Archive for ‘Exclusive Content’

FEEL’S Civic And The Return Of Wekfest Los Angeles… CHRNCLS Vlog 2021 #22

FEEL’S Civic And The Return Of Wekfest Los Angeles… CHRNCLS Vlog 2021 #22

Well, this is it!! All the build-up and all the time invested into getting LJ Garcia’s old FEEL’S widebody Civic ‘more together’ for the Wekfest Los Angeles event is here! I couldn’t have picked a better time to do this because this particular Wekfest event is a special one. Not only is it the first big indoor car show to happen in the last year, it also lands on the anniversary date of The Chronicles. I started this journey 13 years ago and what better way to celebrate that special day than by presenting the world with an icon.
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Bringing Back The FEEL’S Widebody Civic For One-Time Only… CHRNCLS Vlog 2021 #21

Bringing Back The FEEL’S Widebody Civic For One-Time Only… CHRNCLS Vlog 2021 #21

After the great response I got from shooting LJ Garcia’s old FEEL’S Widebody Civic for Meguiar’s, I decided that it would be a really cool idea to try to bring it out for an appearance at Wekfest Los Angeles. I had no idea it would garner such a huge public response from the automotive community so what better way to celebrate that than by giving everyone the opportunity to see the Civic themselves? It’s so crazy that this Civic is still mostly complete on the outside and I was even able to source some more of the original pieces for it. Follow along as I prep the car for it’s one -time only, first-ever appearance in the 2020s. I don’t know what will happen to the car after, but I feel great knowing I contributed to helping it come back together, even for a little bit.
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Meguiar’s “Portrait of an Icon” 2020s-Era Shoot Featuring LJ Garcia’s FEEL’S Civic…

Meguiar’s “Portrait of an Icon” 2020s-Era Shoot Featuring LJ Garcia’s FEEL’S Civic…

Let me start-off by saying that I am so glad I decided to take on this project for Meguiar’s. When I was first approached about this concept by RJ De Vera, I honestly didn’t know if I wanted to do it or not. He’d never know because I acted so confidently about it but I was very close to saying no. I was going through some personal stuff at the time and wasn’t really motivated to do anything. All my insecurities were boiling over when I was asked to take on such a huge project for such a well-known company. Meguiar’s has literally been around for over 100 years. To produce something that would not be ‘good enough’ in their eyes is mortifying. I didn’t know if I had it in me. But, I told myself that I’d take on new challenges this year and really see how far I could extend myself creatively. I think it was around 2017 when I had a bit of an epiphany. One day I was working next to my-then significant other, I turned to her, and proclaimed that if I’m not producing my best work moving forward, I would stop doing The Chronicles. If I’m not creating and bettering my previous work every year, there’s really no point in me doing this anymore. Because at that point I would know that I wasn’t having fun anymore. It meant that I didn’t have it in me to challenge myself…
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An ICONIC HONDA Build From The Past Is Found… CHRNCLS Vlog 2021 #19

An ICONIC HONDA Build From The Past Is Found… CHRNCLS Vlog 2021 #19

I never thought I’d see the day but I’ve been waiting almost two decades to see this car again…

For my final installment for the Meguiar’s “Portrait of an Icon” series, I knew I had to do something big, so I sought out an important Honda from a bygone era to tell not only its story, but to add to mine.

To me, this was the perfect way to cap off a series of creative work covering five different decades. A true pleasure it was to be able to photograph a car that first inspired me to collect automotive tuning magazines as a youth.
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Meguiar’s “Portrait of an Icon” 2010s-Era Shoot…

Meguiar’s “Portrait of an Icon” 2010s-Era Shoot…

For the fourth installment of the Meguiar’s “Portrait of an Icon” series, we head into “The High-Tech 2010s”. This one was a difficult one for me because I wasn’t able to tap into my ‘nostalgia’ bag since the 2010s were just a few years ago.

I had to consider what were the big trends of that time, be it pop-culture or automotive, and 3 things immediately stood-out to me; bolt-on widebody kits, digital streaming services, and well, not to toot my own horn but—The Chronicles. I thrived in the 2010s and I don’t think many would argue that my work was very pivotal to the growth of Japanese tuning culture during that time.
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Extras, Outtakes, and More Details From The Meguiar’s 2000s “Import Tuner” Shoot…

Extras, Outtakes, and More Details From The Meguiar’s 2000s “Import Tuner” Shoot…

I had an unnecessary amount of fun putting this project together. From start to finish I couldn’t have been happier with the results. To be fair, it was quite a bit of work and a lot of planning involved but it’s oh so satisfying when everything comes together the way I envisioned. Once I figured out what photos I wanted, how the cover needed to be laid-out, and all the little details, I had a good feeling it would be well-received. Everybody loves nostalgia, especially car enthusiasts. Just to be able to look back at a time when everything felt new and their were no rules is amazing. The early 2000s represented a very different time in the automotive tuning community. There were no ‘standards’ set and people were really free to express themselves with their cars. Now it seems like more of a popularity contest than anything. Everybody just wants to be ‘someone’ on social media. Everyone wanted to stand-out and be someone back then as well, but there was no social media yet. The only platform for comparison was real life interaction and you didn’t have thousands and thousands of people to compare yourself with everyday. There was less pressure amongst your peers because the sample-size was much smaller. Sure the styles were a bit over the top back then but honestly, it’s not like everyone has it figured out in 2021. We’re all just in a bigger pond now thanks to the internet. I don’t want to go too far off into a tangent about this entire subject so let me get back to the Meguiar’s project…
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Meguiar’s “Portrait of an Icon” 2000s-Era Shoot…

Meguiar’s “Portrait of an Icon” 2000s-Era Shoot…

One of these is not like the others. For the next installment of the Meguiar’s “Portrait of an Icon” series, we leave the ‘90s and head into “The Furious 2000s”. When I first agreed to be one of the creators on this project and understanding it’s theme, the first decade I thought of was the 2000s.

This was a pivotal time for me and a turning point that lead me into a life of cars and also becoming a freelance journalist for various magazines catered to our community. I eventually would work for Import Tuner magazine but by then, much had changed. My favorite era of the magazine was from 99-2002. The cover spreads during that period are burned into my memory. My favorite being the LJ Garcia/Francine Dee issue.

When I came onto this project, the first concept I came up with was to pay homage to that magazine. What I needed was a studio with an infinity wall, the perfect car and a model outfitted to fit Import Tuner’s style for the time.

You’d think that finding the car would be the hardest, but right here in SoCal I had a gem in Sean Stell’s FEEL’S widebody Civic. He’s had the car since 2001 and he even had a set of Racing Hart C5s to match.

For the model, I called in a favor to an old friend and convinced her to come out of retirement to grace the faux cover. She had been on the cover before but in IT’s later years and always wanted to have a shot similar to the covers from the 2000s. I’m so glad Jenn Q was down to help.

My original concept was for it to be a behind-the-scenes look at an IT shoot with a stand-in photographer, model being prepped and Sean cleaning his wheel. What ended-up happening was me laying out an entire cover spread with a few sample pages inside to match the actual aesthetic of the magazine. I used all my favorite elements of Import Tuner from that era to re-create the cover and those who collected them will instantly recognize all the little details. I even create a calendar spread since those were popular then.

At a glance you wouldn’t even know that it wasn’t actually real. Thanks to all involved who made this possible, it was a ton of fun putting this one together and a dream come true for me to execute my vision.
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Meguiar’s “Portrait of an Icon” 90s-Era Shoot and Unpublished Photos…

Meguiar’s “Portrait of an Icon” 90s-Era Shoot and Unpublished Photos…

Earlier this year, I was contacted by Meguiar’s and invited to be one of five creator’s to be on their “Portrait of an Icon” campaign to celebrate their 120-year anniversary. I was honestly a little surprised at first to hear from them since there are so many good content creators out there in the industry but was deeply honored when I got the details of what the project was all about. It was to be a generational piece, spanning five-decades from the 1980s to the 2020s, each themed according to the time period and the main caveat being that there had to be a “Meguiar’s Easter Egg” hidden in the photo. Each photo must have one of their products, that existed during that particular generation, present. It didn’t have to be blatant or in your face, and just had to appear somewhere within the photo. Think “Where’s Waldo” type of hiding, which is basically hiding in plain sight. The more it blended-in with the photo the better. It didn’t take a whole lot of convincing for me to agree to be a featured artist in their campaign because I was presented with absolute freedom to do whatever I wanted. Over the years, I’ve been offered and turned down a number of projects because I felt it was too restrictive in what they wanted and expected from me. When I feel that type of creative ‘stunting’, if you will, I shut off and just can’t find myself wanting to produce anything. This project was the opposite of that. I could get a check and have creative freedom doing what I enjoyed? I’m in…
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