I finally got around to creating a short Soundslides show of the vintage racing event I covered back in March. It was a full vintage weekend at the newly named Auto Club Speedway in Fontana, California.
I decided not to name the racer I interviewed, because he represents a lot of vintage racers. They have similar stories with different details. At the heart of it, they just love to race.
You can watch it in a separate window HERE.
Today is Memorial Day, or decoration day or something else I don't remember.
I continued my trend of working on this holiday, by freelancing for the Blossom Valley Times. I actually never mind working on Memorial Day, since it presents a unique opportunity for a classic all-American photo. There are flags and uniforms everywhere, and it is pretty cool to watch the whole event unfold. People are proud to be there and be American, and I am proud to cover the event.
Going into this kind of function, which was a memorial service at a cemetery, I am looking for flags and uniforms and emotion. I am looking for something that people can identify with. It's hard not to get in the way of the attendees and it's even harder to move around all of them. There were a couple of photographers there also, so I tried to roam around and find different shots.
These two shots were just kind of things I saw. If you want to see what ran, you'll just have to mosey on over to the Blossom Valley Times in a week or so.
I feel I got some solid shots, nothing that was portfolio worthy, but I came away with some good stuff. I also got stung by a wasp, but that's just a minor wound.
So I spent my Saturday at Laguna Seca, shooting photos for work/fun. It was the Monterey 
Festival of Speed sponsored by RumBum.com. You had historic cars, along with contemporary races.
Here are a couple of photos from the race. I set up shot at the legendary corkscrew for this race. If you notice the single car photo, he is on three wheels going down it.
It was a warm day, but eventually the breeze from the ocean a couple miles away came through. The main event was scheduled to be the Champ series, but when that series merged with IRL the event was canceled. All in all, it was still a fun time, and really, it didn't feel like work.
Someone must have been desperate. The San Francisco Chronicle newsstand at my train stop in Palo Alto, was broken into and striped of all it's change . Maybe they got enough for lunch...if they were lucky.
So I took this photo a while ago, and it was okay. In fact I liked it a little better than okay. But I had this assignment in class, in which we created paper negatives. I can't tell you the process, because it is not my process to give away. Well, whose is it? My teachers.
When someone asked him, did you invent this process, and he nonchalantly said yes, it blew me away. Here I am sitting in a class with the man who invented his own process. Maybe I am a little naive and there are tons of people out there doing this, but still, that is pretty cool. And for the record, this process is pretty cool. Lets see you get this kind of effect with photoshop.
I think it looked even cooler when I printed it out. I did another one also, but don't have the file on me. Has anyone else out there come up with their own process?
Because I am who I am, I procrastinate a great deal. With the end of the year creeping up right now, I can not afford to do that. But I did. I am. Hopefully I have reached my peak, and will finally buckle down and get some stuff done. We'll see.
Anyways, I actual did do something productive while wasting time tonight. Finally got to test out my new SB-26, which worked like a dream. It is very cool having two flashes though it was a little tough to work around the optical slave. I need to get another Cactus receiver, which is also working like a dream.
My lighting set-up was one SB-24 to the camera right at 1/4 power and snooted. Behind the glass door was the SB-26 at 1/2 power with a red gel, which I got for free along with hundreds of other gels from Lee Filters. My settings were like 100 ASA at 1/25 and f/8 or something like that. I don't remember completely.
Not a bad way to procrastinate, but I still have a mountain of work ahead of me and not a whole lot of time.
Ha. I am totally buying a shirt. If you haven't checked out angryjournalist.com, you probably should.
Now you can wear a shirt that goes along with all that anger.
Two more classes left. I actually got more work to do between now and Tuesday than I had all semester it feels like. So that's my excuse for slacking here.
