Hello everyone in Australia, Zen community, USA, and across the globe! I hope everyone had a safe and happy New Year! I kicked off mine kind of sluggish. I was beat from a situation that kind of had me down in spirits. It sucked, but hey all is good! Life goes on and we must remain positive through any tough situation, which makes this event I will discuss so special. On a nice Saturday morning I was scrolling through my news feed on Facebook until I saw my good friend Wesley post a video from an event that I had forgot about, Grill 57’ New Year’s Cruise In. After I saw the video of badass American Classics and Rat Rods, I immediately called Wes to confirm the duration of the event. Once confirmed I quickly threw on some clothes, my Zen gear, packed my Sony a7, and darted out of the door to escape from a dark situation.
I made a short travel to Garner, North Carolina to arrive at the Grill 57’. My eyes widen with such glee and happiness I have not felt in a short while. I sat in my Jeep in the parking lot to look around and exhaled thanking God for the blissful escape to what really makes me happy. That was enjoying photography shooting beautiful cars in particular, American Muscle cars. I grabbed my camera and started unloading on the shutter. The weather and lighting could not have been any more perfect! Overcast, highs in the low 60’s, and I didn’t have to worry about wearing a huge coat over my Zen hoodie. There were so many excellent builds! Seeing a mint 1957 Chevrolet Bel Air, Wesley’s Pat Musi built 1969 Chevy Nova, I saw my first 1968 Ford Mustang California Special, and the legendary 1966 Ford Shelby GT350H (Hertz Mustang) to name a few.
There were some JDM cars in the presence of many classics. My friend Matthew Meadows (Team RPM and Flawless Fitment) brought his beautiful bug-eyed Subaru WRX, spotted a Mazda RX-7 on Works TE37’s with a menacing built LS1 engine the bay, and I also saw a unicorn of all NSX’s in the surrounding area of my county, an Acura NSX Type S! The Type S was parked in a terrible spot so I could not get a full body shot but witnessing that car was such a treat. I saw many awesome looking Hot Rods and Rat Rods that were completely built looking really sweet! One Hot Rod or Rat Rod, I guess is the proper terms to call it had Assault Rifles attached to the vehicle, patriotic stuff painted on the exterior, and a badass skull shift knob. The vehicle looked like something out of the Mad Max: Fury Road movie. I thought for sure while shooting this car, that I was going to get shot brutally or ran over. Silly imagination I have right? Yeah, I’m weird I’m cool with it. But no, on all seriousness the older crowd really know how to build a car, and show it with pride knowing they built something not only for themselves to love, but for car enthusiast to enjoy and love also. It certainly made me happy to come out and appreciate these beautiful machines. I will never forget this day coming out to shoot, it really turned my New Year around to look forward to so much more. Tons of photos to look at, and I hope you all enjoy!
