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Tokyo Auto Salon
For some the pilgrimage to the Makuhari Messe convention center in Chiba, the center of the JDM world, is a religious experience much like the Hajj at Mecca. Personally, I believe that the best of American tuners own on the JDM world and I am usually not impressed by many of the cars and products, except perhaps the ultra exotic JGTC GT machines which are the most sophisticated racing sedans ever built. I love TAS for different reasons, mainly taking in the whole scene in Japan and enjoying the difference in the scene between there and the States.
We took an early morning bus for what was supposed to be media day at TAS. I was prepared for normal media day photography with my trusty Cannon 30D, and tripod so I could take some decent pictures. However I believe that the general public was allowed to purchase media passes this year so the scene was chaotic. I normally don't use flashes as long exposures with a tripod looks better but with the huge crowd I simply could not get set up without pushing and shoving dorks with camera phones getting in my way. My powerful paparazzi spec, car show lighting Cannon 580 Speedlite flash sat forgotten back in my hotel room leaving me with the weak 30D internal flash so I apologize if my photos seem amateurish.
Speaking of photos, there is a cultural phenomenon in Japan I find interesting, that of the “Camera Boy”. Camera Boys tote the most exotic and expensive photo equipment made to take amateur snapshots of race queens at car shows and races. I mean the stuff we use for MotoIQ is high end professional stuff but it pales when compared to the gear hauled by a Camera Boy. A Camera Boy hauls, usually not one, but two of the most esoteric expensive pro grade Cannon or Nikon Camera bodies, flashes and lenses bristling with external battery packs, hard drives etc. just to take snap shots of girls, like they are going to be impressed with their big lenses and hard equipment or something like that.
I get annoyed because they get in the way of us true working media people and hog up the space around the girls which usually tend to be near something interesting that I want to take a picture of to show you all. There a lot of them and many of them look like mouth breathing masturbatory, serial killers, they are kinda creepy. I don't think they ever get laid. You can tell the look despite the different culture. Normal looking guys are with their girlfriends or families. Tuners and Racers sort of look like me, scruffy looking or wearing sponsors or their companies clothing. Camera boys often look like they want to stuff the girl they are photographing in the trunk of their car to dismember later. Check out these camera boys in action and see what I had to deal with to get these shots.
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| I got mobbed by the Camera Boys which made it exceedingly difficult to get good pictures, A second after I took this I was knocked on my ass by a guy scrambling to take pics of some famous race queen. The following photos are my tribute to the Camera Boy, a Japanese institution. | Look at this guys gear, I need stuff like this, he had two of these rigs! |
