After being scared to death while flying in an R-22 helicopter a few weeks ago, I jumped at the chance to get back in the air in a more worthy helicopter. One of my friends had a hook up with the Los Angeles County Fire Department Air Operations and invited me to come out and spend a day with the fire department and to do some flying. I am guessing that aerial photography is most likely the only reason I would ever want to be in the back of a rescue helicopter. Lets do this!

Jennifer and I would fly to Orange County on Thursday night with Friday being the day my friend Richard Quattrocchi and I would be going on the ride fly along.

The 5:30am alarm Friday morning was no fun, seeing Jennifer comfortably sleeping while I scrambled around the dark hotel room getting my gear together made it worse. I contemplated making extra noise so she would be up as well but I played the nice guy and remained quiet so she could sleep.

Richard and I had to be to the station in Pacoima, CA nice and early since we had no clue what the flight schedule would be. The first flight could go out at 7am or it could be noon.

We got to the Barton Heliport at Whiteman Airport around 7am. After speaking with the crew we found out our flight would go up around 10:30. That left a lot of time to kill.

I spent some time walking around the hangar shooting a few photos.

Below, a Firehawk helicopter sits in the hangar for major maintenance.

Nikon D700, 10.5-17mm, 1000iso, f4.5, 1/200th

Sitting on a counter I noticed a model helicopter so of course I had to pick it up to play with, including positioning the model in my hand for the below photo.

Nikon D700, 24-70mm, 1000iso, f4, 1/80th

In hindsight I should have taken the model outside and set it on the ground in front of one of the helicopters on the flight line.

Below is a detailed view of the duty assignments/status board. Back in my Navy days I would read these charts every morning so I knew what would be going on each day.

Nikon D700, 24-70mm, 1600iso, f2.8, 1/640th

Below was the view down a shaft as a mechanic worked inside one of the helicopters.

Nikon D700, 14-24mm, 2500iso, f2.8, 1/250th

It was an interesting attempt for a shot but you couldn’t see enough of his face so I explored a bit to see if there was another spot I could shoot through.

Below you can see me getting low to shoot through a small opening.

Photo by Richard Quattrocchi

Below is the shot I ended up with from that angle. Much better!

Nikon D700, 14-24mm, 2500iso, f2.8, 1/250th

Walking around the shop I noticed a printed out email forward on a wall that I thought was pretty funny.

Nikon D700, 24-70mm, 1600iso, f2.8, 1/200th

Here is a closer look so you can read the text.

Nikon D700, 24-70mm, 1600iso, f2.8, 1/200th

Priceless!

Through one of the hangar door windows I shot a photo (below) of one of the helicopter sitting out on the tarmac.

Nikon D700, 24-70mm, 400iso, f4, 1/2500th

I walked outside and laid on the ground up close to shoot a photo that took advantage of the nice whispy clouds in the background.

Nikon D700, 24-70mm, 400iso, f4, 1/2500th

By kneeling down behind some bushes I was able to frame one of the helicopters.

Nikon D700, 24-70mm, 320iso, f2.8, 1/1600th

With it being about time to fly I got suited up and got all my gear ready. Once ready to go I followed the flight crew out to the helicopter, a Sikorsky S-70 Firehawk (The civilian version of the Sikorsky UH-60 Blackhawk).

Nikon D700, 24-70mm, 640iso, f5, 1/2000th

As I always do anytime theres potential for me to die in a fiery crash I always get a nice eulogy photo taken (below).

Photo by Richard Quattrocchi

Inside the helicopter it was time to get strapped in for our 10 minute flight to fire camp 9 atop a nearby mountain.

Nikon D700, 24-70mm, 640iso, f5, 1/60th

After the less than 10 minute flight we landed and crew members (below) fueled the helicopter in preparation for the days activities.

Nikon D700, 10.5-17mm, 320iso, f4.2, 1/3200th

Nikon D700, 10.5-17mm, 320iso, f4.2, 1/3200th

It was a waiting game on top of the mountain as we had to wait about an hour for another helicopter that we would be boarding to transit to a different fire camp on a mountain near Malibu Beach.

While waiting I spent some time walking around enjoying the view of the city down below.

Photo by Richard Quattrocchi

Off in the distance I could hear the sound of an approaching helicopter. Below I shot a few photos as the Bell 412 helicopter came over a ridge into sight.

Nikon D700, 400mm, 100iso, f20, 1/100th

Nikon D700, 80-200mm, 200iso, f9, 1/500th

The pilot we would be flying with for the rest of the day was named Vance Colvig who has enjoyed a long distinguished career. Vance is the grandson of Pinto Colvig, who was the original Bozo the Clown. He was a videographer for many years including being the camera operator during the murder of athletes in the Munich Olympics.

Now a days Vance is a helicopter pilot with an impressive resume. He is also a huge photography buff. Below is a photo of Vance in his office.

Nikon D700, 24-70mm, 400iso, f2.8, 1/1000th

We took off from Fire Camp 9 and headed over to Fire Camp 8 near Malibu Beach.

Below are a few photos I shot as we flew over Malibu Beach.

Nikon D700, 24-70mm, 400iso, f3.5, 1/6400th

Nikon D700, 24-70mm, 400iso, f3.5, 1/4000th

Nikon D700, 80-200mm, 200iso, f9, 1/1600th

While flying low over the water I was able to shoot a few cool photos of seaweed floating on the surface, below.

Nikon D700, 24-70mm, 400iso, f3.5, 1/500th

Nikon D700, 80-200mm, 500iso, f7.1, 1/1250th

Below, one of the aircrew guys onboard grabbed my camera and shot a photo of me (below).

Photo by Hank Reimer

Below is another shot of the coastline as we headed away from the beach and towards Fire Camp 8.

Nikon D700, 24-70mm, 400iso, f3.5, 1/5000th

Once at Fire Camp 8 we had about 6 hours to kill until the on call shift would be over. Due to a new air paramedic riding along on the shift there was no room for me to fly along if any emergencies were called in during the shift.

That left about six hours with nothing to do at a small building on top of a mountain.

I spent most my time relaxing on a couch in the pilots room and watched TV as I surfed the internet on the wireless network I was surprised they had set up.

A few of the other things I did while killing time was to shoot some photos of some of the firefighters on standby just as bored as me.

Nikon D700, 24-70mm, 200iso, f5.6, 1/400th

Below you can see some of the firefighters laughing after I asked them if they ever brought their girlfriends up to the fire camp to hang out with them for their long and potentially boring shifts.

Nikon D700, 10.5-17mm, 800iso, f5.6, 1/500th

Towards the end of the shift the light was getting better as the sun slowly headed toward the horizon. Below I got a nicely lit shot of the helicopter sitting on the pad.

Nikon D700, 10.5-17mm, 800iso, f5.6, 1/5000th

At the end of the shift we all headed out to the landing pad. The only thing missing was our pilot Vance. During the 20 minute wait for him to show up I was able to relax on the warm concrete of the flight pad. Ahhh.

Photo by Richard Quattrocchi

Finally we departed Fire Camp 8 to head back home. On the way Vance flew a route that gave a great view of some of the sights in and around downtown Los Angeles.

Below is a nice view of the Getty Museum.

Nikon D700, 80-200mm, 800iso, f5.6, 1/2000th

The late afternoon sun was great as it nicely lit the skyscrapers of downtown LA. It was also a rare clear day with little smog to ruin my shots.

Nikon D700, 80-200mm, 800iso, f5.6, 1/1600th

Below is a shot of downtown with the fisheye lens. The setting sun added a nice glow to the little smog that lingered in the air.

Nikon D700, 10.5-17mm, 640iso, f5.6, 1/500th

The Los Angeles Dodgers were on the road playing this day so we were able to fly over Dodger Stadium for a few photos.

All the aerial images I shot were through a window so anytime the sun was in the frame it threw some brightly colored rays across the frame.

Nikon D700, 10.5-17mm, 640iso, f5.6, 1/400th

I was told that had the Dodgers been playing at home that there would have been a temporary flight restriction (TFR) in place over and around the stadium that would have kept us a few miles away from the stadium.

Nikon D700, 10.5-17mm, 640iso, f5.6, 1/400th

Since I have no idea when the next time (if ever) that I will get to fly over Dodger Stadium, I went nuts with shooting several different angles of the stadium.

I really liked the below two shots since they had the LA skyline in the background.

Nikon D700, 24-70mm, 640iso, f5.6, 1/80th

Nikon D700, 24-70mm, 640iso, f5.6, 1/80th

With the sun dipping lower into the western sky we made a lap around downtown that enabled me to get some nice shots of the city with the sun setting in the background.

Nikon D700, 24-70mm, 640iso, f5.6, 1/1250th

Nikon D700, 24-70mm, 640iso, f5.6, 1/500th

In the below shot you can see dark edges in the shot, that is caused by a polarizer filter I had on my 24-70mm.

Nikon D700, 24-70mm, 640iso, f5.6, 1/200th

Below, I shot a photo of the US Bank Tower. Built in 1990, it is 73 stories high (1,018 feet) and is the largest building west of the Mississippi River.

Nikon D700, 80-200mm, 800iso, f5.6, 1/1000th

Below, as we wrapped up our lap around the city I was able to get a couple shots of the Staples Center, home to the LA Lakers (as well as the Michael Jackson funeral a few days earlier).

Nikon D700, 24-70mm, 640iso, f5.6, 1/80th

Nikon D700, 24-70mm, 640iso, f5.6, 1/80th

Below is a photo of the Griffith Observatory overlooking the city.

Nikon D700, 24-70mm, 800iso, f2.8, 1/320th

I had mentioned to Vance I had never seen the Hollywood Sign so he hooked me up with an up close view from the air.

Nikon D700, 24-70mm, 800iso, f2.8, 1/200th

The nice clouds and light certainly didn’t hurt either!

Nikon D700, 24-70mm, 800iso, f2.8, 1/250th

It was time to head back to the station so of course as we flew away the sun broke through the clouds and laid a nice golden glow on downtown. Grrr

Nikon D700, 80-200mm, 800iso, f5.6, 1/640th

Below as we flew over Universal Studios in Hollywood the aircrewman told me to look down at the crash scene and I was able to get a cool shot of the aircraft “wreckage” that was used in the movie “War of the Worlds.”

Nikon D700, 80-200mm, 1000iso, f2.8, 1/500th

Below I shot down on what I thought was a parking lot near the Burbank airport but upon further review it must be an impound lot because theres no way you are going to get your car out of those middle spots!

Nikon D700, 80-200mm, 1000iso, f2.8, 1/640th

Moments before landing back at the Whiteman Airport we flew over an aircraft parking lot that looked cool from the air so I shot it (below).

Nikon D700, 80-200mm, 1000iso, f2.8, 1/500th

As the sun set over the horizon we landed back on the ground.

Nikon D700, 24-70mm, 800iso, f2.8, 1/200th

Nikon D700, 24-70mm, 800iso, f2.8, 1/125th

Below is an estimation of our flight path during the day.

It was a very fun day with some cool photos and interesting new people I was able to meet. Can’t wait to do it again in the future!

Saturday before flying home Richard and wife Pam took Jennifer and I to a sweet movie theater in Anaheim that served alcohol in the theater.

What an awesome concept (for all you alcoholics out there!)

Photo by Theater Bartender guy

After seeing “Bruno” which was ridiculously funny we headed down the road to Downtown Disney for the girls to do some window shopping.

Jennifer and I pose with a talking Parrott (below). I was waiting for it to bite my ear but luckily it was well behaved.

One more lame tourist photo on the hot ground (below) then it was time to head to the airport to head back home to Phoenix.

Gotta love a relaxing weekend shooting cool things and hanging out with friends.

Next up is drag boat racing in Augusta, GA. Stand by!

When you go to a restrictor plate race the chances of seeing some spectacular racing is typically very good. Thats why the races are so popular with the fans and its also why I have gone to the past 11 restrictor plate races and will continue to go to every one for many more years. The latest stop was at the historic high banks of the Daytona International Speedway where Kyle Busch would attempt to win back to back July Daytona races after his victory the previous year.

Thursday was an easy day with just two practice sessions on tap. As I typically do I headed into the garage to look for driver head shots and any feature photos that may come about and then head out to a turn for some car shots.

Below, Jamie McMurray sits in his car prior to the opening of practice.

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Nikon D700, 80-200mm, 500iso, f2.8, 1/125th

Wwhile shooting Jeff Burton (below) out of nowhere he threw up his arms in the air and made a goofy face. I was surprised because, like a rock, Burton is not one to show much emotion. Ever.

Nikon D700, 80-200mm, 1250iso, f5.6, 1/400th

A few years ago Daytona redesigned the garage area and it was rebuilt with observation windows for the fans to get an up close view of their favorite drivers. Below, fans clamor to see and take pictures of Dale Earnhardt Jr as he puts his helmet on prior to climbing into his car.

Nikon D700, 80-200mm, 1600iso, f5.6, 1/2000th

In typical Florida fashion the sky was filled with white puffy clouds so I looked for a way to incorporate them into some shots. Below, when Earnhardt was pulling out of his garage stall I shot him with a fisheye lens.

Nikon D700, 10.5-17mm, 500iso, f7.1, 1/5000th

Nikon D700, 10.5-17mm, 500iso, f7.1, 1/3200th

After a few minutes in the garage area I headed out to turn four to shoot some car shots. For the summer Daytona race several cars sport special paint schemes. One of them was points leader Tony Stewart (below).

Nikon D700, 80-200mm, 200iso, f6.3, 1/800th

Once again back to the puffy white cloud shot for this fisheye view as a pack of drivers race through the turn.

Nikon D700, 10.5-17mm, 500iso, f7.1, 1/8000th

By kneeling down behind the inside guardrail in turn three you could get an interesting photo by shooting through the three inch gap between the railing. Below are a few examples.

Nikon D700, 80-200mm, 200iso, f3.2, 1/6400th

Nikon D700, 80-200mm, 400iso, f6.3, 1/4000th

After getting shots of all the cars in the turn I headed back into the garage for a few more minutes.

Below, a pissy Tony Stewart glares at a group of photographers out of the corner of his eye. A few seconds later he went off on one photographer, who was doing nothing wrong, and threw water on him. I didn’t have a good angle of it so I was unable to shoot photos which I gladly would have done. I thought it was hilarious, although thats probably because his anger wasn’t directed at me (for once).

Nikon D700, 80-200mm, 1250iso, f5.6, 1/400th

Below, Joey Logano stands by his car as he looks out of his garage stall prior to the second practice session.

Nikon D700, 24-70mm, 1600iso, f5.6, 1/320th

That wrapped up a short and sweat sweet day of practice.

On tap for Friday was Sprint Cup qualifying followed by the Nationwide Series race. On my way to the track I was really hoping qualifying would get rained out. The reason I wanted that is at restrictor plate tracks qualifying takes about 3 hours to do, non restrictor plate track qualifying takes half that time. The reason is that the restrictor plates make the engines not get up to speed very quick so the drivers all get a warm up lap prior to their 2 qualifying laps and on a 2.5 mile race track the extra laps add up quick.

I got my wish as a big rain storm came through the area less than an hour before qualifying was scheduled to begin.

Nikon D700, 24-70mm, 400iso, f5.6, 1/100th

When the heavy rain stopped I head out to pit road to shoot a few weather feature type photos.

Nikon D700, 24-70mm, 400iso, f5.6, 1/100th

Nikon D700, 24-70mm, 400iso, f5.6, 1/250th

Since points leader Tony Stewart would end up on the pole due to rained out qualifying races being lined up by points I made sure to shoot a photo of his car sitting there by a big puddle on pit road.

Nikon D700, 24-70mm, 400iso, f5.6, 1/80th

A few hours later the track was once again dry and it was time for the Nationwide Series race.

At the conclusion of the national anthem a group of U.S. Air Force F-15 Eagles performed a very low fly-over of the track. With the planes being so low and me being so high on the roof it made for a sweet angle.

Nikon D700, 600mm, 800iso, f5, 1/1250th

Nikon D700, 600mm, 800iso, f5, 1/1250th

As the field of drivers took the green flag and raced into turn one I shot a vertical frame of the cars racing with a nicely colored thunder storm off in the distance.

Nikon D700, 80-200mm, 2000iso, f2.8, 1/2000th

To the west, the sun dropped behind the clouds and haze.

Nikon D700, 600mm, 2500iso, f4, 1/3200th

Daytona marked the first Nationwide race to have double file restarts (below). I really thought it was going to lead to some more crashes but the drivers did a good job with them and all went well.

Nikon D700, 80-200mm, 2000iso, f2.8, 1/500th

The below photo was shot about 3/4 of a mile away from my position as Kyle Busch led the field entering turn three.

Nikon D700, 600mm, 4000iso, f4, 1/500th

Below, smoke consumes the pit area of Michael Waltrip as he pulls out of his pit stall.

Nikon D700, 600mm, 4000iso, f4, 1/500th

Below, off of turn four NASCAR Nationwide Series drivers Robert Richardson Jr (23) and Chase Austin (07) crash.

Nikon D700, 600mm, 4000iso, f4, 1/500th

Below, Safety personnel head to the car of NASCAR Nationwide Series driver Kerry Earnhardt after crashing.

Nikon D700, 600mm, 4000iso, f4, 1/500th

In the late stages of the race I was shooting cars coming through the tri-oval when I heard a loud explosion. It was the car of Kertus Davis blowing a tire. He tried to maintain control but spun and set off a multi-car accident.

Nikon D700, 600mm, 4000iso, f4, 1/500th

Along with Kertus Davis (04), the crash also collected Eric McClure (24) and Morgan Shepherd.

Nikon D700, 600mm, 4000iso, f4, 1/500th

The photo position on the rooftop has electric outlets which makes it easy for me to edit on deadline. Three feet behind my position is my laptop all plugged in and on the internet so after I get a crash or something I want to transmit I am able to get it sent out within 2-3 minutes of the crash.

Photo by Eric Perel

On the last lap of the race drivers Robert Richardson Jr (23) and Mike Bliss (1) tangled off of turn four and crashed below me.

Nikon D700, 600mm, 4000iso, f4, 1/500th

Nikon D700, 600mm, 4000iso, f4, 1/500th

Nikon D700, 600mm, 4000iso, f4, 1/500th

Nikon D700, 600mm, 4000iso, f4, 1/500th

Richardson Jr was able to drive off, Bliss was not so lucky. He climbed from his car uninjured….

Nikon D700, 600mm, 4000iso, f4, 1/500th

…and walked across the infield grass to his pit area.

Nikon D700, 80-200mm, 3200iso, f2.8, 1/640th

Under caution (below) Clint Bowyer took the checkered flag to win the race.

Nikon D700, 80-200mm, 3200iso, f2.8, 1/640th

Normally the winning driver will do a burnout near the finish line. Since there were safety vehicles tending to the last lap crash there Bowyer did his burnout a 1/4 mile away towards turn four.

Nikon D700, 600mm, 4000iso, f4, 1/500th

In the middle of his burnout Bowyer went behind the smoke and when he emerged from it I was lucky enough to catch a fans flash which nicely illuminated his car as well as providing some dramatic light. Too bad the damn shot isn’t in focus!

Nikon D700, 600mm, 4000iso, f4, 1/500th

Below is an in focus shot (without the cool flash of course).

Nikon D700, 600mm, 4000iso, f4, 1/500th

Across the infield, in victory lane, Bowyer climbed atop his car to celebrate with his crew.

Nikon D700, 600mm, 4000iso, f4, 1/400th

That was the end of the action for Friday. On to the main event!

All that was on tap for Saturday was the main race, the Coke Zero 400.

Prior to the race the rock group Buckcherry performed a concert in the infield.

Nikon D700, 600mm, 320iso, f5, 1/2500th

A giant crowd of fans in the infield grass and on the banking of the track looked on.

Nikon D700, 24-70mm, 200iso, f5.6, 1/320th

As with the previous day the Air Force would be providing a fly-over. I was up on the roof early enough to shoot the planes as they took off from the airport behind the track.

Due to the downturn of the economy the track didn’t sell tickets for the massive backstretch grandstands hence the empty seats.

Nikon D700, 600mm, 320iso, f5, 1/2500th

The below shot came out pretty cool as the pilot banked the aircraft to the side at full afterburner.

Nikon D700, 600mm, 320iso, f5, 1/2000th

Below, some fans line pit road to get close to the cars…..

Nikon D700, 80-200mm, 250iso, f5.6, 1/1600th

….while other fans took time to sign their names on the start/finish line.

Nikon D700, 600mm, 320iso, f5, 1/400th

Prior to the race former driver Richard Petty was honored on the 25 year anniversary of his 200th and final career victory. Below, the entire field for the race was on hand to pose for a photo with the King as well as the car he won his final race with.

Nikon D700, 80-200mm, 250iso, f5.6, 1/500th

Below, the F-15s perform the fly-over prior to the race.

Nikon D700, 600mm, 320iso, f5, 1/2000th

To the west the sun was setting through the clouds……

Nikon D700, 600mm, 250iso, f5.6, 1/1600th

…….while to the east, the moon rose above the clouds.

Nikon D700, 80-200mm, 250iso, f5.6, 1/1600th

Tony Stewart and Jeff Gordon led the field to the green flag.

Nikon D700, 80-200mm, 1600iso, f2.8, 1/1000th

Below, Kurt Busch (2) battles Tony Stewart (14) for the lead in turn three with a sea of fans on motorhomes and campers looking on.

Nikon D700, 600mm, 2000iso, f4, 1/800th

Early in the race Mark Martin (below) spun off of turn two and hit the inside wall ending any chance he had of winning the race.

Nikon D700, 600mm, 2500iso, f4, 1/640th

Sporting a special paint scheme, Dale Earnhardt Jr (below) pits for gas and new tires.

Nikon D700, 600mm, 2500iso, f4, 1/500th

As the race went on tires quickly became a story. The abrasive track combined with the heat made life bad on the Goodyear tires and several drivers experienced problems…..

…Such as Sam Hornish Jr (below) who blew a tire and left a trail of debris in the tri-oval.

Nikon D700, 600mm, 4000iso, f4, 1/500th

Below, fans get an up close view as the field of drivers speed by on their way to turn one.

Nikon D700, 600mm, 4000iso, f4, 1/500th

The first “big one” of the night would occur when drivers Dale Earnhardt Jr (88), David Reutimann (00) and David Stremme (12) tangled on the backstretch.

Nikon D700, 600mm, 4000iso, f4, 1/500th

As is common with crashes at restrictor plate races the field of drivers were so bunched up that several more drivers including Clint Bowyer (33), Reed Sorenson (43), David Gilliland (71), Brian Vickers (83), and Ryan Newman (39) would end up getting involved in the accident.

Nikon D700, 600mm, 4000iso, f4, 1/500th

The crowd was unhappy to see their hero Dale Earnhardt Jr was involved in the accident as he limped his car around the track and into the garage. His day was finished.

Nikon D700, 600mm, 5000iso, f4, 1/500th

But on the other hand, the crowd was very happy to see that Jeff Gordon (below) was also involved to a lesser degree. While he was able to make repairs and get back on track his shot at winning was out the window.

Nikon D700, 600mm, 5000iso, f4, 1/500th

Below, during a pit stop Jamie McMurray came into his pit stall too fast and slid through and took his jackman for a ride on the hood of his car.

Nikon D700, 600mm, 4000iso, f4, 1/500th

Here is a closer look.

Nikon D700, 600mm, 4000iso, f4, 1/500th

With the race taking place on the fourth of July all around the horizon you could see fireworks shows going off.

Nikon D700, 80-200mm, 3200iso, f2.8, 1/400th

Below, David Ragan (6) goes for a 200mph spin down the backstretch after contact with Kurt Busch (2).

Nikon D700, 600mm, 5000iso, f4, 1/500th

Below, Scott Speed grinds along the track throwing up sparks after hitting the wall exiting turn four.

Nikon D700, 600mm, 5000iso, f4, 1/500th

Nikon D700, 600mm, 5000iso, f4, 1/500th

While Tony Stewart dominated the race, it was Kyle Busch who would pass him and take the lead coming to the white flag.

Nikon D700, 80-200mm, 4000iso, f2.8, 1/1000th

The crowd who hates Busch booed loudly. I love Kyle Busch and the celebrations he provides after winning so I was happy but as is typically the case with restrictor plate races it wasn’t over till it was over.

Coming off turn four with the checkered flag in sight, Tony Stewart went to the outside for a pass attempt.

Nikon D700, 600mm, 5000iso, f4, 1/500th

Kyle Busch attempted to block the pass attempt but Stewart was already alongside so they made contact and turned Busch.

Nikon D700, 600mm, 5000iso, f4, 1/500th

Busch is a great driver but there was no saving it and he quickly turned sideways.

Nikon D700, 600mm, 5000iso, f4, 1/500th

Stewart safely continued on to the checkered flag as Busch made hard contact with the outside wall.

Nikon D700, 600mm, 5000iso, f4, 1/500th

The impact lifted his car off the ground.

Nikon D700, 600mm, 5000iso, f4, 1/500th

The roof flaps did their job and kept his car from going airborne.

Nikon D700, 600mm, 5000iso, f4, 1/500th

If you read my Talladega blog earlier this year you may remember I was totally screwed for the massive last lap crash because I had the big lens only and the crash was too close up. I wasn’t going to allow that to happen to me again so I quickly switched to my second body with the 80-200mm lens on it.

Just as I got the camera up to my face Kasey Kahne (9) plowed into the sliding car of Busch at full speed and lifted the car off the ground.

Nikon D700, 80-200mm, 4000iso, f2.8, 1/1000th

Busch, who was leading less than 5 seconds ago crossed the finish line in 18th place, Kahne no longer had steering and slid down the banking to the inside…..

Nikon D700, 80-200mm, 4000iso, f2.8, 1/1000th

……where he collided with the cars of A.J. Allmendinger (44) and Jeff Burton (31)……

Nikon D700, 80-200mm, 4000iso, f2.8, 1/1000th

…….sending them on a high speed slide through the infield grass…..

Nikon D700, 80-200mm, 4000iso, f2.8, 1/1000th

……and back up onto the track where several more cars collided.

Nikon D700, 80-200mm, 4000iso, f2.8, 1/1000th

By this point the crowd was going nuts with excitement after seeing a thrilling last lap pass and crash.

Below is a layout I made with a few photos from the crash showing where it started as well as finished from my vantage point high above the track.

Here is a video showing the crash.

Despite the hard hits he took, Kyle Busch climbed from his car (below) and walked away uninjured.

Nikon D700, 600mm, 5000iso, f4, 1/640th

Instead of waiting for the ambulance to arrive he began the long walk down pit road towards the garage.

Nikon D700, 600mm, 5000iso, f4, 1/800th

Eventually a NASCAR official caught up to him and made him stop and take a ride to the infield care center to be checked out.

Nikon D700, 600mm, 5000iso, f4, 1/400th

While tow trucks began to clean up the cars, parts and pieces below…

Nikon D700, 80-200mm, 4000iso, f2.8, 1/1000th

….race winner Tony Stewart received congratulations from his team.

Nikon D700, 600mm, 5000iso, f4, 1/400th

From my position high above the track I can usually get good shots of the race winner climbing from his car and celebrating. This time though, an overzealous confetti operator fired the confetti into the air too early so when Stewart climbed from his car to celebrate he was concealed by the confetti making for a rather lame shot.

Nikon D700, 600mm, 5000iso, f4, 1/400th

After transmitting several shots I made the long walk back to the inside of the track to the media room.

I stopped in victory lane on the way to get a better winner shot as he posed for the photographers.

Nikon D700, 80-200mm, 2000iso, f2.8, 1/320th

His crew (below) were busy as they pushed his car to the tech inspection to make sure the car conformed to NASCAR rules.

Nikon D700, 80-200mm, 4000iso, f2.8, 1/200th

That closes yet another wildly exciting restrictor plate race. Just over three months till the next one in Talladega.

Can’t wait!

Here are some web clippings from the weekend:

As a sports photographer most of my time is spent covering the major pro sports such as MLB, NFL and NASCAR. While that gives me a good variety of events to cover it still gets redundant always shooting the same top level sports. One thing I do to take a break from those sports is to look for cool and interesting events to cover when I have time. Off road trucks flying through the air over dirt jumps definitely would qualify as something different from the norm. Buckle up and hang on!

As well as being something different to shoot, smaller level racing events like this typically are much more laid back than a pro sporting event, plus the access is usually much better. If you wanna try something different or unique you don’t have to request it weeks in advance to some PR director. You can usually just show up and do it. That was gonna be one of my goals as I ended up in Lake Elsinore, California to cover the Lucas Oil Off Road Racing Series (LOORRS). It was a three day event on a man made course in 100 degree weather. Fun!

When I showed up on Friday all I wanted to do was check out the course and see if I could find a good place to shoot some action. And when I say action I mean crashing vehicles.

With off road racing its not a matter of if they’re gonna crash, its simply when and where.

I found a spot on a large berm on the perimeter of the course so I headed up there. It was near the largest jump of the track which was good. It also gave me a view of the entire track so if where I was wasn’t the best place for action I would surely see where I should be shooting.

Below, a pair of trucks air it out over the jump in front of me.

Nikon D700, 600mm, 400iso, f6.3, 1/2000th

I had two cameras on me while shooting there. One body had a 600mm lens on it which I would use to shoot about 90% of the course. On my shoulder I had a body with a 80-200mm lens which would be used in the small portion of the track directly in front of me where the other lens would simply be way too close up.

In the below photo you can see me in action with the 600mm with the 80-200mm on my shoulder.

Photo by Richard Quattrocchi

One thing I noticed right away that got my attention was as the trucks were landing the big jump some were landing nose first into the dirt. While these trucks are built to land at all sorts of crazy angles it still looked to me that some of the racers were very close to landing at such an angle that they were very close to nosing in, which would most certainly result in a nice front flip. (Nice for photographers, not so much for the racers!)

Nikon D700, 600mm, 400iso, f6.3, 1/3200th

Seriously no less than 15 minutes after getting on track and shooting all hell broke loose as unlimited lite driver Leroy Loerwald nosed in way to steep and suffered a spectacular end over end crash.

Nikon D700, 80-200mm, 320iso, f6.3, 1/1600th

The sequence was shot with my 80-200mm lens in my right hand as I held the 600mm lensed body in my left. Even with the 200mm lens I was completely full frame. Had I been using the 600mm I would have only been able to fit the door of the truck in my shot.

Nikon D700, 80-200mm, 320iso, f6.3, 1/1250th

Nikon D700, 80-200mm, 320iso, f6.3, 1/500th

Nikon D700, 80-200mm, 320iso, f6.3, 1/500th

Nikon D700, 80-200mm, 320iso, f6.3, 1/640th

To make matters worse for the driver, after coming to a stop on his wheels facing backwards other trucks continued to fly over the big jump and barely miss him. While the corner worker was quick to frantically wave the yellow flag, he was at the bottom of the landing so none of the drivers could see him waving the yellow flag till they were already in the air. Obviously steering and brakes don’t work in the air so it was only a matter of time until there was going to be a collision. The unlucky driver to provide it would be Kyle LeDuc as he plowed head on while still in the air into Loerwald as the flagman looked on. Luckily both drivers emerged safely from the wreckage.

Nikon D700, 80-200mm, 320iso, f6.3, 1/1250th

Below you can see the entire sequence of the aerobatic accident. A gymnast in the Olympics would have been proud of that form!

With a good crash shot already in the books for me it was time to change my focus from getting crashes to exploring the track looking for some different shooting positions to try out.

One cool thing I liked with shooting these trucks were when they went through the hairpin turns they would slide sideways and when they would get back on the gas they would spray rocks, dirt and mud behind them. By getting right behind them in a turn you could get fun shots with all the stuff flying up behind them. (You will find out later in this blog not to get too close to that area though)

Nikon D700, 600mm, 400iso, f6.3, 1/1600th

While I was shooting in a different direction during a practice session one of the racers flipped his truck over in the turn, below is what I was able to get of the tail end of the crash.

Nikon D700, 600mm, 400iso, f6.3, 1/2000th

While not as entertaining as the trucks the buggy classes did provide some excitement during one of their practice sessions as one of the racers landed the big jump sideways and slid off course as a pair of flagmen ran for their lives. They both got safely out of the way. Right after that practice session ended a concrete barrier was brought out to that spot to provide the flagmen safer working conditions.

Nikon D700, 80-200mm, 200iso, f5.6, 1/1600th

The race track was set up in a valley between a few mountain ranges so it was easy to get some nice mountain backgrounds. You could tell you were in Southern California by the pollution haze shrouding the mountains.

Nikon D700, 80-200mm, 200iso, f5.6, 1/1600th

Nikon D700, 80-200mm, 200iso, f5.6, 1/1600th

I eventually set up on the inside of one of the hairpin turns to see get some different angles of the trucks.

Below, famous tattoo artist, motorcross racer and on again off again husband of the singer Pink, Carey Hart was onhand racing in one of the classes.

Nikon D700, 24-70mm, 200iso, f5.6, 1/1000th

Below, while shooting some wide angle shots in the turn I was up close and personal with the underside of a truck as unlimited 2 driver Rodrigo Ampudia came into the turn hard and put it on two wheels. He nearly flipped over but was able to bring it back down on all fours.

Nikon D700, 24-70mm, 200iso, f6.3, 1/800th

Ampudia spun out the truck on the landing and was almost t-boned by the other competitors but got lucky and was able to continue on.

Nikon D700, 24-70mm, 200iso, f6.3, 1/1250th

One of the main problems I was running into during the weekend was dealing with some of the crappy backgrounds of the facility. Lots of white tents, flags and scissor lifts made for crappy backgrounds that ruined the photos for me. One way to combat that was by slowing the shutter speed way down to blur out the backgrounds like in the below photo.

Nikon D700, 24-70mm, 200iso, f18, 1/60th

I liked the below photo because it had clean backgrounds plus I liked the truck flying in the air through the background as another truck kicked up dirt racing through the foreground.

Nikon D700, 80-200mm, 200iso, f5.6, 1/1600th

When I shoot NASCAR and Indy Car we are typically behind big concrete guardwalls with 12 foot tall catch fences on them. For this event they had small concrete barriers you usually see in construction zones on the freeways. I noticed the small holes in the barriers (below) and decided to try and shoot a shot through the hole to see if perhaps it would provide a cool effect.

I was happy with the result (below) as super lite driver Chuck Dempsey raced through the turn. Its not a shot that everyone can appreciate but its definitely unique compared to the standard truck sliding around a turn or truck flying through the air shot that you usually see from these events

Nikon D700, 24-70mm, 200iso, f4.5, 1/400th

That wrapped up a fun first day of shooting. On to Saturday.

Late in the afternoon I was scheduled to go up in a helicopter to shoot some aerial photos above the track. While waiting the few hours till that was to take place I hung out down on the track and looked around for more interesting shots to take.

Below, for one of the races I shot head on at the end of the straightaway where the trucks would hit the big jump. On the first lap I shot a bit wide to get multiple trucks in the air with a nice mountain background. The only time of the race to really get a shot like that was the first lap because after that they would typically spread out and you would be unable to get multiple jumping trucks in the same shot.

Nikon D700, 80-200mm, 200iso, f6.3, 1/1600th

Below, from the same position as the trucks went away I was able to get one of my favorite shots of the weekend as unlimited 2 drivers Rodrigo Ampudia (36) jumped alongside Jerry Whelchel (2) as Kevin Davis (85) races by in the foreground kicking up dirt. I love photos that have lots of stuff going on that keeps viewers looking at it for longer than the standard 1-2 seconds that we would spend on a boring photo or one that lacks much content.

Nikon D700, 80-200mm, 200iso, f6.3, 1/1600th

The next two shots are of the same jump but with different lenses.

The first shot of unlimited 2 driver Rodrigo Ampudia (below) shows a nice and standard tight shot with my 400mm of a truck jumping. The crowd in the background helps the shot look better as well as making the event look crowded with tons of spectators (dont let it fool you, there werent many fans at all!)

Nikon D700, 400mm, 400iso, f6.3, 1/5000th

Now from that same spot I shot with an 80-200mm lens to get a wider view of the jump. While its the same angle as the above shot it has a completely different feel to it by including the mountains as well as the base of the jump. Lots of photographers I’ve met think you always need to fill the frame with your subject but by doing so you typically can be missing a cooler looking photo.

Nikon D700, 80-200mm, 200iso, f7.1, 1/1600th

Late in the afternoon it was time for me to go up in the helicopter. When I told my friends I would be flying in an R-22 they all freaked out and were telling me things like how tiny it is and that its a deathtrap and that they would never fly in such a crappy helicopter. As I heard everyone telling me this I really thought they were joking and trying to get me scared.

Then I saw the actual helicopter.

“I’m gonna die.” That was honestly the first thing that went through my mind when we pulled up to the airport and I laid eyes on the thing.

I’m not really the get scared of flying type. I spent several hours back in my Navy days flying over the ocean alongside aircraft carriers doing crazy banked turns and breaking all sorts of flight rules in the name of fun but this micro helicopter had me scared shitless!

I had planned on bringing three cameras up with me for the shoot but the pilot told me I had to leave one due to weight issues.

In the below photo you can really see how small the cockpit of the R-22 is. It totally reminds me of those little machines at grocery stores where you pay 25 cents and you get one of those plastic bubbles with a toy inside.

Photo by Richard Quattrocchi

Right before takeoff my buddy Richard took a photo of me. As he was taking the photo I honestly envisioned this being the last photo taken of me before the fiery crash in a field nearby so I put on a fake smile and gave a thumbs up so I would look happy in the 16×20 photo they would print of this to have on a stand next to my closed casket during the eulogy.

Photo by Richard Quattrocchi

The initial plan was to spend about an hour and 15 minutes in the air over the track to shoot the final three races of the day. There was another helicopter that was to be flying at the same time as us shooting video for the Speed Channel. We spoke with that pilot and came up with a plan to be at different altitudes. Everythign was good to go, right?

Wrong!

Right before takeoff we were told by the owner of the facility that he didn’t want two helicopters flying around so we had to take turns. We would get the first 45 minutes and the other chopper would get the second 45 minutes.

Lovely.

Up we went in the air. The pilot and I had discussed my plan earlier and we were gonna fly around 300 feet above the track for me to shoot. Too bad air traffic control had other plans and made us stay above 500 feet.

Below is a wide view of the entire facility.

Nikon D700, 80-200mm, 200iso, f7.1, 1/1600th

The 45 minute time frame certainly wasn’t optimal for what I wanted to do but it still was going to be fine, I figured with the schedule that I would be up in the air for two races.

That was until I realized they were 30 minutes behind schedule. For more than half the flight we got to watch as nothing was on the track other than water trucks and bulldozers as they prepped the track for the next race.

Ok that sucks but I was still optimistic since it only takes one good race to get some cool photos that would make this flight worthwhile.

That is true except the one race I ended up being in the air for only had six trucks racing! The cool shot I was envisioning was 20 trucks in a big pack on the first lap racing into a turn with dirt and mud flying all over and potential crashing.

Instead the below photos are what I ended up with.

Super lite driver John Harrah (13) leads Chad Leising (17) through the turn.

Nikon D700, 400mm with 1.4 convertor (550mm), 200iso, f5.6, 1/2000th

Super lite driver Joey Granatelli (20) leads the field

Nikon D700, 400mm with 1.4 convertor (550mm), 200iso, f5.6, 1/2500th

Super lite driver Chad Leising (17) leads David Reyes (77) and Brandon Bailey (72).

Nikon D700, 400mm with 1.4 convertor (550mm), 200iso, f5.6, 1/1600th

Plenty of good seats still available!

Nikon D700, 400mm with 1.4 convertor (550mm), 200iso, f5.6, 1/6400th

Going into the shoot I was also envisioning some cool shots of trucks jumping with their shadows below them. The problem is when you are as high in the air as I was and there wasn’t many vehicles racing it made everything crappy looking such as the below photo of super lite driver John Harrah (13) going over a jump alongside Chad Leising (17).

Nikon D700, 400mm with 1.4 convertor (550mm), 200iso, f5.6, 1/2000th

Below, a racer goes through the hairpin turn as corner workers wave the caution flag.

Nikon D700, 400mm with 1.4 convertor (550mm), 200iso, f5.6, 1/2000th

Below, is a tighter view that shows the entire track.

Nikon D700, 80-200mm, 200iso, f7.1, 1/1600th

Below, fans look on as super lite driver John Harrah (13) races down the front straightaway.

Nikon D700, 400mm with 1.4 convertor (550mm), 200iso, f5.6, 1/2000th

As we were flying I started to feel a bit sick. Initially I thought maybe I was just really hungry but then I realized I was air sick from spending too much time looking through the lens of my camera as we bounced around in the sky.

I was very close to puking as I put the camera down and took some deep breaths as I stared at the horizon. The 45 minutes was nearly up so we made our decent back to the airport.

If I wanted to I could have thrown up on my car (below) as we flew directly over it.

Nikon D700, 400mm with 1.4 convertor (550mm), 200iso, f5.6, 1/2000th

Once safely back on earth I grabbed my gear and got the hell out of there. In the below photo you can really see how small that helicopter really is!

Photo by Richard Quattrocchi

I made it back to the track just in time to shoot the unlimited lite race which I wanted to shoot from the helicopter due to the fact it had over 20 trucks racing in it which would have looked great from the air.

Oh well though.

I set up in the spot at the end of the backstretch where I could get the field of trucks, led by FMX star Brian Deegan, jumping head on towards me. I got low to the ground to have the out of focus berm in the foreground cover up all the in focus track below the racers which gives it a different effect from the standard track in focus look.

Nikon D700, 80-200mm, 200iso, f5.6, 1/1000th

Deegan was all over the place in his truck so I focused on him waiting for him to crash. He never did but i still ended up getting lots of cool photos of him on the edge.

Nikon D700, 80-200mm, 200iso, f5.6, 1/1000th

Nikon D700, 80-200mm, 200iso, f5.6, 1/1000th

I liked the below shot because you have three trucks all at different levels in the shot making for a nice layering effect.

Nikon D700, 80-200mm, 200iso, f4, 1/1600th

I’m not really sure why you need three flagmen standing together displaying the caution flag but what do I know?

Nikon D700, 80-200mm, 200iso, f5.6, 1/2000th

The below two photos are shot at the same jump but from about 10 yards apart. Its a good illustration on how moving even a short distance can really change the look of a shot.

Below, I got close to the jump and got down low to clean up the backgrounds. Also by getting low I have the truck set against a nice blue sky.

Nikon D700, 80-200mm, 200iso, f4, 1/5000th

By being further back from the jump as well as standing up you can see how a similar location provides a completely different (and crappy) background. The scissor lift in the background makes the truck look like a jack in the box on a spring.

Nikon D700, 80-200mm, 200iso, f4, 1/3200th

That wrapped up day two of racing action.

I had really planned on the aerial photos being the cool images of this trip but with the failure of that I decided that for the last day of racing to go all out and bury a few remote cameras on the track in hopes of coming up with something cool.

Where I was planning on putting these cameras I put the odds pretty high that they would end up getting destroyed so I pulled out some of my older gear that I didn’t care about so in the event it got ran over I wouldn’t cry.

Below, I place a plastic bag around my D200 with a 12-24mm lens on it. The bag was a very half ass attempt to semi protect the camera from dirt, mud and water.

Photo by Richard Quattrocchi

Below you can see how the camera was positioned at the edge of the track on the landing of the big jump.

To keep the track from becoming a giant dust cloud between races water trucks would drive on the track and spray everything down.

Below is how the lens looked after receiving a bath of water.

The place I had the camera positioned I figured would be a great place in the event one of the trucks nosed in and flipped over. That never ended up happening. The shot wasn’t a waste, however, because I got a pretty sweet looking luck shot of dirt flying right at the camera from a truck landing as Greg Adler flew through the shot. I’ll take dumb luck any day!

Nikon D200, 12-24mm, 500iso, f6.3, 1/1250th

Nikon D200, 12-24mm, 500iso, f6.3, 1/1250th

After the dirt hit the camera a few pieces stuck to the lens for the remainder of that race.

Nikon D200, 12-24mm, 500iso, f6.3, 1/1250th

My other remote camera was placed on the inside of one of the hairpin turns. This camera was a D300 with a 10.5-17mm fisheye lens on it.

Below is one of my aerial photos from the previous day marked with the location of the remote so you have a better idea of where its at.

Initially you might think thats a semi safe place to put a remote but trust me it wasn’t. Through the course of the weekend I had seen several trucks spin out in that turn and then drive over that berm to get back on track in the right direction.

Below are a few photos showing the view the remote camera provided.

Nikon D300, 10.5-17mm, 400iso, f8, 1/1600th

Nikon D300, 10.5-17mm, 400iso, f8, 1/1600th

Nikon D300, 10.5-17mm, 400iso, f8, 1/1600th

In the first race with the camera there one of the racers spun out and as he turned around to get going the right direction he went over the berm and nearly ran over the camera.

In the below photos you can see the view of the remote camera.

Nikon D300, 10.5-17mm, 400iso, f8, 1/1600th

Nikon D300, 10.5-17mm, 400iso, f8, 1/1600th

While it doesn’t make for a cool photo or look very close to being hit, the view from my friend Richards handheld really shows you how close the camera really came to being destroyed.

Photo by Richard Quattrocchi

Even though the remote cameras were my main focus of the day I still did some shooting with my handheld cameras. Below are a few I liked.

Nikon D700, 80-200mm, 200iso, f5, 1/2500th

Nikon D700, 80-200mm, 200iso, f5, 1/8000th

Nikon D700, 80-200mm, 200iso, f5, 1/2500th

Earlier in this blog I mentioned about the flying dirt and mud coming at the photographers if they were too close. In the below photo you once again see how much stuff flies up behind these guys.

Nikon D700, 80-200mm, 200iso, f5, 1/1250th

Now in the below photo it is hard to see but that group of photographers are ducking and turning away as a giant cloud of rocks and debris pelts them from a truck. The dust on the ground is from the thousands of pieces of rock and mud hitting the ground around them. I couldn’t help but laugh.

Nikon D700, 80-200mm, 200iso, f7.1, 1/1250th

Towards the end of the afternoon I moved the remotes around a bit. The jump remote I placed closer to the jump to get them in the air more, as well as moving it to the other side of the track since the light was better there.

Below, all the way on the left side of the frame from my handheld camera you can see the remote camera as Brian Deegan takes a jump.

Nikon D700, 80-200mm, 200iso, f7.1, 1/1250th

Below is the view from the remote camera. Being low and close up provided a much cooler and cleaner image.

Nikon D300, 12-24mm, 400iso, f7.1, 1/1250th

For my other remote camera in the hairpin turn I moved it to the outside of the turn. I chose that place because the light would be much better plus I figured it could potentially get me an up close and personal view of the trucks.

As you can see in the below two photos it was a different angle in a very high impact area that no person (without a suicide note) could ever take.

Nikon D200, 12-24mm, 500iso, f7.1, 1/1250th

Nikon D200, 12-24mm, 500iso, f7.1, 1/1250th

The bad thing about that spot was as the trucks made their turns only a few feet from the camera it was constantly getting hit with a barrage of dirt and debris.

Nikon D200, 12-24mm, 640iso, f8, 1/1250th

As the race went on the flying mud and dirt began to actually stick to the edge of the lens and slowly cover it up.

Nikon D200, 12-24mm, 640iso, f8, 1/1250th

Towards the end of the race one of the trucks came within a few feet of the camera.

Nikon D200, 12-24mm, 640iso, f8, 1/1250th

This time the debris was too much for the camera to handle as it got nailed from a point blank distance.

Nikon D200, 12-24mm, 640iso, f8, 1/1250th

The camera was knocked over and the below photo shows the angle it got for the rest of the race as it pointed straight up into the sky.

Nikon D200, 12-24mm, 640iso, f8, 1/1250th

When the race finished I went over to the camera to see the damage. Surprisingly other than being completely covered in mud, and having the pocket wizard receiver knocked off the hot shoe, the camera was in perfect working order

Photo by Richard Quattrocchi

That wraps up a fun weekend of shooting something different and trying some new things. I highly recommend trying new angles in different sports!

While sitting in my hotel room in San Francisco as I prepared to shoot NASCAR the next morning I was informed that Manny Ramirez would be making his first baseball start, in a AAA minor league game in Albuquerque, New Mexico, since being handed a 50 game suspension by MLB for steroids. It was Saturday night and the game was on Tuesday three days later which gave me little time to put together a trip for a game I figured would be worth covering.

With only three days till the game I had to work fast to make things happen. I called my editor to inform him about the game and to have him put in the request ASAP, next up was to look for flights. Anytime you fly on real short notice you will typically get raped with the price of the ticket. After checking various airlines and sites like orbitz.com I realized that wasn’t gonna work so I ended up using frequent flier miles and paid a 5 dollar fee. Works for me!

When I booked the flight, my goal was to fly in Tuesday morning and out that night after the game. Unfortunately the last flight out of Albuquerque was at 9:30pm. With the game starting at 7pm and being on a tight deadline due to the importance of getting the images out, 9:30 was just gonna be way too close (even for me) to realistically have a shot of making.

After booking the hotel the next morning all I had left to deal with was the rental car.

Usually rental cars are the last things I worry about since they are typically cheap and always in abundance.

Tuesday morning comes around and while sitting at the airport for my flight I remember I need to book a car. Ok no problem, I busted out my laptop and headed over to Orbitz.com to get a car.

Houston, uhh Albuquerque, we have a problem!

There was not a single car available in the entire city, not even at the non airport rental locations. I know Albuquerque is a huge tourist destination (yea right) but no cars on a Tuesday is ridiculous.

It is boarding time now for my flight so there’s really nothing I can do. I figure when I get there I will just go to the rental car center and go counter to counter until I find someone with an available car.

FAIL!

Not one single car available.

While sitting there trying to figure out what to do I mention my situation on my Facebook Page and a few minutes later my friend Nick Layman, who was also covering the game offered to come pick me up and give me a ride to the game. After picking me up and heading to the game I was contacted by fellow sports photographer Thomas Witte who had a hookup with a company due to his platinum traveler status. Nick was nice enough to drive me back to the rental car place to pick up my hot car, a white Chevy Malibu.

Once all that was taken care of it was off to the stadium to shoot Manny.

Once inside the stadium I set up in an elevated position over the tunnel Manny would appear from. Most of the media was set up on the field so I went up in the grandstands and shot down to include the crowd of media in my shots.

Below, you can see the crowd of media as they stood on the field awaiting Mannys arrival.

Nikon D700, 24-70mm, 400iso, f5.6, 1/640th

My shot idea, however, was ruined when Ramirez came out in a t-shirt instead of his jersey.

Nikon D700, 24-70mm, 1000iso, f4, 1/8000th

Manny got right to work and began warming up with his new teammates as the media storm clicked away.

Nikon D700, 70-200mm, 500iso, f5.6, 1/1600th

I made it a point to get some shots of him as soon as I could wearing an Albuquerque Isotopes hat. With arguably one of the biggest stars in baseball playing in a minor league game while suspended I figured it would be good for some sales.

Nikon D700, 600mm, 800iso, f4, 1/2000th

When Manny went into the batting cage I went right up to the cage with some other photographers and began shooting. I knew security would boot us as soon as they noticed where were shooting. Sure enough less than 30 seconds after sneaking up there we got booted. I got the below shot during those 30 seconds.

Nikon D700, 24-70mm, 1000iso, f4.5, 1/5000th

I liked the below shot as he walked past me during the batting practice. It is shot with no flash so the cloudy sky in the background is pretty blown out…

Nikon D700, 24-70mm, 1000iso, f6.3, 1/1250th

…now in the below shot I threw on a flash so I was able to expose the shot for the sky and used the flash to light up Manny.

Nikon D700, 24-70mm, 400iso, f14, 1/250th with SB 800 Flash

After batting practice it was on to some fielding practice.

The below shot would have been pretty cool had he been in his uniform, he wasn’t so the shot is lame.

Nikon D700, 600mm, 800iso, f4, 1/3200th

By this point I had several shots I liked so it was up to the press box to transmit some images and head back down to the field in preparation of the game.

As game time approached the small stadium was buzzing with excitement as the fans awaited the arrival of Manny. I have shot everything from little league games to the World Series and this game had the excitement of playoff baseball.

Nikon D700, 70-200mm, 1000iso, f5, 1/1000th

Then came the moment everyone was waiting for (below) as Manny emerged from the tunnel to the cheers of the crowd. (note the kid in red on the right as he almost falls from the stands!)

Nikon D700, 24-70mm, 400iso, f11, 1/250th with SB 800 Flash

Below, as the crowd cheered Manny acknowledged them by sticking his two bats high in the sky.

Nikon D700, 24-70mm, 400iso, f11, 1/250th with SB 800 Flash

As usual Manny was all smiles as he ran some warmup laps. Of all the athletes I’ve shot over the years I easily put Manny up at the top of players who are easy to shoot. While he is a superstar he always seems to play well with the media.

Nikon D700, 70-200mm, 1250iso, f4, 1/1250th

After running a few laps he sat down in the left field grass and stretched for a few minutes. I shot that from two different angles.

Kneeling in the grass:

Nikon D700, 70-200mm, 1250iso, f4, 1/1250th

Its a nice photo but the distracting advertisements on the outfield wall was semi annoying to me. How do you fix this? you may ask.

By getting your camera lower to the ground.

Laying in the grass:

Nikon D700, 70-200mm, 1250iso, f4, 1/1250th

After finishing with stretching Manny approached the fans against the field. It turned into a madhouse of cheering and pushing as the fans attempted to push their way to the front to get an autograph.

For the below photo I held the camera up over my head to try and illustrate the madhouse.

Nikon D700, 14-24mm, 800iso, f3.2, 1/6400th

After a few photos from behind I threw on the off camera flash cord and got low looking for shots.

Nikon D700, 14-24mm, 400iso, f13, 1/250th with SB 800 Flash

In the above photo I noticed something on the underside of his hat. I zoomed in on the below photo to see what it was.

Nikon D700, 14-24mm, 400iso, f13, 1/250th with SB 800 Flash

It was a price tag and barcode! Wonder if they made him pay for it?

With the off camera flash on the camera I was getting some cool light to go along with the nice dark cloud background.

Everything great with the shots until an overzealous security guard decided to start yelling at me and telling me to get back. The security guards face is blocked out from the light of the flash due to his giant hand coming towards me.

Nikon D700, 14-24mm, 400iso, f13, 1/250th with SB 800 Flash

In the below photo, as Manny turned to walk a different direction I was able to get a pretty cool portrait of him. I could have done without the light peering over his shoulder but oh well.

Nikon D700, 14-24mm, 400iso, f13, 1/250th with SB 800 Flash

Just when it seemed he was done signing and gonna go sit in the dugout he stopped near the edge of the dugout and signed some more autographs.

In the below photo Mannys face is covered in shadows due to his hand blocking the off camera flashes view of his face.

Nikon D700, 14-24mm, 400iso, f13, 1/250th with SB 800 Flash

The below photo worked out much better and gave nice dramatic looking light on what would have been another boring photo had I used on camera flash.

Nikon D700, 14-24mm, 400iso, f13, 1/250th with SB 800 Flash

After about 15 minutes of signing autographs Manny retreated to the dugout to hang out for a few minutes as he awaited the start of the game.

Here are a few random images as he sat in the dugout and prepared for the game to begin.

Nikon D700, 70-200mm, 1250iso, f3.5, 1/1000th

Nikon D700, 70-200mm, 1250iso, f3.5, 1/1000th

Nikon D700, 70-200mm, 1250iso, f3.2, 1/800th

Right before heading out to the field Manny walked through the dugout high fiving all his teammates.

Nikon D700, 400mm, 1250iso, f3.2, 1/800th

Below is a view of the packed grass seating in right field.

Nikon D700, 600mm, 1000iso, f4, 1/1000th

Below, when the Isotopes took the field Manny was followed from the dugout by two cameramen.

Nikon D700, 24-70mm, 800iso, f3.2, 1/2000th

I was hoping to get some good action shots of him fielding but not one ball game to him the entire 5 innings he played.

Below was as good as it got in the outfield.

Nikon D700, 600mm, 1000iso, f4, 1/1250th

Actually the most action of him fielding was when he jogged to the dugout after each inning.

Long lens:

Nikon D700, 600mm, 1000iso, f4, 1/1000th

Wide angle:

Nikon D700, 24-70mm, 800iso, f3.2, 1/2000th

Fielding shots would have been nice but the important shots would be of him at bat. He is one of the best hitters of our generation but far from the best fielder.

Below, Manny waits in the on deck circle.

Nikon D700, 400mm, 1250iso, f4, 1/1600th

As he approached the plate for his first at bat in two months the sold out crowd stood and cheered and shot photos.

Nikon D700, 400mm, 1250iso, f4, 1/1600th

Nikon D700, 70-200mm, 800iso, f3.2, 1/800th

He stood at the plate and took a few balls before finally swinging at a pitch with his long dreadlocks flying around his face.

Nikon D700, 400mm, 1250iso, f4, 1/1600th

Nikon D700, 400mm, 1250iso, f4, 1/1600th

After striking out he slowly flipped his bat in the air.

Nikon D700, 400mm, 1250iso, f4, 1/1600th

Then he took off his helmet and flipped it from his hand.

Nikon D700, 400mm, 1250iso, f4, 1/1600th

As he prepared to head back to left field I fired off the below photo and then made my way up to the press box to transmit more photos from his first at bat.

Nikon D700, 70-200mm, 800iso, f3.2, 1/800th

While in the press box I threw on the wide angle lens to take an overall shot of Isotopes Stadium. After the game I found out that this game was the highest attendance the stadium has ever got.

Nikon D700, 14-24mm, 800iso, f3.2, 1/2500th

A few innings later for Mannys second at bat I shot from the first base photo well to get a different angle.

As he stood in the on deck circle before the start of the inning a little kid who was sweeping the bases between innings danced by wearing a Manny Wig. I was hoping he would look at the kid and smile but got no such luck.

Nikon D700, 600mm, 1000iso, f4, 1/400th

As he walked to the plate for his at bat he glared towards my direction. Click.

Nikon D700, 400mm, 2000iso, f3.2, 1/1000th

Instead of striking out like his first at bat, this time he grounded out to the shortstop. Once again I got his hair smacking him in the face.

Nikon D700, 400mm, 2000iso, f3.2, 1/1000th

Below, after walking back to the dugout Manny looked semi disappointed as he watched a teammate bat.

Nikon D700, 600mm, 1000iso, f4, 1/320th

He would play one more inning in the outfield and then his night was done. 0 for 2 batting and no balls came to him in left field. Easy day in the office.

Here are some web clips from the game:

It has been three years since I made the trip to the rolling hills of the wine country to cover NASCAR as they raced around the winding turns of Infineon Raceway. NASCAR has 38 races a year and only two of them occur on tracks with left and right turns. This is the first road course of the season. It makes things a pain in the ass for drivers as well as us photographers.

Initially you may think shooting any type of racing is basically the same thing and to a point you are right, but with a road course NASCAR race the name of the game is to shoot photos to illustrate road racing. Why go to a unique track and just take the same type photos you take at all the other tracks?

The race wasn’t initially on my schedule to shoot but about a week before I added it to my schedule. Instead of covering all three days as I normally do, this race would be a one day show for me.

With that in mind I decided to go all out and put in a complete effort to make the one day worthwhile. I decided I was gonna carry 3 bodies and a full assortment of lenses including a 10.5-17mm, 24-70mm, 70-200mm, 400mm and 600mm.

The day got off to a less than desired start when first, the Dennys I located on GPS and drove to had been shut down (damn you economy!) resulting in me having to settle for McDonalds instead. Even worse though was while sitting in the media room before the race I noticed that I had left my batteries sitting on the charger in my hotel room 46 miles away in San Francisco! Luckily my coworker Kyle Terada had extra batteries to loan me for the race. Without his help I would have been totally screwed, thanks Kyle!

Without an assistant to help out I was gonna have to carry it all (as well as my backpack with my laptop) over a mile up hill from the media room to the turn where I was going to begin the race.

Thanks to fellow photographer Jose Carlos Fajardo for the photos below showing me as I am packed down with way too much gear!

Just outside the media room I am all smiles before making my pilgrimage to turn four.

Photo by Jose Carlos Fajardo

About a quarter mile into the uphill walk I don’t look so happy.

Photo by Jose Carlos Fajardo

A half mile into it walking up the steps of the grandstands and I am totally not having fun. (Everyone staring at me and asking “can you see the moon with that lens” made me wanna kill myself!)

Photo by Jose Carlos Fajardo

Ok on to the race.

I set up in turn four for the beginning of the race. It was a nice scenic spot that would make for an interesting shot of the whole field racing.

D700, 24-70mm, 400iso, f5.6, 1/1000th

After a few laps of wide angle shots I grabbed the 400mm and moved about 30 yards past the turn and shot as the cars were clipping the inside curb and throwing the car on two wheels. Once again my goal was to get photos showing unique images you can only get at road courses. Cars going on two wheels (that aren’t crashing) is definently a road course only shot.

Below, Ryan Newman clips the curb in turn four while leading teammate Tony Stewart.

D700, 400mm, 320iso, f6.3, 1/2000th

Kyle Busch was running a special paint scheme promoting the movie Transformers and in the below photo he really aired the car out.

D700, 400mm, 320iso, f6.3, 1/2000th

Below, Martin Truex Jr plays follow the leader as a pack of cars race through the turn.

D700, 400mm, 320iso, f6.3, 1/2000th

After several more laps shooting in that spot I headed up the hill back towards turn three. Turn three is a cool spot where you can get numerous angles just by walking a few yards between shots.

Towards the bottom of the turn you are shooting up at it and get nice clean backgrounds with just the sky visible such as the below shot of A.J. Allmendinger as he crests the hill while a plane flies in the sky.

D700, 70-200mm, 250iso, f5.6, 1/2000th

Walking a little bit up the hill to the turn gets a similar type shot except more of a side angle like in the below shot of Kasey Kahne as he lifts a tire while turning.

D700, 70-200mm, 250iso, f5.6, 1/1600th

Walking just a further up the hill to the turn you can get shots of the cars really lifting the tire as they hit the curb. Below, Greg Biffle takes the turn on two wheels.

D700, 70-200mm, 250iso, f2.8, 1/6400th

From the same spot as the above shot if you shoot them going away you get a nice background of the rolling hills as well as some of the crowd. Below you can see what I’m talking about as Tony Stewart prepares to drop down the hill into turn four.

D700, 24-70mm, 400iso, f3.2, 1/3200th

After a few minutes at the top of the hill I began to make my way down back towards turn four. While walking I stopped briefly to throw on the wide angle lens and shoot a vertical angle to include the catch fence and add an element to the below shot of Kasey Kahne.

D700, 24-70mm, 400iso, f3.2, 1/3200th

Near the bottom of the hill I looked up and noticed the cars would pop up from below the horizon and it could potentially make for an interesting shot.

Below, David Stremme crests the hill as he exits turn three.

D700, 400mm, 320iso, f6.3, 1/2000th

Once at the bottom of the hill I shot for a few minutes to get rear angles of the cars clipping the curbs.

Below, Patrick Carpentier gets his damaged car up on two wheels as he takes the turn.

D700, 70-200mm, 250iso, f2.8, 1/4000th

Below, by throwing on the wide angle lens it provided a nice scenic photo as David Reutimann led Kasey Kahne and Paul Menard through the turn.

D700, 24-70mm, 400iso, f3.5, 1/3200th

By moving a few feet away I was able to shoot dead side angles with nice crowd and mountain backgrounds like the below shot of Robby Gordon taking the turn.

D700, 70-200mm, 250iso, f2.8, 1/8000th

Looking back up the hill through the 400mm lens gave me the below angle as Matt Kenseth led a pack of cars over turn three and down the hill towards turn four.

D700, 400mm, 320iso, f6.3, 1/2500th

Back at the exit of turn four I threw on the fisheye lens and shot through the catch fence as the drivers raced a few feet away from the tire wall I was leaning against.

Below, Patrick Carpentier races by.

D700, 10.5-17mm, 320iso, f6.3, 1/2500th

By holding the camera up high over my head I was able to produce a cool angle as Jeff Gordon raced by in the below shot.

D700, 10.5-17mm, 320iso, f6.3, 1/2500th

The whole time I spent in the turn four area I noticed a little miniature golf course set up in a sponsor suite area. I was hot, tired and lazy and kept thinking of excuses not to go shoot the photo but finally I forced myself because I knew I would be mad at myself if I didn’t shoot it. I headed over to the entrance of the suites and hustled past the security like I was allowed to be in there and climbed the stairs to the top of the suite and shot down as children played golf while the cars raced by in the background.

D700, 10.5-17mm, 320iso, f6.3, 1/2500th

The shot would have been much cooler had I waited for a larger pack of cars to be racing in the background but with the potential for security to realize I’m not supposed to be in there and come grab me I wasn’t gonna stay there for more than the 30 seconds I did.

After leaving the suites I walked about a half mile through a tunnel to the inside portion of the track and once again found myself walking up a big hill with all my gear as I searched for a cool spot to shoot from.

I came to a spot between turn two and three with an interesting background of all dirt. The angle was interesting due to the fact you really couldn’t see the track giving the appearance of the cars essentially looking liek they were cut out and pasted onto a dirt backdrop.

Below, Denny Hamlin races towards turn three.

D700, 70-200mm, 200iso, f5.6, 1/500th

By shooting the cars a bit further down the background was completely clean and made for a unique shot that you can’t get at any other track.

Below, Carl Edwards heads towards turn three.

D700, 70-200mm, 200iso, f4.5, 1/500th

From the same spot using a wide angle lens it made for a really cool shot (below) as Greg Biffle leads a pack of cars through the course.

D700, 24-70mm, 400iso, f3.5, 1/1250th

Going away also gave a nice angle as the drivers poured into turn three.

D700, 24-70mm, 400iso, f3.5, 1/2500th

By throwing on a 400mm lens and underexposing by a few stops I was able to get a more interesting silhouette shot as the drivers went into the turn with the sun reflecting off the rear windows

D700, 400mm, 200iso, f4.5, 1/4000th

From my spot on top of the track I used the 600mm to shoot the below shots with fans in the foreground looking on as cars roughly a half mile away raced towards turn ten.

D700, 600mm, 320iso, f4, 1/4000th

From there I made the half mile walk from my spot back to the media room to transmit some images and get prepared to shoot the finish of the race.

After about 20 minutes of that I went to the top of the grandstands overlooking the finish line and victory lane to see if it would be a good spot to shoot the finish from.

Below, I toyed around using silhouettes of the fans in the foreground as Kevin Harvick raced by.

D700, 400mm, 200iso, f5.6, 1/800th

Below was the view from the top of the stands looking right with cars taking the hairpin turn 11 with all the car haulers parked in the garage area.

D700, 24-70mm, 400iso, f2.8, 1/3200th

Below, a crew member for Jimmie Johnson pushes used tires back towards the Goodyear Tire shop for inspection.

D700, 400mm, 200iso, f5.6, 1/800th

There were large billboards heading into turn 11 and I noticed one for Old Spice, the sponsor for Tony Stewart. I used the 400mm and waited for him to race by the billboard.

D700, 400mm, 320iso, f5.6, 1/1600th

Tony Stewart (14) had a good day but it was Kasey Kahne (9) who had an even better as he was able to hold off Tony Stewart and win the race.

D700, 400mm, 400iso, f4.5, 1/6400th

Below, Kasey Kahne does a burnout as he celebrates his first victory in over a year.

D700, 400mm, 400iso, f5, 1/4000th

The wind was blowing the wrong way so he ended up being cloaked in the smoke as his crew celebrated.

D700, 70-200mm, 320iso, f4, 1/8000th

At the end of the celebration he finally emerged from the smoke providing me with atleast a semi decent photo.

D700, 400mm, 400iso, f5, 1/5000th

From there he made his way to victory lane. I shot the burnout from the roof of the media center so I had to haul ass and climb down a narrow ladder and down two floors of stairs and over to victory lane. Even with running I barely made it in time. Below you can see I ran into victory lane alongside Kahne driving. Of course I shot as I ran in.

D700, 24-70mm, 320iso, f5.6, 1/125th

D700, 24-70mm, 320iso, f5.6, 1/250th

With just seconds to spare I found a spot to shoot from and grabbed my camera just as he climbed from his car to celebrate his first road course win.

Below, you see the Budweiser beer flying through the air as he signaled “number one.”

D700, 70-200mm, 320iso, f4, 1/4000th

Then the confetti flew as he held his fist high.

D700, 70-200mm, 320iso, f4, 1/4000th

Crew members also got in on the celebration as one received a beer bath from his teammate.

D700, 70-200mm, 320iso, f5.6, 1/1600th

After that I ran into the media room to transmit some of the celebration photos from victory lane. After sending a bunch of photos I headed back out to shoot some more shots.

Below, Richard Petty (left) points towards victory lane as he walks with Kasey Kahne following a press conference in the media room.

D700, 24-70mm, 250iso, f8, 1/250th with SB800 Flash

Below, the shadow from the hat of Richard Petty is visible on the wall of victory lane.

D700, 70-200mm, 320iso, f5.6, 1/800th

Below is the standard victory lane shot with car owner Richard Petty (left) posing with driver Kasey Kahne with the race trophy.

D700, 70-200mm, 320iso, f9, 1/250th with SB800 Flash

That wraps up my one day trip to wine country for NASCAR. Next Cup race on my schedule is at one of my favorite tracks Daytona!

Here are some web clips from the weekend.

Last weekend I went up to cover tryouts for a new football league set to kick off this fall. The United Football League (UFL) was something I had honestly never even heard of until about a week prior to this shoot. Perhaps I had heard a year or so ago about a new league trying to begin but as with most sports fans I quickly dismissed it as something that was doomed to fail (like me taking a 10th grade algebra test). One of the cool aspects about the shoot I was looking forward to was that I would be shooting for the UFL so I was promised some good access for shooting. The hardest part of the shoot would be to not get drunk the night before on the strip!

I got to the stadium about an hour before the practice to get all situated and fire off a couple images of the empty Sam Boyd Stadium. The clouds were a nice touch.

Nikon D700, 24-70 mm, 500 ISO, f5.6, 1/8000th

A few minutes later the field was filled with players as they stretched out and got warmed up.

Nikon D700, 24-70 mm, 400ISO, F5.6, 1/3200th

Nikon D700, 70-200 mm, 400ISO, F5.6, 1/1250th

Nikon D700, 70-200 mm, 400ISO, F7.1, 1/800th

After about 30 minutes warming up on the field they headed into the locker room to await coaches instructions on what was next.

Nikon D700, 24-70mm, 1600ISO, F2.8, 1/200th

Below, quarterback Ken Dorsey (center) sits in the locker room as he waits to begin the first phase of the practice.

Nikon D700, 70-200mm, 1600ISO, F2.8, 1/250th

By position, the players walked through a hallway into a room to be weighed and measured by members of the coaching staff.

Nikon D700, 24-70mm, 1600ISO, F2.8, 1/160th

Below, a player stands on the scale as he is weighed by UFL coaching staff members.

Nikon D700, 24-70mm, 1600ISO, F2.8, 1/400th

Below, Keith Heinrich has his arm measured.

Nikon D700, 24-70mm, 1600ISO, F2.8, 1/1000th

Below, Mark Fenton is measured during the United Football League workout at Sam Boyd Stadium.

Nikon D700, 24-70mm, 1600iso, F2.8, 1/250th

Below, Through the empty hallway I set up for a shot of a player on the field with the dark hallway providing a decent frame, the only problem was there was nothing going on in that area of the field so it was a waste of time.

Nikon D700, 70-200mm, 800iso, F2.8, 1/8000th

Since I was shooting for the UFL I made sure to look for any shots that showed the new logo. When you are doing commercial stuff its all about branding.

Nikon D700, 24-70mm, 640iso, F5, 1/5000th

Below, I underexposed the shot by several stops to turn Joey Hollenbeck into a silhouette as he prepared to run the 20 yard dash during the United Football League workout at Sam Boyd Stadium. Anytime I can find ways to incorporate nice clouds in the backgrounds I always take advantage of it.

Nikon D700, 24-70mm, 320iso, F6.3, 1/8000th

Perhaps the biggest things I like to stress to photographers is to try different angles from the norm. Go to a sporting event and about 90% of the photographers are standing up when they shoot while the other 10% are trying different angles and usually are rewarded with interesting shots for their efforts. Something as easy and simple as laying down on the ground for a shot can make a profound difference in what you end up with.

Standing up:

Nikon D700, 24-70mm, 320iso, F4.5, 1/500th

Laying down:

Nikon D700, 24-70mm, 320iso, F4.5, 1/1600th

Is the low angle amazing? Hardly. But you gotta admit it looks much more interesting than the lazy half assed standing shot.

In the below shot I used the two players in the foreground to frame the second pair of players as they did drills.

Nikon D700, 24-70mm, 320iso, F4.5, 1/2000th

A short while later as the sun got lower I underexposed by several stops to make a silhouette as two players practiced hitting.

Nikon D700, 24-70mm, 320iso, F4.5, 1/5000th

On the other side of the field the quarterbacks were doing passing drills so I headed over there to look for shots.

Below, Ken Dorsey throws a pass. Once again I got low to take advantage of the cleaner background as well as nice clouds.

Nikon D700, 24-70mm, 320iso, F4.5, 1/5000th

Below, I picked up the long glass and shot as Casey Bramlet throws a pass during the United Football League workout.

Nikon D700, 400mm, 800iso, F5, 1/4000th

The linebackers were lined up doing running drills with some coaches so I got directly behind him to shoot head on as the players sprung forward. It was a great angle to see the players eyes and facial expressions.

Nikon D700, 70-200mm, 1250iso, F4.5, 1/1000th

Nikon D700, 70-200mm, 1250iso, F4.5, 1/1000th

One request from the UFL for the day was to get a nice shot of their logo on the game balls they will be using for the season. I started off with the standard shot of the ball on the field.

Nikon D700, 24-70mm, 320iso, F4.5, 1/1600th

Then I got the idea to hold the ball up with my left hand and lightly toss it up so I could get the ball essentially floating in the air above the stadium.

In the below shot you can see my wonderful throwing technique.

Nikon D700, 24-70mm, 320iso, F4.5, 1/2000th

And the resulting image.

Nikon D700, 24-70mm, 320iso, F4.5, 1/2000th

Below is another shot I kinda liked.

Nikon D700, 24-70mm, 320iso, F4.5, 1/2000th

Below, I slowed the shutter speed way down to get some nice blur as Steven Korte ran the 40 yard dash.

Nikon D700, 24-70mm, 320iso, F10, 1/60th

In another area of the field the running backs were doing drills so I shot head on as the players ran towards me with the other players providing a nice background for me.

Nikon D700, 70-200mm, 1250iso, F5.6, 1/1250th

In the below shots I used a 400mm and shot as players were running drills. With the sun getting lower and the red grandstands glowing in the background it made for some nice shots.

Below, Cecil Sapp during a running drill.

Nikon D700, 400mm, 800iso, F6.3, 1/6400th

Below, a ball flies over the head of Larry Croom as he does running drills.

Nikon D700, 400mm, 800iso, F6.3, 1/8000th

In the below shot I noticed the shadow of Trey Brown on the wall behind him. It had the potential to be a nice photo but sadly all that he did was stand there before walking off.

Nikon D700, 400mm, 800iso, F6.3, 1/3200th

After a few hours on the field level I decided to go up in the stands for a minute, first to do an overall shot of the stadium…

Nikon D700, 10.5-17mm, 800iso, F5, 1/2500th

…..then to see if there was any cool angles to take advantage of as wide receivers were catching passes.

Below, Tyson Thompson keeps his eyes on the ball as he makes a catch.

Nikon D700, 400mm, 800iso, F5, 1/1600th

Below, A player I can’t name since I lost my roster makes a catch as his shadow runs alongside him.

Nikon D700, 400mm, 800iso, F5, 1/1600th

I liked the below shot with some aerial acrobatics as Tyronne Gross made a spectacular one handed catch under pressure from Marviel Underwood.

Nikon D700, 400mm, 800iso, F5, 1/1000th

I headed back down to field level to shoot as the practice was winding down and there was some great light on the field.

Below I exposed for the bright background to make a silhouette as a quarterback made a throw downfield.

Nikon D700, 400mm, 1000iso, F6.3, 1/8000th

I noticed some nice light on the field with shadows in the background as receivers attempted to make catches under pressure from defenders.

A few stops underexposed worked perfectly to shoot Bennie Brazell (14) as he made a leaping catch under pressure from defender Trey Brown (2) during the United Football League workout at Sam Boyd Stadium.

Nikon D700, 400mm, 1000iso, F6.3, 1/8000th

Nikon D700, 400mm, 1000iso, F6.3, 1/8000th

Below, the day ended with all the players huddling up to listen to the coaches talk. I threw the fisheye on and did a hail mary right before they broke from the huddle and back to their lives as hopeful football players without jobs.

Nikon D700, 10.5-17mm, 500iso, F4.5, 1/400th

Heres some web clips:

It is very rare that I have a full weekend off, even rarer is actually taking a vacation of any sorts. While most people can’t wait to have time off and go on vacations I am one of the few lucky people who has their dream job. With that in mind I have no problem regularly working 50-60 hour weeks. My partner in crime Jennifer invited me up north to spend a weekend experiencing cabin life and I jumped at the opportunity to try something outside of my normal routine. Continue on to see what occurs when a photographer figures out how to “work” on his vacation.

Once at the cabin up near Flagstaff, AZ I unpacked the car and got all situated. Then I noticed at the bird feeders in the backyard that there were numerous hummingbirds flying around and drinking from the bird feeder.

I instantly decided to throw up a few remote cameras up close to see if I could get anything.

The set up was very simple, super clamp a camera with a magic arm to some metal piping near the feeder and then sit down and fire the cameras via pocketwizards. Note in the below photo I took the liberty of putting gaff tape over 3 of the 4 openings on the feeder to get the hummingbirds to feed from the opening I was focused on.

I also had another remote camera with a similar set up on the other side of the patio aimed at another feeder.

While I really didn’t get anything phenomenal from the hummingbird remotes I will still show you a few of my favorites.

Nikon D700, 24-70mm, 1250iso, f2.8, 1/1250th

Nikon D700, 14-24mm, 250iso, f6.3, 1/250th with SB 800 Flash

Nikon D700, 10.5-17mm, 3200iso, f3.5, 1/1600th

After getting bored with that Jennifer and I decided to take the polaris off road vehicle out for a drive through the area to have some fun. As soon as I saw the vehicle I went back in the cabin and grabbed all my remote gear to mount a camera on it.

In the below photo showing the set up if you look to the right you can see an SB 800 flash I set up to provide fill light for the shots.

Here is another angle of the set up.

Since I had the off camera flash cord on the hot shoe of the camera I instead had the camera set to fire via a wired trigger placed near the steering wheel.

Below are a few shots from the remote.

Nikon D700, 10.5-17mm, 320iso, f6.3, 1/160th with SB 800 Flash off camera

Below is when I made a surprise high speed u-turn.

Nikon D700, 10.5-17mm, 320iso, f6.3, 1/160th with SB 800 Flash off camera

After a little while with that angle I switched the remote around a bit to shoot through the front window of the vehicle. Sadly I forgot to shoot a few photos of the set ups but its pretty much the exact same set up with the magic armed moved to a different position.

Below, Jennifer takes her turn behind the wheel. The photo is toned black and white because it looked like hell as a color photo due to the reflections off the window. (the real reason was I overexposed the shots and they were blown out and only fixable by converting to black and white…but shhhh don’t tell anyone.)

Nikon D700, 10.5-17mm, 320iso, f8, 1/160th with SB 800 Flash off camera

I once again moved the camera and this time placed it on the front bumper of the vehicle aimed right in at us. For the below shot we got in a simulated crash position.

Nikon D700, 10.5-17mm, 320iso, f8, 1/200th with SB 800 Flash off camera

The next day while at a different cabin in eastern Arizona I decided to fool around with some remote cameras suction cup mounted to my car. I initially was looking for somewhere on the car to clamp the camera since clamping is much more secure than a suction cup but there really was no place that I could clamp the magic arm without risking denting or scratching the car.

Below is how I ended up doing the mount. I used a suction cup clamp and tightened a magic arm and super clamp around the top of the suction cup. The white sock was wrapped around the magic arm so it wouldn’t scratch the car. Also notice the camera strap going into the car where it was secured to the inside so in the event of a suction cup failure that the camera wouldn’t fall off the car.

Once on the road driving I simply held a pocket wizard and fired it as I drove.

Photo by Jennifer Stewart

With a 10.5mm fisheye lens on the camera it provided a nice wide angle shot of the car and surrounding landscape.

Nikon D700, 10.5-17mm, 100iso, f11, 1/100th

While I liked the angle the time of day I was doing the shots was too bright outside so I was unable to get a slow enough shutter speed to give the shot blur so they all ended up looking like we were sitting still pretty much.

The scenery while driving through the Arizona forests with temperatures in the mid 70’s made for a fun drive.

Nikon D700, 10.5-17mm, 100iso, f11, 1/60th

After a little while driving around with that angle it was time to try something different. For the next shot I suction cupped the mount on the front windshield and had the camera hanging off the side of the car aimed in towards the drivers seat.

Below you can see how I super clamped the magic arm to the top of the suction cup mount.

Here is another angle of the set up. If you look close you can see that one end of the camera strap is safely secured to the drivers side door handle.

Once the camera was all set up I got behind the wheel and drove for a few minutes to see how the angle looked.

Nikon D700, 10.5-17mm, 100iso, f11, 1/250th

After a few minutes with me driving I pulled over to check the mount and make sure the exposure and focus were still good to go. After seeing that everything was fine I turned over the drivers seat to Jennifer so I could get a cool photo of her behind the wheel.

Below, is a photo from the passengers seat showing the remote set up from my perspective. Note the sock on the magic arm to prevent scratching.

The windy empty roads in the middle of nowhere made for nice backgrounds in the shots but once again the fact it was so bright outside made it difficult to get a slow enough shutter speed to make it look like we were moving much. In hindsight I should have waited till just before sunset or just after to get nice blurs.

Here is the shot with Jennifer driving. If you look closely you can see the pocket wizard in my left hand as I fire the shot.

Nikon D700, 10.5-17mm, 100iso, f11, 1/125th

After shooting a few more similar shots it was back to the cabin to hang out and relax and wait for the sun to go down so we could actually get some slow shutter speed blurs.

Nikon D700, 24-70mm, 100iso, f13, 1/250th

Fast forward a few hours later and it was finally dark enough to try a few more remote shots with hopefully better success.

This time I suction cupped the mount to the rear deck just behind the drivers side door. Note the camera strap going inside the drivers door where it was secured to the car to prevent the camera from hitting the ground in the event of a mount failure.

Below you can see how the angle looked. Note the roll of gaff tape in the side pocket of the door. I make it a point to ALWAYS carry gaff tape because you never know when you will need it.

Nikon D700, 10.5-17mm, 100iso, f7.1, 1/4th

After a quick final check to make sure everything was good it was on the road we went.

Nikon D700, 10.5-17mm, 200iso, f4, 1/25th

For shots like this where the exposure would be different in most of the frames the only way to really shoot is with the camera in an auto exposure mode such as aperture priority. The downside of doing that is sometimes you will end up with way too bright, or in the below shot, too dark frames.

Nikon D700, 10.5-17mm, 200iso, f4, 1/13th

The slow shutter speed I was getting from the quickly diminishing light was certainly making the photos look cooler than the mid afternoon shots but it also presented another problem.

With the slow shutter speeds sometimes approaching a half second long shot I was losing lots of frames to vibrations making the entire frame out of focus.

Nikon D700, 10.5-17mm, 200iso, f5, 1/4th

There are only two things you can do to combat that problem.

Option 1. Raise the ISO or lower the f-stop. The downside to that is I wouldn’t get the nice blurry backgrounds like I want.

Option 2. Take lots and lots of shots and bank on the laws of averages helping you. If you shoot several hundred frames the odds are pretty good you will get at least one tack sharp photo with the background streaking by.

It took several hundred crappy shots but I did end up getting one I really liked.

Nikon D700, 10.5-17mm, 200iso, f5, 1/6th

After driving for a few more minutes I stopped the car and checked to make sure I got something decent. After seeing I had some stuff like I was hoping for I took the remote and decided to try one more angle.

I got the idea to put the suction cup on the hood with the camera aimed over the side down to the front wheel. I envisioned a cool shot of the road blurring by the spinning wheel.

Below is the set up shot. Note the camera strap wrapped around the windshield wiper blade.

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The shots from this angle were pretty boring and a bit too risky for what I got with it. Here is how the shot looked. Note the reflection of the remote on the car.

Nikon D700, 10.5-17mm, 200iso, f4, 1/2.5th

I made a left turn onto the main road and figured I would drive another mile and stop to the remove the rig. Here was another shot as I drove down the road.

Nikon D700, 10.5-17mm, 200iso, f4, 1/5th

And then I witnessed something that made my heart drop as the suction cup popped off the hood and fell out of view of the side of the car. Here is a shot as it fell.

Nikon D700, 10.5-17mm, 200iso, f4, 1/6th

I nailed the brakes to stop the car and heard the sickening sound of metal clunking along the road. I got out of the car prepared to see my new D700 in pieces on the road but got VERY lucky with what I saw.

The camera strap around the windshield wiper totally saved my ass and the camera never touched the ground. The metal clunking sound I heard was simply the suction cup and magic arm dragging on the ground. Here is a wider angle showing the strap that saved me a few thousand dollars of gear.

The next thing that went through my mind was to look on the side of my car to make sure I didn’t scratch or dent the body.

I got lucky with that also and the car suffered zero damage.

With that kind of luck I should go to Vegas!

Actually Vegas is the next blog I will be posting.

A few months ago I posted this blog on a assignment I did for ESPN the Magazine on college pitcher Stephen Strasburg. It was a successful and fun shoot but the story got cancelled. A few months later the story was resurrected so I figured I would post an update showing how the story ran and the pictures they used.

Here is the original blog from 2 months ago:

A few weeks ago while reading Yahoo news I came across a story about a college pitcher named Stephen Strasburg who was being heralded as a future hall of famer even though he was only 20 years old and playing for San Diego State, a nice school that is far from a college baseball powerhouse. To make things even more interesting, the article mentioned he is already represented by super agent Scott Boras. Ok, sounds like an interesting story, I’ll click.

After reading the story and hearing all the hype about the kid being a can’t miss superstar I started looking at the San Diego State baseball schedule to see if perhaps he would be playing here in Phoenix anytime soon. No such luck.

About 10 minutes after finishing the yahoo story on him I came across another story about him on espn.com raving how he was one of the greatest baseball prospects in history. And to finish it off to show you how hyped this kid is here is a story from SI.com.

Ok so enough with all the hype and back to how the shoot came about.

While setting up a remote for a NCAA basketball game in Phoenix I received a call from an ESPN Magazine editor seeing if I was available to go shoot Strasburg for a story the magazine planned on doing. “When is the game you want me to shoot”, I asked? ”Tomorrow”, said the editor.

Even though I knew I was scheduled to do some editing work I took on the job. Based on everything I had read in the previous few days on Strasburg, I REALLY wanted to shoot him. If he ends up becoming half as famous as everyone seems to think then these images of him in college could have some nice value down the road.

Less than 12 hours after getting all the logistics of the shoot and arranging travel I was on a flight early Friday morning to Fort Worth, Texas where I would be shooting a road game against TCU.

One of the stipulations for me agreeing to the shoot was I had to fly home the same night so that I would be able to get some sleep before shooting another NCAA basketball game early Saturday afternoon.

My flight back to Phoenix was scheduled to leave Texas at 1010pm. With the baseball game scheduled to start at 6:30pm I would only be able to shoot 4-5 innings before hauling ass to the airport to get home.

Once in Texas I grabbed my rental car, a quick lunch and was off to the stadium.

I got there around 4pm and picked up my pass on checked out the stadium to see what the photo access would be like.

The first thing I was told by the media director was that there was no field level photo spots and I could not be on the field at all, not even during batting practice or pre-game. Lovely!

Thankfully it was a small little stadium and I was allowed to shoot from anywhere in the crowd that I could find.

ESPN had been declined when they requested a few minutes to do a portrait as had Sports Illustrated and everyone else who had asked so I was hopeful to come up with some candid portraits of him in the dugout or on the field before the game. My first chance would be when he arrived via bus with his teammates.

I hung out out front of the stadium and waited for the bus to arrive. Once I spotted him heading my way I got all ready to shoot some shots, I quickly found out he was either, A. Camera shy, or B. Hated photographers because as soon as he saw me with a camera he pulled his hat down low over his face and looked nearly straight down as he walked past me. Check out the lovely shot below.

Nikon D3, 80-200mm, 1250iso, f5.6, 1/1250th

Ok he wanted to play hardball with me eh, I was up to the challenge and became hell bent on getting the shots I wanted needed for my client.

After the parking lot failure I waited near the field for my next shot at him as the team came out for batting practice.

There he is, I spotted him as he was walking towards me on his way to the outfield.

And once again he also spotted me.

Nikon D3, 400mm, 640iso, f5.6, 1/640th

Ok this means war dude!

Evidently (like a lot of athletes) he didn’t realize that I am there to do a job and if he would just look up or give me something then I would get what I need and then leave him alone.

He joined a group of players in the outfield corner and began playing a game where they slap the baseball around the circle with their gloves. It looked like a game of hackey sack, but instead of using their feet, they used their gloves.

Nikon D3, 70-200mm, 1250iso, f5.6, 1/1250th

It was pretty funny watching them play their little game and whenever one of them missed and allowed the ball to hit the ground they had to turn their ball cap sideways.

I picked up my body with the 400mm lens on it to try and get some closer photos of him reacting.

Nikon D3, 400mm, 1000iso, f5.6, 1/1000th

Nikon D3, 400mm, 1000iso, f5.6, 1/1000th

Nikon D3, 400mm, 1000iso, f5.6, 1/1000th

Hall of fame player Tony Gwynn manages the San Diego State team so I was sure to get a photo or two of him as well in case they wanted to include something of him in the story.

Nikon D3, 400mm, 1000iso, f5.6, 1/500th

The San Diego State players headed off the field to get dressed and ready for the game.

I got at the edge of the dugout with hopes of getting something of him as he got suited up.

I actually got a photo that clearly showed his face before he saw me and turned away.

Nikon D3, 70-200mm, 2000iso, f4.5, 1/800th

That photo had me happy but of course I wanted more.

He put on his jacket as he prepared to head to the bull pen to warm up.

Nikon D3, 70-200mm, 2000iso, f4, 1/800th

After that shot I quickly changed positions to try and get a good off camera flash lit shot of him walking to the bull pen. There was part of the fence that was open for groundskeepers to enter the field that allowed me to get ground level and hopefully prevent him from looking down and covering his face.

As he walked out of the dugout he saw me and quickly put his head down.

Nikon D700, 24-70mm, 200iso, f10, 1/250th with SB800 flash

I got as low as I could but this was as good as it got as he passed by.

Nikon D700, 24-70mm, 200iso, f10, 1/250th with SB800 flash

Once out in the bullpen he began stretching in preparation of throwing.

Nikon D3, 70-200mm, 250iso, f2.8, 1/1000th

The backgrounds in the bullpen from my shootign location were pretty cluttery when I was standing up shooting so in order to clear them up a bit I resorted to laying down on the ground with the camera pushed up against the chain link fence in order to get a slightly better angle.

When he started off throwing slow his face looked close to normal.

Nikon D3, 400mm, 640iso, f2.8, 1/1000th

His face became not so normal when he would throw his 100mph fast ball. He started to look like some type of creepy leprechaun!

Nikon D3, 400mm, 640iso, f2.8, 1/1000th

After shooting a few pitches from that angle I looked around for something different to do. The name of this game was get as many different angles of him as I could for my client. I noticed a hill alongside the bullpen so I climbed up that and noticed a cool wide angle shot to take with a group of fans who were against the fence watching and taking photos with their camera phones.

Nikon D3, 70-200mm, 800iso, f2.8, 1/1000th

After a few shots from that angle I decided to go down to the fence and shoot through it with a wide angle lens.

Nikon D700, 24-70mm, 250iso, f2.8, 1/640th

I moved spots a bit and pushed the lens right up against the fence in an attempt to make it disappear altogether.

Nikon D700, 24-70mm, 250iso, f2.8, 1/2000th

That may look like horrible photoshopping (burn tool/dodge tool) but I assure you that the dark edges are due to the fence in the foreground. Come on, I’m not that sloppy with my toning!

Zoomed in even closer as Strasburg left the bullpen to head back to the dugout.

Nikon D700, 24-70mm, 250iso, f7.1, 1/250th

I walked back behind home plate and found an empty seat in the front row directly behind home plate. It would be a perfect spot to shoot him pitching from. I made sure to remember to shoot vertical images as well as horizontal because you never know if the client is going to use a vertical for a full pager or a horizontal for a double truck (two pager).

Nikon D3, 400mm, 1000iso, f2.8, 1/1250th

Nikon D3, 400mm, 1000iso, f2.8, 1/1250th

After fooling around with shots including the blurred batter in the foreground I made sure to shoot the standard (aka boring) shot of him pitching with nothing in the shot other than him.

Nikon D3, 400mm, 800iso, f2.8, 1/1250th

For the next inning I wanted to use the radar gun that was mounted to the wall right next to me for a shot. The goal was to have the gun showing 100mph or higher. There was only one problem…..

Did I mention that there was a 30mph wind that was blowing into the pitcher. Check out the flags in the below photo.

Nikon D3, 70-200mm, 2000iso, f4, 1/8000th

With that wind it was going to make my goal of a 100mph radar reading a bit harder. Sure enough the fastest I got during my one inning trying the shot was 99mph…..pansy.

Nikon D700, 24-70mm, 500iso, f8, 1/250th with SB 800 Flash

Looking at how the photo came out I don’t even know why I wasted an inning trying for the shot. Its garbage. Even if it said 105mph it would still be worthless.

Lets move along!

For the next inning I shot from the third base side to get some side shots of him pitching.

Nikon D3, 400mm, 1250iso, f2.8, 1/1000th

The sun was getting lower in the sky and the clouds were starting to look cooler so I put Strasburg in the bottom of the frame and attempted to get some of the nice sky in the shot.

Nikon D3, 400mm, 800iso, f2.8, 1/1000th

The background was too cluttery, the sky was too blown out and the shot was complete crap. FAIL.

It was time to find a new angle.

While TCU was pitching I went up high in the grandstands to scout some spots. I found a nice overall view but I hate it because of the giant net that covers the whole crowd.

Nikon D700, 24-70mm, 500iso, f2.8, 1/1000th

I decided to stay in that spot to get Strasburg pitching. But instead of doing the wide angle shot that would be ruined by the net I shot with the 400mm and was able to eliminate the net from the shot altogether.

Nikon D3, 400mm, 1600iso, f2.8, 1/800th

I got what I needed from that spot so I moved down field level on the first base side.

From this angle I would have his back and the shot would be worthless so I just took a quick wide angle shot since from this spot I wouldn’t have the net in front of me.

Nikon D700, 24-70mm, 500iso, f2.8, 1/800th

Look at the temperature in the lower left corner of the scoreboard.

Nikon D3, 70-200mm, 4000iso, f2.8, 1/800th

Now factor in the 30mph winds and that takes the windchill factor to 32 degrees. God I wish I had packed a jacket right around that time!

I looked into the dugout to my left and spotted Strasburg sitting all alone in the corner. Click.

Nikon D3, 70-200mm, 4000iso, f2.8, 1/400th

Time was running out before I had to get my ass on the road to the airport so I began making my way back to the third base side (where my rental car was parked).

I decided to try another wide angle shot from the elevated position. But this time I screwed a star filter onto my lens to add the cheesy star effects to the stadium lights as Strasburg threw a pitch.

Nikon D700, 24-70mm, 1250iso, f2.8, 1/640th with Star Filter

I went down on field level at the third base side and did another star filter shot but this time I zoomed in more and shot vertical.

Nikon D700, 24-70mm, 1600iso, f2.8, 1/640th with Star Filter

I was pretty happy with the shoot and was needing to go but I decided to try one more shot to fill out my variety for the shoot.

I tried to shoot a triple exposure shot.

With the Nikon cameras you can put the camera in a mode where three shots will be taken but instead of it being three individual photos it puts them all together on one frame. It is a tricky shot to do and I can never seem to do them right.

Attempt one.

Nikon D3, 400mm, 2500iso, f2.8, 1/800th triple exposure

That shot was horrible because I followed him with the camera as his body moved which resulted in a giant glob of worthlessness.

For attempt two I would leave the camera in a stationary spot and allow him to move through the frame.

Nikon D3, 400mm, 2500iso, f2.8, 1/800th triple exposure

That came out better but there still wasn’t enough separation between the first two shots of him. Try again.

Attempt three

Nikon D3, 400mm, 2500iso, f2.8, 1/800th triple exposure

Bleh, same type problem. I was really cutting it close with not having enough time to get back to the airport to catch my flight so I gave it one last shot.

Attempt four.

Nikon D3, 400mm, 3200iso, f2.8, 1/800th triple exposure

I was pretty happy with that shot. I had good separation and good body positions in the three images. I wish the background had been cleaner but there was nothing I could do (unless I brought a giant black sheet to put in the background, hmmmm)

Normally the blog would end here but then you would miss out on all the travel fun!

So I pack up, haul ass to the airport, drop rental car off and make it to the airport an hour before my flight. Woo hoo.

Houston, uhh Fort Worth, we have a problem!

Due to the high winds and weather in the area my damn flight had been cancelled!

Spent about 45 minutes dealing with customer service to get my flight changed to the earliest possible time the next morning so I could make it to my shoot (NCAA Elite Eight) in time for tip off.

I would end up on a flight with a 7am departure. So that would mean a 530am wakeup call at the hotel I was gonna stay at. Ok so 530am wakeup call isn’t that terrible right? When you factor in that I was used to Arizona time then that makes it a 330am wakeup call. OUCH!

All went well and I made my flight home in time for my shoot.

Got the images edited and sent to my editor who was really happy with the images.

Then he hit me in the face with some bad news.

The story had been cancelled! UGH

Such is the life of a professional photographer!

Clips:

Typically on this weekend every year I venture to Dover, Delaware to shoot NASCAR but after three consecutive years shooting that event I felt it was time for a change so I decided to head to Topeka, Kansas to cover the ground pounding 320mph vehicles of the NHRA.

The last time I shot at Topeka was back in 1997. I had won a photo contest put on by National Dragster and my prize was a starting line credential for a race. But obviously 12 years is a long time ago so I didn’t really remember much about the track. With that in mind I made it a point to go to the track early on Friday so I could scope things and come up with a shooting plan. 

After setting up in the media room I checked out the top end (area past the finish line) of the track to see how that would look since I spend the bulk of my weekend there. It was decent but the area they allowed photographers was pretty far past the finish line and with it being a flat shutdown area and hot weather I knew I would have to contend with heatwaves ruining my shots.

I went to the starting line and it was a pretty normal spot so I knew that wouldn’t be an issue. The tower behind the track had a viewing area on the top off to the side so I ventured up there to see how the view was.

Once up there I set all my gear down and looked around at potential ideas for some shots. After a few minutes of that I reached down for my camera and as I was pulling it up to my face I noticed something on the back of the camera. I couldn’t believe my eyes. A freaking bird took a crap on my camera!

What a great start to a weekend eh? I asked my friends on my Facebook if that was good luck to have a bird crap on your camera. The general consensus was that it was only good luck in Haiti. Haha nice.

Ok on to shooting. From up on the roof I shot the below photo of comp eliminator driver Steve Matusek as he did a burnout.

Nikon D700, 70-200mm, 250iso, f5.6, 1/2000th

Walking around to the backside of the tower was also a potential good spot to shoot since you could shoot straight down on the cars as they are towed in behind the starting line. Anytime you find a spot to shoot that will provide a unique angle is great because you can only shoot the same boring shots week in and week out before you finally want to kill yourself from the boredom.

Nikon D700, 70-200mm, 250iso, f5.6, 1/2500th

The faster cars were coming up so I headed back to the top end of the track to see how it would work for me. 

While it was pretty hot it was still a gorgeous day with nice white clouds in the blue sky. With that in mind I took a wide shot (below) to illustrate it as Top Alcohol Funny Car driver Alexis De Joria went by me with her parachutes out following a run.

Nikon D700, 24-70mm, 500iso, f5.6, 1/1000th

Below, I got low at the bottom of a hill to make a nice clean background as multi time NHRA pro stock champion Warren Johnson is towed back to the pit area after a qualifying run.

Nikon D700, 600mm, 400iso, f9, 1/1000th

I wasn’t happy with how the heat waves were affecting my shots from the top end so I hopped in my car and headed up to the starting line to see if I could get anything good there. 

Below, funny car driver Ron Capps does a burnout.

Nikon D700, 24-70mm, 200iso, f7.1, 1/160th

The sun light shining through the burnout smoke added a cool orange tint to the photos which contrasted well with the blue skies in the below photo of funny car driver Del Worsham.

Nikon D700, 24-70mm, 200iso, f7.1, 1/160th

Since I rarely shoot on the starting line (I’m scared of missing a wild photo down track) I tried making the most of it so I went back in the staging lanes to look for some feature photos to show a different side of drag racing. 

Below I tried to shoot a shot of Cory McClenathan as he sat in his car. He was in the shadow of an umbrella held over him by a crew member. The problem was the reflections off the wind visor of his car made it hard to see him in the car.

Nikon D700, 70-200mm, 250iso, f5.6, 1/400th

I moved on to the car of Larry Dixon and saw a cool effect off the wind visor of his car where the reflections that ruined my previous shot were blocked by a crew member standing alongside which created a small area where you could clearly see Dixon sitting in the car.

Nikon D700, 70-200mm, 250iso, f5.6, 1/100th

Since I was close to the tower I again went up there to see if I could come up with any cool shots looking down on the cars in the staging lanes.

The shadows looked cool from above so I shot slightly wide directly down on the car driven by Morgan Lucas as he waited to race.

Nikon D700, 24-70mm, 800iso, f2.8, 1/2000th

Below, Tony Schumacher gives me the evil eye as he sits in his car back in the staging lanes.

Nikon D700, 600mm, 640iso, f4, 1/640th

I decided I wanted to go on the starting line to shoot some action stuff so I once again headed down from the tower. I briefly stopped on the way to fire off a picture with the cars of Antron Brown (near) alongside Tony Schumacher with some trees framing them in the foreground. With both of them being championship contenders it was a shot that will most likely get some editorial use down the road.

Nikon D700, 70-200mm, 800iso, f2.8, 1/2000th

Once on the starting line instead of doing the normal action shots with the cars frozen by a fast shutter speed I instead slowed the shutter speed way down to do some speed blurs. While the success rate of getting a good shot is much lower its worth the risk because when you do get something cool it makes for a nice shot.

Below, Brandon Bernstein (near) takes on Cory McClenathan during qualifying.

Nikon D700, 24-70mm, 250iso, f11, 1/60th

Nikon D700, 24-70mm, 250iso, f11, 1/60th

Below, Tony Schumacher does a burnout prior to his qualifying run.

Nikon D700, 24-70mm, 250iso, f11, 1/60th

As the sun dipped lower in the Kansas sky it made the light start to look really nice across the cars. I really liked the contrast between the lights and darks as pro mod driver Chip King did his burnout prior to running.

Nikon D700, 600mm, 400iso, f5.6, 1/2500th

The second round of the professional qualifying was supposed to take place well before the sunset but due to a few delays it started over an hour and a half behind schedule. It was great for me because it would allow me to have some really nice light for the first half and darkness for the second half.

In the below photo I shot wide to include the sun as it dipped behind a hill as pro stock drivers Mike Edwards (near) and Jason Line slow to a stop following their run.

Nikon D700, 24-70mm, 500iso, f2.8, 1/1250th

When the nitro funny cars came up to run it was just dark enough you could see the header flames from the cars yet bright enough that I could still shoot them with a 600mm f4 lens. Also helping out was the temperature had cooled down a lot enabling me to shoot photos without them being ruined by heat waves.

I noticed the tower behind the starting line had lots of people watching from there so I framed a shot with the cars of Dan Wilkerson (left) and Jack Wyatt at the bottom of the frame and the tower filling out the rest of the shot. I feel the tower adds a interesting aspect to the shot. Almost has an industrial feel to it.

Nikon D700, 600mm, 1600iso, f4, 1/1000th

On one of my other bodies I had a wide angle lens and set up the settings for slow shutter speed shots to get some blur as cars went by me with the parachutes out.

Below, Robert Hight slows to a stop following his run.

Nikon D700, 24-70mm, 640iso, f5.6, 1/50th

Below, Mike Neff (right) races Matt Hagan during qualifying. The first shot is them about a 1/4 mile away with the long lens.

Nikon D700, 600mm, 2000iso, f4, 1/1000th

The below shot is them as they speed past me with the parachutes out.

Nikon D700, 24-70mm, 640iso, f5.6, 1/30th

It quickly got too dark to really get anything good from the shutdown area so I packed up and headed to the starting line.

For the first pair of cars I shot I went with the standard night time set up of a fast enough shutter speed to stop the vehicles with no blur as well as a flash on the camera.

Below, Tony Pedregon (near) races Del Worsham.

Nikon D700, 24-70mm, 1250iso, f3.2, 1/250th with SB 800 Flash

I was happy with how that shot looked but I quickly got a cool idea to try a different type shot for each pair of cars I shot.

The next pair up I did a similar type shot but slowed the shutter speed down a bunch to add some motion blur to the shot.

Below, Ron Capps (near) takes on Cruz Pedregon.

Nikon D700, 24-70mm, 800iso, f4, 1/60th with SB 800 Flash

Below, when top fuel dragsters came up I threw on a star filter and shot a rear 3/4 angle as Scott Palmer launched off the starting line. I got lucky and caught another photographers flash which added some nice light to my shot.

Nikon D700, 24-70mm, 800iso, f4, 1/125th with SB 800 Flash and Star Filter

In the below shot I went behind the starting line to the burnout box where a puddle of water is sprayed down for the cars to drive through to make it easier for them to start their burnouts. I laid the camera down on the ground to try and get some reflection off it as he drove past prior to starting his burnout.

Nikon D700, 10.5-17mm, 3200iso, f4, 1/200th

Below, Shawn Langdon does his burnout as he goes past a crew member in this slow shutter speed shot.

Nikon D700, 24-70mm, 250iso, f4.5, 1/30th with SB 800 Flash

Below, Spencer Massey does his burnout as a crew member standing in the foreground looks on.

Nikon D700, 70-200mm, 3200iso, f2.8, 1/200th

For the launch I shot a standard zoom lens shot with a stop action exposure with no flash.

Nikon D700, 70-200mm, 3200iso, f2.8, 1/200th

I shot several shots of the launch including the below shot that I liked which was pretty close up.

Nikon D700, 70-200mm, 3200iso, f2.8, 1/200th

I went up to the roof of the tower and slowed the shutter speed down a lot in hopes of getting some photographers and fans flashes firing as a pair of cars left the starting line. The below shot was basically exactly what I was looking for as a pair of cars launched as crew members stood behind looking on. 

Nikon D700, 24-70mm, 320iso, f2.8, 1/30th

As the next pair of cars waited to fire up for their run I threw on a fisheye lens and shot a wide overall of the track.

Nikon D700, 10.5-17mm, 3200iso, f4, 1/125th

Below, I put on a tighter lens and shot Cory McClenathan as he launched off the line.

Nikon D700, 70-200mm, 3200iso, f2.8, 1/320th

There was only one pair left in the qualifying session. It was Tony Schumacher (near) racing and Larry Dixon, the two best drivers this season. I figured it would be a good idea to head down to the starting line to get a nice clean side by side shot of them. It could do well down the road with sales I’d think.

Nikon D700, 24-70mm, 2000iso, f3.5, 1/250th with SB 800 Flash

Saturday would be a pretty crappy day (without the bird crap). It was very warm outside so shooting on the top end would be nearly pointless once again due to the heat waves. 

Below, Mike Neff (left) races alongside Tim Wilkerson in a sea of heat waves.

Nikon D700, 600mm, 320iso, f8, 1/1600th

Below, Ashley Force Hood and father John Force head away from me with their parachutes out.

Nikon D700, 600mm, 320iso, f8, 1/1600th

Whenever someone asks me for advice on shooting the number one thing I tell them is to be mindful of their backgrounds. You can shoot the coolest photo in the world but if the backgrounds are cluttery the shot is going to be garbage.

In the photos below I show you a bad background followed by a good background. Neither shot is anything good, its just mearly a demonstration of how backgrounds can affect a photo.

Bad Background:

Nikon D700, 70-200mm, 400iso, f8, 1/640th

Good Background:

Nikon D700, 70-200mm, 400iso, f8, 1/640th

The goal of a good photo is for the viewer to go directly to the subject of the shot and know what the point of the photo is, not for them to be looking at the photo thinking something like, “wtf is up with the porta johns in the background.”

The heat waves were just unbearable so I decided to go to the very end of the track to shoot some shots of drivers climbing out of their cars with a wide angle lens and off camera flash.

By using the flash off the top of the camera like most people do this method gives slight shadows on the face that adds more depth to the photo instead of the normal look everyone sees with on camera flash.

Below, Scott Palmer gives me the stare down after climbing from his car.

Nikon D700, 24-70mm, 200iso, f9, 1/250th with SB 800 Flash off Camera

Below, Shawn Langdon prepares to take off his helmet after climbing from his car.

Nikon D700, 24-70mm, 200iso, f9, 1/250th with SB 800 Flash off Camera

Below, Antron Brown is all smiles after qualifying on the pole for the race.

Nikon D700, 24-70mm, 200iso, f8, 1/250th with SB 800 Flash off Camera

Below, Cory McClenathan takes off his helmet following his run.

Nikon D700, 24-70mm, 200iso, f8, 1/250th with SB 800 Flash off Camera

The day would end with the nitro funny cars making their final qualifying runs of the day.

Below, funny car driver Jack Beckman slowly goes by with his parachute out as he prepares to make the turn off the track.

Nikon D700, 24-70mm, 200iso, f8, 1/250th 

Below, Cruz Pedregon (left) stands alongside brother Tony Pedregon following their runs.

Nikon D700, 24-70mm, 200iso, f7.1, 1/250th with SB 800 Flash off Camera

Below, Ashley Force Hood hangs out as she waits to be interviewed following her qualifying run.

Nikon D700, 24-70mm, 200iso, f7.1, 1/250th with SB 800 Flash off Camera

Sunday came and it was all about being in the right spot in case something wild or crazy happened so I would spent the entire day at the top end prepared for anything.

In the second round of top alcohol funny car there was a moment that got my heart racing as Vern Moats got very sideways at speed as his parachutes opened. Luckily he was able to get the car back to straight. Had it not gotten straightened out I would have hit the deck because he was aimed right at me.

Nikon D700, 600mm, 320iso, f8, 1/1600th

Below is another shot that shows how bad the heat waves were. Also making it difficult to shoot was one of the safety crew guys spent a lot of the day leaning against the wall in front of the photo area. Oh well we didn’t miss anything anayways.

Nikon D700, 600mm, 320iso, f8, 1/1600th

Below, Del Worsham takes off his safety gear after losing in the second round and pulling off the track right where I was standing. 

Nikon D700, 70-200mm, 320iso, f6.3, 1/1000th

I don’t think he was too happy with the loss.

Nikon D700, 600mm, 320iso, f8, 1/1600th

After losing in the semi finals Jeg Coughlin took a walk to blow some steam as he waited for his crew to come pick him up.

Nikon D700, 70-200mm, 320iso, f6.3, 1/1250th

Nothing much else to show you so fast forward to the final rounds where I went to the end of the track to shoot the winners climbing from their cars to celebrate their wins.

Pro Stock:

Allen Johnson celebrates with the trophy after his first win in two years.

Nikon D700, 24-70mm, 320iso, f9, 1/250th with SB 800 Flash off camera

Funny Car:

Ron Capps defeated Ashley Force Hood to win his fourth event of the season and increase his points lead. 

Below, he celebrates on track as an NHRA worker on a quad prepares to tow him to the end of the track for his interview by ESPN.

Nikon D700, 600mm, 320iso, f6.3, 1/1600th

Once at the end of the track he climbed from his car to celebrate some more.

Nikon D700, 24-70mm, 320iso, f9, 1/250th with SB 800 Flash off camera

After being handed the trophy he celebrated some more. Obviously Capps was a happy man.

Nikon D700, 24-70mm, 320iso, f7.1, 1/250th with SB 800 Flash off camera

Top Fuel:

Larry Dixon celebrates after winning top fuel.

Nikon D700, 24-70mm, 320iso, f7.1, 1/250th with SB 800 Flash off camera

And with that I wrap up yet another blog. While the race itself was tame and boring compared to lots of other races I think that I proved you don’t need crashes and explosions to get great pictures and have a productive weekend.

Here are some clips from the weekend:

After experiencing the excitement and history of the Indianapolis 500 last year I made myself a promise that I would shoot this race every year for as long as I could. That brings us to 2009 which makes two years in a row for me. If I could pick who would win the race I totally would have gone with Danica Patrick, since it would make me a lot of money in sales. My second choice would probably have been Helio Castroneves. For starters he has been in the news a lot lately after being acquitted of federal tax evasion charges, second because if he won he would be a three time 500 winner thus making him one of the greatest Indy Car drivers of all time.

A few days before the race while having drinks with some friends I noticed a guy with a handful of envelopes and asked him what he was doing at a bar with a bunch of envelopes. He told me he was running an Indy 500 pool. In each of the 33 envelopes was one of the 33 starters of the race. It was 10 dollars a pick. The person with the envelope containing the race winning racer would win 200 dollars, second place 75 dollars, third place 25 dollars and the last place finisher would win 30 dollars. I’m not really the gambling type but I was bored so I busted out 10 bucks for a pick.

Pick 1- Mike Conway

That wasn’t a very good pick at all. I felt screwed with that one so I popped another ten bucks from my pocket and gave it another go.

Pick 2- Alex Lloyd

I didn’t even know who the hell that was so I pulled another 10 bucks out and went again.

Pick 3- Sarah Fisher

Ok this is getting ridiculous now, I need to start looking around to see if there’s a TV crew recording these picks as some kind of prank on me.

At this point I am a bit buzzed and probably should give up and accept that I am gonna loose 30 bucks. But of course I’m an idiot and as we are all about to pay and leave I grab a 20 someone laid on the table for their portion of the bill and make 2 more picks.

Pick 4- Graham Rahal

Sadly this was one of my better picks. But trust me thats not saying much. Yes this kid has won before, but never on a super speedway. Ok time for my last pick.

Pick Five- Ryan Hunter Reay

Yea I probably should have quit after my first pick. Actually as I write this blog I realize I should have bought the remaining 28 picks and I woulda owned every pick and would have broken even!

Below my buddy Jennifer helps me pose with my awesome picks for what certainly would become a photo to remind me to never gamble again.

Photo by Matt Kartozian

Ok on to the actual trip.

Because flights to Indianapolis were ridiculously expensive I ended up flying into Chicago and picking up a rental car and making the 3 hour drive down to Indy. After picking up fellow shooter Guy Rhodes we made the boring drive down.

I always carry my little Canon G10 point n shoot camera on my lap in case I see anything that would make for a cool photo. I never really post those kind of photos in my blogs but I will make an effort to show more stuff from my travels besides just the events.

Below, as the sun sets a semi passes by on Interstate 865 near Indianapolis.

Canon G10, 400iso, f2.8, 1/2000th

On Friday we headed to the track, first stopping by credentials, then it was inside to shoot the final one hour Indy Car practice followed by the Indy Lights race.

Traffic totally sucked getting into the track so once in I had about 5 minutes to drop my stuff off in the media room before heading down to pit road to shoot the final practice.

Below, Graham Rahal gets his helmet on before climbing into his car.

Nikon D700, 70-200mm with 1.4 convertor, 200iso, f5.6, 1/250th

For the start of the practice I got at the end of pit road to shoot wide shots of the cars pulling out onto the track with the blue sky and empty grandstands.

Below, Helio Castroneves leads teammate Ryan Briscoe out on track to begin the session.

Nikon D700, 24-70mm, 320iso, f5.6, 1/3200th

I tried moving around on pit road to shoot more driver shots as they went in and out of the pits but the crowds of people on pit road were ridiculous. Check out the below photo showing what I’m talking about. There’s more people on pit road than in the freaking crowd!

Nikon D700, 24-70mm, 320iso, f5.6, 1/2000th

I went out to turn one and shot for a few minutes, it was basically a bunch of standard car shots that were really boring and average although I did kind of like the below shot of Justin Wilson as he throws up a shower of sparks while racing through the turn at 220mph.

Nikon D700, 400mm with 1.4 convertor (550mm), 200iso, f5.6, 1/400th

For the end of practice I went back onto pit road to try and get some driver shots since head shots sell. Below, former Indy 500 winners and teammates Dario Franchitti (left) and Scott Dixon talk following the practice.

Nikon D700, 24-70mm, 200iso, f11, 1/250th with SB800 Flash

I noticed this fan walking around with a sign directed towards the ladies (and not the fat men I hope).

Nikon D700, 24-70mm, 200iso, f11, 1/250th with SB800 Flash

The Indy Lights race was up next so I shot a few shots of the drivers on pit road. I have never heard of most of the drivers but I always make it a point to shoot everyone I can because you really never know who will be a superstar one day.

Below, Indy Lights driver Junior Strous stands by his car prior to the race.

Nikon D700, 24-70mm, 200iso, f8, 1/250th with SB800 Flash

Below, the track reflects in the sun glasses of Indy Lights driver Pablo Donoso as he stands on the grid during opening ceremonies.

Nikon D700, 70-200mm, 400iso, f5.6, 1/800th

Nobody really cares about the Indy Lights race but I was already at the track and had nothing better to do so I posted myself in turn one and used the race as practice for the main race.

About 10 minutes into the race I got some action when Indy Light driver Martin Plowman spun entering the turn as teammate Pippa Mann was forced to go high and missed being clipped by inches.

Nikon D700, 400mm, 400iso, f5.6, 1/1600th

Plowman continued out of control until he smacked the wall.

Nikon D700, 400mm, 400iso, f5.6, 1/1600th

Nikon D700, 400mm, 400iso, f5.6, 1/1250th

Nikon D700, 400mm, 400iso, f5.6, 1/1600th

Nikon D700, 400mm, 400iso, f5.6, 1/1600th

Nikon D700, 400mm, 400iso, f5.6, 1/1000th

After the cleanup the race got back underway for a few minutes until Indy Light driver Ana Beatriz (20) clipped wheels with Gustavo Yacaman (44) as they went past me setting off a crash.

Nikon D700, 400mm, 400iso, f5.6, 1/2500th

It caught me by surprise so the only shot I got before the want behind a fence was a blurry crappy photo of Yacaman as he started going out of control.

Nikon D700, 400mm, 400iso, f5.6, 1/2500th

I was able to get one more shot when the car was going away and slid through a spot where I had a view of the track.

Nikon D700, 400mm, 400iso, f5.6, 1/3200th

What I couldn’t see was that the other driver, Ana Beatriz, slid into the inside wall where she made heavy contact. After the crash I was able to move and shoot photos as Beatriz was extricated from the car and taken away on a stretcher. She was later released from the hospital.

Nikon D700, 400mm with 1.4 convertor (550mm), 400iso, f5.6, 1/1600th

Heres a video of the crash.

One of the few Indy Lights drivers I’ve heard of, Wade Cunningham, won the race.

Nikon D700, 70-200mm, 400iso, f5.6, 1/1000th

That ended a busy Friday at the track.

Saturday was a nice laid back day where I was able to sleep in and basically do nothing. Late in the afternoon Guy Rhodes and I headed over to the track to check out some potential elevated shooting positions. While up there I couldn’t resist getting a photo of me with one of the most famous tracks in the world as a background.

Photo by Guy Rhodes

After that it was a relaxing evening of doing nothing and watching crash clips on youtube to get pumped up for race day. With the alarm clock set for 4 am I wanted to go to bed by 11pm. Of course that didn’t happen, I was too excited for the race to fall asleep so I ended up only getting two hours of sleep. That 4am wake up really sucked let me tell you!

After laying in bed for about 30 minutes waking up it was time to get up and get ready to roll out. On the road by 5:15 it was smooth sailing as we drove in the darkness to the track. 12 miles from the track not a single car on the road.

Canon G10, 1600iso, f2.8, 1/15th

Everything looked good to go as there was no traffic, 2 miles from the track life is good then BOOM. Traffic comes to a grinding halt. We sat in one spot and didn’t move an inch for over 45 minutes. If I had a gun I would have started shooting people.

Canon G10, 400iso, f4.5, 1/160th

The view in the rear view mirror was just as bad.

Canon G10, 200iso, f3.5, 1/320th

In the below photo I’m not sure if the guy is dead or passed out but either way he’s having much more fun than I am as I rot in the traffic jam from hell.

Canon G10, 400iso, f4.5, 1/100th

We ended up getting into the track just after 8am, a 20 minute drive to the track took just short of three hours! The worst part was pulling into the parking lot behind the Getty Images crew and hearing from my buddy Chris Graythen about how they left their hotel at 6:30am (an hour and 15 minutes after we left) and they arrived at the same time!

After getting all settled in the media center I took a walk out to turn one to make sure my marked spot was still there. Its not unusual for people to tear down your name and replace it with theirs so its always good to double check. (thanks to my friend Glenn Smith for guarding my spot for me)

With several hours until the race I killed some more time by walking around and shooting some random feature photos. Below are a few photos of the Pagoda on the inside of the start finish line.

Nikon D700, 24-70mm, 400iso, f5, 1/3200th

Nikon D700, 24-70mm, 400iso, f5, 1/3200th

The amount of fans milling around the inside of the speedway was ridiculous.

Nikon D700, 70-200mm, 400iso, f5, 1/3200th

The Indy 500 has to have one of the coolest trophies in sports so I always make it a point to shoot a photo of it.

Nikon D700, 24-70mm, 400iso, f5, 1/2500th

Below is a detailed view of the famous yard of bricks that make up the finish line of the famed track.

Nikon D700, 24-70mm, 400iso, f5, 1/1600th

Below, members of the Purdue Marching Band kill time sitting in victory lane prior to performing during opening ceremonies.

Nikon D700, 24-70mm, 400iso, f5, 1/3200th

It was finally closing in on race time so I headed out onto the grid to wait for the drivers to show up to their cars. Walking between the cars on the track with the buzz of the hundreds of thousands of fans surrounding the straight away is a feeling like none other.

Nikon D700, 24-70mm, 400iso, f5, 1/2500th

Below, the rows of drivers wait to be introduced to the fans.

Nikon D700, 24-70mm, 400iso, f5, 1/1000th

Below, Danica Patrick waits by her car prior to the race.

Nikon D700, 24-70mm, 400iso, f5, 1/1250th

After shooting a few more driver shots on pit road it was time to head out to my spot in turn one. Once I got out there I quickly walked over to the short chute between turns one and two and mounted a remote camera on the inside catch fencing. While it is only about 100 yards from my shooting position it covered an area that wasn’t visible from my spot due to the inside catch fencing. Here are a few set up shots of the remote D700 with a 24-70mm lens.

Unlike NASCAR where when the green flag comes out and you get all the cars racing together into the turn, with Indy Cars they get spread out quickly. Below you can see the leaders as they enter turn one on the first lap.

Nikon D700, 70-200mm, 640iso, f7.1, 1/1250th

Heres the view from the remote camera as Ryan Briscoe leads a pack of cars through the turn. Its really not that great of a remote angle but if someone was to crash in front of me they typically would slide down to the inside towards the camera which would have made for a cool shot. Too bad it never happened.

Nikon D700, 24-70mm, 800iso, f9, 1/2000th

Across the track from me I noticed co-worker Scott Rovak as he shot head on shots of the cars racing. Of course he noticed I was shooting him and cheesed it up for the camera. Took one try for me to get a speeding car going 220mph in the foreground to make the shot complete.

Nikon D700, 400mm, 500iso, f7.1, 1/1600th

Below, Helio Castroneves drives away from me into turn two in the middle stages of the race.

Nikon D700, 400mm, 500iso, f7.1, 1/1600th

Below is a photo showing the holes in the fence on the inside that us photographers have to shoot through. The photo holes at some tracks are at awkward heights, either too high or too low which leads you to having to crouch which is bad on the back or stand on your tippie toes but fortunately the holes at Indy were a perfect height for me.

Photo by Scott Rovak

Since I was shooting Victory Lane following the race I had to make sure I gave myself enough time for the 1/2 mile or so walk to the finish line from my position in turn one. I decided that with 100 miles to go in the race (Lap 160) I would leave my spot. Lap 160 came and I was pissed that I hadn’t gotten anything useful at all the entire race so I decided to give it a few more laps. On lap 162 Justin Wilson lost it entering the turn and spun as Milka Duno raced by beneath.

Nikon D700, 400mm, 500iso, f7.1, 1/1600th

Typically when an Indy Car spins out its always a good impact with tires and car parts flying. Of course not in this case as the car suffered virtually no damage and made for worthless photos.

Nikon D700, 400mm, 500iso, f7.1, 1/1600th

With the caution now out for the incident it was the perfect time for me to pack up and head to the media room to drop all my extra stuff off and get prepared to shoot the finish as well as the victory lane celebration. While in the media room I decided to transmit a few photos from the race. While editing photos the green flag came out and as my luck this year would have it there was a big crash in turn one (where I spent the whole race) with Vitor Meira hitting the wall hard and flipping on his side and sliding all the way through the turn. As I watched the crash on the TV I let out a few choice words not appropriate for this blog (or pretty much any blog). As always is the case within minutes of the crash my phone started buzzing with an influx of texts and messages asking me, “did you get that?!?” NOPE!

Here is a video clip of the crash so you can see why I’m so upset. (sorry its in a foreign language but this clip had all the angles together)

Initially I really thought the driver might be dead because on TV they wouldn’t show any close up views of the crash scene as medics worked to remove him from the car. Plus the TV announcers never said if they had seen any movement from the driver in the car.

So with that in mind I quickly looked through my shots of the drivers during pre-race to see if I had anything of Meira. I came across a few so I posted those to the web in the event something bad had happened since publications would certainly need them to go along with their stories. It sounds sadistic but with high speed motor sports anything can happen so whenever I am shooting I always try to get nice clean photos of as many drivers as I can regardless if they are a superstar or a no named rookie. Here was the shot of Meira from before the race.

Nikon D700, 70-200mm, 500iso, f5, 1/1000th

Thankfully Meira wasn’t seriously injured (unless you count a broken back in two places serious). He will fully recover so all is well.

I headed down onto pit road near the finish line to find a good spot where I could shoot the race finish as well as be in proximity to Victory Lane for the important shots.

While down there I noticed cool looking skid marks leaving each pit stall so I looked for some way to incorporate it in a photo. I saw one of the tech inspectors standing near a set of track so I shot the below photo.

Nikon D700, 70-200mm with 1.4 convertor, 640iso, f6.3, 1/1250th

Helio Castroneves had a nice lead as the laps winded down. With one to go I shot his pit board guy holding up a sign with the number one signaling he was on the last lap.

Nikon D700, 70-200mm, 640iso, f4.5, 1/2500th

Since it was the last lap I climbed up onto the pit wall to get a slightly higher angle in anticipation for the checkered flag shot when he came back around. As the crowd roared, Castroneves took the checkered flag to win his third Indianapolis 500.

Nikon D700, 70-200mm, 640iso, f4.5, 1/2500th

I knew that since he had won the race he would undoubtedly do his traditional fence climb so I waited for him to come back around and stop near my position for the climb. What I didn’t know was that I had bumped my camera settings and had inadvertently changed the exposure to some horrible blown out garbage. Here are a few shots illustrating what I’m talking about. First is one of him climbing out of the car

Nikon D700, 70-200mm, 640iso, f4.5, 1/500th

Then he jumped on the fence and started climbing.

Nikon D700, 70-200mm, 640iso, f4.5, 1/500th

Luckily for me I always am paranoid about a settign being wrong so I constantly check the images on the back of my camera to make sure they are good. After a quick “oh shit” and a fast settings change I was back in business as he put on one hell of a celebration.

Nikon D700, 70-200mm, 640iso, f4.5, 1/1600th

As he celebrated by himself his crew began climbing the fence to join him on the celebration.

Nikon D700, 70-200mm, 640iso, f4.5, 1/1600th

He then hopped down from the fence and celebrated with more crew members. You just gotta love TV crews who are allowed in front of the rest of us using giant boom microphones. Thanks!

Nikon D700, 70-200mm, 640iso, f4.5, 1/1600th

Castroneves started being led towards victory lane so I made the short walk that direction. On the way I spotted a semi dejected looking Dario Franchitti as he walked back to the garage area.

Nikon D700, 24-70mm, 800iso, f7.1, 1/2000th

Once in my assigned position in victory lane (front row and center, not sure how I got so lucky!) Helio was standing in his car as he was pushed in. The celebration and reaction from him was perhaps the happiest I have ever seen somebody. Its understandable since a month earlier he was faced with the prospects of up to ten years in prison. I’d be pretty damn happy too!

Nikon D700, 70-200mm, 640iso, f4.5, 1/1600th

Overcome with emotions Castroneves buried his face in his hands and wept.

Nikon D700, 70-200mm, 640iso, f4.5, 1/1600th

Then it was time for an Indy 500 tradition, taking a swig of the milk. First hit took a big drink of it.

Nikon D700, 70-200mm, 640iso, f5, 1/1600th

Then he took a bath in it as he dumped the bottle on his head.

Nikon D700, 70-200mm, 640iso, f5, 1/1600th

After the dump there was still some left in the bottle so he spun it around in the air shooting milk all different directions. I didn’t notice it till a half hour later while editing in the media room but I got a pretty funny shot where two globs of milk are covering his eyes making for an incredibly lucky and pretty funny photo.

Nikon D700, 70-200mm, 640iso, f5, 1/1600th

Heres a closer look.

Nikon D700, 70-200mm, 640iso, f5, 1/1600th

Here were the last couple I liked.

Nikon D700, 70-200mm, 640iso, f5, 1/1600th

Nikon D700, 70-200mm, 640iso, f5, 1/1600th

After the initial celebration I decided to head out of victory lane and run up to the media room to transmit since speed is the name of the game in this industry.

After editing and posting photos for close to two hours it was time to pack up and head back to the hotel. While driving out I noticed all the litter on the spectator viewing area in turn four and stopped to fire off a shot since it was a pretty cool looking scene.

Canon G10, 400iso, f4.5, 1/1250th

Once through the tunnel and out of the track I was sitting at a stop light and was once again impressed by the amount of garbage lining the gutters of Georgetown Street.

Canon G10, 400iso, f4.5, 1/1250th

I feel sorry for whoever has to pick that mess up!

The next morning I had to drive back to Chicago to catch my flight home. Below is a shot of the Chicago skyline as I waited in a traffic jam in the rain.

Canon G10, 400iso, f3.5, 1/640th

Once in Chicago I met up with my good buddy Jerry Lai at a cool bar and grill named Moonshine for a quick lunch before heading to the airport. Below is a pic of me and the ENORMOUS plate of nachos I had for lunch. They tasted glorious!

Canon G10, 400iso, f3.2, 1/13th

That wraps up my weekend covering the Indianapolis 500……

Oh wait, I forgot to tell you how I did with the betting pool.

Remember, first second and third place finishers made money and also 33rd place.

Alex Lloyd

Sarah Fisher

Mike Conway

Graham Rahal

Ryan Hunter-Reay

Next up is NHRA drag racing in Topeka, Kansas.

Below are some tearsheets from the race.

As of today, I will no longer be updating this blog on the wordpress site – please go to blog.vincentlaforet.com from now on – thanks! You can find more recent posts and comment on anything you see here – there…

©Vincent Laforet/The New York Times

THIS BLOG HAS FOUND A NEW HOME–TO READ THE MOST CURRENT VERSION OF THIS POST AND TO LEAVE COMMENTS PLEASE GO TO:

http://blog.vincentlaforet.com/2008/09/01/last-minute-advice-for-those-covering-gustav/

One of the first big decisions I had to make upon returning home from 18 days in Beijing – was wether or not to pack right back up and go cover Hurricane Gustav. A major news magazine was asking me to go – and they gave me overnight to make a decision. While the newsman in me definitely wanted to go, I knew that A. I just didn’t have the mental energy to live through another Katrina after an Olympics and B. it just wouldn’t be fair to my wife who had just spent 18 days alone taking care of our son.

So I passed on the assignment – which is never an easy thing to do for any photographer – but I’m now confident that it was the right move (I’ve been catching up on a LOT of sleep these past few days – your body and mind know when to decompress and let go…)

So I thought I’d throw a few last minute thoughts together for those to covering the storm:

I. Even though the current headlines are stating that the storm will miss New Orleans or move to the West – never write off a storm. Similar things were being said about Katrina – and some people put their guard down. The levees, not the storm, are the story for New Orleans.

©Vincent Laforet/The New York Times

II. Make sure you have plenty of: Fuel, water, snacks, baby wipes, maps, quarters (for payphones if they work) a fair amount of cash, extra batteries and a power converter for your car to charge laptops, cameras etc – and have a second power adapter for your laptop as it can fry easily when plugged into power converters. Buying a few extra car fuses for the fuse box is not a bad idea either – as those blow rather easily when you plug too much into the car’s AC port(s). Boots, bug spray, sunblock, first aid kit, and one of those cans to re-inflate your tires.

III. Remember that having all of this makes you a huge target – always watch your back. Always have an exit strategy. Your first consideration whenever you drive into anywhere is: can I get out of here 15 minutes from now or a few hours from now. Always think things through before you take any action – or it can literally be your last… don’t depend on anyone else to come rescue you – try to be entirely self-reliant at all times. Never walk too far away from your car: it’s your only way of getting out -and there are too many valuable things in it – to let it sit unattended. Remember – there are no tow trucks, no police cars coming, no ambulance on their way – and likely no one manning the 911 switchboard.

©Vincent Laforet/The New York Times

IV. If you have any cell provider other than Verizon – you might want to consider picking up a disposable Verizon phone – they have the contract with the federal government and agencies – and will be the first to put emergency towers up should cell coverage become a victim to the storm or it’s aftermath.

V. Travel light – at least in terms of camera gear. Having a backup camera and lens in a Pelican case is a good idea in case your main camera gets dunked in the water.

©Vincent Laforet/The New York Times

VI. Don’t lose perspective: the big story here in my opinion – is not necessarily the storm. We’ve already seen that in Katrina… the story here is: how much better prepared are we as a nation and how will our government deal with the aftermath this time… has any real progress been made since the horror of Katrina?

©Vincent Laforet/The New York Times

VII. If you want to get into a helicopter – make sure you’re working with experienced people… most of the “good” pilots and helicopters were booked days – if not weeks – ago – by the oil companies to get their crew off of the oil rigs in the Gulf (and they are holding the helicopter – paying them to stay safely on the ground at the ready – to go back and put those men back on the rigs ASAP – for repairs and to resume work.) So getting one now is close to impossible. But keep trying. I left my name at a local airport at their front desk – and pilots ended up finding me in the end… you never know. And sharing a helicopter with someone else is always a good option in these situations.

VIII. Obey law enforcement – and especially the National Guard – in times like these. This is not the time to argue. If the storm does happen – they will be stressed out, and mentally and emotionally exhausted. Not the time to argue with people on edge who have guns at their disposal. In fact – it’s safe to assume most people out there have guns – so be careful. You will be entering the Wild West. I made friends with the national guard last time because I had extra (empty) fuel tanks – which they needed.

©Vincent Laforet/The New York Times

I’m hoping this storm fizzles out – for the people in New Orleans and the Gulf area. No one deserves to go through this again. To all of the photographers, journalists and other rescue workers out there (not to mention the citizens of course!) - Good Luck!

This shot confirming Michael Phelps victory in the 100 M butterfly took years or planning. ©Heinz Kleutmeier/Sports Illustrated

THIS BLOG HAS FOUND A NEW HOME–TO READ THE MOST CURRENT VERSION OF THIS POST AND TO LEAVE COMMENTS PLEASE GO TO:

http://blog.vincentlaforet.com/2008/08/31/assistants-should-you-use-their-photos-under-your-name/

I finally got one of the issues of Sports Illustrated today from the Olympics (a good friend of mine had mailed it to me because I was “lucky” enough to make it into the Leading Off section – no – not a photo that I made, but a photo of me – in the scrum of photographers covering Phelps getting a hug from his mother after the race…) and I saw something extremely refreshing: the credit read: Photo by Heinz Kluetmeier and Jeff Kavanaugh.

Why is that special? Because Jeff is Heinz’s long time assistant and it’s incredibly rare for photographers to give their assistants any credit for the images they take while on assignment with them. I thought this was an incredibly classy move by Heinz and SI. Jeff is also a great guy and deserves the accolade – he was one of the guys I spent more than 13 hours with waiting for the fireworks on the Great Wall and was intricately involved in getting that remote camera working.

“So you mean that even if someone else shoots a picture, as in an assistant, the main photographer generally gets to take credit for the image?” you ask. Traditionally – yes. More on that in a bit.

As it turns out – Jeff was instrumental in making sure the remote worked, working out how to splice the ethernet cable going from his seated position from the side of the blocks, all the way down to the remote underwater camera below. He was able to have the same ethernet cable both trigger the camera – as well as send the images back to his laptop on his lap – LIVE. And yes: he did actually push the button to trigger the camera. And man was the timing perfect – sure he let the camera wail away at 9 frames per second and he and Heinz got the defining image of the Beijing Olympics in my opinion. No other image or clip of video shows as definitively that Phelps won the race – and this is easily one of the most, if not the most – impressive Olympic records of all time. Not too shabby. You can read an interview with Heinz about this image here.

So where does Heinz fit into this? Well actually – he played the key part. I was staying at the same hotel as the SI crew – and I had breakfast with Bob Rosato, another SI staffer, the day after this shot was taken. He told me that Heinz had stated the following to him at breakfast two days prior to the race: if Phelps loses or wins the epic 8 gold-medal record – it will be on the 100M butterfly race – and it will be close. And that’s why Heinz is who he is – and was one of only two people to perfectly position his camera in this position showing both lanes with the #1 and #2 finishers of the race… MASTER. More often than not – great photography is made by people who THINK… (at other times it’s luck, people who just “see” better, or made by people who “feel.” There’s no golden rule or approach.. in fact Henri Cartier-Bresson says the last thing you want to do when making pictures is to “think.”

So it’s only fitting that Heinz gets most of the credit – as truth be told he was one of the first to ever put a remote camera in a pool at the Olympics (he might even be the first – Barcelona if I’m not mistaken – but don’t quote me on that) but I think it’s incredibly classy of him to share credit with his long time assistant.

So back to taking credit for an image that your “assistant” took. It’s actually been pretty common practice throughout photographic history. It’s not uncommon for a photographer to go to a big event, and shoot from one location with his/her assistant(s) shooting from another vantage point. After all – the main photographer can only be at one place at a time – and more specifically with sports, the action is too unpredictable and moves to fast for remote cameras to be effective. If s/he tells the assistant what lens to shoot with, at what settings, where to point the lens, how to frame the shot and when to fire off the frame – one can arguably state that is indeed his/her image…

Legally though – unless the two have a signed contract where the assistant relinquishes all rights to those images to the photographer – that assistant technically owns the copyright btw – or so a series of NYTimes lawyers told me a few years ago. So beware… always have your assistant sign a contract if you’re going to do this – otherwise THEY technically own the image’s copyright… doesn’t matter who’s gear their using, who told them to do what etc.

That being said – I’ve never been a big fan of the practice. It just feels a little icky to me – and that’s just a personal preference of mine – not a judgement on others at all. I have had others helping me at times doing the exact same thing – but I’ve had the following agreement with them: if they are clearly shooting under my specific instructions, the image will run in the publication with my credit (and perhaps theirs if I chose) but that assistant is also free to run the image in their own portfolio with their sole credit underneath it – that feels more fair than most other agreements – and it never hurts to help someone else jump start their careers.

I’m totally expecting to have some people disagree with me on this one (from both sides of the issue)… so go ahead and share you thoughts…

©Damon Winter/The New York Times

THIS BLOG HAS FOUND A NEW HOME–TO READ THE MOST CURRENT VERSION OF THIS POST AND TO LEAVE COMMENTS PLEASE GO TO:

http://blog.vincentlaforet.com/2008/08/29/mad-props-to-damon-winter-new-york-times-photographer/

Off to a crack-o-dawn shoot this morning…. so here’s an early post: If you haven’t done so already – check out Damon Winter’s Neighbors Lens series – something that I think truly separates Damon from most newspaper photographers out there. It’s absolutely inspirational – not only is it old school – but man does the guy have … well … you know… cojones. Double exposure on 8 X 10 sheets of film – two exposures on one single sheet of film over a 4-8 hour period – an entire day’s work… wow.

I’m just humbled by the attempt and result. I mean, I just shutter at the idea of showing up early in the day, setting up a clunky camera on a heavy tripod – and stressing out the entire time about having a single person (or myself) bump the camera prior to my second exposure… as they show up to see the movie that night. (Damon – tell us: are you really exposing only one sheet of film for the entire day… or a few just to be safe?)

Simply fantastic – and what photography should be all about. I particularly love “Metropic” ”Double Take” and well – frankly – every single one of those photos from his series…. (make sure to click on “previous lens series” towards the bottom of the page to see every double-exposure Damon has made. It’s well worth it!)

Here is another slideshow of his  produced by The New York Times – it’s of Damon’s coverage of Barack Obama over the past few months. It’s one of the strongest slide shows on politics I’ve seen by a single photographer on the nytimes.com site.

Kudos to Damon (you can see his personal site here), and Michele McNally for making this hire – one of many excellent hires the Times Photo department has made in recent years. Damon previously worked at the Dallas Morning News, and the The Los Angeles Times – and now New Yorkers are lucky to have his work land on their doorsteps every day.

THIS BLOG HAS FOUND A NEW HOME–TO READ THE MOST CURRENT VERSION OF THIS POST AND TO LEAVE COMMENTS PLEASE GO TO:

http://blog.vincentlaforet.com/2008/08/28/to-delete-or-not-to-delete-that-is-the-the-question/

One of the most common questions that have been posed by people on this blog is: Do you delete your images in camera and do you delete images on your server or in your Aperture Library?

I think it’s a very important question, and my answer for the most part is: No – I don’t.

Why? Well here it is: I’ll point to the following events in specific: My coverage of Hurricane Katrina, and my coverage of (actually pretty much any) Olympics. In all of these events – I was often rushing to make a deadline and under severe pressure. I had a clear idea of what the “news of the day” was and what images I needed to get out first, and I was all too often sleep deprived – in that state, I become pretty close to being my own worst editor.

And here’s a big lesson: once you make that initial edit – you almost NEVER MAKE a second edit of that work – EVER. All too often you move on to the next event or day – and never get the luxury of looking back.

And why is that dangerous? Because editing on deadline, or frankly editing your own stuff is like playing Russian Roulette for most photographers…

Simply put: Photographers are all too often their own worst editors – add to that a little stress, exhaustion or deadline pressure, and you’re playing with fire.

I can tell you that I borrowed someone else’s eyes – even complete strangers’ eyes – throughout the Olympics almost every day, to help cut down my 15 images down to the top 5. That is the hardest thing to do when you’re editing your own stuff.

Why? Because a photographer is always attempting to achieve a certain result with their photographs, they have their mind dead set on a specific goal or result – and they do not always achieve it. It takes someone else to tell them either: A. hey – I don’t really see the picture at all – I think you didn’t quite make it…it’s “not quite there mate” as one of my favorite Allsport editors Darrell Ingham used to say or B. hey – what about that picture (you haven’t even tagged) that I see over here?

In fact, my mark of a good photo editor, is not one who can pick between pictures A or B – but the one that sees photo Z – one that you never even knew was there yourself. I’ve met only a few editors who can do this throughout my career- but when you do, know that you’ve found a gold mine. These editors can literally help shape both your vision and career. They are the ones that see things in your work that you may not yet see – and they can help you shape the way you see and capture images.

I kind of skipped on this – but having a photo editor by your side is always (well almost) always, a good thing.

As with any profession – some are good and some you need to steer clear of. What you need to do is to form a relationship with an editor – let them know what you are trying to accomplish with your photography – and hopefully the two of you can go from there (and perhaps they can help you get there.) Some editors I actually go to to find out which photograph NOT to pick – I’m serious. I’ve worked with some that I can go to on a consistent basis – and when I offer them up photo A or B – if they pick B – I’ll go with A every time. While this might lead to a chuckle or two out there – it’s not necessarily because they’re bad editors – it’s because you know your style is just the polar opposite of theirs.

Something to always be aware of as both a photographer and editor: over the years, people become conditioned to edit in a certain style – often their publication’s style. You edit because you know what type of images your publication will likely run – and don’t give them ones you know will never make it in (even though you, and perhaps even your editor knows – that image is a significantly better image.)

This is one of the most dangerous aspects of working at the same publication or for the same client for too long – or for your entire career- it truly limits your growth, and the development of your vision. It can stunt your growth as a photographer. I can say that because it’s happened to me a number of times already in my career. I equate it to shooting with “your blinders on.” You stop seeing images – and are just on the lookout for the ones you know your publication will run. And that’s the death of you photographically in my opinion.

So back to deleting – sorry – I’ve gotten off target a little here. Without exception, every time I’ve gone back to do an edit – whether it’s after a 15 minute break, a 15 hour brake, a 15 day break or a 15 month break – my view of what images matter has dramatically changed. So much so – that I just can’t justify deleting images (unless they’re completely out of focus, or over exposed or under exposed beyond recovery (but hey – who knows what software they’ll write in 20 years that could potentially fix those images – you see where I’m going…???)

Think about a lot of the classic images we look at that were shot 20, 50 or 100 years ago – while some are true classics, let’s be honest: some of them really weren’t that spectacular at all when they were shot. But with time – even the most banal image – is fascinating to look at. I love to look at what people were wearing in the 1920s or what the streets looked like in New York City, how the signs in front of stores were hand painted etc. And the same will be true of what you’re photographing today – that’s a lesson my father taught me very early on – and one that I’ve never forgotten – and a big part of why I don’t delete anything if I can help it.

Sure you may think an image of an umpire walking in the background that your AF jumped to by mistake (instead of the star player in the foreground) is something you should delete immediately. But what if we don’t have umpires anymore 20 years from now (due to instant replay)… what if, that umpire happens to become one of the most famed umpire in history over time… or worse – gets into a car crash and dies that evening. You NEVER know – and keeping the frame is often the best thing to do in my book. The fact that we never really know what images will become valuable or relevant over time – is one of the magical parts of photography for me.

When I look back at the Beijing Olympics I can already see images now that I missed in my initial edit (and I might do an edit of “images that didn’t make it” at some point soon and post it on this blog) – or images that I did not chose to edit and transmit because of news value. Even more so – when I look back at my images from Katrina, I can see an entirely different edit of that event – mostly because my shooting style has changed quite a bit since then. Given that I have kept every frame – I will have the option of going back through these and every event, 10-30 years from now and / or having a great editor do the same for me.

Don’t forget: your shooting style will change with time- and the images you like now are not necessarily the ones you’ll like 20 years from now… in fact some of your current “rejects” may become your selects as your style changes…

What is the downside? Obviously, you have to buy more CF cards so that you can keep more images as you shoot, it takes longer to copy them off of the cards and import into your editing software, and you need more hard drives to store these things. But given the cost of hard drive space – it’s pretty much a non-issue for me. Look at these stats for example:

The cost of hard drive data storage seems to drop by a factor of 10 every three or four years. This means that in two years, a terabyte hard drive should cost about $20.

Here’s the cost of 1GB of Storage over the past 22 years:

1986: $100,000

1990: $10,000

1994: $1,000

1997: $100

2000: $10

2004: $1

2007: $0.20

Kinda makes you think doesn’t it? So is it worth deleting that 1 Terabyte of images? Isn’t there a chance that a single one of those might sell for over $20 in 3 years??? Remember I shot about half a terabyte of images in Beijing – if these price predictions above are true – isn’t it worth $10 for me to hold onto every single frame given the historic nature of these Olympics?

Look at Dirck Halstead – a former Time Magazine photographer. His illustrious career of fantastic images has come down to one image – that was buried in a slide sheet deep in some abyss. Remember the Monica Lewinsky photograph – her embracing Bill Clinton?

“When the Lewinsky story broke, all these organizations started to go through their files, and found nothing.

I hired a researcher, and she started to go through the piles of slides in the light room. After four days, and more than 5,000 slides, she found ONE image, from a fund-raising event in 1996. “

Well – needless to say, Dirck never would have known that his career would come to be in many ways defined by that one image – one that many of us would have likely “thrown in the bin” had we wanted to save slide sheets, or in our days hard drive space… I’d be surprised if not every single one of you hasn’t already regretted deleting an image at some point already in your careers.

Lastly – I can’t tell you how dangerous it is to delete images on the fly on the back of your camera. First – you miss hundreds of images – subtle (sometimes not so subtle at all!) images – that are happening right in front of your as you are ”chimping” on the back of your LCD screen And then – you’ll also delete good images because you’re rushing, and because you just won’t see them on that small LCD screen – remember, the mirror was up when the action was happening, and there’s a strong likelihood your eye never saw THE moment as you shot that last series of frames… so why rush to deleting those images instants after you shot them – don’t they deserve a second look?

I can tell you that using software such as Aperture has also been a game changer for me – I have over 400,000 images in my main library – and the app still zips through for the most part. So keeping all of my images is not a big consideration for me. I also chose to render large previews for each image/project in my libary- this allows me to travel with my large library and make edits on my laptop – even though the raw files are back on my server and offline.

I also won’t tell you the number of “famous photographs” that have come to define certain photographer friend’s careers – that I know for a fact they completely missed during their initial edit – and someone else saw on the light table or monitor and said: “Hey – did you see this one?” I won’t mention names out of respect, but that alone should make you think twice. I’m talking “classic” single images that you associate with this one photographer or another… World Press Winners in fact…

So the next time you’re about to delete images – ask yourself: out of the thousands of sub-”1 Star” images that I’m about to delete – am I absolutely sure that there’s not a single image on there that will ever sell or become more relevant throughout the rest of my career (or after I’ve passed on.) Wouldn’t it be wise to keep them for now – just to be safe? Given how cheap the cost of hard drives is – and how it will continue to drop – shouldn’t I just be conservative and store them?

At some point soon – I will be putting up some more information on my workflow – and long term strategies for backing up all of my images – and how you can keep the “best ones” stored in your library on your expensive redundant RAIDS – and how to put the “outs” on cheaper long-term media stored externally. While keeping every single image is something that I’m preaching – there IS a smarter and more practical way to do this with the software out there today. More to come…

I am finally back in the States after three exhausting and amazing weeks in Beijing. Thanks for all of the support from my editors, colleagues, family and friends. I am now going to get some rest, but will soon post a gallery of my best pictures from the Olympics. Stay tuned…

*UPDATE*

I have poseted a 30 picture gallery of my favorite pictures from the Olympics on my personal blog. You can see them, as well as read an article I wrote for SportsShooter.com HERE.