Weekend Shooter: Pocket Wizards

Showing posts with label Pocket Wizards. Show all posts

Sunday, August 3, 2014

WNYOA / Round #9

AA / Pro class speedster Nick Davis won the premier event of the day on the bikes. Ben Bouwens grabbed the holeshot but could not hold off the #87.

... been a while since I've updated my blog. My bad - I need to be better and more pro-active about it but, frankly, I spend more time in social media - namely facebook - posting there. I get damn near real-time feedback from there. This is easier though when cross posting to multiple groups - I only have to upload the article and pictures once and then reference the link back to here. I gotta get back into that practice.

+++ ANYWAY +++

There was a race today!! Round #9 was held today out at the Tall Pines ATV Park way (way) out in God's Country in the hills above Andover, N.Y.. I had decided the night before that I probably wasn't going to make it out there for the early morning youth races - I would have had to get up at the crack of dawn in order to make it on time. Based on the weather conditions - kinda glad I didn't. The place was socked in with fog and an on and off again drizzle .. that only got worse as the day wore on.

Race promoter Scottie Rich was all over the place today. He gets around pretty good for being (as he told me when asked "How you doing?") ".. all broken up." Also when asked ".. you gonna be back for the winter series?" he looked at me with a "Damned straight... " kinda look and answer. Winter series racers - you've been warned. ;)

Now this was different, and pretty darned cool too. Brian Robarge laid down a little "Hendrix'ish" action playing the National Anthem prior to the start of the Big Bikes! How cool was that?! :)

Big Bikes - you guys win today!! Last week, due to having to work I was only able to shoot the Big Quads. This week, due to being a wuss, I only stuck around for the Big Bikes. I went back to my car shortly after the bikes race was over for some chow, change batteries, dry gear off, etc ... while eating the steady rain that had been falling all day long got "steadier" - and harder. It didn't take a lot of convincing myself that I'd had enough. I'd had fun mind you, and (I think) I got some decent grabs on the day - but I was NOT going to go back out there to shoot the ~~lunatics~~, 'er I mean, Quads. Nahh .. sorry guys and gals. Not today. To wet, to sloppy, to much electronics on me.

While "The Bat" Ben Bouwens, grabbed the holeshot, it was the 87 lurking just to the left in the orange and blue of Nick Davis who took the win. Bouwens would hang on for 2nd on the day.

Here are a couple to get us started - there will in all likelihood be pics getting to the WNYOA pages on facebook in the coming days too.

Sunday, June 15, 2014

WNYOA Round 5 / Greek Peak

Click to view the photo larger

Round 5 is in the books. Mother nature was NOT kind to us for the majority of the week leading up to the event itself. Only on actual race day did she finally relinquish the wet and miserable grip that she had been stubbornly clinging to and let mr. sun come out. This was, unfortunately too little, too late. Conditions were wet. Not terribly wet - trust me - WNYOA has seen, and raced in, far worse - BUT had we had just one or two straight days of dry weather .... {sigh} "Woulda, coulda, shoulda ... " But as many in the race family say, "... it's a hare scramble, deal with it".

And so we did. :)

Click to view the photo larger

This is just a quickie post to get out some random "faces in the crowd" candid type stuff that I like to do from time to time. The shot of Bobby J. with trash in his hand is one that he actually asked me to take.

<EHEM> People - NOT COOL. You want to keep having good venues to race at? Quit leaving your ~~shit~~ trash all over the place!! </EHEM>

I deployed mr. remote for both the big bikes AND even the quads. Yeah -- thats a major trust thing right there ... lol! I wound up shooting a LOT of images -- gonna take a while to go through all of them and weed out the bad ones, make first round picks, and then whittle that down to keepers that will wind up getting posted up to the galleries.

Anyway ... enjoy!

-=- jd -=-

Sunday, June 1, 2014

WNYOA Round 4 / Arcadia Bark Busters

The little ones were going so fast today that their teeth were falling out. Well ok -- not really... :) | Click to view the photo larger

Round #4 is in the books and the WNYOA family / series now settles into period of rest and recovery, fix and repair (of both machine and body) as there is a break coming up between now and Round 5 at Greek Peak on the 15th. Arcadia, as I learned in speaking with even promoter Jerry Bulman earlier today, has a historically "low turnout" of ridership due to a couple of things. Namely distance - it is, by comparison, a good drive away from the typical WNYOA event. Today's event did set an Arcadia racer attendance record though topping out around approximately 600'ish riders - not to shabby. A little light by WNYOA standards but again .. not bad.

Nick Davis *blew* the AA's away. Ben Bouwens (again!) appeared to have grabbed the early lead but apparently went down pretty hard and never really got back into podium contention. I don't know where he finished. | Click the photo to view it larger

Last year at the Dan Leonard event, Dallas Micha and his crew set a high bar standard for how an event should be run. That bar was then met and in some cases exceeded for the next several events back to back over the next few weeks. Congrats to Jerry and his crew for establishing this years high bar standard (in my opinion anyway for whatever that may or may not be worth.... ). Parking, scheduling, numbers of workers, the course itself and course marking, and lastly getting the races off pretty much on schedule ... check, check, check and check.

Here are a couple of grabs from todays event ... little ones on the pee wee quads -- sorry folks - I didn't make it up there on time to catch you. ( this event really was pretty far away .. road trip! lol! ) I'll catch you at Round 5. Hopefully one of the other shooters caught you ...

Timmy Murphy did not get the greatest of starts in the AA's but did battle his way to a 2nd place finish on the day. | Click the photo to view it larger

~~This guy (sorry man... I don't know as many of the quadders as I do the bikes)~~ Thanks to an eagle eyed reader I can now update this and state that Greg Covert grabbed the early lead in the AA Quads. He apparently never relinquished it either and went on to grab the win on the day! | Click the photo to view it larger

There will be many, many more photo's coming in the next few days folks - I'll likely be posting them to facebook as well as (obviously) be populating the galleries. Standby and keep checking back!

-=- jd -=-

Sunday, May 25, 2014

WNYOA 2014 Round #3

Round 3 is now in the books and it turned out to be a great day for racing and the racing itself was great too! I've got a couple of neat little panorama style shots that I wanted to share with everyone from the start / staging area of both the Big Bikes and Big Quads races, and since I'm now into the Big Bikes and Quads photo's I figured that I would just throw a couple more images into this post and then call it a day. All of the mornings races (Pee Wee's) are already loaded up at the galleries. You can check them out here. ( along with the other races as they go up )

This was the start line area for the Big Bikes about 30-45 minutes prior to the actual start of the race. There were still a number of racers who hadn't even come out to staging yet. There was some good racing to be had and, as you can see, spectacular weather to enjoy it in!

Click to view larger | Click here to view it *really* large :)

I moved in to see if I could get one from a closer perspective but because I'm not very tall I just wind up aiming the camera in the right general direction with it held aloft over my head. Look at this one large - it has some problems as the pano didn't stitch together all that well. I "corrected" some of the really bad ones (people missing heads or having hollow bodies... lol ! ) but there are still at least two pretty bad ones in there that I left - see if you can spot them (and others... :) )

Click to view larger | Click here to view it *really* large :)

So it was race time and the premier event of the day was on the line. the AA/Pro class field is especially stacked this year with really good riders and it has proven so far to be a good one to watch. I deployed "mister remote" for the first time ( a remotely triggered camera ) and it was able to grab a few interesting shots from its vantage point for the start of the bikes. "The Bat" Ben Bouwens on his #23 Yamaha came out of the first turn like a shot and grabbed the holeshot. "Old man" Scottie Rich was hot on his tail pipe with the rest of the field in furious pursuit. Interestingly enough the defending WNYOA #1 plate of Grant Maryott came through my shooting position in what appeared to be near last place. Two hours and several laps later it was role reversal. Maryott demonstrated why he is riding the red #1 plate as he worked his way up through the field and not only caught the flying Bat but overtook him, and at the end of the day left him some 30 or 40 seconds in errors. Anyone who knows the WNYOA series and has watched it over the years knows that Bouwens is tough - simply keeping up with him is one thing - but to chase him down AND pass him? Dude ... ! If everyone on the front line can stay healthy and minimize mechanicals we as spectators could be in for a really good year of AA Big Bike racing!

Bouwens grabbed the early lead and held it for quite a while. This was as captured by "mister remote" | Click the photo to view it larger

Bouwens grabbed the early lead and held it for quite a while. The Bat would have to settle for a 2nd place finish on the day though as a hard charging Maryott caught and passed him. This was as captured from my shooting position with the other camera | Click the photo to view it larger

Maryott didn't get the greatest of starts for the day but ... (see next photo). This was as captured by "mister remote" | Click the photo to view it larger

Maryott rode hard and determined which paid dividends at the end of the day. The #1 plate was number #1 coming through the checkered flag. This was as captured from my shooting position with the other camera | Click the photo to view it larger

This was the start line area for the Big Quads about 30-45 minutes prior to the actual start of the race. There were still a number of racers who hadn't even come out to staging yet. Yep -- good turnout!

Click to view larger | Click here to view it *really* large :)

Sunday, May 18, 2014

WNYOA Round #2 / Victory Mountain

Just a quick upload of some of the sights from racing action today up in the hills overlooking Richford. Mother nature tried to throw us a curve ball and while she was somewhat successful in getting things off the a slow and sloppy start, determination won the day as some really good racing went down.

Many more to come that will be going up to the galleries over the next few days ... standby and enjoy!

-=- jd -=-