Fourmula Drift Seattle Fun

  For my first installment of AirPumps I would like to share, thus far, one of my proudest/most memorable moments in automotive photography. It's a bit lengthy so bear with me. Earlier this summer I went to Formula Drift Seattle with some buddies and two cameras, my primary shooter and a second film camera. The above picture is of Dean Kearney in the viper and D-Mac in the 240sx in their final battle for first. In the end D-Mac won and I can't Say I was disappointed. If you have a real keen eye you can see me at 00:43 here, the line of the door sill of the s14 points to me. 

I went to this event with a few expectations, but most importantly to shoot some MAAD Air Pumps skidding with my dads 40+ year old 35mm Film camera. On the First day of shooting after some fumbling around with the camera I Realized my light meter indicator wasn't working. So I looked to Google on my phone first and tried to find a way out, to no avail. I then took to my extroverted side and asked an official event Videographer if he could help me at all. He didn't know squat about the film camera except that it was "Badass" so he pointed me to a guy named Joe.

I thought neat, I'll talk to Joe. I awkwardly introduced myself to this Joe fella and handed him the camera, he fumbled around with it, and said I might have a broken light meter, but luckily showed me the numbers I would need to shoot at to get some halfway decent Pictures. After memorizing the numbers, we parted and I crossed my fingers to not waist this super high quality Rite Aid film on under exposed pictures.

After parting I returned to my earlier mentioned post to start sniping Pumps. Once I got there, wound the camera roll back, and loaded my first picture, the light sensor meter popped up and started working! (the thumb lever needed to be in a particular position to free the indicator to work). After figuring this out I shot three rolls of film with much joy. Sadly that same retard that couldn't figure out his own camera ruined a roll by opening the camera before he had rewound the film into the canister. I still had the other two rolls to work from tho, so not all joy was lost.

 After coming home I realized that I had a Joe Ayala in my Instagram feed and quickly found out that this was the same Joe I had met at FD Seattle without even knowing it. Joe Ayala from the drift team Tandem of Die and www.joeayala.com. Now you may ask yourself, self why would Josh be so proud of this moment in his automotive photography career? Well inquisitor, I answer that question with an epiphany I had that day of shooting.

As I was shooting that day, I realized I was that one guy, on the last corner of FormulaD Seattle holding a 40+ year old film camera and taking pictures of giant AirPumps shredding tires. It dawned on me that despite me really knowing it, I was drastically different from the other folks at that event. none of them were doing what I was doing, or at least to the extent that I was. And in that moment, I was having the time of my life. Shooting one of my favorite sports with a piece of history. I got to meet one of my favorite photographers, and get some sweet photos in the process. So my word to you is, dare to be a little different... see where it takes you.

Happy Pumping,

Joshua Sewell

Instagram: josh_sewell_photo