Photos From the BMW CCA Buckeye Chapter Holiday Party

Last night I attended the BMW CCA Buckeye Chapter holiday party.  These things are always difficult to schedule I’m sure…but February?  It was held at Enthusiast Auto Group (EAG) down in Cincinnati – Sharonville to be exact.  EAG has been a friend to the Buckeye Chapter for a long time and I’m glad I FINALLY had the opportunity to attend an event held at their facility.  They did not disappoint with the amazing inventory of BMW’s at their facility.

I decided to travel light and brought just my FujiFilm X100VI and my Canon G7 X to take photos. I wanted practice with both shooting indoors before my trip to Europe.  And given the social nature of the event I didn’t want to bogged down with my pro gear.

Much to my surprise, most of the “keeper” photos came from my Canon G7 X.  Partially because it will go to 24mm on the wide end.  And partially because I’m out of practice photographing indoors.  The G7 X was much better set up for indoor photography having been set for auto ISO.  The X100VI was sitting at its standard ISO 125.  If I would have set it to ISO 800 I’d have been fine.  The event room really did appear to be well lit.  But the ceiling is quite tall which makes a huge difference – I just wasn’t thinking.  One of my gripes with the X100VI is that the “beep” it gives you on shutter release isn’t the same as the “click” I get when using a Canon mirrorless pro body.  On a Canon you can can hear the difference between a crisp, clear shutter release where you know there will be no motion blur, and one that audibly “lags” indicating you may need to increase your ISO to get a faster shooter release.  The beep on the X100VI doesn’t impart this information which has burned me before.  You can shoot blissfully unaware that you have blurry images.

There was one car in particular at EAG I had heard about and was eager to see in person.  Last fall, I was listening to the Spike’s Car Radio Podcast, and heard that show regular Paul Zuckerman was purchasing what sounded like an amazing Dakar yellow E39 M5 with under 10,000 miles on the odometer.  He said it was purchased through EAG and they were doing some meticulous restoration work before it would be sent back to him in L.A.  I had assumed the vehicle had already been shipped back to him, but much to my delight the car was at EAG’s facility during the party:

Spike Feresten is a former writer on SEINFELD and good friends with the man himself – both are huge Porsche fans and collectors.  Zuckerman is also a huge BMW guy and appears to be rubbing off on both Spike and Jerry.  I had the opportunity to speak with EAG representatives at the party and they’ve been speaking with both Feresten and Seinfeld about some projects.  Fun fact:  one of the owners of EAG is famed Canon photographer Larry Chen.  Here’s a few more photos from the event:

I had a great time at the event and was so happy I was able to go – I wasn’t sure right up until the event I could attend due to possible icy condition.  I also learned some good lessons about shooting indoors that I’ll take with me in April to Europe.