Japan Trip - Yokohama pt.1

to say that Mooneyes knows how to throw a car show is a HUGE understatement. The Mooneyes Rod & Custom Show in Yokohama is by far one of the best shows I've ever been to. Not sure if it's because it was my first show over seas or the people I hung out with or the amazing cars... I think a little bit of all that!

it was amazing to watch the "Next Movie" 62 Impala cruise into the show hammered on the ground. Keiji aka Hong Kong is a bad ass.. More on his Impala on deadendmagazine.com soon!

I can't explain how awesome it felt to see people wearing Deadend gear!

On set-up day it was cool to watch how detailed the Japanese are.

Not paint.. Crazy stuff!

It was good to see familiar/Salinas faces in Japan showing off their talent.

Visual Mechanics 4 Coverage

Many thanks to all who made it to the opening reception of Visual Mechanics 4! Here is some coverage....

If you didn't make it make sure to be at the next one! Good times!

Salinas Exposed 2

This Friday at Somos Media & Gallery!

Some great portraits of people from Salinas by people from Salinas.

Be there!

See-Eee-Al-Al

Today I was saving files from my cell phone that will get erased after I update it...

So I thought I'd share some photos I've taken with the good ol HD2..

This is why I'm fat!

Sam's Burger in Hayward... Street Hopping!

behind the scenes of my brother shooting Jessica with some Salinas Boys creations

Package design research.. I swear.

Lil Jon is down with Deadend (at the XGames)

Speaking of the XGames.. rally cars are dope!

Up close and personal with Mix Master Mike!

Want a taste?

Padilla Pinstriping mixed media.

Amplive makes the beat go!

I'll forever keep snapping flicks!
-Juan

Visual Mechanics II

To say I had a busy weekend is an understatement!

Thursday Night I went to Somos Art Gallery to help set up the Art Exhibit.. It's always fun! I was really stoked to see the awesome art Flip, Abraham & Rod displayed!

Here are some shots from Thursday night and Friday Night


Here's Abraham & Will hanging one of Abraham's pieces.

One of Flip's pieces (pics do no justice!)

Some of our photography on the floor.

Rat Fink by Rod Powell

Salinas Boys!

Jesus Espinoza, Abraham Ortega, Rod Powell, Juan Espinoza Jr. and Flip Hayes left early..

Good Times!

-Juan

ps. Pics from our Cruise Night and Beer Fest coming...

Chrome Zone

Busy weekend as usual..

Saturday we had a full day.

Drove to The Hayes Mansion in San Jose for the Custom Chrome Inc Dealer show. Hayes Mansion is a beautiful place to host an event, and the Custom Chrome people sure know how to host an event.



Custom Chrome had a neat memorabilia hall with a very cool timeline set up. This was by far my favorite ad they have done in the last 40 years. Very creative and fun.

A good lunch buffet was provided which was great.

Neat engraving on a bike Custom Chrome had on display.

Neat bike.

Salinas Boys!

After meeting some new people, taking some shots and hanging out with our good friends Cole & Aaron (Salinas Boys) and Daniela (Custom Chrome) we headed to a couple photo shoots we had scheduled for the afternoon before heading back to Salinas to rest for a few hours before heading down south for the Greenspan's Car Show(South Gate, CA)

I will post more on the shoots and South Gate later.

-Juan

Shooting Salinas Boys, Otra ves.

Last week my brother followed along and photographed Cole Foster & Aaron Elliott of Salinas Boys Customs for a couple of days for an upcoming catalog. I went after work to help and bug them. It's always neat to hang out and talk about custom cars with these guys, not only are they talented but these dudes got style. It's always neat to shoot stuff we regularly don't. We usually shoot cars without people, this time my brother's client wanted Cole and Aaron in the pictures..

Here are a few outtakes...

On the first night I showed up late to just pretty much BS with them. Cole and Aaron brought out some very nice Japanese Magazines for us to check out.

One of the places we shot at was Ben Rega's shop... The place is awesome. This is Ben's shoebox that hopefully you'll get to see in person one day. One of the nicest Shoeboxes I've seen (and I've seen a lot of Shoeboxes)

Ben was smart enough to grab this sign before it was destroyed... Nice!

Aaron asked us to get a shot of his logo (done by Rod Powell) so I could digitize it..

After shooting in both Ben & Aaron's shops we headed to the Foster residence to shoot Cole, Aaron & Susan. Here's my brother doing what he's best known for.

Susan brought out a very cool Las Vegas book that I now want!

Of course when we're all together we start talking about random stuff... It usually starts out with cars and this night I think the conversation ended somewhere between blogs and porn...

You'll see some of the pics my brother took later this year. They're neat!

-Juan

SR500 - Salinas Style

I posted a few pics of Aaron (of Salinas Boys) working on an SR 500 that went to Japan a couple months ago...

http://939o5.blogspot.com/2009/10/weekends-were-made-for-fun.html

I figured I'd post some shots of the finished bike...







Are these dudes good or what!?

photos by my brother Jesus Espinoza (of Deadend Magazine)

-Juan

Salinas Boys - Japan Bound

Here's a poster I had the privilege to illustrate for the Salinas Boys to take to Japan for the Mooneyes show this year.. Dig it?

-Juan

Weekends were made for fun..

Had a good weekend...

I'll start off with pics from Thursday.

Freddy, my brother and I went to Salinas Boys' shop to shoot a few flicks of the bike Cole and the boys were finishing up for a Japanese client. Beautiful bike.. really clean & compact. These guys are on top of their game...

Here's my brother & Freddy looking at the bikes..

Aaron putting some last minute touches on the bike before it heads for Japan.

Two awesome and very different styled bikes being built at the same time.

Then On Friday night I met Lil Watcha in San Jose and headed to the Royal Jokers Cruise Night in Oakland...

I was backseat driver.

Here's Lil Watcha's Impala sitting front row at the Cruise Night.

There was a clean 61 Impala at the Cruise Night.

After the Cruise Night we headed to downtown San Jose to meet my brother & Big Ed to cruise San Jose...

It was cool to see a few low riders out.

Saturday.. I woke up early to make it to the Marina Swapmeet, but not early enough to sell, story of my life.

As I was taking off Diego was about to eat breakfast.

Saw a cheap little chain steering wheel, almost bought it just to have it... There were some deals to be found.. too bad I'm broke.

Here is a neat little Sportster that was only going for $7,500

Took my god daughter with us to the swap meet, it was funny to watch her run around look and touch stuff and ask a lot of questions..

Here she is as we're leaving for her "Brudder's" birthday party.

After we walked around the swap meet and didn't buy much we headed to Chendito's birthday party. It was fun, watched some good college football, ate some tri-tip (small portion.. boo) drank a light beer and played with the kids a little.

Then later that night I went to have a couple drinks with some good friends...

Sunday I woke up early to design a rush logo job, watched NFL and went to go get more ink... I'll post pics of my new tattoo soon..

Peace
-Juan