My Life as a Photographer

I stepped outside of the hotel this morning to see a new dusting of snow in the mountains.  The forecast for today in the lowlands is for showers.

Arrived at the track a bit later than we did on Saturday.  No sign of rain.  It is high overcast with some blue sky in the distance.  The cool overcast weather actually suits my cameras better than warn sunny conditions.  Heat is the achilles heal of my cameras so I don’t mind these conditions.  The light is better too.  I tried to find some different spots to shoot from today.  It’s nice to get a good variety of shots from the event.

Bob and I needed to leave the event a bit early to catch our flights home, Portland for him, Seattle for me.  I said my goodbyes to some of my new found friends and then it was off to the airport.  I slept on the flight home.  Arrived in Seattle at 9:30 PM, picked up my truck, and headed for home.  It was a great weekend but it sure feels good to be home.  Now the real work begins.

The morning started out with continental breakfast at the hotel.  After walking across the parking lot and getting the necessary morning “fuel” at Starbucks, it was off to the track.  We arrived by 8 AM.  It felt good to be back in the ritual of getting the equipment ready for the days’ shooting. Once ready, it was off the the infield to find a good shooting location.  I shot there most of the morning.  I felt much more like my old self today and felt I was getting some good images.  Right before lunch I drove to the outside of the track to get some shots from the “photo cages”.  I discovered that the ones I went to were locked so I wasn’t able to shoot there.  So I had to move to a plan B.  I hiked up to the top the grandstand and using the 500mm shot down on the track hoping to get a unique perspective of the cars.

After a lunch break, I went to some “cages” that were unlocked and shot there until the downpour came.  I don’t mind the rain but it was definitely nice to have the luxury of the car close by so I could get out of the weather.  This being Southern California, these guys don’t run in the rain so I headed back to the garage.

You gotta love modern technology.  I was glad my my iPhone alerted me to check in for my flight tomorrow.  “Have to check in for your flight, there’s an app for that”.  The challenge of flying with a lot of gear is making sure you can get a good boarding position for the flight.  It’s important that I am able to carry on my roller bag with the big glass.  The is no way I am going to check that!

Got back to the hotel by about 5 PM. After putting our gear in the room, we headed out to the bar for a few drinks with some old and new friends.  “So Santa walks into a bar…”.  He really he did.  He walked in, sat down, and had a beer.  Must have been checking up on us to see if we where being good.  We eventually got a table and had a good dinner.  Then it was back to the hotel room to download images from the day.  I was pretty tired again. I could barely keep my eyes open to finish downloading images.

I got up at 4 AM this morning.  Everything was packed so I didn’t have much to do. After taking a quick shower, I got dressed, loaded up the truck and headed for the airport.  The great thing about this time in the morning, no traffic!  I parked my car and was shuttled to the airport. Check in and security was fast this morning.  No double checks of my bags this time.

My flights were uneventful.  I was able to catch a nap on the second flight.  I arrived on time in Ontario.  My friend Bob was waiting at baggage claim.  His flight arrived about a half hour before mine.  We are here to shoot a vintage event for Victory Lane magazine.

After getting the rental car, we headed for the track.  The first thing we needed to do was sign the waiver and get our credentials.  With that taken care of it was off to start shooting.  And that was a challenge.  I felt really out of sorts and really rusty.  It was as if I had forgotten how to use the camera or take a picture.  To make it even more challenging, I have never been to this track before and don’t know where the “good” places are to shoot from.

Tomorrow should be a better day.