My first chance to shoot powerboat racing came in 2008 when I shot the Kankakee Regatta for the first time. Being the speed junkie that am, I was hooked from then on. Since then I have tried to add more powerboat racing to my yearly schedule. In 2013 I began to see post on the web about the inaugral Maple City Grand Prix in La Porte Indiana. As the details began to emerge, I became fascinated by the course layout. All other races I have seen have been on oval courses, so the addition of a right hand turn was too much to resist. I was not disappointed. Although the weather was not optimal the first year, I managed to get enough good shots to insure I would return in 2014.
The weather for this year was more cooperative, and yielded even better shots than the previous year. Spectators were treated to some of the most exciting racing they have ever seen from both classes. The nature of the course layout allows for unique perspectives, and some very dynamic shots. You get more of a sense of the action than you do in some places.
The course layout has become popular among the drivers as well, who find the addition of a right turn a nice challenge. The more experienced drivers take it in stride and just go about their normal task of trying to get more speed from their boats.
This event has grown in attendance, and participation in the two years it has been in existence, and I see no reason why this trend should not continue. It is a good venue, great course layout, and very exciting racing.
2014 marks the 50th anniversary of the introduction of the Ford Mustang. Being introduced in 1964, the Mustang was by no means the first sporty car either foreign or domestic. It was however the first sports car for the masses. With a base package starting at $2,368, it made it possible for the average person to afford something stylish and sporty. With a less than whiplash inducing 164 Hp 260 cu in V8 as the base engine, Ford was able to keep it affordable and still provide plenty of pep given the size and weight of the car. The engine was upgraded to the 210 Hp 289 cu in within six months of production. Each successive generation saw larger and more powerful engines.
One of Roush Racings Mustangs which compete in the Continental Tire Sports Car Challenge.
The Mustangs arrival had a much bigger impact on the automobile market than just a new stylish car. It created a new class of car. With the later introduction the Chevy Camaro, Pontiac Firebird, Dodge Challenger, Plymouth Barracuda, and the AMC Javelin, a whole new class of cars was created. The Pony car. New racing series were created to showcase the performance of this growing class of cars. In drag racing, the pony car helped usher in the Pro Stock class. This is still a very popular class because unlike other drag racing classes, spectators can see the very cars they might own on track competing.
This vintage 1970 Boss 302 Mustang is similar to the one Parnelli Jones drove to a Trans-AM championship.As seen here Cliff Ebbens composite body modern Trans-AM mustang is a long way from the original.
High horsepower, small wheel bases, and nimble handeling made these cars extremely popular, and lead to the inevitable, racing. The Mustang made it’s first track appearance not as a race car, but as pace car for the 1964 Indianapolis 500.
While competing in multiple racing series, where it really shined was in Trans-AM in the late sixties and early seventies. Run on North American road courses, this European style road racing was very popular, and the Trana-AM Series lives on to this day. The great Parnelli Jones and George Follmer drove a Boss 302 Mustang to the Trans-AM championship. The GT 350 R version, the race version of the Shelby GT 350 was very successful in SCCA racing.
Here we have a vintage GT 350 R, the racing version of the Shelby GT 350 Mustang.
From it’s inception to present generations (six in all), the Mustang proved to be a capable competitor in most every form of racing in which it has competed. It doesn’t look as if that will change anytime in the near future.
A Roush Racing SCCA Mustang.The GTS class of the Pirelli World Challenge series has several Mustang competitors.Another Mustang from the Continental Tire Sports Car Challenge.
As I write this, my thoughts go back to this past Sunday. I decided to take some time and clear a bunch of old and useless email from one of my accounts. While doing so, I ran across a very complimentary email from Jim Marony from a few years back. I read it, smiled, and said to myself yeah, I’ll keep this one.
It was midway through the morning of the next day while at work that I received the text of Jim’s tragic accident. I’m not sure what others do, but in situations like this my head becomes flooded with memories of the times I shared with the person who has passed. In thinking of jim I was quickly struck by the thought that it was hard to remember a time I hadn’t seen him with a smile on his face.
I have read of Jim’s many accomplishments in aviation both in the military and civilian life. I’m pretty sure this list of people who have done the same or more is a very short one. I only got to see Jim a few times a year, but he would always take time to chat and share a laugh. The last time I talked to him was at Waukegan. I was explaining a shot I had of him taking off through the smoke from Paul Stender’s jet school bus. He was laughing when I told him it looked like his Chipmunk had caused all the smoke.
As photographer you attend many airshows, and see many performers. Many fly the same or similar aircraft. While all are talented, some really stand out from others who fly the same plane. Jim caught my eye the first time I saw him do the outside Waldo Pepper loop. I’m not sure if any other performers had this maneuver in their shows, but it was the first time I had seen it. However that was not quite enough for Jim. I think it was at the Quad City Airshow that I first saw him open the canopy and stand up in the plane while still in flight. I can still hear at first the gasp at the start, then cheers upon completion of the maneuver.
I feel lucky to have known such great person and talented performer. I feel good that our last conversation had made him smile and laugh, but I know that feeling of sadness and of something missing will hit next time I’m at an airshow without him performing. So take a bow my friend, you will be missed by so many.
It’s hard to truly describe vintage racing to someone who has not seen it. When you see vintage race cars on display at an auto show, or in a museum, you can’t help but be impressed by these machines. Compared to today’s computer designed and controlled marvels, it is hard to imagine technology from 1926 as state of the art.
This 1927 Bugatti 38A is one of the older classic racers on the vintage circuit.
Whenever I talk to someone, and show them pictures of vintage racing, the response is almost always the same. “That looks cool”, or “that’s nice”. This was pretty much my response before I attended my first vintage racing event. All of that changed however when I attended the Spring Vintage Weekend at Road America.
A very rare one indeed is this 1965 Causey P6 Special.
I think to truly understand, and appreciate vintage racing you would have to have been a car enthusiast pretty much from childhood. Just seeing these mechanical marvels is one thing, seeing them do what they were built for is quite another. Before this I had only seen these cars in pictures, and read about them in books which recounted the tales of their glory days.
This Jordan 197 Formula 1 car was powered by a Peugeot V12 engine.
One of my all time favorite european sports cars, the Austin Healey. Here we have a 1960 3000.
Hearing engines that were innovative, and state of the art when they were designed is yet another thrill. These cars were designed to do one thing, go faster than the other cars they raced against. Seeing them do this decades after they were originally built is a real treat.
From year to year, and event to event you never know what gems you will see till you get track side. From european sports and open wheel, to american muscle. One thing you can be certain of is that you will always see something truly amazing, and most likely something you have never seen before.
From the days of the CART series we have this Lola T97/20.
Lola is one of the oldest names in racing. This is their 1967 T70 Spyder.
The photos included in this is a very small sampling of what you will see at any vintage event.
A 1969 Brabham BT29.
Another rare one, a 1959 Devin DeMar MK II.A 1997 Lola T97/20 former CART racer.
When I go to shoot the Chicago auto show, my main motivation for going are the concept cars. Before we go further, we have to understand just what a true concept car is. The original idea was to give designers a way to flex their creative muscles so to speak. Designers could let their imaginations run wild, and build whatever they could dream up. These were often visions of what they thought cars, and the driving experience would be like, years into the future. Clear bubble tops, seats that seem to float inside the car, and doors that opened in every conceivable way, were just a few such ideas. The thinking behind the program was by providing this outlet to designers, some of the ideas from here would make it into their day to day work designing production cars.
From 2008, this first incarnation of the Lexus LF-A is in my 0pinion the best looking.
However in recent years the title concept car has come to mean something completely different. Today’s concept cars are often little more than mock ups of future production vehicles, meant to illicit feed back on how well they might be received. Many of these cars are on the street within two years.
Before there was a Ford Flex, there was this Ford Reflex concept.
Built on the Chevy Cruze platform, is the oddly named Chevy Tru 140S coupe.
Still in these modern market research driven times, they do still make the occasional true concept car, with no intent of future sales.
One thing I’ve noticed from going through past photos, is Ford and Lexus seem to be two companies who still offer the most true concepts on a regular basis.
This 2004 Chevy Nomad concept is one I wish they had put into production.
Here we have a 2004 Shelby Cobra concept.
We can only hope a few car companies will continue to tantalize us with more true concept offerings in the years to come. However from what I’ve seen, 2014 is not that year.
One of the most unique concepts of 2005, the Ford Shelby GR1 concept.
The 2008 Dodge ZEO.
Concept car interiors range from minimalist to high tech, as in this Lexus LF-LC interior.
The Saab Aero X concept is an extremely sleek clean design. Note the lack of seams in the wrap around glass.
I quite often tell people one of the most useful pieces of tech I have purchased recently is my iPad. When I first received it I knew it would be useful, but I had no idea just how useful. Being a photographer, my first thoughts are how can I use this in conjunction with my photo work. This is no easy task as mobile devices were primarily designed to work with photos from their built in cameras. Getting images from a DSLR into these devices is not particulary easy or intuitive. Which brings us to the subject at hand.
A quick trip to the App Store, or Google Play you will find a ton of photo related apps. As far as photo editors, most are minimal to to just plain awful. Most new ones seem to focus on hokey filters that make your photos look like those in a shoe box on the closet shelf. You know, the ones you never look at because they look so bad. There are a few quality photo editing apps out there, but the one we are concerned with here is from the big daddy of photo editing software.
Image 1 – Main Interface
When I first came across Adobe Photoshop Touch, the first thing that stood out was the price $9.99. As apps go this is kind of expensive. As Adobe goes, this is kind of cheap. Well I took the plunge anyway and downloaded it. It has only been recently that I have had a chance to really delve into it’s capabilities. When you first launch the app your first reaction is “huh”. The main interface (image 1) is like nothing you have ever seen in an image editor, least of all from any Adobe product. With the usual lack of documentation, it is up to you to click, poke, drag, and whatever else it takes to learn your way around it. The Adobe web site does have some tutorial videos that will give you an idea of the apps full power. Besides the menus and tools covered below, there is full layers support, and some new and clever selection tools designed specifically for touch screen devices. The 3D layer view which shows exactly how you layers are positioned in your document is very cool.
Image 2 – Tools Menu
Once you get use to the menus being just icons, and unfamiliar ones at that, you will be as surprised as I was just how much real editing power is built into this app. I am one of Adobe’s biggest fans, and biggest critics, but I have to give it to them on this one. This is the only really serious image editor I could find for mobile devices.
What would normally be your Tools pallet can be found in the menu represented by the & symbol (image 2). Selection, Fill, Text, Gradient and a few others can be found there. My first issue was finding the tools I normally use when editing images. The icon that looks like two sliders (image 3) is where most of your key adjustment tools are found. All of the important tools are there. Levels, Hue & Saturation, Black & White, and most surprisingly Curves.
Image 3 – Adjustment Menu
The FX menu (image 4) is in four sections, and contains the usual suspects. The sections are, Basic, Stylize, Artistic, and Photo effects. Oddly enough the Sharpening tool is in the basic section of the FX menu. To me it would seem more at home in the adjustment menu.
Image – 4 Effects Menu
I have only one serious gripe about the app, but for me it’s a big one. The Crop tool is pretty strait forward as it goes. Most people crop images by just dragging until they have the selection they want. For me I crop to a specific size for images posted to online sources. while you can enter a set size into the crop tools dialogue box, when you drag the corners to make crop fit your selection the dimensions increase. Thereby negating your entry in the dialogue box. Trying to enter the dimensions into the image size dialogue only distorts the image. As my primary use for the app will be online posting while on the road this is a considerable problem.
Overall this is a remarkable app, with just about every tool you will need for serious image editing on the go. Once you become comfortable with the interface, your only real problem will be getting images into it or your mobile device. You can take photos from within the app using your devices camera, but most other work arounds will require an investment.
Photoshop Touch is available for IOS and Android tablets and phones. The more frugal among you might have a problem with having to pay twice to have it on both devices. The tablet version is $9.99, while the phone version is $4.99. They are not interchangeable, you have buy it separate for each device.
Powerboat racing for me was one of those passions it took me too long to get around to shooting. My original focus on airshows left little time for other types of events. I finally came to the realization that I would have to cut back on airshows to make time for other ventures. 2013 was the first year I was able to shoot more than one powerboat race. Different venues and, types of racing made it a good year for me.
Jimmy Merleau – In Low Light.
I have shot the Kankakee Regatta since 2009, and in that time have captured some amazing images, and met some very talented people. Some years (mostly due to weather) have been better than others, but 2013 may have yielded some of my best photos yet. I guess the past years have helped me to know what I am trying to achieve, and how to go about it. I think this years shots show some of that. Also two of the images here I feel are among the best I have ever captured at this event. I’ll let you guess which ones.
Rob Rinker – Whrilpool.Chris Fairchild – Bad Fast.Wade Tuchscherer – Best Graphics of 2013.Tammy Wolf – Full Throttle.13 Stihl – 38′ Skater : Robert Noble, Driver – Grant Bruggemann, Throttles
Held at the southern most tip of Lake Michigan, the Michigan City Grand Prix brings the ultra powerful offshore racing boats to the Great Lakes. Twice I have scheduled this event, and twice I had to cancel due to scheduling conflicts. When this happens the event becomes a priority event for that third year. This means only a very special, or one of a kind event could bump it from my schedule. That did not happen, so I along with my friend Rob Edgcumbe got to witness some incredible racing.
45 JD Byrider – 38′ Skater: Tony Marcantonio, Driver – Mark Kowalski, Throttles5 WHM Motorsports – 40′ Skater: William Mauff, Driver – Jay Muller, Throttles13 Stihl – 38′ Skater : Robert Noble, Driver – Grant Bruggemann , Throttles77 Lucas Oil MAVTV – 44′ SilverHook®: Michael Silfverberg, Driver – Nigel Hook, Throttles14 Snowy Mountain Brewery – 29′ Outerlimits: Brain Forehand, Driver – Maddie Janssen, ThrottlesP3-8 Team Kilt – 34′ Fountain: Richard Davis, Driver – Tony Canale, Throttles
As you will notice in some of these shots, these boats quite literally fly. Designed for rough water they seem to handle it extremely well.
I guess the easiest category for me to choose my top shots for is sports. The reason being I didn’t have much opportunity to shoot sports last year. The extent of my sports sooting in 2013 was horse racing. I managed to make it to two of Chicago’s tracks, and tried to make the most of each visit.
The first race I shot was the Illinois Derby. One of the oldest and largest stakes races at Hawthorn Park race track. With a cool yet bright sunny April day to work with, I was able to capture what I believe to be one of my best overall images of the year (above). The start of the race right as the horses left the gate. I was also in the unique position of being the only photographer at that particular spot. The day also yielded a few other outstanding shots.
Hawthorn Park.
The larger Arlington Park race coarse provides an ideal back drop for shooting horse racing. Lush greens and trees, a fountains and pond lends itself well to just this kind of shooting. You have races on both the main track now made of composite material, and the inner turf (grass) track. Being able to shoot on the turf track for the first time this year, was something I have always wanted to do. Discovering a drainage ditch which allowed me to shoot from turf level made it even better.
Turf eye view of a race start.Arlington Park.
Weather on the main track or turf, it’s hard not to come away with some great shots.
As you approach turn five at Road America you have to stand hard on the brakes to make a 90º left hand turn. Seems simple enough if you are an experienced race car driver, but things that appear simple aren’t always simple.
Core Auotsports number 54 GT3 Cup Porsche locks up the brakes headed into turn five.
So let’s go back just a little bit. By this I mean to turn three where it all starts. Turn three is a sharp right hand turn which reduces your speed quite a bit. Once through it, you hit a strait stretch with a slight up hill climb to turn four. Turn four is not really a turn, but a slight left hand dog leg. From here it is a short downhill strait into turn five. Since you did not have to brake for turn four, you are carrying a lot of speed into turn five.
By now you should have an idea of what could go wrong in this scenario. Now factor in drivers racing for position and you can see it coming. Someone may not be able to slow up enough to make it around the turn. I guess what is most surprising, and a testament to these drivers skill, is how seldom this happens. Many end up just taking a rough ride over the outside rumble strips.
After slowing up enough, it’s onto the run off road.
In our photos Core Autosports Porsche GT3 cup car is the victim of our story. Locking up the brakes doesn’t help. So it’s to the run off road, a quick turn around, kick up a bit of gravel as you cut through the gravel trap, and back into the action.
A quick turn around, then on the gas and back into the action.
We come to that time of year when everybody looks back at what transpired during the previous eleven and a half months. Some make list of the most important, or their favorite moments of the year. Photographers are no different. I started about a month ago trying to figure out how I would do this, and immediately ran into a problem. The first thing that comes to mind is a best of list. Therein lies the problem. What determines a best shot, technical excellence, subject matter, or overall appeal. A technically excellent shot may not be an exciting shot, while an exciting shot may be a bit flawed technically. What may qualify as a best shot to the photographer may not be to the general public, and vice versa.
Jason Farrell through turn five during AMA Superbike qualifying.
I decided to take a different approach to the subject by using a bit of reasoning from both sides. So what I will be presenting over the next few weeks are what I consider my Top Shots from the 2013 season. Here are some samples of what’s to come from the different type of speed events I shoot. The shots here are good ones, but not quite up to what I consider a top shot. They were judged on the criteria mentioned above, and came very close. However when you have several hundred to choose from, some really good ones just miss making it. with that said I hope you enjoy these, and the ones to come.
Hawthorn ParkJeff Kaney at Thunder on the Lakeshore.SCCA Blackhawk Valley Regional.Michigan City Grand Prix.
