- blog Spect8foto.com



4-19-10 - Added some pics from the Puddingstone Regatta circle boat race held in San Dimas California. The huge oval course made for several good vantage points especially considering the sun shining bright and moving in a pretty good direction. I started out shooting pics on a pier situated in front of the first buoy in the turn. It was a really cool angle but it would have been nice to have a 600mm lens with a doubler!! When the crackerbox class hit the water their was immediate action in the turn as Amy Ross-Ottinger was first through the turn but her rider almost came out of the boat as the P96 flew through the air. Amy's rider was able to get back in his seat and the lead was never compromised as Amy just dominated the class! I have some real good head on video of the wild race action and will post it with some slow motion action. You want an e-ticket ride --- hop in a crackerbox as a rider!!!

12-1-08 Update - Five weekends straight of shooting pics at motorsports events in the Southern California, Parker, Phoenix, and Indio. The the motorsports season will be over and we will take a much needed break!! We have shot close to 9000 pics in the last four weekends and also have a considerable amount of HD video as well. We made a quick trip out to Fontana for the PSCA finals for the test and tune on Friday and the action was pretty wild. High winds kept the action to an eighth mile but there was still plenty of wild runs. Slow shutter speeds were on tap as I shot in manual mode all day and took home some mixed results. Some good and some bad and I like to shoot with slow shutters at the drags when I have a real crappy background which Fontana certainly has. At Pomona for the NHRA finals I shot both pics and video and got some great head on stuff from the West side grandstands. It is all good until about the time the NITRO cars get out in front of you and then they are moving so fast that pics and video get real challenging. Then it was off to PHX for the IHBA finals. I shot pics and HD video clips of every run down the liquid quarter mile and got some good shots. At Parker I opted not to shoot video as I wanted to shoot with the bigma on my 20D which happens to be only useable in manual mode because the metering is way off. I am real happy with the results from both the Sigma lens and the fact that I shot manual and plan on doing much more work in the M mode.
10-26-08 Update - Three races in three weekends brought to you by Spect8foto.com. The first two weekends I drove out to Bakersfield and then I made the trek out to Parker. Three very different races and the variety of action was very cool. The first weekend I caught some qualifying action at the California Hot Rod Reunion at Famoso right outside of Bakersfield. This might be one of my top five favorite races to attend during the year! LOTS ot NITRO and the vintage paint schemes and such make for awesome weekend!! This race is probably my second favorite after the March Meet and only because they only run the NITRO funny cars on Sunday only so I missed them this year. And there were a bunch of them competing on Sunday. Sitting in the stands at about half track the lighting conditions get real good around 2 pm and this was about the time the TF dragsters came out. Things were pretty calm and quiet until A Fuel when Lisa Lavoie made a hard right turn just in front of where I was shooting and got upside down in her front motored dragster. Unfortanately she collected the car in the other lane during the incident but she took the much more violent ride. For much of the day I decided to shoot some slow shutter (200) and this was the setting I was using when shooting during the crash. Somehow I was able to get some decent stuff even though I was shooting with this setting as I clicked off over 70 shots of the incident as it seemed to last forever. At half track the machines collided and at the finish line Lisa could be seen barrel rolling a couple times. Thankfully it was reported at the track that neither driver suffered serious injuries and to my understanding the other driver was able to somehow make it back for eliminations. Along with the photo sequence I also got an excellent HD video clip of the wild run and somewhere down the road I will put it up on the site. And judging from my pics, and I am definately NOT an expert, it appears that some kind of mechanical failure with the left front wheel sent Lisa into a hard right which consequently put her upside down and into the lane and car next to her. The following weekend I made the trek back out to Lake ming in Bakersfield for the final race of the NJBA season. You simply cannot beat Ming in the fall for pics if the sun is shining. With the sun behind us all day and almost no wind all day the color on the race course was unreal. In both the photos and the HD video you can see an excellent silouette of the awesome drag boat machines in many of the pics and video clips. I was only able to attend on Sunday and specifically shoot pairs on Sundays so that is what I put up on the site. Ron Braaksma brought out the Madness machine for some testing and the black POS is primed and ready to haul some butt. Rex Childers made three runs, only to half track, and I can tell you first hand that the motor sounded STOUT! The machine left good on the run that I saw and their is no doubt that the Madness machine can step right in a compete even thought the race team has been idle for a few years. Just yesterday I made the 300 mile trip out to Parker to check out the Bluewater Resort and Casino 300 enduro. As soon as it was completed I made the 300 mile trip home and had dinner about 7pm. It was my first trip to Parker for the enduro and is one that I already hope to attend in 2009. There were approximately 40 boats on the water running a five mile course from the Casino to Badenochs in some very challenging water conditions. The inboard v-drive racers looked good early but in most cases were knocked out of the race because of mechanical issues as the outboard racers seemed to dominate at the end. I will be writing up a race recap along with pics during the coming week and I also have about an hour of HD video I shot to go through. The lighting conditions for the Parker event were also excellent as the sun was behind me all day!

10-5-08 Update - Its been a LONG while since an update. I hurt my back about a month and a half ago and have had to avoid sitting in front of the PC. Things are getting much better but I am quickly finding out that its all downhill once you hit 40 and back problems are no fun! I went out to Fontana to checkout some nostalgia NHRA action at the Southern California Shootout event and that was the first event I shot pics at since hurting my back. The first day everything seemed to be just fine but the next day was tough. The very next weekend I made my was to beautiful Mission Bay for the San Diego Bayfair event. Lots of standing, riding my bike, and walking and a couple back spasms. No fun but things have progressed since then. The Fontana event pics were pretty much the same pics I shoot everytime I have been there. The bleachers are pretty much the only place (non credentialed) to shoot from and I did get a couple different angles from the top and bottom of the stands. I also did what I typically will do and try some slow shutter stuff to eliminate the poor backgrounds in many of the angles. San Diego is a great place to shoot pics from but only in the afternoon as most of the early shots are backlit. The race action started off with the Mark Workentine taking to the water early on Friday and uinfortunately Mark crashed in the machine a couple hundred feet out. Mark was unscathed and if you did not see any footage of the crash on TV you must not do much watching. Along with the Today Show, Inside Edition, and numerous other national TV shows the wreck was on the news of all the So Cal news stations. Coverage could also be seen on the CNN website, the AOL website, and various other websites. Never before in 20 years have I seen the sport get this much TV time. Lets hope Mark and Jay return to race another day. Enjoy the pics.

8-6-08 Update - One of my favorite races to shoot pics each year is the Long Beach Sprint Nationals event. Ross Wallach and the SCSC put on another awesome event and I was home at 4:00pm on Sunday afternoon. You cannot beat Marine Stadium when it comes to spectator convenience. There is ample spectator viewing on both sides of the venue and in most cases you can park extremely close to where you want to watch. Get there early enough and you can park you ride on the waters edge and have a nice bbq while you are at it. From a photographers stand point the venue can be a little off in the morning as cloud cover is likely until late in the morning or early in the afternoon. My father, son, and I got to the venue right as racing began and I put together my rig. The plan was to shoot with the 40d and the 70-200 2.8 with the 1.4x extender. I would then mount my avchd cam on top and get both stills and video. The 70-200 zoom ring makes less movement to upset the video but I would have preferred the 100-400 5.6. As I got the set up dialed in I noticed that the focusing was acting up and it did not seem like it was working. The LCD did not show any focusing info although the focus point lights were lighting up. A quick reset did nothing and I pulled out the old reliable 10d back up that I have put some serious miles on. The same thing happened on the 10d and it was then I realized the autofocus switch accidentally got turned off on the lens which was causing the problem. WOW! And how long have I been doing this?!?! Anyway, got some good pics and there were some great heats. It was the APBA Summer Nationals on Sunday for four different classes and the crackerbox and K classes were awesome! Wayne Herbert drove the shi_ out of the K50 Ghost of Coldfire and I was rooting for him to win. In fact my dad asked me after the heat was over who was driving because Wayne previously looked like he was out there more to have fun than to win. What an awesome race! Enjoy the pics! I got some great video as well.
7-23-08 Update - Went out to Long Beach (Shoreline Village) area over the weekend and shot pictures at the Long Beach Rum Run event as well as the PWC Catalina race. I had never shot pics of the offshore races before and it was pretty cool even though I only got to see the start and the finish because the course was from Long Beach harbor to Catalina Island and back. The winning boat made the haul in 36 minutes and was hauling some you know what. I wish I could have seen the machines navigate the rougher waters outside the breakwater as I am sure there were some good photo ops. The weather was cloudy which I guess was to be expected and the pics show no signs of pop. Nevertheless I got some good pics and hope to put together a Rum Run collage of all of the competitors. The PWC race was also pretty neat and was completed in about one hour by the first place rider. There were about 45 entries and it made for a pretty wild start. Speaking of starts it was a major undertaking to try to get the course cleared for the Rum Run event. The LB harbor is very busy and it took many people, boats, and agencies to make it happen. I shot manual for all of the day and am very happy with my pics minus the crappy lighting conditions. Next up on the Spect8foto.com calendar is a trip to Fontana for some drag race action then the following weekend is the much anticipated Long Beach Sprint Nationals at Marine Stadium.

4-21-08 Update - Made the short haul out to Fontana for the Nostalgia Shootout event on Saturday. I shot pics and video of the entire first round of qualifying and most of the second round of qualifying. To me the Nostalgia drags are some of the neatest racers to photograph because of the awesome look and detail to the cars they race. The look of the race cars in the 60's and 70's have much more flavor to them the majority of the current race cars in my opinion. I shot the entire event with a slow shutter in the hopes of getting some nice pan shots and got some real nice ones. I will be putting the pics up as soon as I am done with the SCSC Spring Classic event which will hopefully be this week as I am heading to the IHBA opener in Phoenix Arizona.

4-21-08 Update - I enjoyed two days of nice relaxing picture taking at the SCSC Spring Classic event. It was a well run event where the only down time came from river traffic that was going and coming from the Blue Water Resort and Casino. The weather was awesome! It was in the mid 90's which was actually cooler than it was at my house in North Orange County. The picture taking on the Colorado River typically produces lots of great shots because of the favorable lighting and I decided to use two different camera bodies, one with the video camera and a 300mm zoom lens. On the other camera body I would utilize my 500mm lens and I would switch cameras after a couple laps during each heat to get some video and some different angle shots. Maybe this wasn't the best idea because it is nice to have all of your pics in numerical order and using two bodies I know have a mess going with the pics. Oh well maybe I will learn my lesson. I got lots of good shots and some great HD video. Time permitting I plan on putting up as many clips as my server will allow but I am still learning what I hope to be a good workflow for the video. I got the pics pretty much dialed in and hope to have the video down soon. I shot about 8 gigs of pics and 12 gigs of video so I have a lot to work with. This comes no where close to the amount of giggage shot by my fellow photogs and good buds Mark and Ken. I believe there might have been some new records set by both these guys for amount of gigs!!!

4-9-08 Update - Made the two hour trek from southern California to Bakersfield for the second NJBA race of the year. This time the weather forcast was for all sun and I was looking forward to it! After spending most of the weekend shooting pics and video a couple hundred feet off the start line I ventured down to the finish line and ultimately to the outramp to shoot some different variety and get some good video of the racers idling into the take out ramp area. The starting line pics from Ming are about as good as they get with the morning sunlight. You also cannot beat the relaxed atmoshpere at the NJBA races and I hope to make a couple more before the year is over. All in all I shot over 2 gigs of pics and about 40 minutes of HD (avchd) video. Got some great pics and video from the event and hope to begin putting video clips up on the site very soon. I will be putting up some qualifying info in the next day or so and I have also put together a spreadsheet for the different NJBA classes that I hope to put up.   Boat count seemed to be down somewhat and that could be a result of gas prices and the economy. I felt the same about the Pro car counts at the NHRA Pomona season opener as the car count seemed down quite a bit. Then I hit the March Meet and you could not tell there were any economic issues there as there was a massive turnout so who knows. The IHBA opener is just weeks away and there has already been speculation that boat count would be down so we will just have to wait and see. Over the last couple of years the IHBA opener has seen full fields in the PRO classes while getting a good turnout of the bracket racers so I am hoping for another great start to the season.

3-17-08 Update - Rolled the dice on Saturday and made the trip out to Bakersfield for the NJBA opener. I say rolled the dice because the weather was looking to be very questionable. I wasn't really worried about the rain but the 15 + mph winds definately can put the stop to a drag boat race. Just as my dad, myself, and good buddy Ken motored through Gorman at 7am we drove through a nice dusting of snow coming down. At that point I was thinking what the heck are you doing. I look forward to the NJBA opener every year as it is a great race to see new boats and wasn't going to miss it. It turned out that all of the qualifying action was completed and there was some extra time for some safety runs. The weather, although really cold in the morning, was pretty neat and there were certainly some interesting lighting conditions on many of the runs with the sun breaking in and out of the big white puffy clouds. Every time the sun went behind the clouds the wind would start picking up but the delays were minimal. I only went Saturday and probably the best moment of the day was when I met up with Tony Scarlata. Yup I said Tony Scarlata. Boat racing is in his blood and he looked pretty darn good for suffering some serious injuries in one hell of a crash just two weeks before. I look forward to seeing him back out on the race course! I will be putting up some qualifying notes and results over the next few days. Enjoy the pics!

3-12-08 Update - Made a second trip in two weeks to Bakersfield. This time the stop was Famoso Raceway the home of the March Meet. It wasn't just any Nostalgia race or March Meet. It was the 50th Annual March Meet!!!! The place was pretty packed on Friday, the only day I went, and I imagine that it was a zoo on Saturday and Sunday. From the looks of things the Nostalgia racing scene is alive and well based on car counts, growth, and the big $$$ toys that were plentiful in the pits. My main interest was the AA/FC and there were a TON of them! The nice thing about the nostalgia fuel scene today is the variety of radically different looking pieces. Its a vast difference from the NHRA where most of the fuel dragsters, funny cars, and PS cars all look a like. The weather was bitchen and there were just a few delays in the program. It was amazing to watch the Hot Rod class run and talk about almost non stop. WOW! One of these days I am going to have to plan on spending the weekend camped out at the March Meet because you just can't see everything in one day! Enjoy the pics!

3-4-08 Update - Went out to Lake Ming on Sunday for the SCSC circle boat race. I had planned on going both Saturday and Sunday but did not make it out on Saturday. I guess this was a good thing because the weather sucked from what I was told. The weather on Sunday was killer with plenty of great light for us photographers and great race conditions for the racers, crews, and spectators. It also looked like a good day to try out some fishing and from what I saw there are some nice sized trout in the lake at this time of the year. I spent the day hanging with good buds who also happen to be photographers Mark, Bill, and Ken and there were certainly plenty of photo ops to be had. We spent the day chasing good light while keeping a close eye on the race action. It was definately an interesting weekend as a good turnout of race teams negotiated the oval (three pin turn) race course. A year ago the race action featured almost non stop action with virtually no mishaps or incidents. Quite the opposite happened on Sunday alone as their were some very weird accidents on the water. A couple of outboard racers had problems on the parade laps. Joey Cucci looked like he hooked the turn out of turn one and tipped the GN24 Body Snatcher machine over onto its side. He got tossed out and the machine never went completely over and came to a stop right side up. He did come back to run later in the day. Tony Scarlata also found himself floating on the surface of Lake Ming as he went over in a Pro Stock heat. Unlike Joey Cucci Tony did suffer what is reported to be some significant injuries. In a very exciting and close battle with the PS80 machine of Dave Rankin with driver Dave Bryant it was Tony leading the heat heading into turn two on the third lap. It was extremely evident how bad both Dave and Tony wanted the win as they charged up the back stretch and both the 80 and 68 machines could be seen moving all over the place. Tony got into turn two ahead of Dave on the inside lane and the machine went over. Unfortunately the machine would end up landing on Tony when it came down from its flight and Tony could be seen floating ride side up with no movement. Definately something you never want to see! The SCSC Rescue team quickly picked up and got Tony to shore where he was taken to a local hospital. I have a very graphic sequence of photos and HD video of the crash and once I know Tony is healing up well I will put them up on the site. Get well soon Tony! To add to the weekend craziness there was some weird a__ controversy going on with the cracker box class. The Saturday final was run Sunday morning and the P66 Mr. Magoo team took the win with Amy Ross Ottinger placing second. With the exception of the P9 and P96 race teams the rest of the race teams (there was a good field of about 10-12 teams from the awesome class on the premises) packed up their stuff and headed out without running on Sunday. As a huge fan of the class I was bummed to see this happen. What a way to reward one of the hardest working promoters in the sport! Without him I believe there would be at least five less races in the region. I hope things get worked out as the Cracker Box race teams put on an awesome show. I will have a nice photo gallery posted on Thursday 3-6-08. 


2-18-08 Update - Yesterday I traveled to San Jacinto for some sand drag action. I went to my first sand drag race a couple years ago at Primm Nevada while the ASDA was running the event. It was very cool and I was hooked!There were like 20 + alcohol dragsters on the property along with 10 nitro dragsters. Similar to drag boat racing the action on the sand is extremely photogenic. Last year I attended my first NSDA event at San Jacinto and was hooked! The association does one heck of a job putting on the show and and they get some quality race teams at their events. The 2008 Larry Minor Winter Nationals seemed a little light on car count and I would attribute this to it being a three day weekend and many of the weekend warriors were probably out and about at Glamis, ect. There were 8 Top Fuel cars, 8 alcohol cars, and 20 + TE cars. The course is only 300 feet and the race is over in a hurry especially for the TF cars as they run in the 2.3 second range. I was only able to shoot the first session of eliminations on Sunday morning and the NSDA staff was extremely accomadating by letting me shoot at the edge of the track where a K rail served as the outside of the course. Standing next to the track that close while the TF and TA cars were running it nuts! Not only do you have to contend with the noise and extreme power of the machines but also with dirt, rocks, and a fine spray of dust and it happens regularly as the machines get a little sideways. Plain and simple its some wild shi_!!! Next time I am going to be out of the way and on a ladder! Along with the high dollar and fast cars I also got to see the kids participate. And watching them was just as exciting as the big guns as you will see in my pics! I did a lot of experimenting with settings as you will see in the pics. I would highly recommend a trip out to the NSDA sand drags if you have never been and I bet you will go back for seconds!


2-11-08 Update - For the first time in 2008 I ventured out to a race to shoot some pics. I began the year spending about two hours a weekend hiking at a local wildlife preserve shooting pics on the weekends but have not shot any motorsports pics. Last Thurs and Fri afternoon I found my way to Pomona Raceway for the 2008 NHRA Winternationals event. I work about 10 minutes from the track so I can get some work in before the Alcohol sessions at noon and also made it back to work around 5pm to clean up. The NHRA season opener is always neat because you get a chance to see all of the new teams, cars, and paint. There were some awesome looking rides especially in the Pro Stock class as a number of apparel companies are prominent in the class. I prefer going to the Pomona races on Thurs and Fri and then too watch the action in HD at home on the weekend. On Thurs I shot pics on the East side grandstand spending some time at about 300 feet then moving to about 900 feet for the pro classes. Then on Friday I moved to the West side grandstands and shot from the bottom of the stands at about 500 foot. I am happy with the many different looking pics that I got as I tend to mess with the settings quite a bit to get some variety. In the coming days I will be uploading about 50 of my favorites. Some of the story lines from the event included: Team Force is back as Robert Hight drove to the win, Tony Pedregon experienced a massive motor explosion during eliminations that destroyed his Q sponsored machine, Melanie Troxel debuted in AAFC and qualified third, Antron Brown debuted with the number one qualifying spot in TF, the car counts seemed down a little for the TF class, the track conditions were awesome on Thurs and Fri. Photos to come. If there might be a specific car you are looking to see pics of send me an e-mail and I will send them your way if I have anything decent. Next race is the NSDA Sand Drags in San Jacinto.

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