I’m a great photographer myself, but like him, I started out completely unaware of how to shoot and learned on my own over time. I know how difficult it can be at times to try to figure out settings and angles and what not on the fly at an event and that is honestly how I learned myself. I respect Sam for taking on the hobby and how dedicated he is to getting better. Sam’s actual expertise is in the kitchen where he is an amazing chef at a family-owned restaurant. Much like cooking, what is good and what isn’t in photography can at times be completely subjective. Different people like different things. There isn’t a defined way to cook “correctly” and there certainly isn’t a set way to photograph anything “correctly”. It is all up to the person and what they see through their eyes. That’s how I kinda knew that Sam could handle photography because there is a deep learning curve on both sides and he’s been able to mold himself into a good chef…

As for the event itself, I’m sorry that I can’t offer you guys an opinion on Autogallery and how it went. I wasn’t there and I’ve only seen as many photos as many of you have. I attempted to get a general overview of how it was by talking to various people but I’ve heard very different things from everyone. Some were bad, some were good, and that was expected. Any time you try to put together a huge event like this for the first time, there are going to be a lot of things that you will have to learn. Everyone thinks that it is so easy to put a car show together but there are just so many other factors to consider that you wouldn’t normally think of from an outsider’s perspective. You have to find a venue, negotiate a price, figure out insurance, staff, timing, etc, etc…. Honestly you’d be lucky to break even the first event because you’re so busy trying to get everything up to the standards of how you would want a ideal event to be. Many enthusiasts aren’t willing to take a chance on going to an event as well because they fear that the event won’t compare to the more established ones. You’re going to have to find some sort of niche or something special about your show that stands out that makes people want to go. The whole interesting thing behind Autogallery is that it was held on the beach during the late summer. This provided not only a very special venue for a car show but also ties in the beach environment. This would allow showgoers the opportunity to not only be at a show, but also enjoy the summer by the ocean. I heard foot traffic started out slow but that was expected. There are just so many shows these days that it is hard to get people to go to an event, especially out here on the west. People are probably tired of seeing the same cars over and over again so a small turn-out isn’t anything of a surprise. I’m sure it picked up later on in the afternoon though because summer temperatures would have dropped a bit by then and people would be more willing to come out. Either way, congratulations to Praxis Productions for pulling it off. From what Jimmy from Praxis tells me, this is something that they want to continue doing in the future so this event helped to get their collective foots in the door, so to speak…

Below are photos shot by Sam Ip and all post-processing was done by me… Enjoy…

Sam’s Saturday morning started out at a friend’s house where he met up with a couple others before making the caravan down to Huntington Beach…Above is the FASTautoworks Civic coupe…

Sam’s red Volk TE37SLs on his supercharged FA5 Civic…

His aggressive front end and custom metal splitters…

Chris Lacson’s freshly-painted Midnight Purple S2000 on bronze TE37s…

Upon arrival at the beach venue, the first car they spotted was Keith aka Keychain’s Accord on his new Work VS-KF wheels…

Refreshing to see his Accord on some new wheels after being on the MB Battles for so long…

Chivas Sotelo made the trip down from Vegas to hang out at the beach…

Chivas’ bay…

Karl’s S2000 with some new aero additions…

EP Civic on Dunlop Formula Hart CP-Rs and Mugen EP front-end…

The Vanguard Collective’s BB6 Prelude on gold Volk CEs…

Sloppy, who recently relocated to Las Vegas, returned to Cali for the weekend to be at Autogallery 2012…

Really clean Datsun 510 on old school Fins…

S2000 with a more VIP-flavor, sitting on WED’s Kranze Bazreias…

David Nguyen’s Integra looking good with the Mugen Gen. II wing and Volk TE37Vs…

Vincent Shumai’s NB-chassis Miata…

Daniel Leung’s Subaru STi on SSR Type-Fs…

Another shot of Chris Lacson’s S2000…

The FASTautoworks’ Civic coupe with white TE37s and Spoon Sports brakes…

Surprised the shaved bay hasn’t cracked after all these years…

Mark Sutakajana’s DB8 Integra and Teddy Timoteo’s EK with paint-matched First Molding lip…

Absolutely loving the new TE37SLs on Mark’s Integra…might be his best wheels yet…

Teddy’s EK has been looking great since it re-emerged at Nisei Showoff with the paint-matched lip and mirrors… Proof that subtle changes make a huge difference in the overall scheme of a build…

I’ve noticed that the JDP rear wing has become a very popular item this year in the S2000 community…

Luigi Arroyo’s AP2 S2000 on SSR Professor SP3s and CR front lip…

Can’t have an event out here these days without at least one Civic with BBS mesh wheels…

A nice gathering of EF Civics at Autogallery 2012…

Autogallery also provided some cakes for showgoers to enjoy…

K-swapped CR-Z, owned by Daniel Herrera, on display in the Sportcar Motion booth…

Sam made sure to get some shots of his own Civic build, parked in the NOS Energy area…

One more of Chivas’ EM1 coupe…

I’m not up on the current names of the aspiring import models but I believe this was Lily Wang… Nice capture by Sam Ip…

Closing it out for today with a couple of shots of Mike Mao’s NSX which you should be seeing very soon in an upcoming issue of Super Street magazine… It’s definitely an issue you’re going to want to pick up…

Back with Part 2 of 2 tomorrow…thanks for looking people!…