SpeedFreaks endurance race

On Sunday, I had the opportunity to shoot the first (annual?)...

(Official artwork by buddy, world traveler and artiste extraordinaire Blue-Eyed Devil of Wrench-in-the-Gears fame.)

...SpeedFreaks Stage Race in Leesburg, VA. Brought to you by the same fine folks who run both the Leesburg Baker's Dozen race each spring, and last winter's SnotCycle, it's run on the same private farmland singletrack. SpeedFreaks was a two-day event, but I only managed to make it out for the second day.



After a bit of rain for Saturday's race, the Sunday portion couldn't have been more perfect. Cool temps and blue skies the whole day.



When I set out to shoot this race, my plan was to emphasize the fact that it was a fall race, as opposed to all those spring and summer races. I had a couple of ideas in mind, but mainly, I wanted some leaf color in my shots. I wasn't having much luck finding color around the evergreen/pine grove part of the course. While standing around considering my options, I had a chance meeting with Rob, one of the organizers. He offered to escort me to the back side of the trails, a section I'd never seen. I happily agreed and followed him across the fields.

At the far end of the trails, I found some cool rock-drop obstacles as well as some colorful trees. After wandering around looking for an appropriate place to set up, I finally found a couple of trees that offered some nice color. I hunkered down and snapped away as weary riders pedaled past.

Unfortunately, I couldn't spend the entire day out shooting the race, so after too few hours in the field, I had to pack up and head home. Once there, I posted my unprocessed shots from the day to my pbase gallery. I tweaked a couple of shots (seen above) and posted those to my main flickr page.

At the end of the day, I realized a couple of things:

1) I need a wider lens. A nice 10-20mm would be sweet. Either that or a nice full-frame Canon 5D Mark II. Whichever :)

and 2) I have *got* to get out and ride the race course. I know so little of the trails there, I don't even know what all I'm missing. The trails are private and only open for the races each year (and a few pre-rides). Since I shoot (and don't race), I need to get myself on board one of those pre-rides.

W@W #4, 7/15/09

My photos from the fourth and final (for '09) Wednesdays @ Wakefield race have been posted.

As usual, feel free to grab copies of the web-sized images for your own personal use (blogs, email to friends, Facebook, etc). If you want full-sized copies (either digital ($15) or print ($25)) let me know. Images on the Pbase site are batch-processed. Full-sized images will be individually hand retouched so they'll look better than the small ones.

Thanks to PVC for putting on a great race series. And thanks to all of the racers for giving me such great subjects to shoot! See you next year (if not before!).

W@W #4, 7/15/09

If anybody is anxiously waiting, the photos from W@W #4 should be posted on Sunday. Please spread the word. Sorry for the delay...I've got to duck outta town for my older daughter's lacrosse tournament.

-gary

Quiet 'round these parts, eh?

As usual, the summer is proving more busy than anticipated. I had hoped to shoot the 12 Hours of Lodi Farm, the 12 Hours of Cranky Monkey race, as well as the complete Wednesdays@Wakefield series. In reality I missed Lodi and the Monkey, and at best I'll hit .500 on the Wakefield series. 'Tis amazing how much time these babies take.



The good news is that I was able to make it out to the third installment of the Wakefield series last week (the photos are posted here). The shooting was same as it ever was. There's a high treeline right next to the most interesting part of the course (the fast downhill woop-de-dos) which casts it into shadow by race time (5:30pm) and deep shadow by race end (~8pm). So I spent the first part of the race shooting on the less-interesting part of the course that still had decent lighting.

This junior-class (possibly super-junior class) racer was my favorite of the day. 99.9% of all racers (and riders...including me) skip this ~18" high rock obstacle (also seen in the photo above), since there is an easy bypass next to it. Not this kid! He went up and over for no other reason than he could. And he did it with a cast on his arm! In fact, he was the only person to hit it during my hour shooting from this location (a hour that included the beginner as well as the hotshot singlespeed classes. Bravo!

After spending the early part of the race in the sun, I decided to head over to the downhill woops and try to get some acrobatic shots of racers catching air. By the time I got over to that part of the course, another photog had set up shop in the prime location. That, along with the high growth of vegetation along the trail forced me to try and find some other creative angles. I resorted to using on-camera flash while letting the camera automatically drag the shutter (allowing both subject and background to be correctly exposed). The results were pretty good.

Not sure what this week's race will hold. I'm kinda tired of shooting in the same two spots. Tho shooting practically anywhere else would require a full studio light setup. Which I doubt the racers would appreciate :)