Rob's Spot

2/27/2011 Lapping day at Circuit Grand Bayou

2011-03-02T11:25:00.000-08:00

It was a great weekend, the weather was nice and a bunch of guys came out for a day of play at the race track. There were cars of all types and seasoned drivers to a few first timers. Speaking of first time track day drivers, I really admired this guy (sorry I didn't get names}. He was sent out on track for his first time with a pack of wolves and he had to learn the track and keep an eye out for all the fast guys. It's a lot harder than it sounds. On lapping days there are only 2 allowed passing areas and you really need to stay aware to upcoming traffic as well as watch your mirror's for cars that may catch you. when you add that to tying to learn the course and stay on it. It's a BIG chore. So a BIG KUDOS for the new guy and i know he will be improving every time he goes out.

If you ever dreamed of being a race car driver or would just love to learn some high performance driving skills look up the guys at Circuit Grand Bayou. So with that I'll just leave you with some photo's from the weekend.
If you would like to see the entire gallery or purchase photographs please go here http://rob214.smugmug.com/

Thanks for looking
Rob

2/19/2011 Drag racing

2011-03-02T11:22:00.000-08:00

At No Problem Raceway.

This was my first time trying to photograph drag racing and since I was only a casual fan that watched from the safety of my couch I was amazed at the level of noise and how quick these guys get off the line. The bikes just seem to disappear into the night. Those big V8's just really rumble.

Most of the bikes from my memory were going about 135mph to 160 mph but this guy went 67 mph, must have felt faster.

The smoke from the burnouts just fill the night air.

If you looking for some drag racing follow this link http://www.noproblemraceway.com/.
If you would like to see my entire gallery from that night follow this link http://rob214.smugmug.com/ or this link to see Tommy Barrios gallery.
Thanks for looking
rob

Bicycle with a Jet Engine attached

2011-02-28T15:33:00.000-08:00

A what? You read that right a "Jet Engine". A jet engine mounted on the back of a bicycle. This guy mounted the jet engine on the back with a home made brackets. It runs on jet fuel and gets about 1 mile per gallon, maybe. He told me it would go about 43 MPH but he generally doesn't go that fast. The engine puts out about 35 lbs of thrust.

The bike and it's creator.

The business end of it.

He also told me it's the same kind of engine used in a military Cruise missile. Good luck trying to top this guy on totally obscure hobbies..............

Rob

A day at the races.....

2011-01-31T20:24:00.000-08:00

It was a different race track than I've ever been to before, a "horse" race track. Our camera club held it's monthly outing and about 25 folks showed up for a day at the track.

I found the experience of photographing horse racing to be very similar to race cars and bikes. But with a lot less sound. If I wasn't paying attention the race would start and a group of horses would come past. Luckily others in the group would yell and worn me to start shooting.

It was very interesting to go into the paddock area and watch the jockies prepare and mount their horses.

It was a great day getting to know some of the club members as well as getting to spend a day shooting photo's.

Warm up action.

The paddock area.

Practicing my panning... still needs work.

Coming out of the gate.

Heading into the first turn.

Home stretch.

Hope you didn't loose your bet.

Thanks for looking
Rob

Happy New Year

2011-01-09T17:18:00.001-08:00

Well it's now 2011. I hope everyone had a great holiday season. I'm looking forward to many new and wonderful things.
Rob

Johnny and Erika

2010-12-06T16:48:00.000-08:00

You spend part of your life wandering around hoping to meet that someone special. It's a big world and sometimes that special someone is right there, you've seen them but not noticed them. Maybe you bumped into them or have mutual friends, maybe thought oh they would never go for me.

Sometimes you pray Lord send me a mate! And then There they are, sometimes...... right there in front of you.

You just pass on bye.
Then the timing is right and the rest is history.

Johnny and Erika are engaged and I'm so happy for them. They are both great people and I just love hanging out with them. I was so happy when they asked me to take photo's of them. It's hard to take bad shots of such a great looking couple. They are so happy together and compliment each other so well. I wish them well and look forward to seeing their love grow over the years. Hopefully I will get to shoot many more photo's of them.

God bless!
Rob

Photoshoot with Trinette, Mike and the boys

2010-12-03T12:52:00.000-08:00

Sunny day, playing in the park and lot's of photo's.
We spent the afternoon taking family photo's with Trinette, Mike and their boys. i had a blast, got lots of shot's and look forward to doing it again sometime soon.
The sun was a bit high and harsh but we got through it just fine. My wife assisted me with posing and holding the flash / umbrella due to some wind an she did a wonderful job. The boys are just as cute as can be and we had fun trying to capture them playing and just being boys.
Rob

The handsome boys.

There's no place to take a nap like mom's lap.

Worn out and ready to relax.

24 Hours of Lemons

2010-11-22T17:19:00.000-08:00

The race started at 3pm Saturday and ran until 3pm Sunday. At least that was the plan, fog became an issue late in the morning and the officials called for a 6 hour break to allow the fog to move on.
Race day or race night started for me at 10:30pm Saturday night. i was working the late shift. I thought it might have been hard to stay awake but i was wrong. Lots of action and lots of flagging and radio work. I was working corner station 3 and there was lots of passing.
I did manage to get some photo's...

As you can see it was dark. There were some portable lights to the right and did light the corner fairly well but it was dark. There was a full moon and plenty of fog. So instead of more typing from me I'll just leave you some shots from the night.

I hope that all the participants had a great time and I'll see you next year.
Rob

Howl-oween Drifting at Circuit Grand Bayou

2010-11-01T09:51:00.000-07:00

Howl-oween Drifting
This was my first time at a drifting event and it was a Lot of fun. The guys at Circuit Grand Bayou did a great job and i think everyone had a great Howl - oween.

The Drifting contest top three

Lance Ftizhenry was the winner, Ian McDougal finished second and Kim Tran third.

Lance Ftizhenry

Podium celebrations

Here are a couple of the drifting action shots.

With more to follow.
Since this was Holw-Oween there was a judged costume contest.
The winners were Bumble Bee and The Heinekin Couple.

Follow this link for photo's of the event Howl-ween Drifting , Photo's should be up later this week

press release 9/26/2010

2010-09-29T19:13:00.000-07:00

With rumors flying around the pits at the last Gran Prix about P.Massa being replaced by Bob Cubicle at Ferrari the silence has finally been broken and we now know who will drive for the team in 2011.

Victoria Elizebeth, 2 ½ years old signed a contract to race for Scudaria Ferrari with title sponsor “My Daddy Goes Broke Fast Dot Com”

She will be driving the red #2 with testing sessions getting underway as we type. Her agent better known as “Grandpoo” held a press conference at borders book store in New Orleans to announce his driver getting the call up to the big leagues.

Notable attendee's at the press conference were Mommy and Babe (Grandma).

When questioned about his driver’s fitness he replied “well at a family wedding a couple of weeks ago she danced for almost an hour and a half before taking a break so I think her cardio is great”.

He also commented that her dad has been pushing her up and down the driveway on her tricycle to prepare for the G forces.

Italian Team manager Elmo DomasillyOh commented that this is just the push forward the team needs to finish the season on a high note.

Here she is signing her new contract with body guard Peanut watching intently.

Here she goes over the car controls with her chief mechanic aka Daddy.

They discuss race tactics and pit stop strategy.

Once behind the controls her natural talent and determination takes over and after a few laps closes in a new track record.

When asked how her seat fitting went at the factory she said first you put your left foot in, then you shake it all about……..

At the track, team manager Elmo DomasillyOh says he is pleased with the first test and can’t wait for race day with his new driver.

After 30 minutes on track she was asked if she thought it was tough to step in and get up to speed, she commented, “it’s just like working on the farm with old Mcdonald E I E I O”.

When asked what her favorite part of the practice was she said “the pits stops, because mommy gave me some milk and cookies”.

When asked about what her mom thought she said “moms ok with it as long as the race is over before my afternoon nap. Because if I don’t get a nap I get cranky”.

When questioned on her fitness she responded, “just like my friend humpty, it’s as easy as falling off a wall”

The team is pleased with the first test and was happy to announce that since the signing the team has been able to market different areas of sponsorship with huggies possibly being linked as a new team partner.

When asked about her competitors she replied, "I'm not afraid of baby Hammy".

At her press conference after this afternoons test session she had these comments:
This is the only view the competition will see of me, my backside........

I will drive flat out!

Stay tuned for more coverage as we get closer to the up coming Kitchen Gran Prix!

When life gives you "lemons"

2010-08-12T19:57:00.000-07:00

You race em!

At least that's what these guys do at Circuit Grand Bayou located in Belle Rose LA. If you have heard of the 24 Hours of Le mans then you kind of get the idea behind this race, the 24 hours of lemons. You buy a car for $500.00 and install all the required safety gear, get about 4 friends or more to help co-drive, pit crew and off you go.

One thing you will notice is that almost all the cars have a theme. This race is about fun! There are some crazy rules to even encourage fun. If, for example you make an off track excursion you may be called in to see the stewards and made to walk around the pits reciting the rule book that clearly says to not go off track. There are plenty of penalties and crazy acts of penance, such as having to weld a metal thing to the roof of your car.

As you would expect a race that last all day you will need to make pit stops for fuel and tires as well as driver changes.

The racing is serious yet safe.

But always colorful.

Notice the metal pig welded on to the trunk of the car?

This car had load Arabic music playing all through the race.

In case you don't know that is a crab trap on top of the 911 car.

A little off track action.

This one really cracked me up.

The Crapsmen truck ran
strong all weekend.

Where else would you expect to see such beautifully prepared race cars?
Well at least colorful race cars........ If you're a race fan you really need to check one of these races out. Lots of action and lots of colorful cars and participants.
If you would like to see more photograph's from the race weekend please go here.

Shawn and Stephanie's Engagement Photographs

2010-08-08T18:43:00.000-07:00

My cousin Shawn is getting married and i had the privilege of taking some engagement shots. Shawn and Stephanie were lot's of fun to work with and even though the temperature was in the 90's we managed to get plenty of shot's before we started to melt.

The Audubon Park area in New Orleans is a great place to visit and photograph. Lots of oak trees and grassy areas.

I'm looking forward to doing some more photographs of Shawn and Stephanie before the wedding and i think we're going to wait until it cools off a bit.

Rob

Pennington Hot Air Balloon Championship

2010-08-08T16:05:00.000-07:00

I've never been to a balloon festival before and i heard about it from http://www.meetup.com/louisianasocietyofdigitalphotographers/. Ive been trying to meet other photographers in the area but because of traffic and travel distance i still have not met anyone. We were stuck in traffic for about 45 minutes and missed the meet up time by a long shot.
We arrived in time to watch the balloonist unpack their equipment and prepare for the nights activities.

I have seen balloons on TV and print but never in person and i was amazed at the size and the heat from the torch's.

I stood between a couple of the balloons as they filled with air and started to stand up and it was like being in some crazy movie with a feeling of being consumed by the silent giants.

I think my inner child made an appearance because when the torch's started going i spent a lot of time watching and taking shots of all the flames.

The balloons make great subjects to photograph with all those great bright colors.
Once it got dark they did what is called a "Balloon Glow" where they light up all the balloons at once.

So I'll leave you with this, if you get the chance to go to a balloon fest please do i think you will enjoy it.

Introduction

2010-08-04T15:43:00.001-07:00

First blog

My name is Robert and this is my little space on the internet. I’ve been doing photography for about 6 years and I love motor sport photography and portraits. I occasionally take landscape shots but I love racing action and have really been enjoying learning lighting for portraits.

I hope to use this blog to help myself learn as well as helping others. I will post my favorite blogs and websites to help others find some really great learning tools as well as share my experiences with my experiments in lighting and learning photographic techniques. I will share my success and my failures as I work through the process of getting my photographs.

I will also post reviews on the equipment I buy and use, I don’t get paid or receive free stuff from any companies so I don’t mind talking frankly about what I purchase if it will help others make an informed decision. I spend lots of time researching products before I buy and I do my best to try and spend wisely.

Thanks for stopping by and I hope you find my blog interesting, funny and useful.

Rob