Motocross photography light test

While I was out in Cali I shot a bunch of motocross shots one night. They have a HUGE outdoor motocross park with I believe 8 tracks all lit up with stadium lighting. It's absolutely awesome. I would love to ride there but every time I go I have my camera and no bike.






Having my bike with me when I go out is usually my problem. I want to ride until they come around telling us their closed we need to pack up. Then I usually go "Damn, I didn't take any photos"!!!






Well, a couple weekends ago, I finally got out the camera and lights and tried a single light set up. Of course it was off camera as I'm a lighting nut like that. (No jail house photos from me). I had to try out my modified light stand leg...






Light stands have three legs, these provide stability which is good.... most of the time. But what do you do when it's not most of the time?








I read on Strobist quite sometime ago about a guy doing this and after my frustrations in Cali at the track with trying to get my light where I wanted it I decided it was time to MOD-out my light stand.





It's a pretty simple idea you drill out the rivet on one leg and then drill holes every two inches up and down that leg. Then if you are on uneven ground you can still have a light stand pointing straight up.




It worked great and allowed me to get the above shots. You can just nearly see it above the "n" on the watermark. Next time I'll take a better picture of the light stand.

Oh yeah and what do you do when your dirt bike doesn't have a kick stand?





That's right, use the monopod! And here's a reference shot for all you photo nerds.






All these were taken with a single SB-26 on a stand to the right of the jump.(left side of this image) Shot on my Nikon D3 with a PocketWizard radio trigger. Watkins motocross track in Watkins, CO.

The fastest place in the USA

Driving back from California we decided to take the long route. I promised Athena I would take her to go see her all-time hero Snoopy at the Charles M. Shultz museum in Santa Rosa.



So we left SoCal and headed up past San Francisco to the museum. We had a great time there reading all the comic strips and learning the history of the Peanuts creator. He even lived in Colorado Springs once.

This brings me back to the long drive home. I-80 out of California takes you through Nevada and into Utah. Right past this little known place with no buildings or structures only a sign marking the spot where humans attempt to make history.



It's the Bonneville Salt Flats, a huge desert like climate that is purely salt for miles and miles. Do to the nature of the salt being so level people from all over the world come to set the Land Speed Record.




In The Worlds Fastest Indian, Anthony Hopkins plays an character who travels from Australia with his motorcycle to see how fast he can go. It's a very well done movie.



The place is unlike any desert vie ever been before. Nothing grows there, it's completely baron and yet somehow quite peaceful. Athena went on a long walk exploring while I set up a couple small flashes to get the shot with us and Mudflap (the Element).

I truly want to go back.

Family Portrait out in the desert

While out in SoCal I got to meet up with my friend Shaun. We used to ride dirt bikes when he lived here in Colorado. Recently he lost his job with Wagner, his house and got a divorce all in about four months. Hard times for sure.

Shaun moved back to California to help out his dad and while he was out there ran into Kim and her kids. They new each other from way back and have been catching up and spending a lot of time together. It's good seeing Shaun happy again.

They invited me to go dirt bike / ATV riding out in the desert since I was out in Cali and I gladly accepted. I wish Athena could have come but it was to close after surgery and the doctor wouldn't allow it.

We rode all day out in the middle of no where and had a total blast. I got that blue 450cc ATV up to 93 mph top gear wide open at one time. It was so fast!!! Afterwards I asked everyone to get together for a quick photo.

I set up two speed lights about 45 degrees from each other pointing towards the group. Turned them on and BAM BAM BAM off they went right into my face. While I waited for my vision to return I started singing "blinded by the light...."

It seams high powered overhead power lines emit a strong enough signal that they set off my radio triggers. So the flashes kept popping.

What to do? I couldn't move everyone we were on a time limit so I moved the light stands about five feet and they popped off only every once in a while. I could work with that. I just needed one good shot.

All in all I took three shots that day. Two of them were usable. Above is the best one.