Debris

There was something wrong in the world of racing this last week. Seems there was dangerous debris falling all over the place. First, on July 19th Henry Surtees was killed in an F2 race in England when another car crashed, sending a tire across the track that struck him in the helmet as he raced past. Here is the video for as long as it lasts before Youtube removes it for copyright.


Then during Saturday's Formula One qualifying Felipe Massa was struck in the helmet by a spring from Rubens Barrichello's car. The impact knocked him out sending him straight into a tire barrier and fracturing his skull in at least two places. After being air lifted to the hospital and undergoing emergency surgery he is well underway to recovery. He is expected to walk out of the hospital as early as next week.

I can't seem to find a good version of the video on youtube because they keep taking them down. But of you search for it, I'm sure something will come up.

So I wanted to share a few photos from the Kart track on Monday night. Seems parts just don't want to stay on the cars this week...

A loose side pod that was hit once by another kart.


Another side pod being carried back to the pits by the owner after being torn off the kart.


This wasn't debris related, but just a mildy violent crash that I happened to capture.

No one was hurt in any of these incidents, and I'm not comparing these to the dangers of Formula One racing, but it's still dangerous. After what happened to Henry and Felipe, I immediately cringed when I saw a side pod with a big metal bar in it tumbling down the track with 16 karts racing past.

Well, you'll notice there's no photo for today. I've decided to stop killing myself to get a photo everyday and focus on the long terms of photography. I'm still going to keep this photo blog going but let it evolve into a different beast. I know once I find a job somewhere I won't have the time to shoot and post a photo everyday so I figured I'll start the process of change now, just after passing the two month mark. I'm still going to keep the posts frequent, probably 3 or 4 a week. I'd also like to use this venue as an opportunity to work more on my writing technique as that's what really needs work, not so much my photography. So here we go into new territory, without the restrictions of time and date, pen (or keyboard) in one hand, camera in the other.

Two Months Down

Well its been two months now of photos everyday. I have to admit I don't know how much longer I'll be able to keep it going, especially once I find a job. I hate having to shoot photos around the yard and in my homemade studio but its hard to get around without a car. But I'll stop complaining now and just take it one day at a time.


While these karting photos may be getting redundant at least they aren't flowers in the backyard. Last night my dad and I went to check out another track here in Windsor. Its an asphalt track in the parking lot of Windsor Raceway (horse racing). They usually race a road course but they race an oval on Wednesday nights. You can check out their website at www.999kart.com.

I'll admit this is sort of a lazy picture for today, I didn't really have much time to shoot yesterday so this is just a quick shot of my computer desk's miscellaneous drawer. I still find these types of photos interesting in a weird way (find the bullet, there now its a game). To add a little interest to this post, here's the time lapse I shot on Friday night. This was shot between 11:29 and 11:44pm, 149 seperate one-second exposures.

Here's my dad leading the senior class to the checkered flag Monday night. Below is just an action shot of someone losing it in turn 4.

Advice from a Caterpillar

I shot some photos at my friends band practice again last night. But instead of the usual photos I thought I'd share something different this time. You can still see a band practice going on in the mirror.

Star Trails

I've been meaning to do some proper star trail photos but here's a simple one for now. This is an 11 minute exposure. I had intended on shooting some clouds but they all left when I brought my camera out.

I shot a time lapse of this intersection from another angle, but I still have to put it together. So here's a taste for today. This is at the corner of Walker Road and Grand Maris here in Windsor, Ontario.

Yesterday I spent some time with my bike at the skatepark. I haven't been riding much lately, I don't know why. Every winter I have to go months without riding and its torture, but when the warm weather comes I ride a lot for the first month or so then I get lazy and complain that its too hot. Sometimes I'll go a month in the summer without riding, then winter shows up with its snow and I regret all the wasted sun and dry concrete.

Time Lapse

I've been playing with a new technique (well, new to me) in photography, time-lapse photograhpy. Eventually I want to buy a remote trigger that automatically take photos at intervals, but for now I'm doing it the old fashioned intimate way. This is my first attempt, so its just a quick clip. I wanted to make sure it was going to work how I wanted before I spent hours shooting a sequence. I shot this last night from about 11:30 to 11:50pm. This is 42 separate photos, 8 second exposures shot about 10 seconds apart. Then I assembled them all in Sony Vegas (a video editing program).

Just after the sun set and it was dark enough to shoot some 1-2 minute exposures I shot a few photos of the tree tops while light clouds passed by. I was going to try some star trail photos but there was just enough clouds to keep that from happening. But I made the best of it.

My life

Well it was only a matter of time. I've been meaning to do this for a while anyway. You've seen my collection of old cameras I'll probably never use. Here's my current setup of (mostly) modern camera gear.


1. Sony Alpha 350, 14.1MP
2. Minolta 50mm f/1.7
3. Sigma 15mm fisheye f/2.8
4. Sony 18-70mm f/4.5-5.6
5. Minolta 28-80mm (rarely used)
6. Minolta 75-300mm f/4.5-5.6
7. Minolta 3500xi Flash
8. Minolta Maxxum STsi body (35mm)
9. Mamiya MSX 500 w/50mm lens (35mm)
10. Graduated ND filters (#2 and #8)
11. Battery Charger
12. Random pocket (batteries, cable release, hot shoe level, lens cloths, etc.)
13. Two Sony HVL-F42AM Flashes

There you have it, my pride and joy.

Intimidation

I've had Tolstoy's War and Peace sitting on my shelf for well over a year now and I still haven't got up the nerve to start reading it. At 1315 small font pages, it's quite intimidating. I lent it to a friend not long ago and he got through it in about two and a half months. I'm sure it'll take me longer than that. But I've heard many good things about it and plan to tackle the fat beast sometime soon.

A couple more Tail Lights

I'm still working on my tail light photos. Here's another example. Sometimes it gets annoying when you set up the shot, then no cars will come down the road. Yet if I was doing something where cars would be in the way, there would be an endless parade.

Last night I tried out an idea I had for some band photos in my little garage studio. It's pretty easy to create this with 3 separate photos and put them together in photoshop, but I like to do things as naturally as I can. This is a 10 second exposure and I triggered the flash manually in my hand for each position.

Light Trails

I've been doing a lot of tail light photos lately but I still haven't got any that where how I wanted them to be. This is probably my favourite so far. I want to get some that are shot from above but that's real hard here in Windsor because we have one spot in the city that rises more than a few feet, everything else is flat. There's a few parking garages and a walkway over the expressway that I wanna try out, but they're on the other side of the city and I don't have a car right now.

A simple sunset shot today. The mosquito's have been terrible around here this month. It's hard to set up shots with 40 of them buzzing in your ears while you're trying to focus. They also enjoy my knuckles, seems I always have bites there. Every time I go out I think "I should have put on some bug spray" but I haven't remembered yet. I caught myself sounding like a crazy person last night while trying to set up shots and fighting off mosquito's and muttering profanities.

Some more photos from Lung Diary's band practice.


Anyone actually read these posts? I feel like I might spend my time better looking for a job...

I know these posts from the track may be getting redundant but its the only thing I have time to shoot on Mondays. I had intended to do some different shoots this week aside from the usual action shots but I was too busy to get creative with four races of my own and shooting all the rest.


We had a very successful night. My dad got a 1st and a 2nd in his two races (see above for his tribute to the late Alan Kulwicki with a Polish victory lap). I won my first heat, followed by a close 2nd, and a 4th that qualified me for the A-main, with the fast karts. I don't even know where I finished in the main, but somewhere around 9th out of 14 karts. It was a hectic race with a crash almost every lap, which I managed to avoid.

I've been trying to get away from my house to take photos. But sometimes it's hard without a car or money. Last night I went to a friends house and on the way home I took a detour to these train tracks. I shuffled my feet as I walked along the tracks so I wouldn't scare a skunk into spraying me. I saw something scurry off the tracks into the bushes. I think it was a possum, but I didn't investigate. I would have spent more time here but the mosquito's wouldn't leave my ears alone.

Kevstock

Every year on his birthday, Kev (above) has a big party at his place out in the county called Kevstock. There's always a band playing, this year was the reunion of his high school band Downfall.



It's always a good party that goes until the sun comes up, along with late night journeys to the nearby forest.


Each year the set up gets more elaborate. This years was pretty serious. I'm happy they had a good light setup that helped me get some decent photos without having to use a flash.

Here's a few minutes worth of light collecting from my backyard at about 11:30 last night.

Last night I hung out at my friends place while they practiced. We were supposed to do some promo style shots after they were done, but no one had the energy. This is Steve (left) and Norm.

Lights

I finally got away from my back yard for a photo session, despite the rain. Not too far though. These were shot about 2 blocks from my house. The photo I had in my head was taillights leading along this road to the view at the end, the Renaissance Center in Detroit. But once I started scouting a viewpoint I found that the only way to get the Renaissance Center in the shot was to stand in the middle of the road. Also it was hard to see with all the moisture in the air anyway.


So I settled for simple taillight/headlight photos along the wet road. I'm pretty happy with how they came out. I wanted to shot many more but it started raining harder than it already was so I wrapped up my camera bag in plastic and walked home, mostly satisfied.

Donuts

Yesterday I was looking at some photos from our first day at the track and I noticed how nice and clean everyone's karts were. Now...not so much. Here's what three months of racing does to the body work and stickers. Also, keep in mind that we've replaced the numbers on the side atleast three times each so far.



Also, Happy Birthday Canada.