NAVY DAVY'S SHOT OF THE WEEK!!!

".........another weekend of great weather and excellent racing. I was at Kopellah Friday night and Cedar Lake Saturday. Both shows were very good. Tons of side by side and three wide racing as the regular season nears it's end. With all the rainouts we had early this year I wonder where all the time went. Here we are on the door step of another specials season then it's all over for another year. Sometimes it seems as though this season never really got going. I'm about 15 shows behind my regular pace.
This weeks shot comes from the Modified feature at Kopellah Friday night. See you at the races............."

Wednesday August 13, just thinking out loud...

Jeff Shepard, Superior Speedway Gumout race. Get well soon.
Stan Meissner photo

First off I hope that my comments about having to take some time next season to get some projects done didn't cause too much of a stir. I got a decent bid on my roofing job so I'll have a little left over for the other repairs. Looking at the cars I'll have to see which one is worth keeping for a couple more years and I'll have my brother-in-law evaluate that. I know the people that own Sparkle Auto Sales so I'll probably buy used and work with them to find what I'm looking for. We've dealt with these challenges in the past and they're not insurmountable obstacles to attending races but some years I have had to adjust my schedule. I'm sure you have all had to do that from time to time. I'm a glass half full guy by nature and tend to panic thinking about how difficult something is going to be but once I dive into the task things work out fine. What's that called, fear of the unknown?

Actually I got a lot of experience remodeling when I owned a home in the Cities. Let's see, rewired, new duct work and furnace, plumbing, sheet rock, hanging windows, privacy fence, chain link fence, finishing the entire inside of an addition. You name it and I've probably done it at one time or another. I've got ladders and most of the tools I'll ever need. But I don't do that stuff for a living so I have to ask questions and research it so I know what I'm doing. I do about as close to a professional job of finishing drywall as the typical do-it-yourselfer is going to get. And if the project takes a professional a half day it might take me two or three days but my work has gotten the approval of the building inspector. The older I get the slower and more deliberate I get at these big projects.

I've got the week of the Cedar Lake 100 off this September so if I make some of the projects my priority instead of photo editing I can get a head start. The thing to try and do is try to maximize my time this fall, winter and next spring. I'm sure we'll be alright but we might have to juggle the schedule for a while to get it all done.

I'm not such a hard core racer that I have to go to a set number of races and I have been doing it for a long time. Since 1962 to be exact.

Did I mention that we camped at Cedar Lake last Saturday? I'm finding that I can't hang in there as long as I used to a few years ago. This summer I have only hung in there until around 3am before I have to turn in for the night. Maybe I'll score my best finish of the season at the Richert Memorial. If I have to drive until 4am that's a different deal, I get into the drive so much that I have trouble falling asleep when I do get home. Difference is that when I'm driving I'm drinking energy drinks and laying off the beer for weekend. There's a big difference between the effects of Rooster Booster and Miller Lite. I'm a firm believer in staying planted in one place when you're enjoying a few beers. I always make sure that I stay for the night at the party, camp or have a designated driver. Years ago we weren't as careful but back when I first started driving in the 60's they'd sometimes even let you go and follow you to make sure you made it home. Times have changed and in this case for the better because we probably wouldn't have change if there wasn't an incentive. Then when one gets older it all starts to make sense and we mellow out.

There I go getting off in left field again.

Tuesday August 12 still trying to catch up

I can't believe that it's already Tuesday the 12th and the last time I posted was almost an entire week ago on the 6th. Time sure has been flying by lately and I have been spending some time away from the computer.

We camped out at Cedar Lake last Saturday night and had a good time even though it was a just a small group. Nothing like the USA Nationals crowd, there were only a few campers and your typical week after the Nationals smaller crowd. I have noticed that even some of the owners and track workers take the week after the Nats off every year so it must be a grueling week for everyone.

The Late Model Feature got to be kind of an ordeal this time around. The track slicked over, there were still a couple of grooves of racing but cars were spinning out almost every lap. They finally shortened the race to 25 laps and awarded the win to John Kaanta. I commented to Ron Bernhagen how frustrating it must be to work just as hard on the track for every race but they're still at the mercy of humidity, wind an weather. They put in just as much work whether the track turns out perfect or not so perfect. Man, that has to be a lot like farming, you work your *ss off based on an educated guess but never know how things are going to turn out. I appreciate what those track prep guys do and share their frustration when it doesn't go the way they'd like to see it. Maybe that was the dirt gods way of evening things out after three perfect nights the week before. The racing was actually pretty good right up to the end of the night but it was nothing like the previous weekend but that was an impossible act to follow.

This week I'll be heading to Jackson for the Friday of the Nationals. I'm looking forward to the show. My hands are wiped out after keying all day at the office so should really give them a rest but I had a few things to say. I'll try to get on here a little more during the coming weeks.

I haven't been real enthused about the racing since the USA Nationals were over. It was so good that I'm spoiled and anything else is going to be a letdown for a while. That's the problem with a great weekend of racing, it takes a while before things measure up.

Man, I'm in a jam for next season. You see, I make a pretty good living but my wife only works a little part time and she spends a lot, a lot, I said a lot of money on frivolous things. Gifts for the grandkids, furniture, decorating, who needs all that frilly stuff. Heck, I'd line the walls with my racing pictures if it was up to me but she doesn't like them. Anyways, in case you haven't figured it out I'm saying this tongue in cheek. I need a woman who knows how to decorate and to remind me to do things for the family because I'm so one dimensional I'd never think of it on my own.

Next year things could change though. You see, we moved into this house in 1997 and really got into the website around that same time. In 1999 I started writing for the racing papers and gradually got more involved in the photography since then, especially the past five years. I was having so much fun that I neglected the house and it's getting run down and needs a lot of work. We're talking about getting into a town home if the market comes back to where we can sell this place but first I'm going to have to do the work. I'm not talking a couple hours at night, h*ll that's how long it takes just to cut the grass. No, I'm talking all summer long, a couple weeks of vacation, intense stuff like replacing windows, concrete work and a bunch of big projects. I'm talking all my vacation, nights and weekends all summer long. My wife has been kind enough to let me "check out" every summer for ten years and now she's asking for something back. We're getting closer to retirement and I'm not getting any younger so I'm dreading it but it looks like the summer of 2009 will be the year I do the work.

I'd still get to a few of the big events but probably could only do about ten nights of racing for the entire season. It has taken me ten years to build up all my media contacts and get to the point I'm at today. Racing doesn't wait for anybody, if I step aside for a season there will be somebody filling my spot and I might not get it back. That's my biggest regret but I've got to take care of family and home first, racing is just a hobby.

In addition to the house I'm due for another vehicle before long. Actually it wouldn't hurt to replace both vehicles but I can't afford more than one car payment at a time. I haven't had a car payment for several years so I've been putting the extra money into other things like racing. Well, now it's catching up with me and I'm going to have to make some sacrifices. I'm not trying to get anybody's sympathy, just thinking out loud about how I'm going to tackle these obstacles that will be coming up during the next year or so. It's the wise thing to do to take care of the necessary things and I know deep down inside that's what I'm going to have to do. I'll have to take a real close look at everything during the winter and figure out what I'm going to do.

One more thing that I'm getting more and more is that the wife is sick of me using all my vacation to go racing and not taking her anywhere. I operate on a shoestring like I already mentioned so I'm not talking about going to exotic places. She likes car trips within a couple hundred miles that are not tied in with a race. I think that's pretty reasonable of her and can totally understand how she feels. I've got a cousin who used to own Sprint Cars then in 1976 they sold out and never looked back. He used to chase up and down the highway every weekend. Fairmont, Knoxville, Sioux Falls all summer for years just like us race chasers do today. Then one day he walked away and never looked back. I don't think I could do that, I love the photography too much, but I would be comfortable cutting back some. Have you ever noticed that many of the racing photographers and writers are single? Unless they grew up in a racing family not many women will tolerate a guy being gone all summer. At ten years I'd say my wife has been pretty tolerant but now that travel is so expensive I can see her point. Just like a lot of you I'm spread pretty thin but I can't see myself quitting entirely. Racing media work is like a treadmill, you can't get off and take a hiatus because your gig won't be there when you get back. The show must go on so if you get off you're out of luck. That's where I'm having a problem, I need to take the time off but I want the racing gig to still be there when I come back. The thought of not doing this anymore is depressing.

Wednesday August 6, blog statistics...

The USA Nationals and a few other things have kept me away from the blog for a few too many days. The blog hits picked up quite a bit when I was posting every day. The best month was July when it got 1397 visits. The gotomn.com website gets a lot more than the blog at around 15,000 to 20,000 unique visitors per month during the season. Unique means the number of new persons that visited the website at least once during the month, the website monthly hits are higher.

I wore myself out at the USA Nationals and had to spent a few days recouping. Actually it's been a working recouping and it has been sort of a challenging week at work. Not that I had more than the usual amount waiting for me but I've had some tough files dumped on my desk that I had to get a second opinion on. We know what the price needs to be but we're trying to figure out how to make adjustments on two separate files. They're currently sitting on a supervisor's desk and even he is having a tough time getting an answer on how to work through some of the system edits. That's right, finding the price is relatively easy compared to some of the hoops we have to jump through when something out of the ordinary comes up. It's a complex system with thousands of interconnected users. Sometimes you don't see that kind of stuff for six months but I had it waiting for me this week. Tomorrow I have to stand in for someone who will be on vacation so that's an additional task this week. Sometimes that happens but you just buckle down and work through it. Last week it was my turn to relax, this week it's somebody else's.

Tonight I was going to cut the grass but it rained here north of the cities so it was too wet. It's not that bad anyways, this time of the year the lawn growth slows down so a person can get away with going over a week between cuts. I'll find a couple hours sometime during the next few days. Probably on Friday night the way it's looking. I wonder if I could drive to work and sneak out early to get a head start on it. I'll have to think about that because an hour head start never hurts on a Friday. I've got grandkids coming over Thursday that I need to visit with so everything is going to converge all at once on Friday and Saturday.

I'm going to back off for a few weeks and only take in one night of racing per week through the Richert Memorial. The following week I'm planning on going to the 100 for most if not all of the four nights. I've got some work pending around the house that I really need to devote some of my vacation time to. I get pretty busy on the computer tending to photos when I shoot three or four nights in a row and am getting to the track mid afternoon. Probably with the 100 I could leave a little later than usual and maybe spend a night or two out there. I'm sure the campground isn't full yet so I've got time to plan this out. Thing is that week off is going to be my last serious opportunity of the summer because I don't get much done during the week. Usually after the last printed issue of MRC I can back off a little because the online version is monthly and everybody has seen photos from every possible angle of every car that races within 500 miles so I'm not in a big rush to get them posted the very next day. By that time of the season I can swap CF cards and not take as many shots. Who knows, maybe I'll even watch a Feature from the stands. I'm thinking about doing that one of these days because I haven't watched a Feature from the stands all season. I do watch some Heats and some of the semi Features from the pit side stands at Cedar Lake sometimes if I have to take a break.

Anyways, I'm rambling too much tonight. I'll try to get in the habit post more often again now that we've got the big weekend out of the way.

NAVY DAVY'S SHOTS OF THE WEEK!!!

".........it all started Wednesday night at The Superior Speedway for a WDRL show. It was a hot and humid night. I was waiting for that big air conditioner just to the north to kick in but it never did. The track was great and the racing was pretty darn good too. Jimmy Mars was the class of the field that night making his win in the 50 lap feature look easy.
Thursday found us back at Cedar Lake Speedway for night one of the 21st Annual USA Nationals. With another beautiful night WDRL was on hand for another great 50 lap feature. On hand also were the Nascar Superstocks. Mike Weber won the feature. The 50 lap WDRL feature went to John Kaanta who held off Jimmy Mars after a lap 41 caution.
Friday night we were once again at Cedar Lake for night two of the USA Nationals. With 50 cars taking qualifying, a full show of Nascar Late Models, six USA National heat races and a pole dash the night was topped off with another 50 lap WDRL feature which was a make up from the Masters back in June the fans got more than their monies worth. It just doesn't get any better for us Late Model nuts. The track held up well and the racing was as good as it gets. In the Nascar feature Pat Doar and Rick Hanestead ran side by side for 20 plus laps before they got into lapped traffic at which time Hanestead pulled away for the win. A very excited Brady Smith entered victory lane after the 50 lap WDRL feature. It was a great night.
Saturday was third and final night of racing at Cedar Lake. What another great night it was. On tap this night was another full show of Nascar Late Models, two 20 lap B-Mains for the last chance to get into the 100 lap USA Nationals and of course the 100 lap feature. After Friday night I thought maybe Saturday would be a yawner. Boy was I wrong. The final night of the 21st Annual USA Nationals was as good as it gets. In the Nascar 30 lap feature Kerry Hanson in the 4 car took off in the lead and stayed there for ten or so laps. Brent Larson and Lance Mathees were making their way through the field. Larson grabbed the top spot as Hanson fades back. Right there with Larson was Mathees and these two fought back and forth for the remainder with Larson getting the win less than a car length in front of Mathees. After some track prep the 100 lap feature was next. With the lights turned off and spot lights and smoke the feature cars entered the track one by one. This was another great race. There were several leaders at different points throughout. Early in the race there was one scary moment when Eric Pember lost a tire in turn four and rolled his car. Fortunately he wasn't hurt. Can't say the same for his car though. After 99 laps it came down to Scott Bloomquist, Shannon Babb, and Brian Birkhofer. Birkhofer had a flat tire earlier in the race and had to start at the rear and worked his way back to third. It was nearly a three wide finish to another great night. Bloomquist was the winner.
After attending all 21 USA National events this I think was the best yet. As I said all weekend "it just don't get no better than this".
Each of this weeks shots comes from all four great nights. See you at the races.................."

Saturday August 2, final night of the USA Nationals

Here are a few Friday night photos:


Justin Fegers comin' atcha!


The "Intimigator"


The WDRL make up Feature salutes the crowd


Brady Smith (2) battles Ashley Anderson (81) for the lead


Brady Smith celebrates in Victory Lane

It's been a busy weekend and tonight is the big Feature event. I'm enjoying the show and it should be a good one tonight. Last night Bloomquist uncharacteristically hit the wall during his first timed lap forcing him to start from the back of his Heat. Bloomer worked his way up to second putting him in the show. It should be interesting to see him work his way up from the back.

I'll be posting more when I get a chance. Just wanted to let everyone know I haven't forgot about the blog.

Tuesday and it's gonna' be a warm one at the USA Nationals...

Forgive me for I have screwed up. How's that? Well, I forgot to reserve a campsite for the USA Nationals this year. I got a few offers for some extra space but now that I see the forecast calls for hot weather I'm thinking that it might be kind of tough staying in the tent trailer for three days. I don't have A/C in my truck so I wouldn't get a break from the heat for three straight days and nights. Not that a little warm weather would hurt me but I prefer to limit my camping to two nights. I'm thinking about pulling the camper out there the following Saturday for a regular night of racing. That would be more laid back and if it's hot it will only be for one night.

So I'm gearin' up for the USA Nationals without the luxury of a campsite. I've got a writing deadline on Sunday so it's probably not a good idea to be up all Saturday night and then try to process photos and write a column. There are certain big weekends in my annual racing schedule that deserve special attention and the USA Nationals is one of the biggest. If somebody offers me a place in their camper to crash I might stay out there Friday night. We'll see what happens on Friday but Saturday is out of the question. I've got Thursday and Friday off work so I'll figure something out. It's a win win deal, if I find a place to spend the night on Friday I win and if I drive home I'll have a chance to work on my photos. Either way is fine with me, I don't mind sleeping in my own air conditioned bedroom.

Who do you think will win the USA Nationals? I'd have to go with Scott Bloomquist, Jimmy Mars or Brady Smith. Those are the three that I think have the best chance of winning this weekend. I haven't paid much attention to who's coming up here and there are a lot of Late Model drivers I'm not familiar with. I'll have to defer to a statistician like GRP to verify how many different Late Model drivers I've seen at Cedar Lake during the past decade but I'm sure there are a lot of them. I never paid much attention to the Late Models before I started writing for MRC. I'd bring the kids out to CLS to watch them sometimes but mostly we went to Sprint shows. When I got into the website, writing and photography I came to appreciate them a lot more. Now I start having withdrawal pains if I go more than a week without seeing the Late Models. It's funny how things come around isn't it. Am I mellowing with age or just a closet four wide fanatic?

Mostly I like watching the guys I see week in and week out so I'm happy to see they've got a full program of the Nascar Late Models. I've gotten to know a lot of those guys during the past ten years so that makes it even more enjoyable. Weekly shows at Cedar Lake are a lot of fun so I try to get to as many as possible each season. It's a great bunch of people and sometimes I even regret occasionally heading to other destinations for special events. But I have to remind myself that variety is the spice of life and that I cut my racing teeth in the grandstand of a big ol' half mile and enjoy the quarter mile bullrings. This year included asphalt Midgets at La Crosse so I got a taste of some different types of racing. We even saw indoor Midgets and that's going to be something that's going to get bigger every year.

Les and I went to the Arlington Raceway last Saturday night for the IRA Sprint special. Here are a few samples of some of my photos.









Arlington is a tough place to shoot. They've got a darker color of dirt than I'm used to up here north of the Cities and east into western Wisconsin. It's not as black as the surface down in Jackson, Husets or Knoxville but it's darker than places like Cedar Lake or Princeton. Every track has different lighting and angles, taking racing photos is a moving target, that's for sure. I was please with the results from Arlington but a little disappointed with my percentage of "keepers".

This week I'll be back on familiar turf at the USA Nationals. It's going to be more crowded than usual so that makes it a little tougher getting around the grounds and getting in position to take a photo. Not only for the outside the track stuff in the grandstand and tiered parking but there are usually a lot of visiting photographers as well. Not only do you find people standing where you usually do every other weekend but somebody done planted their *ss in your folding chair while you were taking pictures. There's just more people to deal with, great for the track but it's more of a challenge for the photographer. We adapt. I've got some ideas that I'm anxious to try out. Watch my photo gallery for the results.

NAVY DAVY'S SHOT OF THE WEEK!!!‏

"...............after getting rained out for the 8th time this season at Kopellah we beat feet for The Red Cedar Speedway Friday night. The Modifieds put on one of the best shows I've seen in awhile. All through the heats and the feature they were side by side and three wide. After all the heats were finished I realized they didn't have a photographer on hand so I went out to the truck got my camera and did the features. The Modified feature was great. There was Dave Cain and Craig Thatcher, two of the best runners around doing battle with Jake Hartung. Wouldn't you know it-Jake got the win.
Saturday it was back to Cedar Lake on a warm clear night. Another good night of racing. Congrats to Cory Davis(superstock winner), Craig "The Wild Child" Brightbill(A Mod winner) and Jeremy Houle a rookie in the Midwest Mods for his first win. All are first time winners at CLS in '08.
This weeks shot comes from Red Cedar. Craig Thatcher, Dave Cain, and Jake Hartung battling in the A-Mod feature. See you at the races..........."

Wednesday 7/23 thoughts...

We missed a Saturday night of racing last weekend due to rain and I'm feeling out of it. I'll probably get the passion back this weekend when I go to the IRA at Arlington. Arlington will kick off a busy week with the USA Nationals next Thursday through Saturday nights. I'm still not 100% sure whether I'm going to spend the entire weekend out there in the camper, drive back and forth or some combination of the two. My writing deadline is a week from Sunday and it's brutal just trying to stay awake the Sunday after an all nighter let alone write and edit photos. Maybe somebody will twist my arm but I'm kind of leaning towards driving back and forth so I can get some things done around the house and keep up with the writing obligations. I've got a contractor lined up to do my roof and it's beginning to look like the job might fall right in the middle of the USA Nationals. The wife is going to want me at home so I can handle the details with the contractors. It looks like it could end up being a busy two days of vacation more than a relaxing one.

Anytime I've got consecutive nights of racing like that the routine goes something like this. Get up, cut the grass, get online and check email etc., while I charge camera and flash batteries. Get out to the track early so I can get a parking place reasonably close to the back gate. Walk around and stake things out, plan my photo strategy for the night, talk to a few people and say hello to those I don't see very often. Have the camera setup by the time hotlaps start and shoot all night until the conclusion of racing. Make my way to the truck (back and feet are usually aching by this time) and drive home. Fire up the computer, grab a glass of water or sometimes a beer if I've got any, upload my photos and start sorting through them. Check email, make some notes for my column before I forget what happened. I'm usually wound up so I've got to watch a little television then get to bed by 3am. The next morning get up and work on the previous night's photos, charge flash batteries, check the truck, say howdy to the wife and head back out to the track. Same routine at the track and at home for three days and nights.

You can probably see why it's so tough for me spending the weekend at the track when I've got deadlines. When I do that I'm three days behind by the time I get home on Sunday and I've still got a column to write. Sunday I send photos, write my column, send the column, send any additional last minute photo requests, and get as many of the Saturday photos processed as I've got time for. Do a few loads of laundry, make sure I turn the alarm clock on and put the trash and recycling out on the road. So it's not just a matter of sitting around relaxing and drinking beer by my camper for three days and nights. As a matter of fact, sitting around drinking beer can be more of distraction because I'm sitting there thinking about everything I have to do when I get back home. Long race weekends are a lot of work, I'm usually on my feet for five or six hours at the track, so it wears me out. That's why I would prefer not to camp on the weekends that I've got a writing deadline. Some years it falls that way. I didn't reserve a campsite but I've had a couple offers so I might relent and take them up on it. It would be grueling to stay out there but there's something to be said for the parties. If I wasn't doing the photography and writing there's no question about what I'd do. I'm probably going to go right down to the wire before I decide.

Speaking of photos and graphics I hope some of the people that have inquired about me doing graphics for them understand my situation. I'm not going to be the most responsive at getting it done because I've got a day job that keeps me away from home from 6am until 5pm every day. The photos and graphics are just a side deal that I squeeze in on nights and weekends when possible. As you have already seen, next weekend during the USA Nationals I'll have little time for working on photos and no time for graphics. Oh, if I got a special shot that someone needed an 8x10 of I could get it developed in one hour (at a higher cost per photo) and bring it with me the next night. Usually I try to put the photos on the back burner during those long racing weekends. I think me being kind of slow might have irritated some people that have been after me to do some artwork but I have to remind them. Those guys getting their artwork to you the next day have all day to work on it and they own $5,000 roll stock printers. I send all my stuff out and have to do it on nights and weekends when I get a spare moment. Kids and grandkids drop by, things break down around the house, sometimes I just need a break. Are other guys faster than me? Yes. Will I eventually get your order done? Yes.

It helps, especially with the artwork, if people can give me an idea what they want so I don't spin my wheels designing something they don't like. Those guys that do graphics for a living will come up with one design for the big events. Every graphics event border design is the same except it's got a different car in it. When I do them I sit down with a blank piece of paper (actually a blank computer screen) and start from scratch. With my method you're going to get a one-of-a-kind design but it's going to take me an hour or two, sometimes more. Seeing as processing is about $4.95 and I'm spending 2 hours on the design there's $20 profit so I'm making $10 per hour or less. Usually when a person starts a side business they want to make more per hour than they do at their day job, not one third or less. So I'm not doing it to make a huge amount of money but it's something I can do in my shorts while drinking a beer instead of vegetating in front of the television. I figure if I'm going to sit here I might as well make a little something.

So I do appreciate the orders and I'm sorry that I can't be as fast as those folks that do this for a living. The way I figure is this is the only way I can make a few bucks to supplement my travels. Next year who knows, I'm due to buy a car and that means the payments will cut my racing budget down to just about nothing. I don't even want to think about it right now... We'll cross that bridge when we come to it. In the meantime I'll have fun this season.

Monday evening July 21 and I'm finally getting caught up after my vacation week...

I went to five races in nine days during my vacation week with Cedar Lake's NASCAR night the following Wednesday. All the photos to process in such a short period of time as well as traveling to and from races made the following couple of weeks a scramble to keep up with it. Now that things have finally settled down I'll be able to get back on my normal schedule of one race per weekend and occasionally two. This weekend will be the IRA at Arlington and the following weekend is the USA Nationals.

That means I'll be driving a little further than usual and visiting a somewhat unfamiliar track this Saturday. Not that I haven't been to Arlington plenty of times over the years but I have never quite gotten the hang of my camera settings there. The white balance has been tricky there but I have taken steps that have enabled me to dial it in more precisely in a shorter period of time. In racing photography everything happens so fast, snap, snap, snap, oh sh*t...delete... Once the green flag drops you won't have much time to react so you'd better have your settings dialed in before the race starts. Not unlike racing now that I think about it.

Anyways I'm confident that I'll do fine there this time. Not every track is the same and Arlington has it's share of unique characteristics that you won't find anywhere else. You just have to go in there organized and an idea of what you want taking into consideration the time of day and what the light is going to do, the likelihood of intermittent cloud cover and what type of lighting the track has. The various kinds of lighting you fight as the evening progresses are, setting sunlight that changes color temperature, shadows, track lighting and flash. At various times during the night you're going to be working with different mixes of lighting and each one requires specific color balance settings. Some guys (and gals) I know just put the camera on automatic and that's fine in some situations but it's not always accurate. Color balance is one of the things I'm working on improving this season along with working on getting sharper images. I have learned a lot so far this year but again like racing I'm seeing limitations as to what the equipment I have is capable of.

For instance, I'm seeing that the Nikon lenses produce a much better image than any of the third party lenses I have used. That includes a couple of Sigmas and a Tamron that cost me over $800 new. My Nikon lens outperforms all three hands down in both color and sharpness. I shot with only third party lenses for four years so I'm comparing years and this year's photos are the best by a long shot. Consequently, I've got some wheeling and dealing to do during the coming off season. I'll review the complete line of Nikon lenses and see what I can find in both fixed focal and zoom styles. I know what focal lengths I need and I'm not looking for a fast lens to use at night because I've got that covered so there might be a deal or two out there.

Well, there's not much else to say right now. I'm looking at my racing schedule trying to find a weekend or two I can take the night off as we get into August. I've got a few traditional dates that I'm locked into so we'll see what we can do. I'm catching some h*ll about not getting much work done on the house this summer. It's been difficult because we lost over a month of weekends to rain at the start and when it isn't raining I'm trying to keep up with my racing commitments. You know, you make all the plans and everything but half way through the season you're thinking, "jeez, that race is going to cost me $80 of gas and if I go to this one over here I'm gonna' have to get a motel." So far so good but when I look at my schedule through October and what it's going to cost I have to put it out of my mind. Picture sales were going good a few weeks ago but I can't count on that going into August. You've got the USA Nationals and those touring drivers don't even know my website exists let alone that they can get a photo from me. And I don't sell many to the IRA drivers or any touring group for that matter. Mostly I get calls and emails wanting pics when I stick around close to home and take photos of all the classes. And August is typically slow with pics anyways but getting into this "specials" part of the schedule I'm sure I'll be dipping into the funds a little deeper.

But you know that going in, that you'll be spending a lot of money chasing this stuff just like you would if you were fishing or snowmobiling or something like that. So you just keep plugging away and if your travel plans get into a corner you just scratch that one and revert to plan B or C. I've always got some alternates on my schedule in case I get in a bind where I can't chase the Sprints. There are always options available.

I'm ramling so I'm going to sign off for the night...

Saturday morning...should I watch cartoons or surf the racing boards?

Hey it's Saturday morning and all the cartoon shows are on right now. OK, I'm just kidding, when one of the grandkids stays overnight I watch cartoons with them but I don't normally do that. Really, I don't...

So the alternative is to surf the internet and see what the message boards have to offer. One of the boards always has a lot of threads about all wissota classes from eastern Wisconsin to Montana. I'm not hanging on the edge of my seat wondering what happened at some track way out in Montana, Wyoming, the Dakotas or eastern Wisconsin unless it's a touring series I'm familiar with.

Don't take what I'm saying wrong because I enjoy watching the local racing at the nearby tracks. I know quite a few of the people that race and that makes it fun when you can watch people you know. On the other hand, I'll never get to know the drivers who live in the Dakotas, Wyoming, Montana or eastern Wisconsin. I know a couple of the IRA Sprint Car drivers and am familiar with some of the Late Models and Mods but that's a different deal because they race around here with the touring groups. So following everything that's going on in the racing world from coast to coast isn't something I have the time or desire to do.

So it only took a few minutes to catch up on the message board posts. In addition to watching the boards I am keeping a close eye on the weather. The IRA is supposed to race at Deer Creek tonight and I'm hedging whether or not to make the trip with "R" in the area. Ten years ago I wouldn't have hesitated but it's so pricey to run up and down the road anymore that I watch the weather a lot closer. It's pretty gloomy outside here in the Forest Lake area and I see a large area of rain coming across Minnesota this morning. No red spots on the radar, mostly light green, so it looks more like showers than a gully washer.

The alternative plan if weather becomes a problem would be Cedar Lake. That's nearby and costs about $10 in gas as opposed to Deer Creek that I'd estimate at $50. Another factor (and I'm not complaining but this would be nice to know before spending the gas money) is that we haven't received an acknowledgment from the track that my photographer's clearance has been approved. I talked to a friend a little while ago who knows the promoters and said he would call on my behalf. He warned me that I would want to be absolutely 100% sure before making the trip so it's going to weigh on my decision if I don't know that for sure. Steve Sinclair appreciates our coverage and gave us a standing invitation to help get us setup at any of the IRA races so maybe I should have called Steve. Better safe than sorry, I don't want to make a 250 mile round trip for nothing with these gas prices the way they are.

So we've got weather moving in and uncertainty about which track I'm going to attend. It seems like it's been this way almost every time I have traveled this season. Sometimes I get a little jealous of the ATD writers and photographers because those guys get an identification good any time at all the wissota tracks. They don't need to contact the promoter in advance, that's why when you read Ed R or Jerry O's columns in ATD they can change their destination to another track while in route when weather is an issue. In this part of the country if you're not working for the official publication traveling requires more advance planning. I submit photos to ATD and get some of my stuff in there once in a while but I'm on my own at the gate. Ironically, one card carrying photographer told me he had only gotten two photos into the paper for the entire year but they still gave him one of their passes. I think so far this season four or five of my photos have appeared in ATD but I'll never qualify for one of their passes so I'm limited to helping them out once in a while. I understand where they're coming from, they need more of a commitment and I can't give that to them but I don't mind helping out when I'm the only one shooting at one of their tracks. That happens every now and then, especially when I fill in at Kopellah or I get a shot that nobody else caught I think they might like.

So we'll see what happens later today. I looked out on the deck and it just started sprinkling a few minutes ago. Stay tuned...

Watching the weather on Wednesday...

It's Wednesday evening July 16 and it's about that time when I usually start watching the weekend weather. So far it's looking like we're going to have a rainy couple of days but Saturday doesn't look as bad so far. My two options this Saturday are the Deer Creek IRA show or if the chance of rain is too high then I'll opt for Cedar Lake's weekly program. There was a time when it didn't bother me to take a chance on a 250 mile round trip regardless of the weather. In today's world it amounts to about a $35 difference in gas. I remember a couple times when Cedar Lake rained out and racing was still on down at Jackson so I'd change plans at the last minute. Now it's about a $70 trip and requires some advance planning so that rules out last minute trips unless I hit the jackpot at Hinckley.

Anyways, I'm always excited to see Sprint Cars, especially the IRA, and they're in the area for the next two weekends. Deer Creek kind of snuck up on me. For some reason that I can't remember I removed it from my schedule. I think going into the season I wasn't sure how much of a budget I'd have so I was real conservative on scheduling races out of town when I couldn't share the ride with someone. Unfortunately this weekend my two main travel companions GRP and Vinster won't be available and my son Les has cut back on his racing this year. That leaves it up to me to make sure the Ranger is up to the task and that I've got enough gas money to make the trip. Maybe this would be a good weekend to take the Olds and make sure that one is running alright. If the wife doesn't have anything going maybe I'll do that. It's got air and cruise which makes the trips on hot July days more pleasurable. We'll see how it goes and what the weather does.

I think I missed the IRA at Deer Creek last year but it must have been the year before that Les and I went there. That's a good place for me to stay under the radar and keep a low profile. Maybe I can get a few shots for my driver gallery while I'm there. I wanted to get a couple last Saturday night but I got lazy and didn't push myself to fill an agenda last weekend.

Typically I arrive at the tracks around 4pm and spend a couple hours walking the pits talking to people and distributing MRC if I'm traveling. Then I'll run around with my zoom lens and monopod during hot laps and/or time trials. I'll take driver portraits in the pits usually during the Heat races then go down to the infield for the Features. Most of the time it ends up being around six hours, most of it on my feet. When the races are over my back and feet ache so I usually like get in the truck and get on the road as soon as possible so I can sit down. I carry a folding chair into the infield when I'm taking photos and should probably take a few more breaks so I can pace myself. And it wouldn't hurt to drop about 25#...

On that note I think I'm going to sign out for the night so we'll type to ya' again soon.

Stan

Monday, photos have kept me going so far this season...

Thanks to everyone who has bought photos and graphic designs from me this season. As I have probably explained before, I don't sell photos for a living nor will you find me canvasing the pits with a portfolio. I rarely even announce when I post my pics on the message boards anymore. Nevertheless you good folks are finding me and that's helping me to stay afloat for another season. When I can no longer afford to run up and down the road it will be time to cut back but amazingly I'm on a pace to go to more races this year than I ever have. Granted most of them are close to home but that's another cool thing this season is that I'm enjoying the local racing a lot this year. Anyways, thanks for seeking me out and asking for some photos, it's very much appreciated.

Is it just me or does anyone else think that some people are going a little overboard blowing their horns about their photos and websites? I dunno, maybe it's because I've kinda' been there and done that after having done this stuff since the winter of 1996/1997. I don't get excited about it as much anymore and quite frankly everybody's photos look pretty much the same as the next guy. Personally I think it's the graphics that sets some people's work apart from the others. There are a lot of people out there who can take photos but not very many can come up with a graphic design. I don't do a lot of that business but I'm capable of doing some nice designs whenever anyone wants something. Like I said, I keep a low profile and try to slide under the radar instead of being the first one to post "I just uploaded a gazillion photos from..." And the people who respond to every post complete with an array of graphics is getting a little tiring too. They might as well just post in huge letters "photos for sale, mine are the best, buy from me now!"

I'm content and thankful for the little bit that I'm doing and happy with my present work load. Two, three, maybe four requests per week is as much as I want to handle with the processors and the post office. And I didn't even have to toot my horn very loud to do it.

Due to the successful week I've been having with photos I might just be able to swing a trip to Deer Creek for the IRA. They're suggesting that rain is going to creep into our forecast for later this week so we'll have to see how that goes. Likewise I'll have to see if we can get clearance from the track to take photos. If it doesn't work out I'll head out to Cedar for the Late Models and Mods as their shows have been a lot of fun lately. I'm partial to Sprints and haven't seen any since the Kouba Memorial so I'm hoping Deer Creek works out for me so we'll see.

Well, I better get off the computer and spend some time with my granddaughter before it's time for bed. She's spending the night with us and I'm getting dirty looks for being on the computer since I got home from work.

Later!

NAVY DAVY'S SHOT OF THE WEEK!!!

"..........Mother Nature won once again Friday night as a line of heavy storms roared through. Saturday night found us once again at Cedar Lake Speedway. Paul Hipsag had a very scary rollover in his Late Model heat completely destroying his car. Fortunately he wasn't hurt. It was a dusty dirty night and hard to get good pictures. On hand this night right down there with the rest of us shutterbugs was none other than Dr. Dick Berggren who publishes "Speedway Illustrated" magazine and also is a pit road reporter for NASCAR races. He was there with his hat on backwards and taking pictures with rest of us. He's a heck of a guy. I would love to hear some of his stories. He's been at this a long time.

This weeks shot comes from a modified heat race. See you at the races.........."

Saturday, to cut the lawn or not to cut the lawn, that is the question...

It's almost 11am on a Saturday morning and I'm debating whether or not to cut the lawn. I think what I'll do is wait until Sunday afternoon this time. We're flexible here at the command center of gotomn.com central. "Pay no attention to that man behind the curtain..."

Wednesday night at Cedar Lake my flash batteries gave out after approximately 170 full power flashes. I use a Nikon SB800 with the Nikon external battery pack. The flash holds four AA's and the external power source an additional six AA's. Normally I will shoot a hundred or so outside the track shots without flash from various vantage points. On NASCAR night I needed to use flash quite a bit during the course of the entire evening. I took more than my usual number of test shots on NASCAR night and that uses additional power. Running out of flash power kind of caught me off guard and I didn't have any spare batteries. I use 15 minute rechargeable batteries and the ones I'm using are going on four years old so I'm going to have to replace them after the season. In the meantime I'm going to carry eight backup batteries in my camera bag. If I run out of primary flash power I can disconnect the external battery pack and put four of the backup batteries in the flash head. My recycle times would be a little slower if I have do to that but at least I'll have an additional 140 shots. Four batteries in the flash head supply the user with approximately 70 shots and I've got eight spares. In addition to that I'm going to make a change in my flash settings when using fill flash that should conserve some battery power. I'll be prepared next time so I don't miss any important shots. The batteries must be losing some of their ability to hold a charge. Actually, I'm glad that it happened because that way I got some advance warning that I need to be thinking about getting fresh batteries.

My backup plan will get me through the season then I'm going to take a look at all of my photo equipment to see what needs an upgrade. I'm working with a limited budget (just like racing) but am attempting to make one key purchase each off season. Last winter it was a new lens so this year it will include flash batteries and possibly several more items. I did an indoor photo shoot the other day for a friend who wrote a book and wanted some photos for the cover. We did the shoot in the Black Dog, a wine restaurant located in St. Paul's lower town artists quarters near the old Gillette factory. I did the shoot hand held with flash which isn't the preferred method for the pros. To do indoor work justice it's essential to have portable studio lighting along with umbrella diffusers and a good quality tripod. It's like racing, if you want to go fast you have to have the right kind of equipment. I try to use available light whenever possible but I would have needed a tripod to shoot without flash.

Solutions such as vibration reduction lenses and studio lighting come with a high price so a person would have to use them a lot to justify the expense. I would enjoy the challenge of doing indoor work of subjects other than racing. My dream job would be doing photo shoots and graphic designs full time from my home. I'll be 57 this fall so I've got a few years to go before I can retire and devote more time to my hobby. I'm using a photo processing service now that gives me a good price on 11x14's and have been doing some 4x6 driver cards as well as 8x10 and 11x14 standard photos and collages. The collages are pretty neat, especially when I've got a portrait shot as well as left and right side action shots. I got so darned busy during my vacation that I let the artwork slide for a couple of weeks. Each design I do is unique so it takes me longer to do them than if I was overlaying a previously designed border and text over the photos. You can tell when they do that because each design is the same but is used for different drivers. It's necessary to do that if a person sells large quantities but I only do a few custom designs each month.

Here are samples of a few 2008 graphics that I have done to date:

A few photos added to the 2008 driver gallery

I had the privilege of attending Cedar Lake's 2008 NASCAR night on July 9 and it was a great show. I caught up with a couple of Modified drivers that I hadn't seen before at Cedar Lake this season. Maybe you can help me ID who these guys are.





Thanks to Kenny Wallace and Ken Schrader for stopping what they were doing for a moment so I could take these photos. Copies will be submitted to the Speedway and racing publications. We appreciate what you guys do to promote the sport for some of us fans who might not get an opportunity to go to Sprint Cup races very often.

So if you haven't checked out my 2008 driver gallery you better do that right now. What started out as a project to help put together a program for Cedar Lake Speedway's NASCAR night morphed into a personal project. I get to meet a lot of drivers each season so I thought I'd share that opportunity with everyone. I really do appreciate the cooperation of each and every driver who has agreed to have their photo taken.

If you haven't checked out the MDTR photo gallery for a while you might want to do that as well. I don't always announce when I post photos on the message boards because it gets a little redundant. People know where my site is located, they know I take photos and that I have a photo gallery on my site. I don't always have time to announce when I post photos but I'll try to do it once in a while. After all, it would be a waste of time to do all this web work if nobody ever saw it. So anyways, here-tis! as Schreier (an inside joke) would say.

People have been giving me sh*t lately about not getting a haircut for a while. I look at it this way, $20 per month x 12 months = $240 per year. $240 divided by $4 per gallon = 60 gallons. 25 miles per gallon x 60 = 1500 miles per year. 1500 miles is the equivalent of 23 round trips to the Cedar Lake Speedway which translates to a large part of my racing season. Any questions? What's more important, short hair or racing? H*ll, I came up in a time when if you didn't have hair down to your *ss you were looked on with suspicion. My heroes have always been cowboys, and rednecks

But seriously, I can be a sensitive guy and sniff flowers and sh*t like that. LOL

Anyways, where were I?

Oh yeah, Last week was my vacation week and I got so darned busy with photo work that I never got a chance to relax. I'm honored that some of you appreciate my style of photography and graphics but on the other hand I'm kinda lazy. When I get too many photo orders I kinda' get freaked out and curl into the fetal position for a while. Once I snap out of it and get busy doin' the orders, well, then it ain't so bad, I get caught up. Now I'm just about caught up to where I can catch a breath. And I do appreciate photo orders. Keeps me in race track hot dogs and Miller Lite. Gotta love that.

Scary storms came through here tonight (Friday night July 11, 2008). I helped the wife out on the deck to make sure the baby birds didn't get hurt and the toad living in the planter didn't drown. That was my "good earth" side, sorry Al but that's all you're getting from me. That's about the extent of my environmental awareness. Aside from that I just go with the flow.

Vinster's band played at Moondance Jam last night. That's a pretty prestigious gig to play on the same card as Sammy Hagar. I jammed with Vince, his dad, his friends and a guitar player that I know a few times. I knew right away when I hear him the first time that Vince was better than most of the drummers I had heard in my garage band or roadie days. I've been playing guitar since the mid 1960's, I'm not professional caliber but I know enough about music to know a good musician when I hear one. It's kind of like racing though, you can't really tell how good a race was when you're close to the action in the infield. Seeing the bigger picture in the stands is the only way to know how good it really was. Same thing with music, when you're trying to hit the right chords you're so focused on yourself you don't see the big picture. All I know for sure is that I was totally outclassed in those jam sessions and I knew they were a helluva lot better than me.

So I finally got a chance to get back on my blogging schedule. It took an entire week but I could see from the increased hits the blog is getting that more people are checking this blog out. It would be a shame to get some blogging momentum and not follow through on it.

repost of NAVY DAVY'S SHOTS OF THE WEEK!!!

"............what a great week it was! Starting last Saturday June 28 we were at Cedar Lake Speedway. Sunday we watched the World of Outlaw Sprint cars at Cedar Lake. We took Monday off then the tour started. Tuesday night we made the run to Superior Speedway and were treated to one of the best Late Model features we've seen in a long time. The forty lapper started with A.J. Diemel in the 25th starting spot. Most of the race was fought up front by Jeff Provenzino and Darrell Nelson. All race long Diemel kept pecking away passing cars like there was no tomorrow. Jeff drove a good race but he was lucky it was only 40 laps long. At the end he was right on Provenzino. The first shot is at the checkers.
Wednesday night found us at Tri-Oval Speedway near Fountain City WI for another "Dart Series Challenge" race. It was another good night. Half way through the show I burned my Cam flash out. That put me up in the stands for the rest of the night.
Thursday it was night one of the "Red Cedar Rumble" in Menomonie. They ran heats for the Late Models and a full show for the three support classes, Midwest Mods, SuperStocks, and the Red Cedar Pure Stocks. Again another fun night.
Friday and Saturday it was back to my regular haunt Kopellah Speedway for the two day 2nd annual "Star Spangled Spectacular". As usual it was two nights of typical Kopellah racing. Lots of side by side and three wide racing in all classes.
Saturday night was our special for the Midwest Mods put on by Tim Swanson and Natco Tranny's. There were also several co-sponsors who put bonus's up for all the classes. Ronnie Rihn took the Mid-Mod feature and 700.00.
All in all it was a great week to be on vacation. The second shot is typical of Kopellah. A three wide shot of Supers in their Saturday night feature.
It was also great to see everyone I met and talked to during this fun run. See you at the races................"

Please bear with me for a few more days...

It's Sunday July 6 and I've been MIA here on the Blog for most of the week. This has been a huge week of vacation, races, photo editing, and running all over the d*mn place like a chicken with my head cut off.

After nine days I'm looking forward to getting back to work tomorrow morning. I need the rest ;-)

I'll post a more comprehensive Blog entry as soon as I'm able.

The coming week will be another busy one. Wednesday night will be Nascar night at Cedar Lake. Midweek races when I don't have the following day off are always a mad scramble so that's liable to cut into the Blog posts as well. I've also got some special things to do this week in preparation for this coming Saturday at Cedar Lake.

Sometimes it's a lot of work being busy but I love being busy when it involves racing.

Congrats to Lee Grosz on his Kouba Memorial win last night and to Andy Jones on his MWM Feature win. And Dennis, tell your wife that I'm not gonna' get a haircut no matter what she says. LOL

In lieu of writing a long blog entry here are a few of my favorite shots from the past week.


Grandkids first race


Donnie Schatz on his way to CLS WoO win


Donnie Schatz victory lane celebration


Gallagher 150 foot Crane Drop


Lee Grosz winner of the Kouba Memorial

Tuesday, I'm having a relaxing vacation...

I even forgot what day it was until somebody reminded me it was Tuesday. You can't beat that.

Today I spent the entire day today trying to catch up with some photo projects. Check out the driver gallery that I put together today.

Tomorrow night I'm planning on going down to Kasson for the IMCA Sprints. I am also considering going to the Challenge Series race at Red Cedar if I can get credentials. Otherwise I'll just stay home on Thursday, get a fire going in the fire ring and have a few cold brews.

We'll just play it by ear and see what happens. As they say, "it's all good!"

Later,
Street Stock Stan

Sun shining in Forest Lake, showers south of the Metro and a huge mass up by the MN, ND, CN border...

The showers south of here aren't a concern but that big mass up on the MN/ND/CN border area is huge and rotating like a damn hurricane. The forecasts all call for 30% to 40% chance of precipitation for this afternoon and evening. It appears to be light and spotty so hopefully they won't prevent us from getting the races in. I guess worst case scenario is that 10 adults, three toddlers and a puppy will spend some bonding time under a 12x12 canopy.

I'm going to proceed as scheduled and watch the weather.