Sunday and almost all is well...

I say almost because Cedar Lake where I was planning on going and all the rest of the Saturday night tracks fell victim to rain. You've got to feel bad for these tracks that are getting beat up by this lousy weather pattern. It seems too like every time I pickup a paper or watch news I'm seeing where people are being injured or killed by severe storms and tornadoes. You'd think it would have to mellow out pretty soon.

The good news is that a bunch of frustrated fans finally got to see some racing on Friday night. Myself included, it was my first outdoor race of the season. Hopefully I won't have to go another month and a half until the next one.

I got the chance to try out my new lens for the first time outdoors. Jackson is a tough track to shoot with the black dirt but I thought the night stuff turned out great. The nice thing about this lens is that it's got outstanding sharpness and it was my goal to improve that aspect of my work this season. Besides the sharper lens I made a resolve to not post unless the photo has good clarity. Quality over quantity, even if I only get 25 good shots I want them to be the best that they can be.

Here's a sample from last Friday night, click on the image for a larger version:



You will probably notice as the season progresses that I am not posting to the message boards announcing my photos after each event. It's getting to where (and I have been guilty of this too) the boards are cluttered with people promoting photos and products rather than sharing information. I need to back off and decided to only post racing related news and information on the message boards.

I find that by using the blog I can get my thoughts across without getting into the time wasting p*ssing matches about every non-racing subject imaginable. Like I said, I realize that I have been guilty of this in the past so that's why I'm making an effort to limit my participation on the message boards. If I can get people into the habit of checking this blog periodically they'll know what races I've been to and when I'm putting up pictures. Primarily my photography is geared towards the publications and I'm not out there competing for sales. If someone wants a photo there is contact information on the gallery and I'm going to charge the going rate just like everyone else.

My personal thought for the day after witnessing one of the best Sprint Car races I've seen in a long time at Jackson. Sprint Car racing, especially on a big fast half mile, is an extreme sport and it should be marketed that way. I think maybe we should branch out from the traditional way the sport is presented and target the young kids that enjoy extreme action sports. It puzzles me how any young person could like the entry Stock Car classes more than Sprints. Maybe it's because that's the type of racing they're involved in, I don't know. I suppose lives out in the middle of nowhere and never sees anything else...

Anyways, I'll never figure that out so no sense trying.

Next weekend I plan on heading down to La Crosse for the Midgets on the big half mile paved track. They tell me that it's closer to a 5/8 and Midgets on a track like that are twitchy and downright scary at times. USAC pavement Midgets is the series where guys like Jeff Gordon, Tony Stewart, Ryan Newman and JJ Yeley got noticed.

Have a good one. I'll post some more during the week.

By Stan Meissner