As I been around the car world since the late 1990's. attending my first event in Englishtown's historic Raceway Park on the 4th of July weekend 1999 going to the IDRC Summer Sport Compact Slam. It blew my mind back then as a young college kid not having much money to build a car, I could at least attend events and have a good time.
As the New Millenium hit, the juices started to flow as I wanted a daily so I bought a 1989 Honda Civic hatchback for $1500 bucks. I started a small budget build to take to the track. My drag racing thing wasn't spectacular as I ran 18 second times which was awful. I had a lil bit of success so I left that on the backburner.
As 2001 came, The fast and the furious era began as the movie hit theatres that summer and I started to go to more events than just Englishtown. I attended HIN in Secaucus when it was huge, but I made sure every event I went to I would take pics. DSLR's were coming along and very expensive. no iphones or the technology that we have today so I would buy disposable cameras and develop the film at shop-rite afterwards. As the first decade of the 21st century went along, I didn't do much till 2007 hit which was the forum era began. Forums were great, because you could find out about meets, shows, bullshit with ppl, get in arguments till you were banned for a few days and find out ideals what to do with your car.
I joined a forum called NJ Tuners that summer as I was getting to know ppl on there, I got to be a staff member on the site as well as being on other forums such as tristatetuners, myspecV, B15U etc.......... As the 2000's were done going into the 2010's I wanted to do something different in the car world. I raced, showed cars and picked up some hardware here and there, but I wanted to be solid. Photography I was impressed seeing other photogs locally such as Al Norris, Brian Chin and Bryan Orjuela having their work posted in magazines such as Super Street and PASMAG, Honda Tech and I'm like wow, I want to try this where it took me the next decade was mind blowing.
In October 2010. I started Chris O'Neal Photography and shooting at my first event. The First ever Canibeat First class Fitment event. This show would be a marquee event for the next nine October's at Princeton Airport. Shooting with my new Nikon D3000 with a kit lens. 2011 was my first full year as I shot at a lot of events, meets and whatever else came along.
2012, I was starting to get my cred up. I was able to upgrade to a Nikon d3100 camera as well as learning more how to shoot and editing. My progress was improving but I felt I was on my way. The next year was a turning point as doors started to open with posting work on various sites and my first magazine. I did features for Happy Stance that year as well as I Love Driving Slow. Also I did coverage of the 2013 FCF for Unique Magazine it was based in Italy. 2013 also was my first ever trip out of the tristate area to cover events in different areas of the country as I visited Ocean City, MD that was the first of many trips there for either the OC car show weekend or H20i up to 2017. 2014 was the first time I got media access into a show starting with the NYIAS and that continued for years.
2015 expanding my brand onto the web with my own site launched in the winter chrisonealphotography.com as you could read my blogs on past events, features. or book shoots. The year was probably my best besides going to events. I shot my first ever wedding and purchased my first full frame DSLR a Nikon D750 which I have still to this day. Promoting my brand was the theme also in 2015 as I went on two podcasts for HGame Live the photographers show was epic as I went on with my fellow photographers in the game. 2016 was another year to travel as I wanted to fly something I haven't done in almost 25 years since my late mother took me to Disney World. I flew to Houston, TX to attend TX2kwhich was the first of many trips by plane in the last six years.
I expanded my travels in 2019 to SoCal and Upstate New York in that summer as I visited Los Angeles and Syracuse,NY for two different events Cali for Spocom and Syracuse for Street Scene to close out the 2010's. 2020 was a challenging year. I thought I would be celebrating my 10th year in good faith, but the world had different plans. The Covid-19 pandemic which pretty much sidelined many of the huge events and even the SEMA show in which I was approved for that year. A ton of car meets and a few limited events helped that year till the world got somewhat back to normal. I also did contribute to another magazine PASMAG starting with coverage of the Fresh meet and ACES and that relationship went on with various events up to last season. 2021 was a restart year where masks were finally off, if you were vaccinated or at least masks were back when the next health crisis happened. That year, I attended SEMA out in Las Vegas finally as I spent the whole week in Sin City.
I wanted to write this story. As this season, I will be sitting out. The automotive game that I have been doing is coming to an end. There will be a next chapter come next year. The passion is never gone. I have just checked out and burned out. I do thank the car ppl, show promoters, models and shops for supporting as well as PASMAG for letting me do work just so many to thank.
