Night-Import: Photography and Words by
William Lee
I can't believe it's already been a year since my first time to
Nisei last year. Probably that was one of the first events I've covered for
Just Stance and I remember it to be hot as fu**, but filled with top notch cars from California and even a few from out of states. From what I've heard through friends who've been into the car scene for quite a long time, Nisei Showoff Car Show has a history of throwing the best car event in Los Angeles, CA.
If you didn't know,
Nisei is a Japanese Festival happening in Little Tokyo of Los Angeles and this was their 7th annual event. Within this 1 week festival, the Car Show happens right across where all the festivities happen, so it's basically a win-win for both sides. If you are hungry, walk across and grab yourself some JDM food and to walk off those calories, walk back to the Car Show area and check out some cars.
I was expecting this years Nisei Car Show to be as big as last year and because I have a site that lets all of our staffs eligible to apply for Media (not being cocky at all), I sent an e-mail last week and we got approved. I called up
1013MM who covers a lot of events and feature contents for
Canibeat to see what time he was planning to go. We arrived at around 10:30am, 30 minutes before the actual event started and was
expecting an early access. Now before some of you guys start bashing on me because I said 'early access', you guys need to understand photographers who work for automotive sites actually 'work' at car shows rather than chilling the whole time, so we do need some
extra time before an event, especially ones that are known world-wide like Nisei Showoff. That's why for all of those who don't live in the States get to see photos of the whole car rather than photos of only the front bumper and rest of it being covered by people.
1013mm and I asked the security guard if we could get in a bit early, but after he talked with the host or staff, our access got denied. We were a bit disappointed, but waited. In a few minutes, a crowd was building up in front of the entrance. Waiting would not have been a big deal if the staffs were more organized and kept everything on time, but what sort of pissed me off was seeing the host (I'm speculating it was him) or a staff letting all of their friends of friends get in. They were clearly aware of Media applicants waiting, but seems like it wasn't an issue to consider.
What do I think about this? Not good of course. I don't know the host nor staffs and some of you guys who are friends of the organization might dislike me for writing my own opinion, but I'm being straight up and telling the truth.
To all future event hosts and staffs, be fair with what goes on inside and outside of an event.
