Intro to SullyRoams.Auto
If you've come to this side of the website you are here on the side that weighs heavy of different emotions, many that sit inside my mind both with positivity and some lessons learned. The love for cars has always been there, but it wasn't until I started observing the different styles of Japanese tuning that I really felt any direction. Before that I always knew I enjoyed cars like many other little boys do, just old enough to remember playing the original Gran Turismo game on Playstation. Unknown the origin of the developer, I wonder now what influence that may have had on my young eyes.
Fast forward to my early 20’s(7-ish years ago) when I cannonball’d myself into videography. It felt natural that my foray into making videos would be combined with cars. I had come across some local drifting videos from guys like Abbitt Wilkerson, Justin Shreeve, Ryan Davis, Joe Ayala, they were all just starting to blossom around the time I first seriously picked up a camera. There was plenty of inspiration to be had from observing those guys over those first couple years and with drifting, you always kind of have your eye on what is happening in Japan as well, imagining the day you get to be there on the ground, filming or even just getting to watch drifting...
In my second year of filming I was really trying my hardest to get out of Washington and film at other events around the U.S. At the same time I had no clue of what to expect from my travels or how far I would be able to go. Surely I wouldn’t even have been able to leave the ground with out support from people around me, some who I barely knew at the time giving me rides, letting me crash in their hotels, borrow their equipment, Pure kindness! I continued to rub shoulders with the ones who inspired me and as it turned out we all ended up working together through the years quite a lot! Working with companies like Nitto Tires, GoPro, Redbull/Monster/Rockstar, Subaru Rally Team America, The list goes on, It made for plenty of adventures around the world.
-So thats the rough draft on how I got into being a freelance videographer. Through my travels filming for those companies I was able to rack up a shit-ton of air miles which allowed me to finally cross the Pacific to the Island of Japan. My first trip 3 years ago was very brief, barely a week, but between then and now I’ve had 4 more trips all a month+ each. Thats just enough time for me to sorta get my head wrapped around some the different regions of the country. I can only share my experiences, I won’t pretend to know everything. Japan has a fairly complicated culture, and even my minimal amount of Japanese can’t help even beginning to try to understand it all. So, if you are interested in visiting Japan you might benefit a little from exploring my “roaming” section of the website to find some destinations outside of the automotive realm. Each time I fall more in love with the country than I already was previously and here I am compelled to share that in a bit more long form than Instagrams posts.
Tokyo is its own unique biosphere of automotive culture, fighting to stand apart from the salaryman city. The country as a whole continues on with unique styles and attitudes, drivers and cars alike. We will get into more of that later on.
My goals now are to combine the skills built working with professionals in the Motorsports industry and go back to the place I started, back to doing personal projects, back to telling stories. I’ll be starting with my travels through Japan over the last couple years with some current events tossed in here and there. I will even have some articles that are shot on 35mm or medium format film.
I'm most excited-
to share my debut-SullyRoams-short-video-documentary that I worked very hard on with my friend Mr. Masao and Shakeeb who did a great job translating for the video... I'll post more about that very soon. Here are some images of Masao with his R34 and 180SX, both cars aerodynamics were custom built by Masao himself.
I feel very fortunate to have met some great people in Japan who really have taken care of me and shown me so much hospitality. I feel like I've experienced so much and yet there is still so much more to explore, Until my next trip... Like I mentioned before I’ll be here recounting some of my favorite days in Japan. I do hope you enjoy. I’m really looking forward to more trips there in the future, Maybe a semi permanent placement? Who knows.. I would really love to get involved telling more peoples stories there. I really love the general demeanor from the people there, theres a lot of hard work and modesty.
So lets get this damn thing started, finally.
Stay Roaming
-Sully