Monday, August 10, 2009

NaSCAR 125 and Bear Lake boating vacation


I've been really busy and then took a week of much needed vacation time so I'm a little behind on my posts, but here's a few photos to show you what I have been up to lately....enjoy!

The week before I went on vacation I got a chance to shoot some photos out at Miller Motorsports Park of Hershel McGriff, an 81 year old race car driver.

Hershel McGriff

I got a nice portrait of him and then some nice photos of him racing at the track last saturday. A spot of bad news with a flat tire on the last lap of the race dropped him down to a 19th place finish. But hey at 81 years of age and driving 175 mph around a race track is pretty darn spectacular in my book.

Hershel talks to his crew chief prior to the race.

Hershel racing at Miller Motorsports Park


But the winner Patrick Long had the best car all day and blew everyone away after every caution restart.

Patrick Long racing at Miller Motorsports Park.



I also got a chance to shoot a quick and dirty portrait of him a couple of days prior to the race. I used a combination of natural light coming into the garage from a door and a little fill light with the Orbis ring flash. Here's the portrait below.

Patrick Long


Here are a few more photos from the NASCAR 650 horsepower circuit race.


Patrick Long celebrates his victory with his crew.


Patrick Long has a champagne fight with his crew to celebrate his win.

Paulie Harraka catches a little "air" driving the NAPA AutoCare/Adaptive One Brakes Toyota to a second place finish at Miller Motorsports Park.

______________________________________

My next adventure was to go to beautiful Bear Lake, a large fresh water lake which spans the boarders of Idaho and Utah in northeastern Utah. We spent the day kicking back and relaxing with my neighbors and good friends James and Stephanie Andrews and their children Braxton and Lexie on their boat. But me, being me I drug along my Mark III and a 70-200 with a 1.4x and shot some fun photo of them and two of my daughters Mariah and Stormie having fun on a tube being pulled by their boat. We finished the day with pizza and sandwiches at Bear Lake Pizza and ended the meal with chocolate covered raspberries, a Bear Lake specialty. Not a bad day. Anyway here's the photos.


James Andrews catches a little "air" on beautiful Bear Lake in northeastern Utah.

James wife Stephanie wake boards at Bear Lake.

James enjoys wake-boarding on a sun-drenched day at Bear Lake.

(from left) Mariah, Stormie and Braxton have fun on the tube as it is pulled by the boat.


more to come.....