Hot Rods and Kustom Cars
One of the koolest things about heading down this hot rod/kustom kar photography road has been the people that I’ve met and become friends with. Saturday I got to hang with 3 of these great guys AND I got to drive my 63 Galaxie a couple hundred miles, it was a truly great day!
First off, if you don’t know about Vintage Torque Fest, where have ya been? It’s only one of the coolest shows ever. and I mean like forever ever, it’s that cool, and it’s happening April 29-30, 2011!
The schedule is chock full of kickass goodness. The Maquoketa, IA show kicks off Friday at noon, then at 3pm there’s a cruise over to Maquoketa Caves. At 4:45pm the bands start up, and it’s a great list of bands! Add is some good old fashioned dirt track racing and a drive-in movie and now there’s just too much coolness for one night to contain. Click the first sentence of this paragraph to see the full rundown of the weekend’s schedule.
There’s so much that kicks so much butt about this show that it’s hard for me to describe it. The show goes to benefit a great cause, Helping Hannah’s Heart. The guy that puts it on is a buddy of mine and an all around fantastic dude. The cars that showed up to the first VTF last year were great. Getting cars out on a dirt track is wicked cool. Loud rock n roll music…enough said! Drive in movies, tons of great folks… I could just go on and on. Oh and don’t forget Wayne Hancock is performing!
Instead, here’s some pics from last year’s show. Click on any photo to go to the gallery and see the entire 555 photo set. Remember every picture that you buy as a print or download helps me get to another show and provide more coverage for you!
Now it’s time for some dirt trackin’!
So go now, check out Vintage Torque Fest and make plans to be there April 29-30!
Thanks for reading, see you at a show (it really oughta be this one!)
Travis
First off, thanks to Jay and his family for hosting this every year, this was my 2nd time attending and I had an absolute blast. A trip under the hood of my Galaxie lead to me not taking her on Saturday so I not only had to slum it in my daily but I missed the breakfast and Eisenhower Museum.
Continue reading “Event Coverage: 2011 HAMB-B-Q in Abilene, KS!”
See the full 1423 image gallery here, or click on any of the photos in the story.
For a couple of years I’d heard of the Lonestar Roundup in Austin, it always sounded like a great time, so this year I figured why not check it out? Damn I’m glad that I did! A bunch of my hotrod/kustom friends were going from all over the U.S. this was shaping up to be a great time….it was!
Continue reading “Event Coverage: 2011 Lonestar Roundup – Austin TX”
Earlier this year it was suggested that I make this whole Royboy Productions thing about more than just the cars. I mean, I love the cars, but there’s more interesting stories in the car owners, artists, car show promoters, bands etc that need to be told. So the idea was hatched to use this blog to tell some of those stories. Rather than mangle someone else’s story this first feature will be about me, I’m my own guinea pig. In future articles I’ll cover a few of my hotrod/kustom friends so use the RSS feed to stay up to date on the newest stories and show coverage.
My name is Travis, I like to take pictures….
What the hell is a Royboy Productions why not just call yourself Travis??? Because I like to be difficult, I guess. The name comes from a time when I was doing audio engineering in the studio and live. I was planning on starting a business that specialized in live recordings. Figuring that nobody else would have used “royboy” as a name for their business, I ran with it, a few months later I built a website to advertise the business.
Just for fun I added the photos that I’d been taking at car shows to the site, and I quickly saw that those pictures got a ton more attention than my recording services. Figuring why not use that to an advantage, the idea of a custom car calendar was born, put the website on it and people will see the url every day of the year! Give all of the proceeds to a charity and give yourself a good feeling…. Hey this could be cool (kool as straykatkustoms would say). Slowly website morphed into what it is now, over 14,000 car show photos all 100% free to view. It’s has been fun, and although I haven’t had studio time besides the annual Bluesmasters At The Crossroads event in a couple of years, I haven’t regretted a bit of this current adventure. See a small gallery of the 2010 Bluesmasters here.
Publisher, we don’t need no stinking publisher!
In 2008 I created the first Royboy Productions Calendar For Charity, with 100% of the proceeds going to Victory Junction Gang Camp for Kids. Looking at the traditional calendar I thought why do we have to do it the way that everyone else does? Why not have 2 photos, with the calendar superimposed above the bottom photo? I hope that this still sets my calendars apart, but they are a work in progress, since the 2010 Calendar they’ve all been printed and bound by me, to keep the overhead as low as possible to raise as much money as possible for the charities. It means 100’s of hours by the time it’s all said and done but the feeling you get when you can donate a bunch of money to a good cause makes it all worthwhile.
2009 brought about the idea of a photobook, like every aspiring photographer. A hardbound book was created, again self published/printed, that book covered 2006-2009. I never sold many of them, but that wasn’t the point, the point was making something. Again straying away from what I’d seen others do (whether that’s good or bad, eh I don’t know) and used a single image as the background for each page with some photos cropped to the shape of the cars, mostly experimenting for the fun of it.
The Car Show Pics books came up next, why not take all of the photos from one show and put them in a small sized “magazine” so people could purchase a keepsake of the show? They are for now a limited run of only 50 copies, because it’s not about making money it’s about doing something different, those books are also going to be available as ebooks soon too. A couple of titles already are, more are on the way, when I get around to it.
Okay, wordy, but we get it, except….why???
People ask why I travel to all of the shows that I do, what drives me to do all of this basically for free? Passion. I have a passion for kool! Kool cars, music, people, there is something…. something often intangible that just makes me exclaim “kool!” I didn’t start this adventure with this end in mind, but it’s the path I am on now. I’m doing my best to document what the shows are like, so that people who miss them can feel like they are there, and the people that are there can look back and see what they might have missed. Maybe, just maybe in 50 years when people look back to see what we were building now, some of these photos will still be around for someone to exclaim “kool!”
What’s next?
2010 tripped the odometer at 7,500 miles traveling to car shows not including a flight to and from Vegas, 2011 looks to double that if gas prices allow. Hopefully I’ll be hitting 20-25 shows in 2011!
In early March a few of the hot rod hoodlums in the Derby, KS area got together and I was allowed the privilege of taking some shots of their rides. I’ll be doing more of these photoshoot parties for sure. Over the next few months, I’ll be creating a couple more Car Show Pics books of shows from last year and early this year, and of course the Calendar for Charity project will be in full swing this year again. The next goal is to get some of the show coverage in magazines that aren’t printed by me!
See you at a show!
Travis
A while back my buddy Jack asked if I would come down and shoot some photos of his cars, good timing as I was just about to ask him if I could. So we decided we’d gather up his collection and take some photos next to an old barn near his house. He called up some of the other local hoodlums and had them bring their rides over too. Continue reading “An afternoon with some friends, some cars and a barn”
It’s rare that a 2nd year show has a big turnout in this area, lots of shows go years and years before building up a following. Not so with The Chill in the Wichita, KS area.
Continue reading “Event Coverage: 2011 The Chill- Park City, KS”
Since the last update here in the blog world there’s been 2 shows shot by Royboy Productions. The Carquest World of Wheels in Kansas City and the Darryl Starbird Exotic Car Show in Tulsa. Both shows had new cars that I’d never seen before and old friends that it was good to stop and chat with.
So far it’s just 2 of the Car Show Pics Books titles, the 2010 Stray Kat 500 edition and the 2010 Vintage Torque Fest edition, but there are more coming soon. These are retailing at less than half the price of the print versions, plus NO SHIPPING!
Some new things are in the works for the Royboy Productions blog and site, look for features on cars and people that I dig, plus some new product offerings if I can ever get the prototypes made!
See you at a show!
Just got home from the Kansas City Carquest World of Wheels at Bartle Hall. I’m not in a very eloquent state of mind so don’t expect “On The Road” here 🙂
I met some new friends, hung out with some old ones and had a great time. Jack Walker’s Phoenix and Blue Danube are worth the ticket price alone. The Barris built 41 was fantastic as was a new-to-me coupe that I geeked out over and shot way too many pics.
Here’s a couple of crappy phone pics to hold you over until I get the full gallery uploaded on Sunday.
This weekend in Bartle Hall in Kansas City, MO is the 2011 Carquest World of Wheels show. It’s cold in KS this winter with over a foot of snow blanketing most of the state. Thankfully Bartle Hall is heated and will keep us from the elements. The show features an eclectic mix of rides from lowriders to imports, with a large portion of the building being devoted to the Ol’ Skool and traditional rod flavors. Muscle cars and 4×4’s are also on hand so there’s something for everyone to look at.
Here’s a look at last year’s show.
Enjoy last year’s shots and be on the lookout early next week for this year’s!
See you at a show
Those that know me in the real world know that the other overwhelming passion in my life has been music since I was a kid. About 11 years ago I started working at Blue Heaven Studios in Salina, KS on the side. Blue Heaven is a recording studio built into what was originally the First Christian Church in Salina. Check out the link above for more info on this beautiful studio.
Fast forward to today, I’m enjoying some Pandora radio at my desk at the day job, when a familiar voice starts playing in my ears. Both in 2009 and in 2010 we at Blue Heaven had the pleasure to record an Austin artist named Dan Dyer. Both times the sessions were captured Direct To Disk, meaning that we recorded him and his band, straight from the mics, through the console, mixed live and recorded onto the cutting lathe. In layman’s terms we’re making an actual record (there are a couple more steps but I’m trying to be brief!), this is different from the typical over-production that goes on in today’s music world. Gone are the artifacts of recording into one medium, overdubbing, editing, possibly mixing to another medium (going through the console again), etc etc etc, all of which add noise to the music, noise that takes away from the recording. Direct to Disk recording is not used very much, hasn’t been used much in the last 30 or so years, but we do it because it’s how to get the best, cleanest possible recordings.
This video is NOT from the Blue Heaven sessions but shows off some of Dyer’s amazing music.
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If you go to Dyer’s bandcamp site you can buy the music as a download, paying what you want to pay, it can also be found on Amazon as well
There are currently 13 of our D2D recordings available on the Acoustic Sounds website, most of them are blues based, if you have a turntable and want to hear the best possible sound quality, these are the way to get it!
Indoor drag racing in the 60’s!
Check out this cool link for some cool photos of some of the wildest drag racing ever!
In the 60’s there was a short time where Chicago area racers were racing indoors! Apparently this went down in the International Amphitheater in Chicago, the same place as the Democratic National Convention.
Here’s a link to the story behind the photos.
Let’s find a place and revive this craziness one more time!
See you at a show
Travis
Have you seen the Royboy Productions Zazzle store? There are t-shirts, coffee mugs, mouse pads, etc. there featuring a few selected photos from the RBP photo collection. New designs will be coming soon!
Help me get to the next show by buying a shirt or a mouse pad, or by buying a photo from the RBP galleries! By July the RBP odometer for 2011 will be around 6000 miles, with gas prices going up I’ll need all the help that I can get!
See you at a show,
Travis
Just in time for the forecasted higher gas prices, my 63 Galaxie is getting a beefed up AOD trans and adapter to mate it to my 390.
The trans and adapter are from Bendsten’s Transmissions, they were very helpful, shipped very fast and gave me a discount too.
The trans will go in next week as well as an updated stock type distributor, upgraded coil and plug wires. I’ll do a mpg test before and after, hopefully jumping my current average 12mpg to 17 or so based on what others have reported.
See you at a show…
http://www.darrylstarbird.com/showtime.htmThe chill of winter notwithstanding, it’s about to get hot in Wichita. Jan. 14-15, 2011 will mark the 54th Annual Darryl Starbird’s Rod & Custom show in Wichita, KS at the Century II Convention Center. The show is limited to 400 entries and always draws a great stable. There is a $2000 “Go For The Gold” cash award to the best/most outstanding vehicle shown for the first time in Wichita, which should help bring out some new blood too.
I’m looking forward to the new show season starting up, keep an eye here to keep up with all that is going on in the Royboy world.
2010 Darryl Starbird Wichita Show Pics here if you want to see what you missed last year.
Finally here are some of my pictures!
Continue reading “Event Coverage: 2010 Mid Decembrrrr Run Coverage”
This weekend’s (Dec. 11th) Mid-Decemberrrrr Run is still on! The weather is not going to be fantastic and people are welcome to drive their daily drivers, but you know I’ll be driving my 63 Galaxie.
More info on the run here: http://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=529595
Of course the first place I’ll send you for your Christmas shopping is to my site. You can buy Calendars (which all of the profits go to charity), or books featuring shows that I’ve shot over the last couple of years. New Car Show Pics Books are on the way soon, each one is hand numbered and limited edition, a great keepsake of each show.
Next up is Vintage Torque DVD’s! Vintage Torque has the coolest dvds of shows available! The newest edition is of the 2010 KKOA Leadsled Spectacular show in Salina, KS, and it features some of my photos from the show. You can find the Vintage Torque DVDs on Amazon
I’ll post some more soon.
After over 1200 miles round trip I’m home. Took over 450 shots but only using about 425 of them. The Hot Rod Revolution was a killer show, from the town to the venue to the amazing rides that showed up, just a great time all around!
So as I edit and upload the shots I’m listening to a little Social Distortion. Yeah that’s an amazon link, yes I get paid if you buy something after clicking on that, it costs me money to go to these shows and shoot these pictures to show you all for free (over $300 this trip plus 18+ hours on the road), so help me out by buying something!
The shots will be going up all night as they are huge but they are looking much better than the rough edits from the laptop. Check the shots out here.
If you like the kind of cars that this show featured, you should check out The Jalopy Journal, the owner of the site is the show promoter and this show was what the site is all about. Very cool rides built the traditional way.
Probably the coolest part of the day for me was looking behind me and seeing Jimmie Vaughan pulling in! That’s one way to make a cool show even cooler.
Okay, back to editing! Hope you enjoy the pics.
The first batch of the 450 total that were taken are up now, and they are roughly edited, but at least it’s a start!
The rest of the rough edits should go up tonight/tomorrow morning. The final edits will be up this week. All shots are available for purchase as download or print, just click on the slideshow to go to the Smugmug page.
Photos from the 2010 Hot Rod Revolution in Austin, TX.
Left my garage at 6:15pm and checked into my hotel at 3:35am. It’s foggy in Austin but should burn off soon. I imagine that the view from my room is more impressive when the pool is filled with beauties and the sun is hot and high in the sky.
The show starts in 5 minutes so it’s time to grub and hit the streets. Here’s a map to where we are in case you’re wondering where in Austin there would be such a cool show.
I’ll post some phone pics up here today from the show, but the real camera shots will have to wait until I get home.
Wherever you are have a great day!
It’s 634 miles to Austin, we got a full tank of gas, half a pack of cigarettes (nah), it’s dark, and we’re wearing sunglasses (on my head). Hit it.
Hot Rod Revolution
Just finished 10 hours at the day job, I have 16 hours to get the 11 hours from here to Austin, boy am I dumb.
