ORIGIN STORY

My name is Kody Whitall and I’m a Sports and PEV Photographer out of the Bay Area, California.

I have been a creative my whole life, but never took it seriously until after I left the military. My time in the military was amazing, but I worked a job I wasn’t very interested in, and to be frank, wasn’t very good at, either.

When I left the military, I had no idea what I was going to do. I thought about marketing, going back to my art, doing something entirely different but knew I would run into the same problems. My wife had just started a new job in NC so we moved from Florida and lived with her brother until we got on our feet. When visiting her new office at the renovated Lucky Strikes factory in Durham, NC I saw a sign for the Art Institute. Next thing I knew I was signed up for classes the following week.

During my time at the Art Institute, I transferred to California where I later graduated with my Bachelors in Graphic and Web Design. I worked the industry for a few years but soon found that I wasn’t cut out for it. I was incredibly unhappy and never felt true accomplishment. So, like I do, I ran. I quit and never looked back.

I was unemployed for about a year, trying different things, t-shirts, portraits, art, stuff like that. None of which worked out. When my daughter was born, we decided to buy a camera to document her growth, a Canon Rebel T7i. I started taking pictures of her but wasn’t very good. I didn’t know the settings, how to edit, I was using the kit lens with an f4.5-f5.6 aperture, and all the while shooting in jpeg format. I didn’t even know what RAW was. OH BOY.

I got pretty frustrated but I was tired of giving up. I started watching videos about photography, what the settings meant, how to edit, different types of photography, all that. During this, we moved houses and while packing I found an old $200 lens I purchased for my old Rebel T2i. A 40mm f2.8. When I tried that lens on my new camera, I was blown away. The bokeh was so nice. It instantly made me feel like a pro as nonsensical as that sounds.

From that moment I dedicated myself to photography. I always had my camera in my hand, pestering my wife and kids, my friends and old co-workers. The shots were still not great but I was having the time of my life. I quickly shifted to car photography after getting a 2018 Mustang GT, going to car meets and Cars and Coffee events. I started to get better at editing by this point and received good feed back from the community. That made me feel much better about my dedication.

Soon I started street photography, looking to push my comfort level and trying different lighting situations. While doing street photography with my friends, I would see all kinds of different electric devices cruising around the city. Scooters, Onewheels and this other one wheeled device later identified as an Electric Unicycle (EUC).

One night I was out walking the wharf in SF when I came across a pretty bizarre scene. Four people were riding these EUCs, (Sho Scott, Stephen Crompton, Robyn Stotomas and Zack Wong) standing at the top of a stair case. Another person (Hayden Wu) ran down wearing some pretty awesome Tech Wear and perched on a stone slab with his cell phone out. I knew what was about to happen so I ran as fast I could with 40 pounds of gear on my back and readied my camera right as they thumped their way down the stairs in unison. It was amazing.

I introduced myself to them and gave them my instagram. They gave me their business card where 3 out of the 4 worked, Alien Rides. They then invited me to a nearby alley that was filled with color and music and a bunch of people in costumes surrounded by Onewheels, scooters and EUCs. From that day, forth, I was a PEV photographer.