A few weeks ago I went on a trip to Arizona to help my good friend Cameron move back to Idaho. Before I even booked my flight I knew I wanted to get a cool car behind my lens and the first car that came to mind was my friend Bryce Davis's SF5 Forester. Bryce and I have been following each other on instagram for quite some time now and his forester has always stood out to me as one of the most stylish Subarus I've seen on instagram.
When I reached out to Bryce to set up a shoot I quickly realized that we were going to have a very small window to shoot because Bryce was taking a trip to California the day after I flew in. Despite this I knew that I had to meet Bryce and shoot his car or else I would go home disappointed because my personal goal for 2020 is to meet as many of my "internet friends" as I can, so I was ready to do whatever I needed to make this shoot happen. Bryce was kind enough to meet up with me after he got off work despite still needing to prep the car for his trip to California that night so he could leave the next day.
As Cameron and I were driving to meet up with Bryce I looked at the sun setting in the distance and knew I was going to be faced with a couple challenges that I would have to overcome to make this shoot work. In the past I have always used a tripod for low light photography because my Canon 5d Classic gets very grainy as soon as you start to bump the iso up at all but I left my tripod in Idaho so I was forced to shoot handheld this entire night which was the first challenge that I was forced to tackle. The second challenge would be finding a good location in a city that I have never scouted or explored in my life. Luckily both Cameron and Bryce knew Arizona so we were able to figure out a location that would work with my handicap of needing enough ambient light so I could get away with shooting handheld.
For those of you who have yet to travel to meet your internet friends I would highly recommend getting out there and trying it as soon as possible. The feeling you get when you finally see someone you only know through your phone screen is something magical. It is a very surreal experience to meet someone for what feels like the first time but also instantly connecting on a personal level because you both already know and have talked to each other. I have felt this way every time I have met an out of state friend through the internet and meeting Bryce was no different.
After chatting for about 20 minutes we hopped in Bryce's Forester for a quick wash before heading to the first (and only) location that we shot at that night. Up until this point it had been at least 6 months since I rode in a static Subaru which made me quickly realize just how much I missed driving my personal static WRX wagon. Bryce's car is sitting on BC coilovers with 18k springs which some people may read and assume that the car rides like a bounce house but compared to other stance cars I have been in this car felt very dialed and planted to the road. Bryce has personally replaced almost all of the suspension equipment on the car with either new or aftermarket parts because his chassis has over 300k miles on it.
I think it is safe to say that the most stand out part of Bryce's Forester would have to be his mismatched Gram Light wheels which resemble "Cosmo and Wanda" from the early 2000's cartoon Fairly Oddparents. Beyond the wheels though this car is packed with cool parts front to back. Some of my personal favorite parts on his car would have to be the Ganador Mirrors and his LED tail lights.
Something about Bryce's car that isn't obvious when you look at it is that the car has been converted to rear wheel drive which makes this naturally aspirated Subaru much more fun to drive to say the least. Overall Bryce has a very unique Forester with a lot of personal taste put into it which is what makes it such a cool car in my personal opinion. He has owned this car for over 5 years now and has had more sets of wheels than I have fingers. This car is far from an "instagram build" and I love every part of it.
We wrapped up the shoot by goofing around on electric scooters for a while before parting ways. At this time I would like to thank Bryce for taking time out of his busy schedule to meet up with me as meeting him was a highlight of my trip to Arizona. If you want to see more of what Bryce has going on you can find him on instagram under the username @lifeofbryce286.
-TJ
(all the extras from the shoot are below)
