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.

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.

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.

October 16, 2011: Vincent Nobile during round 1 eliminations for the Full Throttle Series – NHRA Arizona Nationals at Firebird International Raceway in Chandler AZ.

The other name being tossed around during the NHRA Arizona Nationals was Vincent Nobile and while the pro stock cars are not as popular as the top fuel or the funny cars there are still important points chases and excitement to be seen in this class of racing.

This was the first time I would get a chance to cover the pro stock motorcycle class as the prior year the bikes didn’t run at Firebird. In a lot of cases I was really struggling to clean up the backgrounds and add interest to my shots, especially with the motorcycles.

I tried to get both cars in one shot from track level but there was just too many cluttering elements in the images, mops, crew, big giant Ford sign over Dodge cars on track, etc. I tried working from a higher angle and found some success.

October 16, 2011: LE Tonglet during 2nd round eliminations for the Full Throttle Series – NHRA Arizona Nationals at Firebird International Raceway in Chandler AZ.

I tried cropping the bikes real tight and that worked out reasonably well, but there was still some challenges to making nice clean images when the bikes made their pass.

Distracting backgrounds combined with the mid-day sunlight were conspiring against me and making my day difficult, but I did the best I could and tried to use the burn-out smoke to clean up some of the background of the image.

I tried working the top end of the track but in many cases the heat-haze coming off the track made focus impossible so I didn’t spend too much time working that angle.

October 16, 2011: Hector Arana Jr. during final round action for the Full Throttle Series – NHRA Arizona Nationals at Firebird International Raceway in Chandler AZ.

I noticed that Hector Arana Jr. had this great gold reflector face-shield and I wanted to take advantage of the “picture within a picture” opportunity I saw when he pulled up to the line.

October 14, 2011: Jason Line (near lane) and Greg Anderson during Pro Stock qualifying for the Full Throttle Series – NHRA Arizona Nationals at Firebird International Raceway in Chandler AZ.

This seemed like a real “classic” drag strip view but I didn’t like all the empty seats in the stands and it just seemed a little busy to me.

I tried shooting the cars level and with a perfect horizon but I just felt those images lacked something and needed a bit of tilt to create drama.

It’s hard to tell that the rider is carrying the front wheel off the ground for most of the first part of his run until you look at the shadow.

I tried working with some of those hard shadows in the late afternoon as the sun got lower in the sky. Some things I did worked out nicely, others not so much.

Back to the cars, here is an example of a shot of a pro stock car without any tilt, to me it just lacked something and needed the “illusion” of more speed even though he has the front wheels off the ground, which you don’t see a lot of with these pro stock cars.

Yep, I just like the tilt better. Maybe it’s just me, but I think it gives the car a little more “movement” in the image.

I even tried shooting the bikes with a normal horizon and wasn’t real excited about those images so I ended up going to the tilt-style for most of my images.

I tried running the cars downhill but didn’t like that effect at all so I went back to the uphill look for the rest of the images.

With this image you can see the chatter-marks from the rear tires of the car in the far lane and the car is skipping out of the groove before it even gets past the tree.

I tried to really fill the frame with the bikes but that seemed much more difficult than I thought and the harsh mid-day light was killing my images.

I noticed that some of the riders had taped the sides of their helmets like blinders so they wouldn’t be distracted by the rider in the other lane.

The downhill angle didn’t really work for me but for some shots it helped clean up the background clutter a little so I went with it.

Most of the pro stock cars have a dramatic weight shift thing happening off the line and I bet it would look great in supper-slow motion HD video.

Another shot of Vincent Nobile’s bright purple car as it launches off the line.

I loved the shadows on this shot with the bike and the starter and the bike lifting the front wheel.

For this shot, once again I went to the top of the timing and scoring building and tried working with the long afternoon shadows.

All the Summit Racing Equipment cars were looking good and making nice passes, but in the end there can be only one winner.

I love the pro stock cars and the pro stock bikes and find them almost as exciting as the funny cars and top fuel, I said almost . . .

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:

Neither team could figure out how to actually move the ball and things were looking difficult for us photographer’s on the sidelines. I expected big things from Oklahoma Sooners quarterback Landry Jones and the young Iowa Hawkeyes quarterback James Vandenberg, but all I could do was grab stock shots of these two gentleman as they tried to march their teams up and down the field.

December 30 2011: Oklahoma Sooners quarterback Landry Jones (12) 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.

One of the other photographer’s said after that it was a “great game” and I wondered if maybe I missed a turn somewhere on the way to the stadium and ended up in some parallel universe because the game that I saw was anything but “great.”

Yeah, sure the Oklahoma Sooners marching band came out swinging and put up some impressive numbers before the game started.

It wasn’t as cold down on the field as I thought it was going to be. When I say cold, I mean cold for us here in Arizona like upper 40′s.  when the game started at 8 pm it must have been mid 60′s so all in all it was a nice night to be at a football game.

The Iowa Hawkeye marching band was looking good and took the field before the game showing lots of energy and excitement.

The grandeur that was the 2011 Insight Bowl was about to begin and everyone was ready for some football action.

Wow, right out of the gate I show 4 shots of the band. Right about now you are saying to yourself that this doesn’t look good for game action images.

I will try to bring the action to you and get the party started with some quarterback shots like this one of Iowa Hawkeyes James Vandenberg as he drops back to pass.

It seemed like the quarterbacks would throw 2 incomplete passes and then try to run the ball which would result in a loss of yardage and then kick the ball. This is going to be a long night.

December 30 2011: Iowa Hawkeyes Keenan Davis (6) reaches for the goal line 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.

There was one exciting drive during the first half and the Hawks got close but turned the ball over on downs and never scored.

December 30 2011: Oklahoma Sooners Brennan Clay (3) looks for running room 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.

It seemed like the Sooners offense had the same plan and only managed 89 total offensive yards in the half, but they managed to score two touchdowns in the first half which is a big deal to go into half time leading by 14 points.

December 30 2011: Oklahoma Sooners Roy Finch (22) carries the ball 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.

A few of the Sooners runs looked impressive but just didn’t result in much yardage for the first half.

Oklahoma Sooners quarterback Landry Jones would come in for 2 or 3 plays and backup quarterback Blake Bell would come in and carry the ball into the end zone for the score. This quarterback switching game plan was a little unorthodox, but it was working for the Sooners and putting points on the board and that’s what counts.

I didn’t want you to think that I wasn’t paying attention to the beautiful cheerleaders or spirit squad members on the sidelines, I can not pass up the opportunity to point my camera at pretty ladies.

I have to give equal time to both teams here, I mean to be fair and all.

December 30 2011: Oklahoma Sooners Geneo Grissom (85) 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.

I wanted to get some player shots from the sidelines as well.

And of course the excited fan shots are something to look for at these big NCAA College football bowl games.

OK, back to the game action and the quarterback shootout.

The second half felt a little different, but the outcome was still the same, not many yards gained and not the explosive game we had hoped for.

The Hawks did manage to put 14 points on the board but they were struggling to move the ball effectively against the Sooners defense.

They were excited when they put the ball in the end zone, but there was still much work to be done.

December 30 2011: Oklahoma Sooners Roy Finch (22) carries the ball 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.

Oklahoma was mixing it up and managed to move the ball at times but the final score doesn’t reflect the lackluster performance of this game.

The action looked interesting from the sidelines and the Iowa defense managed to put Landry Jones on his back a couple of times, but that didn’t change the end result which was another Oklahoma Sooners win.

December 30 2011: Oklahoma Sooners head coach Bob Stoops 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.

The Sooners head coach Bob Stoops didn’t look worried, he was watching the clock and would probably say he had this one in the bag from the opening kickoff.

December 30 2011: Oklahoma Sooners Jamell Fleming (32) is awarded the defensive player of the game after 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.

In the end it was an interesting game to cover and overall I had a great time at the 2011 Insight Bowl. I can’t wait to see which teams are next years Insight Bowl.

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.

The big story of the weekend was the Sprint Cup Chase between Carl Edwards and Tony Stewart and how Phoenix was the “wildcard” track in the Chase races. Over the last few years Carl Edwards has done very well on the Phoenix track, winning both the Nationwide and Sprint Cup races, qualifying well and generally having this track dialed. That was on the old surface, this was a new surface and an entirely different ballgame.

10 November 2011: Carl Edwards (60) 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.

Edwards was fast in practice, but not as dominate as he had been in years past.

It seemed like Carl Edwards was just a tiny bit off the pace and a bit distracted with the Chase for the Cup race on Sunday. The Nationwide race looked like it was not going to be the usual suspects for a number of reasons.

10 November 2011: Joey Logano (18) 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.

One of those reasons being, Kyle Busch was in trouble with NASCAR for, well you know, being Kyle Busch, and taking out Ron Hornaday in the truck race so Joey Logano was in Kyle’s Number 18 Nationwide car.

10 November 2011: Danica Patrick (7) 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.

Although not much of a factor in the racing, the media always ends up talking a bit about Danica Patrick because she is a woman and NASCAR brought her in to help pump up the female fan base so the spotlight is on her for this weekend as well.

10 November 2011: Brad Keselowski (22) 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.

Brad Keselowski is one of the young guns of the NASCAR show and the new Dodge cars were looking good during practice.

The practice sessions were uneventful.

10 November 2011: Steve Wallace (66) 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.

I did manage to get a few nice shots during the practice session like this one of the exhaust flames from the Toyota of Steve Wallace.

10 November 2011: Ricky Carmichael (34) 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.

I’m always looking to see how former supercross star Ricky Carmichael does in the truck series, but this year he is also running in the Nationwide series so make sure to get a few shots of him.

12 November 2011: Ricky Stenhouse Jr. (6) during the NASCAR Nationwide Series Race, WYPALL* 200 powered by Kimberly-Clark Professional at Phoenix International Raceway in Avondale Arizona.

Ricky Stenhouse Jr. is another rising star in the Nationwide series to keep an eye on and the new Ford Mustang is a good-looking car out there on the track.

12 November 2011: Trevor Bayne (16) and Aric Almirola (88) side by side coming out of turn 4 during the NASCAR Nationwide Series Race, WYPALL* 200 powered by Kimberly-Clark Professional at Phoenix International Raceway in Avondale Arizona.

Aric Almirola started on the pole and was looking fast for the first half of the race. In the above shot he fights for position with Trevor Bayne coming out of turn 4.

Danica managed to get tangled up in the opening laps and the rest of the day didn’t seem to go her way.

Danica manage to limp her car in for repairs but was off the pace the rest of the day.

12 November 2011: Aric Almirola (88) leads Carl Edwards (60) and the rest of the field during the NASCAR Nationwide Series Race, WYPALL* 200 powered by Kimberly-Clark Professional at Phoenix International Raceway in Avondale Arizona.

Carl Edwards look fast, but for the entire first half of the race it was Aric Almirola leading the race and not a lot of passing on track.

Most of the drivers were looking for the fast line through the turns, some worked the line while others tried lines higher up.

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

A few cars back in the pack Sam Hornish Jr. and Elliot Sadler quietly waited for just the right moment to make their moves.

12 November 2011: Mike Wallace (01) (center) fights through traffic during the NASCAR Nationwide Series Race, WYPALL* 200 powered by Kimberly-Clark Professional at Phoenix International Raceway in Avondale Arizona.

There were some mid-pack fighting going on that was fun to watch, and as the race progressed grip started to improve for some of the drivers.

Sam Hornish Jr. had a really nice looking paint scheme on his car, and if I understand correctly does not have a ride for the 2012 NASCAR Season which is too bad, because he was looking good out there.

Carl Edwards slipped back and was playing it safe working for manufacture points in the Nationwide Series.

I thought Carl Edwards was going to work his way to the front and we would see him in Victory Lane at the end of the day.

It turns out we would see a newcomer in Victory Lane for this race and I’m happy to see Sam Hornish Jr. win this race.

12 November 2011: Clint Bowyer (33) (center) looks for a way around Ricky Stenhouse Jr. (6) (left) during the NASCAR Nationwide Series Race, WYPALL* 200 powered by Kimberly-Clark Professional at Phoenix International Raceway in Avondale Arizona.

Three drivers in a row makes for a nice picture as the drivers exit turn 4 at Phoenix International Raceway.

In the end Sam Hornish Jr. would take the big prize.

I’m happy for Sam Hornish Jr. and I hope the win will help him get a ride for the 2012 season.

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 thing about photographing NHRA Drag Racing is that many of the sessions happen during the day with very bright, harsh sunlight. Bright, harsh mid-day sunlight doesn’t lend itself to making nice images. When the lighting is less than optimum for car on track images I head to the staging lanes for driver shots.

It’s always hard to tear yourself away from the intensity of funny cars launching down track at 300 + mph but when the lighting is harsh you will have to work a little harder to get the images to “pop.”

During the daylight hours it can be a real challenge to clean up the backgrounds of your images. There are power poles, TV camera guys, TV camera dolly cranes and lots of team members just standing around that add a lot of clutter to your images. For this shot of Alexis DeJoria doing her burnout I tried tilting the camera and using the burnout smoke to clean up the image as much as I could.

For this shot of Melanie Troxel doing her burnout I was shooting across the track and tried panning to blur the background but I felt the image still has a somewhat distracting background.

As the sun starts to go down the images just look nicer with the header flames glowing and it make the colors “pop” like in this shot from Friday evening of Jim Head making his qualifying run.

As any photographer knows the light fades fast at sunset, so you are constantly changing your ISO and shutter speed to compensate for the changing lighting conditions. When it all comes together you can make some beautiful images.

Trying to get both cars in the shot is a challenge as well. In this shot of John Force (near lane) and Jeff Diehl you can see the cluttered background, mid-day light and the timing-tree is covering part of Jeff Diehl’s car.

Trying to get good panning shots of funny cars leaving the starting line is understandably difficult and not for the faint of heart. Standing up tall with your eyes in the viewfinder only a few feet away from a car going past you at about 140 mph with three-foot flames coming out both sides of the car is a bit nerve-racking to say the least.

I always come back to the early evening shots like this one of Robert Height from Fri. qualifying. I can’t tell you how cool these images look printed as a two page spread or poster sized, the intensity captured in that image is insane.

I kept trying to make some nice images of cars on track in the harsh mid-day light so I tried using a circular polarizing filter to give the sky some pop.

At some point I just decided to head into the staging lanes and get some driver shots like this one of iconic funny car driver John Force. Shots like these are not as simple to get as you would think, there are a number of factors to account for like crew members helping the driver strap in and getting the car ready for its run, you as the photographer staying out-of-the-way while they do what needs to be done, and diving in just at the right time to grab an image of the great John Force in his car.

After making some nice images of John Force getting all ready in the car you just can’t help yourself but run out to the track to try to get some shots of his pass. To be honest Force just wasn’t a factor this weekend. It was warm and the track was slick making it difficult for the competitors to get good traction and make a fast pass.

Alexis DeJoria makes a pass in her Patron Tequila sponsored Toyota. I had to get some detail shots of the paint scheme on her car, it was amazing.

Trying to get panning shots of two cars running down the track was difficult because of the lighting conditions, heat-haze, lingering burnout smoke and mid-day lighting but I liked this shot of Alexis DeJoria (near lane) and Robert Height as they make their runs.

Another driver shot, this time of Toyota driver Alexis DeJoria and she gets ready for pass.

Jack Beckman seemed to have the Firebird track dialed all weekend and in the end won the big prize. It took me all weekend to figure out how to make cars on track in the mid-afternoon sun look good. This shot of Jack Beckman’s Aaron’s Lucky Dog Dodge from Sunday is in the bright sun, but still looks good.

I was still trying to make the both-cars-on-track image and this shot of the burnout of Jim Head (near lane) and Paul Lee worked real well for me.

Besides Don “the snake” Prudhomme and Tom “mongoose” McEwen there isn’t a more iconic figure in drag racing as John Force. John is a very personable guy, you see him all over the track checking conditions, talking with the other competitors and fans and playing it up for the TV cameras. How can you not love John Force.

John’s car was all bare carbon fiber with stickers and wasn’t very exciting to photograph and he didn’t qualify well for this race so we didn’t see him come up to the line very often. I think he was trying to send his winning vibes to Robert Height and Mike Neff and didn’t have anything left for himself.

Toyota driver Melanie Troxel does a burnout in her IN-N-OUT Burger sponsored car and again I tried to tilt the camera use the smoke to clean up the image.

I love the graphic on the front of Jim Head’s Toyota. How could you not love a giant chrome blower skill!

Jack Beckman was watching the Super Gas and Super Comp cars and checking track conditions before the funny car final on Sun. and when he made this great face I made a few nice frames.

When it came down to it, Jack Beckman took home the big prize for the weekend in his Aaron’s Lucky Dog Dodge.

I spent some time Saturday for the early rounds shooting from the top end of the track. Dealing with the heat-haze and harsh lighting didn’t yield many impressive images so I didn’t stay too long.

I tried to keep some shots straight and traditional looking without any tilt but I bet there are 20 or so other photographers that got exactly the same shot with not much difference.

I tended to like the tilted images a bit more than the traditional look so I ended up shooting most of my stuff like this. Some people don’t like the effect and some think the images look boring without any tilt. I guess I liked a bit of both.

Another tilted burnout shot, this time of Jeff Arend’s DHL Toyota.

And one last shot of Melanie Troxel (near lane) and Tony Pedregon from the top end of the track.

I know, “that’s all?” you want more, well stay tuned for a future blog post with the top fuel dragster and pro stock cars from the NHRA Arizona Nationals.

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.

I sent a quick email to my friend Michael O. to see if he could help me out with my lighting and wrangling the athletes and whatnot and thankfully he agreed. So off we went.

When thinking about this in my head beforehand I remembered that there is a very large Arizona State Sun Devils “Sparky” logo painted on the wall at Wells Fargo arena so I thought I would set up in the hallway in front of the big logo and try to make that work.

It turns out that may not have been the best idea I have ever had, in a lot of the shots I ended up cutting off parts of the logo and it just became a more cluttered background element to try to work around. Like I said this was my first go at this kind of individual posed sports portraits.

I set up my lights figuring on shooting one player at a time, but when the players starting joking around or standing in groups of two or three, all bets were off and I was just winging it and hoping things worked out for the best.

I really had a great time working with the athletes of the Arizona State University Sun Devils basketball team, they were very patient with me and willing to work with my instructions. I tried to give them some freedom to express their individuality in their poses or their look so it wasn’t such a grind for them posing for all the different groups of photographers.

Some of the younger players are new to the team and all the attention given to them by the local media seemed to be a little much while others were rock stars in their own right, both on and off the court and knew exactly what to do. Everyone was very helpful and my friend Michael O. gave me some good pointers and helped me out a lot during the few hours we had to shoot these athletes.

With a lot of the shots I wanted to get real tight and use dramatic lighting, but when the height of the players range from 5 foot 11 inches to almost 7 feet tall for college basketball players I was really hoping my lighting setup would be generic enough to fit all the players into without moving any of the lights during the shoot.

I tried to shoot a good mix of portrait and landscape oriented shots so the images could be used in a variety of layouts depending on what was needed.

In some cases I got two very similar shots, like the above examples. The lighting on the player’s face seems better in the shot on the left, but I liked the framing of the shot on the right. Either way, trying to work that logo into the background added another element of complexity that I could have done without. I learned a great deal by taking on this project, the need to work quickly and not take up too much of the athletes time is very important and adds a level of complexity to this type of shoot that is not for the faint of heart.

In a lot of the shots the logo in the background was really working against me. I didn’t anticipate how difficult the big logo would be to work with and how it would hurt me, only how it would help me. In the end, I guess it’s my inexperience with these type of shoots that lead me to using the wall with the big logo on it as a background, I guess now I know a simple backdrop would have been so much better. It might have been a bit less interesting without the logo, but less work for me.

Players like Trent Lockett (24) of the Arizona State Sun Devils have done these type of media circus events before and knew just how to pose and work his magic in front of the camera.

I saw the “players in mid-air” shots that Dustin Snipes did and wanted to give that a try also, some worked out well, others not so well.

Pierre Newton (left) and Keala King look great in this shot, however I wish I didn’t have half the logo in the background. Because it’s more of a posed portrait I don’t believe it’s inappropriate to retouch the image, but honestly I’m just not that good at processing (especially around the hair) that I would just end up messing up the images. Live and learn. Next time, etc.

Many of the shots I liked and I am proud of the work I produced, I did however, learn several things to avoid next time I undertake a project like this.

How do you light a guy that is this tall, and can jump so far out of the lighting . . .

And how do you tell Jordan Bachynski that I can’t really see the ball in the shot, can you do it again for me please?

A great shot of Chris Colvin, but that logo is killing me in this shot.

Keala King gave me some great looks and some great poses. I guess there are a number of “standard” basketball poses that most basketball players know, and now I know a few of them too.

Some of the “fun” images turned out great because the players were relaxed and just joking around with their teammates. I really liked several of these shots.

It ended up being a bit of a game with some of the guys, “lets all jump on the big guys back and toss-up the pitch fork sign.”

Overall I had a great time working with Keala King (21) (left), Chris Colvin (2) (middle) and Kyle Cain (5) and the rest of the Arizona State Sun Devils basketball team. I learned a lot about team and individual sports photography and I am very excited to produce team and individual photos for football, baseball or soccer so if your team needs photos, please give me a call.

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

I was excited to cover the Wednesday night “Fashionably Pink”  runway show presented by the folks at Phoenix Fashion Week. The show is a benefit for the Susan G. Koman cancer foundation and was held at the new Musical Instrument Museum.

Here is where some of the disappointment comes in, the Fashionably Pink show uses local celebrities and personalities as well as cancer survivors showcasing pink fashion designs so many of the models are not trained in walking the runway.  Given the fact you are using local celebrities and not runway models you would think a simple configuration would be best.

The Fashionably Pink show did not use a straight raised “catwalk” style runway, but rather had the models walking in a “plus-sign” configuration which confused the models, made for very poor photo opportunities and generally looked a bit amateurish and unorganized.

The lighting was awful which required skillful mixing of flash and ambient to even produce somewhat acceptable images. These facts may have been troublesome for the photographers, but what really counts is if the audience enjoyed themselves and felt like the money they spent purchasing tickets for this show went to a good cause. The problem with this attitude is there will not be any useful images to promote this show, or next year’s show.

There were lots of celebrities wearing “pink” fashions including Joe Lance, a judge from Mexico’s Next Top Model who was busy being interviewed for some TV show when I took this shot.

I really struggled to capture useful images at this show and wondered if I was going to have the same difficulties with the other runway shows. At least the night wasn’t a total loss because I was able to grab a cupcake with a big mound of pink frosting.

On Thursday the Phoenix Fashion Week runway shows were held at the fantastic Talking Stick resort in, wait for it, Scottsdale.  At some point I really hope the PHOENIX FASHION WEEK organizers decide to look for a suitable location in PHOENIX for the Phoenix Fashion Week runway shows. But I digress, on to the show.

The runway at the Talking Stick resort was set up outside with no tent or ceiling for the photographer’s to bounce their flashes from, which means direct flash with harsh bright light, red-eye and monster shadows. Unless you are really good at mixing flash and ambient light or you shoot everything with ambient light using high ISO you can expect to have some challenges photographing these shows.

The photo riser was so small it only accommodated about 6 or 8 photographers and 2 video cameras, with about 25 credentialed photographer’s and the 2 house photographer’s down in front I was forced to shoot 3/4 shots with a longer lens by shooting over some guys heads and between two photographers.

I did the best I could with my images, but there were many, many challenges to overcome. The ambient light had a bit of a color cast or tint to it which might look nice in person but doesn’t accurately represent the colors in the fabric of the fashions and can tend to make the models skin look strange.

All of the issues combined made covering this year’s shows very challenging as a photographer. Now I understand Phoenix Fashion Week doesn’t really need me there covering their show, in fact how does having me there capturing images help them at all? That is where a lot of the shame comes in. Shame on Phoenix Fashion Week for trying to manipulate the media by restricting access to areas around the runway, trying to “force” the non-house photographers to take pictures of all the shows attendees as they entered and not providing enough photo-riser space which forced the photographers to either stand on folding chairs (a safety hazard) or just shoot from the sides of the runway where the ushers kept telling us we couldn’t be.

Despite all the challenges I really tried to push through the problems and remain professional, capturing reasonably useful images.

In some cases the models looked bored or their faces were all broken out and overall the impression was that this year’s shows were suffering some serious growing pains.

I wasn’t really doing anything creative with my photography, only recording 3/4 shots of the models. I felt like I was standing in the back pocket of the guy in front of me, I was struggling with the lighting conditions, bad color casts in my images and trying to keep the shotgun mic from the video camera in front of me out of my shots.

After a while all my images started to look the same and I was getting a bit tired of trying to shoot between photographers and over the video cameras on the photo riser when some very cute young girl with what looked like a Canon T2i and a kit lens came up to me and asked if I had a spare battery she could use. I paused before answering, as the thought of the $65 dollar each price tag for the batteries flashed before my eyes and given the fact that I didn’t know this person or if I would ever see her again if I did help her by letting her use my spare battery. I just thought, “wow, how ridiculous is that to walk up to a complete stranger and asking them to borrow an expensive camera battery. Never mind you didn’t plan ahead and bring a spare battery for YOUR camera, or that the batteries are expensive and I don’t know who you are . . .

My response, “no sorry I just have the one for my grip.”

This was just turning out to be a really strange night. So strange that I even cut off this model’s hands and somehow think this is an acceptable image.

I’m going to have to say that I am disappointed in myself and the lack of creativity in my images, I mean after all is said and done, it’s up to me to make it work.

I’m not real excited with most of the images I captured, they are not bad, just not up to the level I expected of myself.

One of the other photographers there that night was very nice and seemed to keep a smile on his face throughout the evenings ordeal. I wish I had a better attitude about the way the night went.

I realized all my images were vertical and figured I should capture at least one horizontal image that night.

I wonder if the Phoenix Fashion Week folks realize that it doesn’t matter how sexy the model is, a screen-printed hoodie just isn’t fashion.

Or that it doesn’t matter how many college logos or politically correct saying you put on a screen-printed T-Shirt, it’s still just a T-Shirt and NOT fashion.

I’m sorry, but when you send a model out on the runway with a wide-brim hat and expect the photographer’s to get good shots where the model’s face isn’t some dark shadow with no eyes, well that just tells me the entire event was geared toward the audience, and you missed the mark on helping the Phoenix Fashion Week brand.

Think about it, are the shows held during New York Fashion Week geared JUST for the audience in attendance? No, not really they are geared towards the rest of the world that see the images captured at those shows, the fashions are talked about, written about, examined in detail for color, fabric, shape and what the next trend will be.

If you set up your show just for the “local” audience and a couple of “house” photographers you will always be considered “small time” local “fluff” and never be taken seriously as anything that matters in the fashion world. Just my opinion, but if you want to make a difference in the fashion world you will need to consider more than just “how” your show (and your brand) looks to the audience sitting along the runway.

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.

It was still very warm, close to 100 degrees with some very threatening clouds which made the lighting very flat. As expected I headed to the garage to grab driver shots.

Dale Jr. is a very popular driver and it can be difficult to get good clean shots of him during race weekends because he, like many of the drivers treat the media like paparazzi, and tend to avoid places where the media can get good shots.

The drivers are in the shadows of the garage and often times it is best to use a flash to get good bright exposures of the drivers while they are in the garage, maybe that is why they think of the media photographers as paparazzi, because our use of flash makes them feel like they are on the red carpet.

Stalking the garages looking for good driver portraits can be a real waiting game and at times makes you really feel like a paparazzi, but really media photographers are much, much different.

Some of the drivers just have those photogenic faces that make you really want to grab shots of them.

I decided to take a break from driver portraits to get some cars on track shots, seeing that the cars were in proper paint schemes for racing made me want to get more car shots but I had to include the background of empty stands and threatening clouds.

At this size these shots just don’t have the impact you get looking at a full-page spread or as a 12 x 18 inch print. Here is a crop from the image above showing the detail on the car.

I was really having fun with these wide-angle panning shots, and liking the results. Like I said, much better viewed at poster sized.

I went back into the garages for more driver portraits like this one of Kevin Harvick.

I remember at one of the races Dale Jr. was all strapped into his car and I asked one of his crew if I could grab a few shots through the window, and he said “no, he hates when photographer’s stick their cameras in the window of his car” so when I got this shot of Dale Jr. putting on his signature skeleton gloves through the windshield I knew it was not an easy shot to get.

Back out on track, Dale Jr.’s car doesn’t have the same impact as some of the others.

Somehow the panning shots of Kurt Busch’s car are just brighter, maybe it’s how the yellow matches the track-edge lines or the stands, but it just has more “pop.”

Some really tight head shots would be great for a feature story on David Regan, are there any photo editors out there that need shots like this?

What, more overview shots of the cars on track is what you want, well I got those.

It was interesting to watch Jimmie Johnson and Jeff Gordon talk about car handling and the new track conditions during the testing.

I spent all morning shooting inside the track so I thought I would head outside the track for some cars on track shots.

It turns out that after the track surface was replaced they hadn’t replaced any of the photo-holes so everything was shot through the chain-link catch fence. Not an easy task.

Jeff Gordon’s team had these telemetry-tracking devices attached to both front wheels for all his runs on the track.

Right now Clint Bowyer is thinking, “I wonder if a big bowl of Cheerios would make me faster?”

The sides of Jimmie Johnson’s car were not painted silver, but primer grey so that made his car look somewhat less appealing on track.

I would have thought the bright purple of the Crown Royal car would make it stand out more, but the cloud cover really flattened everything out.

In the end the wide-angle panning shot were my favorite from this first day of testing.

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.

The action starts on Fri. with practice at around 11 or 12 o’clock with very harsh mid-day lighting. During practice the trucks aren’t required to have all the body panels in place so I use this time to practice my wide-angle panning shots.

Later in the day after all the classes have their practices sessions there is a 5 minute qualifying session where the trucks need to have all the body panels attached, but the harsh lighting still exists to some extent so I continued to practice my panning shots.

One of the things I like about covering several races in the LOORS schedule is that it gives me a chance to try some artistic, slow-shutter-speed panning creative shots where the odds that I get several good shots is limited. Sometimes I’m happy with the results, but I end up deleting a lot of images that just don’t work out. The shot above was one of the ones I liked.

I hate to result to cheap parlor tricks to get more views on my blog, but I can’t help myself. The terms “hot Rockstar Energy Drink girls” is by far the most widely searched term that leads viewers to my blog for the post on my coverage of the Monster Energy AMA Supercross, so maybe if I add this image of the very sexy Rockstar Energy Drink girls I can move this post to the most viewed list.

I heard yesterday that the Monster Energy Toyota driver Rick Huseman and his brother were killed in a plane crash and that is very sad news. My thoughts go out to his family and friends, the sport lost a great driver and stand-up guy. Rick Huseman will be missed.

It doesn’t seem to matter how hard I try, I just can’t find any good angles to capture shots of trucks in the air at the Speedworld track. The backgrounds are always cluttered and distracting, but yet I keep trying.

With some of my panning shots I tried to get my shutter speed as slow as possible to blur the background and “clean-up” the shots, the problem with that is it’s difficult and I end up deleting 8 out of 10 shots. When it works, I like the effect.

Some trucks have good contrasting graphics on the side making the auto-focus tracking much easier and the odds that you will get more in-focus shots goes up.

In most cases the beautiful Rockstar Energy Drink girls were standing in a mixture of the harsh, bright sun and shade which means I have to over-power the sun with my Canon 580 EX II flash to even out the lighting, a very difficult task. With this shot I managed to mix flash and ambient light just about right to open up the shadows.

. . .  what, did you say something . . .          I basically stopped reading right after “beautiful Rockstar Energy Drink girls.”

I don’t know how you expect me to work out lighting ratios, mixing flash and ambient light, fill-flash to open up the shadows, exposure, shutter speed and not drooling all over myself when taking pictures of these girls. By the way, the girl on the far right, busted me for staring.

OK, back to the racing action and the super slow shutter speed panning shots.

How about one of the Rockstar trucks sliding around turn two with all the Rockstar banners and billboards everywhere.

Another shot of a Rockstar truck with Rockstar banners everywhere.

Hey look, no Rockstar banners and it’s not even a Rockstar truck.

I’m still looking for a truck-in-the-air shot with a clean background, so for this one I went to the far side of the track and tried shooting from a different angle.

How about a nice shot of two trucks fighting for position with nothing but dirt for a background, how is that working for you?

I just can’t help myself, I keep coming back to the problem of using a speedlite flash to over-power the sun. I know I can work this problem out if I just keep trying.

Back to the two trucks fighting for position, nice angle but still have a bit of a distracting background element at the top of the frame.

All the Rockstar Energy Drink banners aren’t really a problem if the only trucks I shoot are Rockstar sponsored trucks. Problem solved.

Now what am I supposed to do with all the Rockstar billboards and Monster Energy trucks? Looks like the problem is not solved at all.