I belong to a lot of clubs. I have a hectic life and I am always on the move. I just bought a netbook and verizon wireless card be able to keep up with my online life while on the move in my "real" life... But I digress...
This past weekend I shot an event which I have been a part of for many years. Esprit De Four, a Silicon Valley OHV (Off-Highway Vehicle) club puts on a biannual Safety Clinic.
This one day class presents students with a morning of classroom instruction followed by an afternoon of hands on driving experience. Since I love photography so much I have been dubbed the club photographer. To get to the photography for at least a bit in the post... I tried something new this year which I would have never tried before reading Strobist and Joe Mc Nally's 2 books. This year I threw on my SB-900 to really make the shots pop in the morning and afternoon sun... This turned out quite well. I know I could have done better but I did not want to take too many chances. Even though this was not a paying gig, I wanted to treat it as such so the students and club members could have some good shots to share. So far I have not heard any complaints!!!
Anyway, if you are into getting out into the back country and you want to take a lot of camera gear OHV (Off-Highway Vehicle) driving, and Esprit De Four's class, might be just the thing for you. The day starts off with registration and vehicle inspection. Here students learn a little about their vehicles, what equipment is really necessary for a basic day run, and prepare a bit for the day by airing down their tires. Airing down is very important off-road to really grip the various types of terrain you encounter.
After inspections the students enter the class room for some lecture. Esprit De Four is very lucky to have Kelly Swanson as one of our instructors. Kelly was a contender for the US Camel Trophy team.
He is the best spotter I have ever met and is definitely the guy you want to have on trail with you. In addition to the classroom lecture, the classroom instructors demonstrate popular off-highway equipment such as Hi-Lift jacks, winches, straps, and lockers. The locker demo in particular is very informative.
After the morning classroom session the students get a quick lunch and drivers meeting. Here they meet the Esprit De Four members who will be guiding them on the practical trail exercises. Once again we have excellent guidance on trail. Here we see Ellen get "baby" air while demonstrating the "ravine".
So that brings me to one of the obstacles we have set up for the students; the "ravine". The ravine is... a... well... ravine. We have the students drive up it. This is really more intimidating to look at then to drive.
This is the place where we can get some really good photo ops. So since I am the club photographer. I get stationed here. Some times I feel bad I am not helping much with spotting vehicles but the students are in good hands with Kelly.This year we had a special treat. The Palo Alto fire department sent some of their driving instructors to our class. They were very cool and took their F450 through everything. Here are some of the better shots.
With the changing conditions the SB-900 really helped to balance the dark trucks shady side. The spot I am in for this shot is the best for getting the vehicles if they get a tire in the air. Unfortunatly the setting sun is backlighting the trucks. So the SB-900 did a good job of just filling in the side of the trucks.
I still would have liked the background darker.
In the following shots especially the truck needs to be a stop or 2 lighter. However, I was working fast and had the flash set to fill, and when a 14,000 pound truck starts to put a tire in the air you go into the dark shade and start shooting. Next time I will think to crank the flash a bit as this angle further up the ravine had a much brighter background... ;-) I still think the shots work though.
At the end of the day the firefighters had a lot of water they had been hualing around all day... That just had to be emptied. The kids got a real thrill out of that...
Until next time,Light Cipher
