I have not personally visited Mid-Ohio, a favorite track of mine, in a few years as it was a venue removed from the schedule with the merger of Grand-Am/ALMS. However with World Challenge on the schedule for 2015 season it means I have the pleasure of visiting twice. Unfortunately everything wasn't perfect BUT the images captured are awesome!
Heading in the first thing that jumps out is the schedule. With IndyCar and the Road to Indy running it means that World Challenge was left to play second fiddle. This means for those of us there for World Challenge photo meeting at 7am, first session at 9-10am and then 6, 7 or more hours with nothing on track as we wait for qualifying at 6pm. While this does leave us with some extra time for paddock photos and to explore it is a bit frustrating as we are there for long days! One thing though is it left time for editing of photos in our small corner of the photo room with fellow full season photographers. Lots of jokes and interesting conversations. That is one aspect of this line of work that I truly enjoy. Great friendships with awesome people!
What this does mean though is early morning and late sunlight. The best time to photograph racing action! It meant that while we did have a lot of wasted time it left us trackside with the best light of the day. We all left with dramatic images that bring us back for more!
We did run into a major hiccup during the weekend which made actually handling our work very difficult. Since IndyCar was utilizing much of the media tower most of the World Challenge photographers were sent to the "Photo Trailer". Now in most cases this is the jovial/fun room of photographers. Tracks like Sebring, Road Atlanta and others have these trailers and a lot of fun is had! Not so much this time... It wasn't a big open trailer with rows of tables much was a 2 office with kitchen setup. We were crammed in utilizing what space we had. Internet? It simply just didn't work. Most uploads were either via personal hotpot, transferring to phone or walking with laptop to the media tower. Was rough!
Enjoy a gallery of highlight images. Next blog from Road America!
