SEMA 2016: Meeting old friends and making new ones in Las Vegas

This was my second time attending the SEMA Show. Last year was a game changer for me. The turning point in my photography path was in the Toyota booth. I found myself in a circle of professionals that included Dale Martin, Jeremy Cliff, Webb Bland, Pepper Yandell, Luke Munnell, Nate Hassler and Lisa Linke, and Amir Khayani with Blacklist Lifestyle. The opportunity to bounce questions off of, and receive advice from the best automotive photographers in the world was priceless.

dalemartinphoto.com
jeremycliff.com
notbland.com
pepperyandell.com
lukemunnell.com
natehasslerphoto.com
lisa-linke.com
instagram.com/black_list

Leaving home at 3am on Wednesday, I headed down highway 99, cut east out of Bakersfield, and hit the high desert at sunrise.

So let’s have a look at the booths! If you’ve never been to SEMA, I can’t begin to convince you how huge this show is, and just how many vendors, booths, cars and people there are! My step counter app had me at >20K steps and >8 miles every day. I didn’t even see half of the show, in 3 days. The show takes over every single building and every floor in the Las Vegas Convention Center, and sprawls out into the parking lots and adjacent streets with motorsports and driving events.

One of my favorite booths is always Factory 5. They always have all their car kits on display, showing off their beautiful craftsmanship. This year, they customized one of their ’33 Hot Rod builds with lots of copper, and almost a bit of a steampunk sort of look. The sprockets and gears, clock inspired gauge cluster was incredible, and was subtly tied into the hand painted pin striping on the hood.

Dodge/Mopar featured #ProjectYankee, a custom build by SpeedHunters writer Mike Garrett. They also had a fun experience experience for attendees with this full motion racecar simulator.

 

Here’s a little glimpse at some of the things that caught my eye while I was there.

Once again, Ford Motors was leading the social media wave with all their integration and crowd participation. They were also giving away a small handful of rides out on their drifting course, and my extensive experience around my racing friends helped me out! The question was called out to the crowd, “What is the size of the engine in Brad Keselowski’s Sprint Cup racecar?” I knew without hesitation it was 360cid. Someone else called out “360!” The MC turned his way and said “Yes! But what is that in liters?” “5.8L” I said in my head. The guy didn’t know, and someone else called it out. The MC turned toward the new voice “Yes! Head over to the social media booth! You’ve just won a ride with one of our NASCAR drivers!” Darnit… I should have been more bold! The MC continued on “Brad Keselowski’s 5.8L V8 puts out 750 horsepower…” then listed more specs before she let us all know there would be more oportunities to win throughout the afternoon.

Maybe 15 minutes later, I was once again making my way through the Ford booth when I heard her starting up the next question. “Hopefully, you’ve all been paying attention. How much horsepower does Brad Kesel…” I cut her off, and yelled from the back “750!” and won myself a ride! Later, I headed out to the drift track, met Penske drivers Brad Keselowski, Joey Logano, and Ryan Blaney. I was last in line for my ride, and was paired up with Blaney. I let him know I’ve been around a whole lot of racing, and he couldn’t scare me. “Uncork it, and let’s burn the tires off this thing” I told him. With a “You got it!” we were off. But first, let me take a selfie.

On the final day of SEMA, I committed to coming in early, beating the crowds, and working out a couple light painted scenes with an incredible Nissan R34 Skyline at the XXR Wheels booth, and a Ferrari and McLaren pairing at Vorsteiner. But first thing’s first, a chorizo and egg burrito from a taco truck outside.

 

Three days of SEMA led me to some great new opportunities. I’m looking forward to new relationships with industry leading vendors. I’m optimistic about sponsorship opportunities I was able to present for my racing crowd. I’m especially hopeful for marketing partnerships for my own photography. Thanks SEMA! See you next year!