The day before the big race, I had a little bit of time to kill after picking up my pass. I decided to head next door to check out the Indy Hall of Fame Museum. When I first thought of “hall of fame” something like the Major League Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, NY came to mind, with its seemingly endless statistics and trophies. As I walked towards the building a part of me wondered if I would just get bored trying to read hundreds of plaques next to grainy head shots. While there were plenty of plaques, the word “museum” was probably equally as important in this equation. The building was as much a house of art as was is one of praise. The cars were granted the center of attention, even more than the names that adorned the side of their cockpits. Baseballs and bats haven’t really changed in past 100 years, but the cars that raced at the famous brickyard certainly did. Read on to get a glimpse of just how much.

Continue reading Indy Hall of Fame Museum »

So you’ve seen the crash, and you’ve seen my view from the grandstands. But what about the other 198 laps of the race? Follow the jump to see some of my other favorite shots for this past year’s Indy 500.

Continue reading Best of the Rest from Indy »

Sometimes you’re just in the right place, at the right moment, and you see an event unfolding right before your eyes. It’s very surreal, and there’s this sense of awe that first wants to bubble up from inside you. If you let it come to the surface, it will already be too late, and that moment will be gone. The only thing to do is not think, shove the camera against your face and pull the trigger as fast as possible. After it is over, the sensation of “did that just happen” will return, and even more so if you’ve captured it on film.

Hit the jump to see the crash frame by frame as I did. I know there are lots of people out there who like seeing this sort of thing and think that it is cool, but I don’t want to downplay a serious situation. This was no small mishap, and Tony admitted in interviews afterwords that while he was able to get out of the car and walk away, he was pretty beat up. The fuel does catch fire in the last shot, but don’t worry, it only lasted a few seconds and did not enter the cockpit. Meira had it much worse later on…

Continue reading Tony Kanaan’s Crash At Indy »

I had a blast at this year’s Indianapolis 500, so much so that I’m at a loss for what to post first. I didn’t stay in my seat for very long since I was eager to explore the infield and see what other vantages I could capture the cars on track from, but I did get this panoramic view of the grid before the race.

I know I’ve been a little bit off the pace (pun intended) when it comes to posting on here, but I appreciate the loyal few who have been checking up on me. There’s plenty more to come in June as I’ve just finished working out a deal to cover the Formula Drift event next month from Wall Speedway in New Jersey. Before that however, I’m off to the Indy 500 tomorrow. I’ve never attended the race before, or any true IRL race for that matter, so I’m really psyched about it. Photos to follow next week from the journey.

This is going to be good. In what was shaping up to be a race that Audi would (again) dominate, Scott Dixon driving the new Acura ARX-02a LMP1 car for De Ferran Motorsports has just shaken things up by taking pole today. He will be followed by an Audi, and Peugeot in the 2nd and 3rd spots respectively when the 12 hours of Sebring get under way on Saturday morning. Be sure to tune in via Speed Channel to see how it all unfolds.

(Photo above taken of an Acura LMP2 car at the 2008 Petit Le Mans, Road Atlanta)

We love the photos that Andrew has been taking of us…for a band like ours, the live show is our highest priority, and we put so much into making it the absolute best that we can.  It’s amazing to have pro photos that represent us well, and show what the SHIROCK live experience is all about.

I love the colors in this one, and the clarity…which is hard to get in the low lighting!

My favorite photos are so often the “journalistic” look…I love the grainy black & white raw feel in this one.  Plus the perspective of this shot is unique.

This is a great one of Derek…again the black & white grainy look is classic.

Such a great moment caught here…really emotional.

Again, a great shot & feel.  It makes it feel very intimate.

Great editing, and colors here.  A nice action shot!

We love having him at the shows, and it’s been a pleasure getting to know him as well.

SHIROCK / Chuck Shirock

Find out more: www.myspace.com/SHIROCK

For those of you out there wondering when I’m going to post up the photos of Shirock’s performance at 12th and Porter, you’re about to get some icing to go with your cake. Chuck, the band’s lead singer (pictured above from 2008), got in touch with me recently. The band has a bit of time off between touring, and he has kindly offered to do a guest posting on here to introduce the new images. Maybe he’ll even talk about a few juicy stories from the road too.

As I was archiving some of my photos from 2008 to free up some hard drive space, I noticed this set from a tour of the Jack Daniel’s Distillery. For some reason I didn’t get around to processing them at the time, so I’m pleased to share them with you now – better late than never right?

Forget Opry Land, whenever it comes to a famous site in middle Tennessee I always tell people that the one place they should go is on the distillery tour. Lynchburg, TN, the city now famous for Jack’s best-selling No. 7, is about an hour and a half outside of Nashville, but the drive to get there is very scenic. It’s almost as though the area exists outside of time, uncongested by cars and buses and tall buildings, hidden away in untouched countryside. The location is key, as the company still uses the same spring that Jack himself found so many years ago to start it all. The process of creating a Tennessee whiskey is to slow drip the water through charred maple wood before it is treated and then aged in barrels. If you are able to get out to experience the tour for yourself, make sure to come with a working nose – the smell of the maple wood is something that I will cherish for a long time.

Round two from a week ago. This time the lighting was a bit more cooperative. The Elms are originally from Seymour, IN, but like Shirock they’ll be all over the place during the coming months while on tour. If you’ve got some vacation time to burn, the South by Southwest festival in Austin, TX is right around the corner and both of the aforementioned bands will be in attendance.