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Hi, I’m Drew. I’ve always been a visual arts kind of person. When I was a kid I was happy to draw pictures all day long. Now my family says, “why don’t you draw anymore?”
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Well, they missed the point. I still make pictures, just not with paper and pencil anymore. If I had $10k worth of camera gear when I was 5, I probably would have been using it back then too. And I probably would have broken all of it.
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I guess I followed a pretty typical photographer route. I played with a few different cameras when I was younger, but didn’t get into it until 2002 when I got a JVC Mini DV camcorder for Christmas and a Canon PowerShot A60 right after that. I used the crap out of both cameras shooting local NCDA events, meets, and other stuff like Luke Lonberger’s LS1 FD build. I even produced Norcal’s first drift competition video with sportscast-style graphic overlays. But then the camcorder stopped working right shortly after that. Sadface.
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My dad picked up a Canon Digital Rebel and I played with that and made up my mind to upgrade to a DSLR. in 2005 I got a Digital Rebel XT and eventually a few different lenses and that’s when I really began take photography seriously. But then I lost my cushy high tech job and had to reorganize. While I looked for a new job, I worked part time at Luke’s new shop SDP, and I used SDP’s website as a media outlet in order to be able to get media passes for events. The Rebel was with me at my first Formula DRIFT events and I provided coverage of local events like ThunderDrift and the San Jose Grand Prix. I sold my turbo FC, and focused my drifting energy just on photography. I launched Lab17 and ABMotorsports.com in 2007, and used my vinyl profits to fund new camera gear acquisition. I outgrew the Rebel though so I had to upgrade again, this time to a 30D in 2008.
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The 30D got me through two years of Formula DRIFT and local events and OMGDrift picked me up as their third author in late 2009. In early 2010 I started producing videos for Conrad Grunewald to showcase his new Camaro, but all I had for gear was a borrowed camcorder and my older-than-dirt tripod that was no good for video. I wanted to get back into video production, so It was time to upgrade again, this time to a 7D. Sometimes I wish I hadn’t wanted to get into video, because it is REALLY expensive and time consuming. But somehow it seems to be worthwhile anyway. I dusted off my bag of tricks and produced three competition videos for ThunderDrift’s ProAm series. Being on OMGDrift really helped me get widely known in the drift media scene and now I’m friends (or at least acquainted) with guys and gals from big-deal outlets like Speedhunters, MotorMavens, and Import Tuner.
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Now it’s 2011 and I’m busy with Luke Lonberger’s Corvette build videos, which have gotten a lot of acclaim so far. Geoff and I are planning on hitting every Formula DRIFT this season, and I’m sure we’ll have a blast.
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Well, that’s my story and I’m sticking to it.
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::Bohan
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