Back in February I had the opportunity to shoot three separate sports in three different cities in one day so of course I took it!
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With the NHRA circuit down to just three races remaining, the Arizona Nationals near Phoenix would make our break the championship hopes of several professional drivers. While temperatures would exceed 100 degrees all weekend at Firebird International Raceway making for a miserable time shooting and getting down the track for drivers, it was still 20 minutes from my place so I would get to sleep in my own bed every night.
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Normally when I post a drag racing blog I typically lead off with my coolest photo of the weekend. When a destroyed camera is the lead photo I am pretty sure you can guess what the story of the weekend will be for me!
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After a month of drag racing, baseball and football I was super excited to get back out on the dirt to shoot the stars of the Lucas Oil Off Road Racing Series as they made their second stop of the year at Speedworld in Surprise, AZ. On top of the normal action stuff I shoot I decided prior to the event that it was time to bring out my soft box setup and do some driver portraits.
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Indy Car has the Indianapolis 500, NASCAR has the Daytona 500, but when it comes to NHRA the grand daddy of them all is the U.S. Nationals. With all the different sports I shoot it has gotten harder and harder for me to be able to fit NHRA in my schedule but when the race fell on an open weekend in my schedule I just had to shoot this race. Strap in, here we go!
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For the past several years I have always marked the March Meet onto my schedule. While its not a mainstream race where I have much chance of making back the money I put out in expenses it is just such a fun race that its more than worth the financial dent it puts into my wallet. Let the fun begin!
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Back in the day when I was growing up rarely would I ever miss the Arizona Nationals in Chandler, AZ. The track was only 12 miles from where I lived so it was always a must attend. As I have gotten older and been busier with work the years began to go by that I haven’t been able to attend my home town race. Finally this year I decided I was not gonna miss the race. All I can say is I am glad I made the 2010 Arizona Nationals……because I doubt they will ever race at this track again. Put on your seatbelts, its about to be a bumpy ride!
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With how busy I have been covering NASCAR during this years Chase for the Cup I gotta admit I was starting to get bored with the repetition of covering several races. I haven’t shot an NFL game in well over a month and really miss shooting it, however a weekend in Talladega was more than enough to help me realize why I love covering NASCAR so much. Continue reading to see exactly why I love restrictor plate racing!
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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!
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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.
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