Ask the Photographer Photoblogs

NHRA pre-season testing in the desert

askthephotographer — Fri, 30 Jan 2009 03:36:02 +0000

Every year the cars and stars of the NHRA converge on Firebird International Raceway to test out their cars in preparation of the 2009 season which begins in two weeks. Preseason testing usually is the best time to get images of the drivers due to the small crowds and great access. Continue on to see my first motorsports shoot of the new year!

On the first day I got out there and walked around and got right to work looking for shots as crewmembers were unloading the cars from their haulers.

Below the car of funny car driver Jack Beckman is unloaded from the hauler.

Nikon D3, 80-200mm, 500iso, f4.5, 1/5000th

The car of funny car driver Ron Capps is pushed into its pit area after being unloaded.

Nikon D700, 14-24mm, 800iso, f2.8, 1/8000th

Rookie top fuel dragster driver Spencer Massey warms up in his car prior to a test run.

Nikon D3, 80-200mm, 500iso, f4.5, 1/250th

The car of funny car driver Jack Beckman goes through a tech inspection.

Nikon D3, 80-200mm, 250iso, f5.6, 1/1600th

I headed to the starting line to get setup and look around. The track sat empty of all action?

Nikon D3, 80-200mm, 500iso, f4.5, 1/4000th

?but that was about to change as the track opened and drivers were invited to take their turns racing.

At Firebird they have all credentialed photographers wearing these really cool photo vests??too bad they look like construction worker vests. In the below photo you can see how happy I am to wear the brightly colored vest.

Photo by Brian Losness

Robert Hight prepares to climb into his car in the staging lanes.

Nikon D700, 14-24mm, 200iso, f5.6, 1/200th

Spencer Massey does a burnout during testing.

Nikon D700, 14-24mm, 100iso, f18, 1/30th

Funny car driver John Force sits in his car prior to making a run.

Nikon D700, 400mm, 1600iso, f2.8, 1/1250th

A few minutes later he blasted off the starting line on a pass.

Nikon D700, 400mm, 640iso, f5.6, 1/4000th

After a few more passes I got bored and called it a day.

Day two was a nice sunny day with temperatures in the upper 60?s. Prior to making a run funny car driver Jim Head walked down the track inspecting conditions.

Nikon D700, 400mm, 200iso, f5.6, 1/2500th

Below I shot funny car driver Ashley Force reflecting off her tow vehicle as she prepared to climb into her car for a run.

Nikon D3, 80-200mm, 400iso, f5.6, 1/500th

Then she climbed into her car.

Nikon D3, 80-200mm, 1600iso, f2.8, 1/1000th

Once strapped into the car it made for a nice shot of Force as she waited her turn to run. Lots of photographers shoot in car shots like this with flash but in my opinion it looks horrible compared to naturally lit, plus a lot of drivers get mad if you are firing flash when they are about to run.

Nikon D3, 80-200mm, 320iso, f2.8, 1/160th

After shooting drivers in their cars I started walking towards the startlign line to shoot some cars. On my way I stopped and tried to shoot a photo of Cory McClenathan through a bunch of crew members that made for a somewhat interesting layered photo.

Nikon D3, 80-200mm, 500iso, f2.8, 1/8000th

Another thing I noticed was the overabundance of credentialed ?photographers.? I counted over 40 ?photographers? who had credentials. You would have thought it was the Daytona 500 with the amount of ?photographers? running around.

Nikon D700, 400mm, 400iso, f5, 1/4000th

The background is filled with heatwaves as top fuel champion Tony Schumacher launches off the starting line.

Nikon D700, 400mm, 400iso, f4, 1/1600th

The next two shots don?t look like anything too amazing but the crazy thing is they were shot via remote from over a half mile away using a remote set up created by photographer?Robert Benson.?

Brandon Bernstein pops the parachute to slow down from a 300mph run.

Nikon D3, 600mm, 2000iso, f11, 1/1250th

Troy Buff blows an engine as he crosses the finish line.

Nikon D3, 600mm, 2000iso, f11, 1/3200th

For more info about the?20 mile remote check out the link.

Jack Beckman gives a crew member a fist bump prior to climbing into his car.

Nikon D700, 14-24mm, 640iso, f5, 1/1000th

For Beckmans run I slowed down the shutter speed big time to do a pan blur of his burnout.

Nikon D700, 14-24mm, 100iso, f14, 1/30th

As John Force was waiting his turn to run I shot him driving around his car on his little scooter as he talked to various drivers and crew members.

Nikon D700, 14-24mm, 400iso, f5, 1/640th

I got down low directly in front of the car of Morgan Lucas as he prepared for his run.

Nikon D700, 400mm, 400iso, f4, 1/800th

Lucas smoked the tires right at the hit of the throttle. The header flames and heatwaves took a throw away photo and made it pretty cool.

Nikon D700, 400mm, 500iso, f6.3, 1/1600th

Below I shot a picture of the rear slick on a top fuel dragster as it sat still and then I shot the tire the moment the driver hit the throttle to show the severe stress that Goodyear Tires go through with these 8000 horsepower machines.

Nikon D3, 80-200mm, 1600iso, f2.8, 1/8000th

I shot a semi close up shot of top fuel driver Antron Brown as he sat in his car waiting to run. The colorful reflections off the side of his car makes it look like two photos side by side which I like. (the odd blue look around his eyes is due to the photo being shot through his cars windshield)

Nikon D700, 400mm, 400iso, f4, 1/1000th

Southern California based photographer Will Lester sets up a wide angle remote camera at the base of the starting line. To see some of Wills awesome racing photos?click here.

Below the car of Steve Faria spits out heatwaves as he races down track on a top fuel licensing attempt.

Nikon D700, 400mm, 400iso, f2.8, 1/6400th

A crew member provides some shade for top fuel driver Cory McClenathan as he waits to run.

Nikon D700, 400mm, 400iso, f2.8, 1/1250th

Funny car driver Jim Head sits in his car prior to making a pass.

Nikon D700, 14-24mm, 400iso, f2.8, 1/400th

My day ended with another cool heat wave shot as Larry Dixon deploys his parachute while still on the gas.

Nikon D700, 400mm, 400iso, f4.5, 1/5000th

On the final day I waited till late in the afternoon to head out to the track to take advantage of the great light. One of my coworkers had to fly home early so I was lucky enough to get his parking pass which was much better than the one I had been using the other days. I couldn?t resist including my car in a photo with a nitro funny car in the background.

While driving through the pit area a short time later I noticed some nice light coming in as the Larry Dixon car warmed up in the pits. I honestly nailed the brakes and ran from my car to shoot a few shots.

Nikon D3, 80-200mm, 400iso, f5.6, 1/1000th

As you can see, all the crew members are wearing gas masks, the reason for that is the nitro methane fuel they use makes your eyes water. To some it sounds like a pain in the ass but trust me, it is the greatest smell and feeling in the world to be up close to one of these cars running.

After they shut the car off some smoke trickled from the header pipes.

Nikon D3, 80-200mm, 400iso, f5.6, 1/500th

Cory McClenathan sits in his car as the sun lights up his eyes for a cool look?where?d his umbrella holder go?

Nikon D3, 80-200mm, 500iso, f5.6, 1/2000th

Back trackside the sun was dipping lower into the sky and if positioned in the right spot you could see a blinding reflection off the timing tower.

Nikon D3, 80-200mm, 400iso, f5, 1/1000th

I shot a wide angle shot of top fuel driver Antron Brown as he drove past the shining tower.

Nikon D700, 14-24mm, 400iso, f3.5, 1/500th

So it looked pretty cool but still wasn?t as cool as I felt it could be. Below, funny car driver Matt Hagan was racing in the far lane so I was able to use a zoom lens and get close on the car and make the shining tower fill the entire frame. The result was much cooler looking.

Nikon D3, 80-200mm, 400iso, f5, 1/320th

The sun dipped behind the mountains on the horizon as a lone fan watched the racing from his grandstand spot.

Nikon D3, 80-200mm, 250iso, f2.8, 1/8000th

The best part about darkness setting in was that you could now see the flames from the exhaust as the cars raced.

Del Worsham launches off the starting line on a pass.

Nikon D3, 80-200mm, 400iso, f5.6, 1/250th

So now with it being pretty dark outside I wanted to mess around with some off camera flash images. I busted out a set of pocket wizards to sidelight cars as I shot from head on. I didn?t have a tripod or anything to mount the flash on so I resorted to simply setting the flash and pocket wizard on the wall aimed where I wanted to light the vehicles. Here is how the setup looked.

The first car I tried to do the side flash with was Cory McClenathan. As soon as the light turned green and he launched from the starting line I shot pics. For some reason the flash didn?t fire.?

Nikon D3, 400mm, 250iso, f2.8, 1/100th

It was still a cool photo but wasn?t what I was looking for.?For some reason if I was standing more than 20 feet away from the remote flash it simply wouldn?t fire for some reason. I ran to my car and pulled new batteries from the trunk and replaced the batteries which I figured would fix the problem. I tried a test shot from 100ft away and had no luck. (The next day while talking to friends about the problem they mentioned perhaps the antennas and/or circuit board had gone bad on the devices which severely limited the range) Anyone wanna buy me some new pocket wizards??

So what I ended up doing was moving the remote flash?s position much closer and I stood in the center of the track behind the starting line and used the flash as a background prop to add a cool effect.

First up was funny car driver Robert Hight. As he lined up the car for his run I positioned myself where the flash would be visible just above the edge of the car. The exhaust was pretty much aimed right at my face and while the car was there idling tears were just streaming down my face as the fumes overwhelmed me. I forced myself to stay there to shoot the launch.

Nikon D700, 14-24mm, 320iso, f2.8, 1/250th

The next car up was Mike Neff in the unsponsored John Force Racing car. I stood downtrack a bit and shot a slow shutter speed wide shot as he raced downtrack.

Nikon D700, 14-24mm, 320iso, f2.8, 1/50th

I headed back to the spot behind the starting line and moved the flash to the other side of the track to shoot top fuel champion Tony Schumacher as he made his run. The flash really made this shot pretty cool as it shows one of the front tires off the ground. I also benefitted from another photographers flash going off directly behind the car out of frame which added some good fill light.

Nikon D700, 14-24mm, 320iso, f2.8, 1/160th

For the last run of the day Brandon Bernstein lined up to run. I had to run and move the flash back to the other side of the track. For the burnout I shot to line up a Budweiser sign on the tower with his Budweiser sponsored car going past.

Nikon D700, 14-24mm, 320iso, f2.8, 1/125th

Bernstein backed up into his rubber tracks as the burnout smoke hung over the starting line making for a unique looking shot.

Nikon D700, 14-24mm, 640iso, f2.8, 1/125th

For the launch I got closer than I did with the other cars and once again benefitted by catching the flash of another photographer directly behind the car. If only the grandstands were full this shot would probably be a portfolio image.

Nikon D700, 14-24mm, 640iso, f2.8, 1/80th

With that NHRA testing wrapped up for me. I had some hassles over the weekend but overall I had a pretty good weekend.

-Mark J. Rebilas is a freelance sports photographer based in Arizona. His work is seen regularly in Sports Illustrated, ESPN The Magazine, USA Today and many others around the country. Visit?www.markjrebilas.com/blog?to learn more about his work.

Rebilas’ best baseball photos of 2008

askthephotographer — Fri, 12 Dec 2008 19:43:29 +0000

Here are some of my favorites from the 2008 baseball season. Unlike last year where I started in Spring Training and finished in the World Series, this year would be a much shorter season as my season ended when the Diamondbacks season finished….in September.

Here are some of my favorites from spring training.

Kansas City Royals baserunner Mike Stodolka slides safely into home ahead of the tag by Texas Rangers catcher Gerald Laird.

Nikon D3, 400mm with 1.4 convertor (550mm), 320iso, f5.6, 1/1000th

Oakland Athletics center fielder (19) Chris Denorfia dives into third base against the Los Angeles Angels.

Nikon D3, 80-200mm, 400iso, f4, 1/1250th

Los Angeles Angels players watch from the dugout against the Kansas City Royals at Tempe Diablo Stadium.

Nikon D3, 80-200mm with 1.4 convertor, 400iso, f4, 1/1000th

Arizona Diamondbacks pitcher Randy Johnson pitches against the Los Angeles Angels at Tempe Diablo Stadium.

Nikon D3, 600mm, 100iso, f22, 1/25th

Colorado Rockies batter Marcus Giles reacts after getting hit by a pitch against the Chicago Cubs at HoHoKam Park.

Nikon D3, 600mm, 400iso, f4, 1/1250th

Chicago Cubs manager Lou Piniella reacts during a game against the San Diego Padres at the Peoria Sports Complex.

Nikon D3, 600mm, 500iso, f5, 1/1000th

Regular Season.

Overview of Chase Field prior to the game between the Arizona Diamondbacks and the Los Angeles Dodgers at Chase Field.

Nikon D3, 14-24mm, 800iso, f5, 1/1600th

Arizona Diamondbacks shortstop Stephen Drew leaps in an attempt to catch a line drive in the seventh inning against the Los Angeles Dodgers at Chase Field.

Nikon D3, 400mm, 2000iso, f2.8, 1/1000th

Los Angeles Dodgers infielder Rafael Furcal against the Arizona Diamondbacks at Chase Field.

Nikon D3, 400mm, 2000iso, f2.8, 1/640th

An assistant dog sits in the basket of a fan during the game between the Arizona Diamondbacks and the Los Angeles Dodgers at Chase Field.

Nikon D3, 14-24mm, 2000iso, f2.8, 1/1000th

Arizona Diamondbacks batter Conor Jackson is hit by a pitch against the Los Angeles Dodgers at Chase Field.

Nikon D3, 400mm, 800iso, f5.6, 1/3200th

Los Angeles Dodgers third baseman (33) Blake Dewitt dives for a ball against the Arizona Diamondbacks at Chase Field.

Nikon D3, 400mm, 800iso, f5.6, 1/4000th

Los Angeles Dodgers first baseman James Loney is congratulated by manager Joe Torre (right) after hitting a home run against the Arizona Diamondbacks at Chase Field.

Nikon D3, 14-24mm, 800iso, f5.6, 1/2500th

Arizona Diamondbacks second baseman Orlando Hudson throws to first to complete the double play after forcing out Los Angeles Dodgers base runner James Loney in the eighth inning at Chase Field.

Nikon D3, 400mm, 800iso, f5.6, 1/1600th

Arizona Diamondbacks first baseman Conor Jackson gets a single off San Diego Padres pitcher Chris Young at Chase Field.

Nikon D3, 14-24mm, 1600iso, f2.8, 1/1000th

Philadelphia Phillies infielder Chase Utley leaps to catch the throw from the catcher over a sliding Arizona Diamondbacks base runner Mark Reynolds as he successfully steals second base at Chase Field.

Nikon D3, 80-200mm with 1.4 convertor, f4, 1/800th

Colorado Rockies shortstop (12) Clint Barmes watches from the dugout against the Arizona Diamondbacks at Chase Field.

Nikon D3, 24-70mm, 2000iso, f2.8, 1/400th

The next few images are from a shoot I did for ESPN Magazine of Arizona Diamondbacks pitcher Brandon Webb. Nothing beats all access!

Nikon D3, 80-200mm, 2500iso, f2.8, 1/800th

Nikon D3, 80-200mm, 2500iso, f4, 1/1000th

Nikon D3, 600mm, 100iso, f4, 1/40th

Nikon D3, 24-70mm, 4000iso, f2.8, 1/250th

Nikon D3, 24-70mm, 2000iso, f2.8, 1/500th

Back to regular season baseball.

San Francisco Giants pitcher Tim Lincecum pitches in the second inning against the Arizona Diamondbacks at Chase Field.

Nikon D3, 600mm, 2500iso, f4, 1/800th

Texas Rangers base runner (5) Ian Kinsler is forced out at second base by the Atlanta Braves shortstop Yunel Escobar but breaks up the double play in the fifth inning at the Rangers Ballpark.

Nikon D3, 80-200mm with 1.4 convertor, 1250iso, f4, 1/1000th

Texas Rangers pitcher Eric Hurley pitches against the Atlanta Braves at the Rangers Ballpark.

Nikon D3, 600mm, 400iso, f4, 1/4000th

Texas Rangers outfielder Josh Hamilton in the dugout against the Atlanta Braves at the Rangers Ballpark.

Nikon D3, 14-24mm, 1600iso, f2.8, 1/800th

Fans cheer as Texas Rangers designated hitter Brandon Boggs heads towards third base as he rounds the bases following his three run home run in the seventh inning against the Atlanta Braves at the Rangers Ballpark.

Nikon D3, 24-70mm, 400iso, f5.6, 1/2000th

Arizona Diamondbacks base runner Augie Ojeda collides with Milwaukee Brewers catcher Jason Kendall as he scores in the fifth inning at Chase Field.

Nikon D3, 80-200mm with 1.4 convertor, 4000iso, f4, 1/1000th

The sun shines through glass windows at Chase Field during the game between the Arizona Diamondbacks and the Los Angeles Dodgers.

Nikon D3, 14-24mm, 2500iso, f2.8, 1/2000th

Arizona Diamondbacks pitcher Randy Johnson pitches in the sixth inning against the Chicago Cubs at Chase Field.

Nikon D300, 400mm, 100iso, f5.6, 1/20th

As you can see it wasn’t too great of a year for me with baseball but I am confident I will do better next season.

Next Best of the Year blog will be Best Drag Racing Shots.

Portrait of a boxer

askthephotographer — Fri, 05 Dec 2008 19:49:10 +0000

I had the privilege to photograph a boxer a few weeks ago and here is one of my favorite shots from the short session.

I had to place black stretching mats behind the ropes because there were large mirrors surrounding the ring. I placed them behind the ropes so I wouldn’t get a lot of reflection from the light and so you wouldn’t see me in the frame.

For the shot I used a ABR800 ring flash at a very low power to fill the front (I find it very harsh at higher settings) I also used an Alien bee B800 with a beauty dish above him pointing towards his back for separation from the background.

Settings:
Model: NIKON D700
Firmware: Adobe Photoshop CS3 Macintosh
Lens (mm): 24-70mm at 24mm
ISO: 200
Aperture: 18
Shutter: 1/200

Here is Jake and his friend Matt helping out by being a boom arm for me. They are holding the beauty dish above and pointing toward his back.

Portrait: Man in a sugar cane field

askthephotographer — Mon, 01 Dec 2008 22:19:33 +0000

So, its been a long time since my last entry, I know. I have a few excuses! I swear! First, the magazines I work for have to print the photos before I can post them. Second, I’m lazy. OK, well I’m not lazy, but over the past few months I have been neglecting my blog. That is going to change. I am going to try and blog a lot more often. I have a few blogs I am going to try and post this week starting with this one, so please stay tuned.

For this shoot I was in Hawaii for one of my friends from highs school’s wedding. He asked if I could come by and bring my camera and In return he would pay for mine and my wife’s plane tickets and condo stay for a week. Not a bad deal if I say so. He also gave me a little cash

Every day we drove by this sugar cane field on the way to the beach I wanted to stop and take a photo in, so finally on the day of their wedding the bride’s hair and makeup was late so I had an extra hour to kill. I took my friend and his best man out to the field and did a few shots. This is my favorite one.

I used one Strip box with a grid on the front. The box was set up in the front right vertically. There wasn’t much going in the photo so I decided to have his best man throw up his tie to make it look like it was flying in the wind. I later added the plane in Adobe Photoshop. There were planes coming and going over that location but we had very little time to shoot and he really wanted it in there.

Settings:

Model: Canon EOS-1D Mark III
Firmware: Adobe Photoshop CS3 Macintosh
Lens (mm): 24
ISO: 100
Aperture: 9
Shutter: 1/160

Eli manning dominates the Cardinals and still looks like a nerd in the process

askthephotographer — Tue, 25 Nov 2008 22:30:36 +0000

I was faced with a tough dilemma leading up to this marquee matchup between the first place Arizona Cardinals (NEVER thought I’d get to say that!) and the first place New York Giants. 40 Miles away were the drag boat races I had shot the previous three days and really wanted to do the final day BUT I couldn’t turn down shooting the Giants which most likely would make for better image sales. Any other team and this blog would be about more boat racing! Continue reading to see how the game went.

As usual I spent time prior to the game shooting player warm ups and looking for cool stock images. I also shot a lot of Kurt Warner with all the MVP chatter of his name going on around the sports world.

The below shots of him warming up came out pretty cool but I am still kicking myself for not moving a foot or two in a different direction to eliminate that damn fluorescent goal post, grrrrr!

Nikon D3, 400mm, 1600iso, f2.8, 1/1250th

I perfer the above shot cause I like the hand across his face, it brings you right in to his eyes but I know some editors hate hands in front of the face so I also shot the conservative “safe shot” as well.

Nikon D3, 400mm, 1600iso, f2.8, 1/1250th

The person that Warner was throwing to was pro bowl wide receiver Larry Fitzgerald so I got a unique looking photo of him catching the ball with his face covered by the ball. I shall title it “leatherface”

Nikon D3, 400mm, 1600iso, f2.8, 1/1250th

New York Giants safety Michael Johnson was standing nearby with a nice clean background so I fired off a standard shot of that.

Nikon D3, 400mm, 1600iso, f2.8, 1/1250th

One quick photo of Giants coach Tom Coughlin and it was back to the media room to kill some time.

Nikon D3, 400mm, 1600iso, f2.8, 1/1250th

For player introductions I got out around the center of the field and got real low as the Cardinals mascot and flag boys led the team to the field. I wonder if thats NASCAR driver Carl Edwards doing the flip in the mascot costume.

Nikon D3, 80-200mm, 1600iso, f2.8, 1/1250th

As the Cardinals players ran out I lined up in a spot with the flame machines in the background to do the played out player with fire shots. The below two of star wide receiver Anquan Boldin came out pretty nice.

Safe shot to make editors happy..

Nikon D3, 80-200mm, 1600iso, f2.8, 1/1250th

Fun shot to make me happy…

Nikon D3, 80-200mm, 1600iso, f2.8, 1/1250th

Finally it was game time and the real work began.

As with most football games one of the first things I like to knock out of my shot list is quarterback shots.

Eli Manning.

Nikon D3, 400mm, 1600iso, f2.8, 1/1250th

Kurt Warner

Nikon D3, 400mm, 2500iso, f2.8, 1/1250th

I also had to knock out an obligatory cheerleader photo for my buddy Kyle Terada. Here ya go buddy!

Nikon D3, 400mm, 1600iso, f2.8, 1/1250th

Enough of that, back to the action.

Giants running back Derrick Ward takes a diving Cardinals defender for a ride as he runs the ball.

Nikon D3, 400mm, 1600iso, f2.8, 1/1250th

For those of you who look at my blog regularly you will notice I love shooting players with other players in the foreground. I really like the below photo of Kurt Warner looking like a small child compared to the receiver in front running downfield.

Nikon D3, 400mm, 2000iso, f2.8, 1/1250th

One cool aspect of the University of Phoenix Stadium are the big windows around the top of the dome. They are tinted so they make the outside look very blue when facing away from the sun. Underexpose a few stops and it blacks out the crowd and looks pretty interesting.

Nikon D3, 400mm, 2000iso, f2.8, 1/8000th

Or you can face the other direction and line up with the sun through the window for anoher cool shot.

Nikon D3, 400mm, 2000iso, f2.8, 1/8000th

With that photo you can see that some sun light gets into the stadium. The problem is with how tinted the windows are the little pocket that actually hits part of the field isn’t very bright and makes any attempt of a light pocket shot not very successful.

Below is a shot of Cardinals defender Stephen Spach blocking on an extra point attempt. The light came right into his face and lit up one of his eyes pretty cool. Too bad its not some wild diving catch or something.

Nikon D3, 400mm, 1600iso, f2.8, 1/2000th

Here is a closer look on his face.

On the following kickoff just prior to the kick I shot one of the referees standing in the light pocket.

Nikon D3, 400mm, 2000iso, f2.8, 1/4000th

Back to the action. It seemed like this game had numerous throws to the end zone that would have made for great photos had the receivers caught the damn ball!

New York Giants wide receiver Domenik Hixon can’t come up with the pass in the end zone.

Nikon D3, 80-200mm, 2000iso, f2.8, 1/1250th

Not to be overshadowed (or should I say undershadowed?) Cardinals wide receiver Larry Fitzgerald drops a touchdown pass in the endzone the following drive.

Nikon D3, 80-200mm, 2000iso, f2.8, 1/1250th

Giants wide receiver/kick returner Domenik Hixon had a big day with kick returns so it was important to produce a few good shots of that. Here are two I liked from one of his 3 big returns on the day.

Nikon D3, 400mm, 1600iso, f2.8, 1/1250th

The great return set the Giants up for a touchdown by wide receiver Amani Toomer.

Nikon D3, 80-200mm, 2000iso, f2.8, 1/1250th

Woooo!

Nikon D3, 80-200mm, 2000iso, f2.8, 1/1250th

The next time the Giants got the ball it was fullback Madison Hedgecock who ran the ball in despite the diving effort by Cardinals linebacker Monty Beisel.

Nikon D3, 80-200mm, 2000iso, f2.8, 1/1250th

One shot that I usually forget to shoot is of the offense and defense lined up for the snap. It is the easiest shots in football to take and surprisingly gets used often.

Nikon D3, 400mm, 2000iso, f2.8, 1/1250th

One of the big differences in this game was the protection the two quarterbacks got.

Eli Manning…..

Nikon D3, 400mm, 2000iso, f2.8, 1/1250th

Kurt Warner….

Nikon D3, 400mm, 2000iso, f2.8, 1/1250th

Which quarterback would you wanna be that day?

One person I had hoped to get some good photos of was Giants wide receiver and Superbowl winning catch player Plaxico Burress. Unfortunately he was pulled from the game after the first drive with an injury. I did at least get a nice shot of him reacting on the sidelines during the game.

Nikon D3, 400mm, 2000iso, f2.8, 1/1250th

Another shot I rarely shoot is tight on a tackle. Sometimes you can get some cool stuff with just a blob of players swarming the offensive player. Or you can get average shots like this.

Nikon D3, 400mm, 2000iso, f2.8, 1/1250th

Later in the game I was set up in the endzone waiting for a nice play to come to my corner. I got two good chances sadly the results were a bit less than desired.

Play One- Cardinals wide receiver Anquan Boldin dives towards the pylon. He was ruled out of bounds before the goal while my photo was ruled back focused. GRRRR

Nikon D3, 80-200mm, 2000iso, f2.8, 1/1250th

Play Two- Cardinals wide receiver Larry Fitzgerald dives for a pass in the endzone but misses it. Worthless photo ensues!

Nikon D3, 80-200mm, 2000iso, f2.8, 1/1250th

I was screaming and cussing for two missed chances as Giants head coach Tom Coughlin was screaming for a penalty against his team. Or maybe he was screaming at me for my back focused pylon dive shot, hmmm.

Nikon D3, 400mm, 2000iso, f2.8, 1/1250th

Later in the game a few players looked to be taking a nap on the field as a ball bounces by.

Nikon D3, 400mm, 2500iso, f2.8, 1/1250th

Towards the end of the game Cardinals wide receiver Steve Breaston made a great diving catch that would lead to a Cardinals score.

Nikon D3, 400mm, 2500iso, f2.8, 1/1250th

But it wasn’t enough to stop the Giants from winning the game to move to a 10-1 record on the year.

Eli Manning looks confused after the victory. (can you believe this is your Superbowl MVP?!?)

Nikon D3, 80-200mm, 2500iso, f2.8, 1/1250th

Cardinals players walk off the field after the tough loss.

Nikon D3, 80-200mm, 2500iso, f2.8, 1/1250th

One driver learns that at 200mph water isn’t as soft as it looks

askthephotographer — Sun, 23 Nov 2008 20:59:39 +0000

My busy schedule hasn’t allowed me to shoot one of my favorite sports, Drag Boat Racing, in over a year so when I actually had a few days off, with the worlds fastest boats in town, it was an event I was not gonna miss.

Some of my favorite career photos have taken place while covering the 250mph fiberglass boats skipping across the water, this weekend would provide me more wild images. Continue reading to see the catastrophic results of a 200mph right turn!

Drag boat racers, unlike land drag racing, are faced with numerous obstacles that can’t be planned for. Whether that is wind (bad), rough water (bad) or parts failure (bad) the results of such situations can be a very painful and sometimes fatal.

Unlike land drag racing where drives can see lines and walls showing their lanes, water drag racers guide their boats between buoys marking the course.

Thursday practice was very boring and brought only one image that I didn’t hate.

The below driver got about as close as you can get to a buoy without hitting it (bad).

Nikon D3, 600mm, 400iso, f8, 1/2000th

Friday qualifying was also pretty boring for me with only a few pictures that weren’t total crap.

Any combination of rough water conditions or getting on the gas too hard can result in the boat bouncing around like a wild bull such as the below shot.

Nikon D3, 600mm, 400iso, f7.1, 1/2000th

Like their land counterparts, the faster drag boats rely on parachutes to slow down after a run. Normally the parachutes are hidden in the water from view but once in awhile you get lucky and catch a quick glimpse of every drivers friend.

Nikon D3, 600mm, 400iso, f7.1, 1/2000th

Saturday would be the day that made it all worth while.

The water of Firebird Lake contains a higher consentration of salt than the worlds oceans, yet you still see numerous birds flying around the desert mecca.