Here I am Testing a Ferrari FXX!

Ok, it's the Berg Toys version. It was still fun.

Are you ready for the picture?

One thing I have learned from taking pictures of motorsports, or sports in general is always be ready to take the picture. It seems so simple, but when I was starting out, I missed plenty of images because I was changing a lens or talking to another photographer. Now, I bring several cameras with lenses mounted and try not to socialize too much.

Occasionally, I'll shoot at events that local businesses hold. Since being ready had become a part of my routine, I've seen it help in this environment as well. Last night was a perfect example.

I was asked to shoot the grand opening event for Mercedes Benz of Fairfield. Roger Penske was scheduled to be in attendance, as this is one of the 400+ dealers he owns. Mr. Penske also brought along two special vehicles from his personal Mercedes Benz collection: a 1955 300SL and a 2011 SRS. Both stunning vehicles with their gullwing doors. Additionally, 300 people were invited to attend this special event.

I stopped by the dealership several hours before the event, very much the way I head to a track the day before shooting.The PR manager of the dealership had told me ahead of time to get key photos of Mr. Penske, one of which was with his 300SL. I wanted to look at backgrounds and any distractions around the car. As Mr. Penske arrived I had the opportunity to get some posed shots, but he was on the move, meeting and greeting guests. The crowd around him was growing, making it difficult to get him alone with the car.

About half an hour after his arrival, the PR manager grabbed me. "Are you ready?", she said. In an instant my subject was briskly walking to the car. He asked me how he should be posed. I gave him a quick instruction and then fired the first vertical shot. Then he started to get up! "I just need one more" I pleaded. I turned the camera horizontal. Once the flash went off he dashed away. The first shot ended up being the keeper.

2011 Maximum Ferrari Calendar is shipping! New Site!

The 2011 Maximum Ferrari calendar is available for delivery. We are using a new ecommerce site in response to feedback from last year. The new site is available at www.maximumferrari.com.

Just like last year's calendar there are 24 images in all, covering historic through modern Ferraris including the 599XX, FXX, F430, GTO and more. The 18x24 calendar is printed on high quality paper using the latest four-color printing technology. US and Canadian Holidays included. This makes an excellent gift for the car-enthusiast, Ferrari owner or auto-buff.

Heading to FCA/NER Concorso

Looking forward to heading up to Hartford on Father's Day for the New England Region of the Ferrari Club of America's Annual Concorso. It's a spectacular event held on the grounds of the state capitol building. Last year's event attracted more than 100 Ferrari's. Proceeds are are used to support the Connecticut Children's Medical Center. Since it's inception the annual event has raised more than $600k for the Medical Center. The event is free to the public and includes a silent auction. Come see the cars and look for me!

Back from Homestead with many Ferrari photos

Homestead turned out to be a great time. I was able to hand out about 200 calendars and meet some fantastic people. I believe I came away with a bunch of great shots, even though I was unable to secure media credentials from Homestead-Miami Int'l Speedway. I'll be sending a calendar and a credential request to a PR contact at Ferrari North America.

In the meantime, I've got a bit of work to do. It seems the Aperture 3.01 update Apple released earlier this month has  created some serious issues for my workflow. I'm using Aperture 2.0 (why Apple recommended this update for 2.0 users puzzles me). Anyhow, all my new photos from the weekend say unsupported file format when I try to edit them. I have backups for most of these images, and Sunday's images were never imported. So hopefully nothing will be lost. Unfortunately I need to uninstall Aperture and a bunch of little items in various folders and do a fresh install. Tomorrow. Tonight I am getting some rest. Ciao!

Beautiful day at Miami Homestead with the Ferrari crowd

The 2010 Ferrari Challenge schedule kicked off today at Miami Homestead International Raceway. The wind was blowing hard today, thankfully the sun was shining (I have a burn to prove it). I arrived at the track at 8:20 this morning and was happy to find out the 599xx cars would indeed be taking the track for the first time in the United States. Also on hand were about seven or so FXX cars and two former Formula One racers. One of the F1 cars was an ex-Schumacher car, circa 2003.

Of course the F430 Challenge main event did not disappoint, although the overall number of cars was about half of the amount racing last year. One team coach mentioned the economy was to blame. So I did my part to help the economy and handed out about 160 Maximum Ferrari 2010 calendars for free! I thought this was a good thing to do with this year's overrun.

See you at the track tomorrow!

Fun with my Nikon D200 - Interval Timing and Timelapse

Many people don't realize that many Nikon DSLRs come with an interval timer built-in. The D200 is one of those. There is a lot of flexibility in the length of the interval. Plus, if you have iMovie, compiling the images is a snap. It can also be done in other movie software including Final Cut.

Here is just a test I did to get some settings for a project I may be working on. The subject matter will be different. Yes, that is me and my trusty old Jetta.



If you've tried this with your camera, I'd love it if you posted a link.

2010 Ferrari F430 Challenge Schedule

The schedule for the 2010 Ferrari F430 Challenge was released last month. Looks like a great combination of Corso Clienti and FXX. I wonder if they will add more Historic dates or 599xx dates?

March 12-14 Homestead Miami Speedway, FL
F430Challenge / FXX & Clienti F1(tbc)

April 9-11 Miller Motorsports Park, UT
F430Challenge / FXX & Clienti F1 (tbc)

May 1-2 Infineon, Napa Valley CA
F430 Challenge

June 26-27 Mont Tremblant, Quebec, Canada
F430 Challenge

July 31-Aug 1 New Jersey Motorsports Park, NJ
F430 Challenge

September 3-5 Watkins Glen, NY
F430 Challenge and Shell Historics in conjunction with Club Meet

Right now I am going to Homestead, Infineon and the Glen. Maybe more!

Have you considered using YouTube for your marketing?

Did you know that YouTube is the fourth largest search engine in the world? Not only that, if you haven't noticed lately, Google search results include more and more videos from YouTube. With only still photographs, what is a photographer to do? That's right, create a slideshow and upload it as a video. This morning I created a slideshow in iPhoto of my 2010 Maximum Ferrari Calendar. To the slideshow I added a soundtrack a created in Garageband. Then I exported it and uploaded it to YouTube. Set the export to the highest resolution possible. Also make sure you are using appropriate keywords and tags. This way people can find your work of art!

Arrived in Philladelphia for Ferrari event in NJ

Ok, I do know what I am doing. Even though I am staying an hour from the track. I am staying at the aLoft in Philadelphia. It looks like an hour drive to New Jersey Motorsports Park from here. And that's about how far I stay when I go to Atlanta or Road America.

But it just sounds strange to be staying in a different state. Plus, there are other benefits. I get the room essentially for free. I have the Starwood Preferred Guest Credit Card from American Express. This earns me points towards free stays at Starwood Hotels, of which the aLoft is a part. Also, whenever I can stay in an aLoft that is preferable. Free wifi is good, but even better is the hotel change and the hotels themselves are brand new. Nothing like a new hotel to stay in. The rooms are a great new design, that is definitely the anti-regular-hotel. Hard to explain but it's modernistic with plenty of modern conveniences - place to plug in your ipod to play music through the TV, tons of outlets and a comfy bed. Down in the lobby is a great lounge area, with fantastic eats and great couches to open up the laptop and crunch out blog posts. Hehehe!

No Media Credentials for the Ferrari Challenge and Historic Challenge at NJMP

My bad. Chalk it up to being a noob at securing media credentials. The media contact has not returned my requests via email or phone for credentials, so it looks like I am going without. Dang!

SO here is a little note to myself about this:
1) Do not wait until the day before the cut-off to send in a request
2) Read number 1 again.

I'm also going to be a little proactive at the beginning of next year and send my media contacts a marketing kit. Since I work for my own publication, no one seems to think I am legit. I am not trying to get free admission! I really need access.

I will make the best of the situation. Time to pack

ThinkTank Photo launches new website

I received a tweet from a friend that ThinkTank Photo had redesigned their website. This is not something that is normally worthy of a post. I use their stuff and it's great, but they probably don't need any publicity from a little blog like mine. Anyhow, I think their "Sharethemoment" section is excellent. They allow customers to send in photos of themselves using the products.

This is not only a fantastic way to show off product uses, but is a great way to get testimonials. If you've ever tried to get customers to send an email with a couple sentences about what they think, you'll know what I mean. But put out an open call for photos, and people flock.

Check it out:
http://www.thinktankphoto.com/share-the-moment.aspx

Finished the Maximum Ferrari site (for now)

I've decided the upcoming 2010 calendar featuring my photos from this year's Ferrari Challenge events will be called "Maximum Ferrari". So the site where my images are hosted (and the calendar will ultimately be sold) has been changed to www.maximumferrari.com.

Can't wait until the calendar is ready to go!

If you like colors (who doesn't) here's a photographer you'll like

My friend Maura has her new website up (common theme these days!). She has some wonderful images of flowers, cityscapes and people. Here photo of Picadilly Circus is a favorite of mine.

Well done Maura!

Great meeting today with the Classic Car Gallery in Southport Connecticut

I met with Alan Goodman at the Classic Car Gallery today. We've been discussing some type of show to display my images in his showroom. This meeting he brought up a great new opportunity, a "Carbecue". They aren't roasting old Ford Pintos, but they will have a meetup of local car enthusiasts, classic car guys and the like. He'll serve hot dogs and hamburgers and invite one of the local radio stations to broadcast from the event.

So Alan offered me the opportunity to have a vendor tent and sell images. Wooohooo! Mark your calendars... August 30th from 10:00 - 2:00 we'll be havin' a blast at the Classic Car Gallery.

What to do with $150

Last week I answered a trivia question in a Berlinetta Motorcars email. I got the answer right, and for being the first person to respond with the correct answer I won $150 gift certificate to the store of my choice. I usually go with Amazon, but to help build my photo business I figured it would be best if I had the credit at a photo store So I chose Adorama.

Adorama carries just about anything I need for the camera, so it seemed like a good choice. Now what do I get? $150 is a lot but not enough to get what I really need (body, tele-zoom, etc.). Oh well, it's a good problem to have!

Five photos in the Fairfield Arts Council show

During July I have five photos in the Fairfield Arts Council show: Fairfield in the Movies. This was a juried competition, however nearly 200 images made the cut. Anyhow, I am glad mine are on display. The show runs through the end of the month. More information at http://www.fairfieldartscouncil.org/

Moving to PhotoShelter

Early last month, I attended a seminar at Adorama about photo websites and SEO. The seminar was hosted by Allen Murabyashi, the CEO and one of the founders of PhotoShelter. I was expecting the seminar to be a sales show for PhotoShelter's advantages. But it wasn't. Or was it?

I'm not really sure, truthfully, Mr. Murabyashi did not talk much about PhotoShelter. But what he did talk about made me realize my current site (a scrappy Dreamweaver site married to a Backprint ecommerce platform) was not working hard enough for me. And to get it SEO ready would take a lot of work. Plus, the site just looks so 1997.

Yesterday, I bit the bullet and started uploading galleries onto PhotoShelter. I really like the integration with Aperture and the pulling in of the meta data. There is a lot of customization available that I have yet to explore, but so far it looks a lot easier than creating this on my own in Dreamweaver.

I guess the proof will be in how many photos I sell. First I need to finish the site. Stay tuned!