2011 Lucas Oil Off Road Series Round 15 from Firebird Raceway in Chandler Arizona

The Lucas Oil Off Road Series (LOORS) crew made their final stop for the 2011 season at Firebird International Raceway and I was lucky enough to cover the weekend of dirt and mud-slinging racing action. For this race I told myself I would do my best to put a human face on the racing and try to get as many driver portraits and pit shots as I could during the three days of action.

Ford Motorsports Metal Mulisha driver Brian “the general” Deegan always gives good “face” when he is on the podium at these events, and you can bet at some point he will be on the podium.

The Lucas Oil Off Road folks always put on a good show and make the event great for both fans and drivers alike.

CHANDLER, AZ – DEC 09: Nick Tyree (91) at speed in Pro 2 Unlimited Lucas Oil Off Road Series racing practice on Dec. 9, 2011 at Firebird International Raceway in Chandler, AZ.

The time of year and lighting conditions means Firebird delivers some of the best photo opportunities at least for me compared to the Speedworld events that are mostly harsh mid-day sunlight. Don’t get me wrong, I still love the Speedworld track it’s just the bright summer sun can make producing dramatic images more of a challenge.

With the sun a little lower on the horizon this time of year you can get some beautiful lighting on the track, like this shot of Robby Woods powering through turn one of the Firebird track.

Like I said at the start of this post, I wanted to put a human face on the racing so here is a shot of Robby Woods in the pits.

When the sun is high overhead I tend to work on my panning shots to help clean up the backgrounds like with this shot of Robby Woods.

Another shot of Robby Woods fighting for position in turn one among the slinging dirt and mud of Lucas Oil Off Road Series Round 15 racing action.

CHANDLER, AZ – DEC 09: Robby Woods (99) at speed in Pro 2 Unlimited Lucas Oil Off Road Series racing practice on Dec. 9, 2011 at Firebird International Raceway in Chandler, AZ.

The colors and the light make covering this event my favorite of the season. It’s not always easy dealing with the bright light and deep shadows, but for some reason I prefer these lighting conditions over the summer races.

CHANDLER, AZ – DEC 09: Todd LeDuc in the pits during the Lucas Oil Off Road Series racing on Dec. 9, 2011 at Firebird International Raceway in Chandler, AZ.

Some drivers give much better face than others, Todd LeDuc has a great look and provides me with some great driver portraits during the event.

CHANDLER, AZ – DEC 09: Todd LeDuc (4) at speed in Pro 4 Unlimited Lucas Oil Off Road Series racing practice on Dec. 9, 2011 at Firebird International Raceway in Chandler, AZ.

I had to make sure to get some shots of Todd’s truck on track during practice.

CHANDLER, AZ – DEC 09: Doug Fortin (5) at speed in Pro 4 Unlimited Lucas Oil Off Road Series racing practice on Dec. 9, 2011 at Firebird International Raceway in Chandler, AZ.

I captured a lot of great shots of the trucks on track during practice but the bright sunlight makes the images look somewhat average. At least it’s not a badly lit night football game.

The same shot from a different angle can give a real different “feel” to the images. I’m not sure which shot I like better, maybe the second one, what do you think?

CHANDLER, AZ – DEC 09: Kyle LeDuc (99) at speed in Pro 4 Unlimited Lucas Oil Off Road Series racing practice on Dec. 9, 2011 at Firebird International Raceway in Chandler, AZ.

Maybe it has more to do with the color of the truck than the angle the shot is taken from.

I need to go back and look through my images to figure out if this is Todd LeDuc or Kyle LeDuc, either way I love this shot in the mirror.

One of those “two-for-one” shots, a great portrait of Carl Renezeder in his truck, but the reflection in his glasses is like a little “window” into what the driver sees out the front of his truck.

CHANDLER, AZ – DEC 09: Carl Renezeder (17) at speed in Pro 2 Unlimited Lucas Oil Off Road Series racing practice on Dec. 9, 2011 at Firebird International Raceway in Chandler, AZ.

Now that is some high-flying action, and you can only get this kind of action at a Lucas Oil Off Road Series race.

CHANDLER, AZ – DEC 09: Carl Renezeder (17) at speed in Pro 2 Unlimited Lucas Oil Off Road Series qualifying on Dec. 9, 2011 at Firebird International Raceway in Chandler, AZ.

Carl takes the season points and the Championship for another in his very long list of racing accomplishments.

Yeah, you know I took some of “those” shots, but I will bury this one way down in my post and hope it isn’t the only image people see from the weekend’s action.

I was working hard to get shots of Rob MacCachren through the window of his truck and really liked how this one came out.

I dig the look of the Monster Energy Toyota of Johnny Greaves in this image, it’s too bad he wasn’t a bit faster in this round of racing.

Carl Renezeder chases down Johnny Greaves during Round 15 racing action at Firebird International Raceway.

Johnny Greaves would end up driving his Toyota over the hood of Todd LeDuc’s truck and both of them would be out of the race.

Brian Deegan gives good “face” even when he has his helmet on, like this image of him behind the wheel.

Nice light on this image of Deegan’s Unlimited Lites race truck during Round 15 action of the Lucas Oil Off Road Series racing at Firebird.

CHANDLER, AZ – DEC 09: Brian Deegan (38) at speed in Pro 2 Unlimited Lucas Oil Off Road Series qualifying on Dec. 9, 2011 at Firebird International Raceway in Chandler, AZ.

More great “faces of Deegan” from the podium of the Lucas Oil Off Road Series Round 15 action.

In case you have not gotten enough off-road action stay tuned to a future blog post about the Lucas Oil Off Road Series Challenge Cup race, where the stakes are even higher and the action is more intense.

Blog clean up, changing links, search terms and my target demographic

I have removed the page High School Sports Gallery that had been listed on the right. That gallery was primarily images from the Sept. 2, 2011 – Cactus Shadows at Pinnacle (Dual in the Desert) high school varsity football game and I believe those images have outlived their usefulness and so I have removed them. I have all those images available for you to purchase prints as well as a number of other high school sports galleries on the MaxPreps website here: Doug James MaxPreps Galleries.

I also have other post with lots of great youth sports images from the 2011 football season here: Youth Sports – The Color and the Light and those images would make great gifts as large prints, posters, iPhone covers or t-shirts, just let me know what you need and I can provide custom graphic solutions for those images.

If you would like to see some high school baseball images that are available for prints purchase you can also look here: High School Varsity Baseball – fun in the sun.

If you are looking for specific games or images that you can not find either on my blog or on the MaxPreps site feel free to send me an email at: azalphadogphoto@cox.net and I will do my best to help you find what you are looking for.

One of the top rated search terms people use to find me is Rockstar Energy Drink Girls and while I don’t have a problem with teenage boys searching for pictures of the very beautiful Rockstar girls that I took at the 2011 Monster Energy AMA Supercross Round 2 – JAN 15 Chase Field, Phoenix AZ, I’m going to remove those images from that post. I want to be known as a photographer that produces quality images, not the guy that took pictures of the hot girls at the supercross.

I guess all those teenage boys out there will have to find another outlet for hot girl images.

Thanks for understanding and remember to subscribe for the latest updates.

2011 NHRA Arizona Nationals from Firebird International Raceway – Pro Stock and Pro Stock Motorcycle

You just gotta love the intensity of NHRA Drag Racing, the smell of the tire-smoke, all the brightly colored cars, and that earth-shaking sound!

It’s true that the pro stock cars don’t make as much noise as the funny cars or top fuel, but the excitement and speed of those cars makes them a fan favorite.

Everyone said Jason Line was the one to watch at the 2011 Arizona Nationals so I made sure to grab some nice frames of his car making a qualifying pass.

See more Pro Stock action by clicking on the more link below.

Insight Bowl 2011 – Iowa Hawkeyes vs Oklahoma Sooners

OK, I know this wasn’t billed as the contest of the century or a battle of titans but you would think the game would provide some good football action, I mean after all this was the Oklahoma Sooners an explosive team for sure and the Iowa Hawkeyes. On paper the game looked to be an exciting contest, but down on the field stuff just sort of seemed a bit lackluster.

December 30 2011: Iowa Hawkeyes quarterback James Vandenberg (16) drops back to pass during the Insight Bowl between the Big Ten Conference Iowa Hawkeyes and the Big 12 Conference Oklahoma Sooners at Sun Devil Stadium in Tempe, Arizona. The Oklahoma Sooners defeated the Iowa Hawkeyes 31-14.

To see more great football images from the 2011 Insight Bowl click the more link below:

NASCAR Nationwide Series – WYPALL 200 from Phoenix International Raceway

The boys, and girls of NASCAR stop by Phoenix International Raceway twice a year and the November race looked to be an exciting weekend of racing because Phoenix had been called “the wildcard” by most of the media due to the new track surface and “configuration.” From my perspective there didn’t seem to be much of a change to the shape or distance of the track however, they did raise the back part of the track several feet allowing fans to see the cars on the back straight from the grandstands along the front straight but, the shape and distance didn’t change.

10 November 2011: Sam Hornish Jr. (12) takes hot laps during a practice session for the NASCAR Nationwide Series Race, WYPALL* 200 powered by Kimberly-Clark Professional at Phoenix International Raceway in Avondale Arizona.

To see more of the story and images, click on the more link below.

NHRA Arizona Nationals from Firebird International Raceway – The Funny Cars

I love photographing NHRA Drag Racing, it’s like all the action and excitement of a two-hour Motorsports event compressed down into a little 4 second burst.

The action starts on Fri. with first round qualifying and as the sun dips below the horizon and the sunlight fades enough to really see the header flames you can make some intense images. In this shot from Friday’s qualifying session, Mike Neff makes a pass in his Ford Mustang.

To see the rest of the exciting NHRA action, click on the more link below.

The Basketball Diaries, or how I learned to love a big softbox with a grid.

One of the parents of a high school football player saw some of my action photos and asked if I would give her a price on an individual/team photo project and it got me to thinking.

I haven’t done team and individual photos before, but I was really excited to take on a project that would involve team and individual photos. It turns out there was no way I could even come close to the budget she had set for the project, but I still wanted to venture into the realm of individual sports portraits so when I saw an opportunity I jumped at the chance.

I didn’t really have a lot of time to put this together and I wanted to see some examples so I ventured on over to Dustin Snipes web site and his blog. Dustin Snipes is well-known for being very good at sports portraits and I have seen his work in the past so I knew to check his blog for examples. You can check out the story and examples on his blog here: http://dustinsnipes.com/blog . Now I don’t have anywhere near the experience with lighting or working with athletes as Mr. Snipes, nor do I have that much lighting gear, but I thought I’d give it a try anyway.

To see the rest of the story, click on the more link below.

Phoenix Fashion Week – Wed. & Thurs. – The Disappointment and Shame

And now for something completely different, runway fashion shows. I like to mix it up a bit so when the Phoenix fashion Week shows are presented I usually enjoy covering them. It turns out there were a number of issues with this years shows.

To see more of my coverage of the Phoenix Fashion Week runway shows click the more link below.

NASCAR Sprint Cup tests the new surface at Phoenix International Raceway

Phoenix International Raceway had a massive re-paving project where the entire surface was replaced, as well as some other changes to increase safety and make the fans experience much better.

I expected the NASCAR Sprint Cup cars to be primer grey and with very few markings so I anticipated mostly working the garage for good shots of the drivers, well that wasn’t exactly how everything turned out.

I saw some photos from the construction phase and was interested in how covering the upcoming race in November would be effected.

To see the rest of the story including the rest of my images, click on the more link below.

Hot sun, hot fun, sweat and dust at another weekend of Lucas Oil Off Road Series racing

The Lucas Oil Off Road series racing crew rolled into Surprise Arizona for round 11 and 12 of this fun-filled, hot, dusty action at Speedworld, and I was lucky enough to be there to try to capture the intensity and excitement.

I love covering LOORS (Lucas Oil Off Road Series) racing, although it’s tough on camera equipment, lots of dust and dirt, as well as hot, bright sun and sweaty, sunscreen covered faces pressed into the viewfinder and on the LCD screen.

To see more hot sweaty images from the weekend’s racing, click the more button below.