This was my first year attending the Spocom show, held in the Anaheim Convention Center…in Anaheim.  I have to say I was not the least bit disappointed with the quality or sheer number of cars in attendance, because there certainly were PLENTY, but I must have shown up at the wrong time or maybe I just wasn’t properly prepared because I was struggling the entire time to get usable shots both outside and inside due to some gnarly lighting concerns that were honestly out of anyone’s direct control.  I really should have brought a tripod for the indoor shots, a lesson that would be drilled into me throughout the day as I was shooting exposures that were waaay too long for my caffeine-addled hands to keep still on a regular basis, and outdoors the combination of direct sunlight and shade made getting clean shots of everyone posted up out front equally difficult.  As if that weren’t enough to contend with, there was a protester (or two, I didn’t get close enough to them to find out) with a bullhorn screaming at everyone that the proceeds of the show were going to fund al-qaeda, among other statements designed to incite people’s tempers.  Basically, I was laughing so hard at all the B.S. coming out of this guy’s mouth it was hard to get a steady shot!  I was honestly proud of everyone attending the show because I KNOW there were at least a handful of people about to give this guy their opinion of him via their fists, but everyone restrained themselves and interacted with this jerk in peaceful, mostly non-offensive ways (I definitely heard a few f*ck-off’s, but hey, they were deserved).  With all of this going on, it was still a great show that I definitely plan on attending next year and honestly, what’s going to shoot a show without a little challenge, right?

Anyway, here is part 1 of my coverage of Spocom 14, which will focus on what was just outside the convention center itself before the ticket booth and everything.  It was a cool idea to have a big group of cars out front because if you didn’t know there was a huge car show going on, there was really no other way to know about it since there weren’t exactly huge banners flying out in front of Disneyland.  I heard a few owners complaining about being put outside of the show itself as if it were some form of disrespect, but I feel like it’s the complete opposite to be outside enticing people to come in!  Not only that, but the guys out front had considerably better lighting and backgrounds for photographers!  Since I have SO many shots from this show, I’ll be brief with my words for the remainder of this post, enjoy!

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