The Official Blog of the IZOD IndyCar Series

This entry is one in a continuing series which discusses images from the IndyCar.com photo gallery.  This entry reviews the story behind a photo taken at the Milwaukee Mile during the Milwaukee 225 on June 19, 2011.

Each race weekend, a small army of IndyCar staff descends upon the site of the IZOD IndyCar event.  The IndyCar series has full-time year-round employees in most key positions, but come race weekend, there are a significant number of part-time employees who assist in all aspects of the weekend’s activities to help make sure the race runs smoothly.

The part-time employees occupy a number of important roles.  The most visible of the primarily part-time crews is the Holmatro Safety Team.  Most members of the team are full-time firemen or paramedics.  The IndyCar Series wants to ensure that drivers and team members get the best possible attention when an incident occurs.

Some of the other areas with significant part-time help include timing and scoring, pit techs, observers, and even photographers.  All of the part-time “Weekend Warriors” I have worked with are truly professionals who take their responsibilities seriously.  I often see a strong camaraderie among members of the various support teams.

Many of the part-timers take time away from their primary job and their family to be involved in a sport for which they have a deep passion.  You may be surprised by the diverse occupations of these part-time employees when they are away from the track.  For example, one of the observers is a County Superior Court Judge, and one of the pit techs is a former member of the Indiana House of Representatives.

During a typical race weekend, I try to shoot pictures of the various IndyCar personnel as they handle their duties.  I know they are not working for the notoriety, but for many part-timers, the memories of their race weekends are more valuable than the compensation they receive, and sometimes the pictures we take help keep those good memories alive.

Here are a few more photos of some part-time employees at work at the Milwaukee 225.

Do you have any IndyCar “Weekend Warriors” stories to share?

I write from time to time on this blog. And if you follow this blog or my posts, you’ll notice I often write about Flickr. I mean, a lot.

To date we have uploaded 5,264 photographs or graphics. We have created 100 sets. We administer 11 groups. Our most viewed image has over 5,800 views. Will Power’s jump at Barber Motorsports Park this year has been favorited 26 times. And out most commented image, is Guess the Driver, with 16 comments. Oh, and we have 448 Flickr contacts.

Great photo of Will Power by Paul Webb, LAT Photo USA

I’ve been thrilled with our experience on Flickr so far (just a season and a half). We think you have too.

[More]

Think about it for a second and the acronym will set in. Remember in elementary school when you learned the colors of the rainbow? It’s ROYGBIV – Red, Orange, Green, Yellow, Blue, Indigo, Violet, and it’s the spectrum of colors that one can expect to find emerging after a rain shower, imprinted across the sky as well as an INDYCAR race weekend.

Here at Milwaukee, I can’t help but think in shades of color as I watch photos roll in from our talented photographers. With blue, cloud-filled skies, perhaps the colors that have popped the most can be found on Dario’s car:

A very beautiful, cloud-filled Practice day brings out the green, teal, blue, red, white, and black in this photo

Brilliant colors help Downy stand out on the Target car

From what I understand, the history of car colors dates back to the early 1900’s when cars were assigned colors at the Gordon Bennett Cup based on their country of origin.  Blue was France, yellow was Belgium, white was Germany, red was the USA, and green was for the UK.  Through the years from there, auto manufacturers used different colors to signify their presence in the sport.

When you look at a list of traditional country livery colors, Switzerland’s colors are red and white and Canada’s are white and green. However, in the IZOD IndyCar Series, Swiss driver Simona de Silverstro takes on Canada’s coloring while throwing in traditional colors with a Swiss flag decal. James Hinchcliffe goes in a different direction altogether by coupling the silver and blue of his Sprott car colors with the red and white of a Canadian Maple Leaf.

Regardless of nationality or sponsors, in a race weekend our photographers will work with shadows to bring to light the many different colors of each driver.

Blue, White, Green, and Red couple with the Swiss flag

James Hinchcliffe's Maple Leaf stands out on the Sprott-sponsored car

In 1968, sponsorship liveries became allowed in international racing. With sponsorships in play, colors go beyond the cars and extend to a driver’s firesuit. Perhaps the most interesting and unique colors emerge now in the intense and intricate designs found on the helmets of drivers. Helmets, as we’ve seen in the Art Rotundo blog series,  take on the personalities of their owners and say much, much more about a driver than the cars do.

Helmets give our photographers exciting, colorful objects to shoot and they do an incredible job of using a driver’s helmet to share a bit of each driver’s personality.

Mike Conway's blue and white helmet stands out against his Sun Drop sponsored red and yellow

Tony Kanaan's helmet features his son's handprint

The red, blue, green, and white surrounding Danica bring out the intensity in her eyes during practice.

I’ve been told that the diversity in paint schemes is a sign of a healthy series. Does this mean that, the more colors we see, the better times are for INDYCAR? If so, it’s ROYGBIV at INDYCAR, let the good times roll.

This entry is one in a continuing series which typically discusses images from the IndyCar.com photo gallery.  This entry reviews the story behind a photo taken at the Firestone Twin 275s at Texas Motor Speedway on June 11, 2011.

Different drivers celebrate a victory in the IZOD IndyCar series in different ways.  We all know that Helio Castroneves is famous for his fence climbing when he wins an IndyCar race.  Coming into the season, I was not aware of his teammate Will Power having any special “trademark” victory celebration rituals.

After Will Power won his first race of the season at Barber Motorsports Park, he exited his car in victory lane and stood on the side-pod to celebrate.  He then jumped off the side of the car and kicked his legs back.  Paul Webb, a photographer from LAT Photo, captured Power from a low angle with a wide-angle lens that made it look like Power had leapt to great heights.  Paul Webb’s image was featured on IndyCar.com and many other websites and publications.

When Power won at Sao Paulo, we were all hoping he would repeat his leap.  He didn’t disappoint us.  If you look at the leap on video, he didn’t jump that high, but with a low angle and kicked back legs, it makes his jump appear higher than it actually is.

When Power won the second Firestone Twin 275 race at Texas Motor Speedway, we all knew what to expect.  When he rolled into Victory Lane he delivered his soon to be trademark leap from the side-pod.  I couldn’t get a real low angle for the shot, but I think this image captures his leap in his first IndyCar oval track win.

What would you do to celebrate if you won an IZOD IndyCar race?

In previous Inside Shot entries I have discussed one image from an IndyCar race that was featured in the indycar.com galleries or the IndyCar Flickr site.  For the Indy 500, it is difficult to single out one image.

For most IndyCar race weekends, the activities take place over 2 or 3 days.  For the Indy 500, activities started on May 7 with the Mini-Marathon and weather-postponed Balloon Race, and ended on the evening of May 30^th at the Victory Celebration banquet.  During that period, I shot at the track 20 days and took over 9,600 images.  For comparison, at Long Beach where both IndyCar and Indy Lights were in action, I shot around 2,300 images.

You may wonder why we spent so much time at the track given there were only 10 practice and qualifying days.  At Indy, there are so many other activities we covered including the Celebration of Automobiles, the American Dairy Association Rookie Luncheon, celebrity two-seater rides, Emerging Tech day, the unveiling of the Marmon Wasp postage stamp, Community Day, and Rookie Orientation.

My favorite images are those that tell a story.  Although these may not qualify as the “best” photos during the month, they are photos that help tell my favorite stories from the month.

One of the top stories of the month was the hardship that Simona de Silvestro faced after her accident.  It was obvious her hands were still hurting watching her get in the car after her incident.  She didn’t let the pain stop her from signing autographs even though everyone would have understood if she said she needed to let her hands rest.

J.R. Hildebrand had a great month – fastest Rookie in the field, first day qualifier, race runner-up and Chase Rookie of the Year.  Unfortunately for him, he would have been the race winner if not for his final lap incident in turn 4.  Similar to Simona, the way he reacted to his adversity showed his class and character.

To me, one of the big stories that got overlooked throughout the month was the success of the Rahal Letterman Lanigan team, especially Bertrand Baguette.  Here was a team that hadn’t raced this season, with two drivers that hadn’t raced in IndyCar this season either, and only one previous Indy 500 start between the two drivers.  Both Baguette and Jay Howard were first-day qualifiers, and Baguette was one late caution period away from winning the race.

Of course, the big story was Dan Wheldon’s win in a one-off ride with Bryan Herta Autosport.  According to Indianapolis Motor Speedway Historian Donald Davidson, Wheldon is the first winning driver at the Indy 500 to lead only one lap, and he probably led less than a quarter of a mile.  It was great to see the pure emotion he expressed after his win.  He should continue to be a great ambassador for the Indy 500.

Next up is Texas Motor Speedway.

The Indianapolis 500 is a very, very long race event for us. It’s two weeks of content. And for the new media group, it’s overseeing both indycar.com and indianapolismotorspeedway.com. Most of our race events run from Thursday-Sunday, with indycar.com being the focus. Two weeks of racing is exciting, exhausting and a challenge. I love content, good storytelling and beautiful photography. Our May provided all of that. Some highlights.

Opening weekend brought the announcement of The Greatest 33. It was an honor working on this site and it was amazing to see how many fans voted, shared with friends and revealed their own personal memories.

The Greatest 33

4,028. That’s how many photographs were uploaded. It’s how our department sees what our photographers capture. We then title, caption and tag these images for our websites, media site, Flickr and so on. That’s a lot of images and it’s tedious work. BUT – it allows us to bring some really stunning moments to you (and shows what a great group of photographers we work with). A few of my favorite below. A picture is worth a thousand words.

One of the most compelling stories of the month

[More]

This entry is one in a continuing series which typically discusses images from the IndyCar.com photo gallery.  This entry reviews the story behind a photo taken at the Itaipava Sao Paulo Indy 300 presented by Nestle on May 1, 2011.

Each race weekend we shoot over 1,000 images.  Only a small portion of our photos are featured in the Photo Galleries at IndyCar.com or on the IndyCar Flickr site.  In addition to the photos at those sites, we also load some photos to a Media only site each day.  From the Media Site, authorized media and team personnel can download high-resolution images for editorial use.  Although the picture above was not in the IndyCar.com gallery or on the IndyCar Flickr site, you may have seen it on J.R. Hildebrand’s Facebook page or some other media web-sites.

During pre-race activities, the drivers rode in the back of pick-up trucks for a lap to greet the fans.  I was fortunate enough to be allowed to jump in the back of the truck with Tony Kanaan and J.R. Hildebrand.  It was amazing to see (and hear) the reaction Tony received from his home-country fans in Brazil.  As we would round a corner and the crowd could see Tony, the cheers started building.  Even the corner workers, concession stand workers and ambulance drivers were cheering for Tony.  I could tell that Tony truly appreciated the cheers from his fans.  It was unfortunate that he, and the other Brazilian drivers, encountered problems during the race.

I have to admit that this shot is slightly staged.  For most of the lap, the Tony and J.R. were facing forward, which limited the photo opportunities.  When we hit the long back-stretch where there are no stands, I asked the drivers to turn towards me and act like they were waving to the fans.  That is when I captured this image.  Shortly after this photo was taken, the rain started coming down, and all three of us got totally drenched in the back of the truck.  Thank you Tony and J.R. for allowing me to the share the pre-race lap with you.

This entry is one in a continuing series which discusses the images from the IndyCar.com photo gallery.  This entry reviews the story behind a photo taken at the Toyota Grand Prix of Long Beach on April 16, 2011.

At each IZOD IndyCar event, it is not unusual for us to shoot photos of celebrities.  On some occasions, the celebrities are there are to promote their latest television show, movie or album.  Other times, it may be a local celebrity or sports star who is there to cross-promote another event in the area.  Some examples this season include Tampa Bay Lightning Hockey Player Vincent Lecavalier, who exchanged jerseys with Alex Tagliani at St. Petersburg, 2003 American Idol Winner Ruben Studdard who sang the National Anthem at Barber, and Chef/TV Host Gordon Ramsay who was the Grand Marshall at Long Beach.

During IndyCar Qualifying at Long Beach, I went out to an area we refer to as the “peninsula.”  From this area, you can see the cars after they exit turn 9, work through turn 10, and take the final hairpin corner as they head down the main straight.  As I walked towards the hairpin, I noticed a photographer was on one knee shooting through one of the photo holes.  Some people have to lean over a little to shoot through the photo holes, but I have never seen a photographer so tall that they had to get down on one knee to shoot.

As I got a closer, I realized who it was.  It was retired Major League Baseball pitcher Randy Johnson whose nickname is “The Big Unit.”  For those of you not familiar with Randy, he was in the Major Leagues for 22 seasons.  He was a 10 time all-star and a 5 time Cy Young award winner (awarded to the top pitcher in his League).  During his career, he threw 2 no-hitters including a perfect game, and he was co-winner of the Sports Illustrated Sportsman of the Year in 2001.  Also, he stands 6 feet 10 inches, thus the need to get down on a knee to shoot through the photo hole.

I had the opportunity to talk to Randy during a break in qualifying.  He wasn’t there to promote anything; he was simply there to be one of us – a credentialed event photographer.  Randy took photo journalism classes while he was at USC, and since his retirement from baseball after the 2009 season, he re-discovered his passion for photography.  I learned this was his first time to shoot an IndyCar event, but he has shot a NASCAR race and an NHRA event.  We talked a little about his minor league days with the Indianapolis Indians, and he said while he was with the Indians he attended an Indy 500 practice session.

Randy, if you happen to read this, we are glad you joined us at Long Beach, and we hope you enjoyed the weekend. Leave a message below if you’re interested in sharing some of the photos you shot over Long Beach weekend with our fans on IndyCar.com.

This is the second entry in a series which discusses the making of an image from the IndyCar.com photo gallery. This entry discusses a photo that was taken at the Honda Grand Prix of St. Petersburg on March 27, 2011.

Keep reading to find out more about this shot

Each race weekend, we have a number of photo assignments.  The list includes such items as press conferences, driver autograph sessions, the Peak Pole Award, pre-race activities and victory lane.  We also shoot a lot of on-track action, the crews at work in the pits, and scenes from the Paddock.  One of the other items on our list each week is the start of the race.

Since we had several IndyCar photographers at St. Petersburg, we each went to different locations for the start of the race.  I was shooting through a photo-hole in the fence at the end of the long front straight that leads to Turn 1.  We knew this would be a good place to get shots of the cars just after they took the green.  Also, based on past races at St. Pete, Turn 1 has been the site of a number of “racing incidents” (last year, James Hinchcliffe was taken out in a first lap incident during the Firestone Indy Lights race).

If you watched the race or saw any of the highlights, you know Marco Andretti was involved in a big accident in Turn 1 on the first lap.  Knowing there was a possibility of an incident, I had the shutter speed turned up higher than normal.  Generally we shoot action shots at a speed of less than 1/1000 of a second so you don’t stop the motion of the tires, but for the start, I was shooting at 1/1400 of a second since we like to stop the action when there is an incident.

As the incident ensued, the primary cars involved moved out of range from my photo hole. We never like to see accidents, but if there is one, we hope no one is injured, and we hope we catch the action so we can share it with the fans who visit IndyCar.com.

Next up, an image from the Toyota Grand Prix of Long Beach.

Sunrise at Long Beach

My favorite type of track happens to be street circuits. You may disagree and I hope you let me know why. I like urban environments. I like that our drivers are racing around concrete, surrounded by walls, speeding by hotels, restaurants and parking garages. I love that street circuits are unforgiving. And I love that street circuits are usually in pretty cool locations (St. Pete, Long Beach, Sao Paolo, Toronto, Baltimore on this year’s schedule) – not to mention circuits from other Series’ like Monaco, Singapore, Macau, Surfer’s Paradise, Trois Rivieres and more. That atmosphere at these events always feels intense – it must have something to do with the heat, the concrete, the number of fans, the coming together of an event that is defined as temporary. Temporary street circuit.

F1 in Singapore (from Flickr user YourSingapore)

I also happen to love photography from these events. Where else can you capture palm trees with high speed cars? Drivers using the curbs to bounce into a corner. The colors of the chassis’ illuminated by the reflection of the light. And the sun causing unique shadows. In theory street circuits are unconventional. Photography serves to reveal that. It’s what we’re doing this weekend at the Toyota Grand Prix of Long Beach.

Wasn't kidding about the shadows

Part of my job this weekend is to sift through hundreds of images. We look for pictures to post to indycar.com, our Flickr page, INDYCAR Nation and our media site. It’s one of my favorite parts the job.

Cars stream through an actual street

Some of the images make me think about the photographic process. What settings did they use? Why did they chose that location? How did they get even get to that location? Photographers definitely think outside the box.

Takuma Sato and the streets

The shots from above on a street circuit are cool. Everyday buildings or hotels provide perfect platforms for photographers to capture a unique vantage point. And honestly, who doesn’t love a good palm tree.

Danica Patrick passing through palm tree shadows

So when you watch the race on Sunday (4:30pm ET on Versus) consider the different views you experience. This entire track came together this week. On Monday after the race, barriers, fences, curbs and signage will start coming down. Honda powered IndyCar’s will be replaced with Honda Accord’s and other street cars. That’s what I love about street circuits. They’re unconventional and temporary.

But we at least have the photos to show that it all came together, temporarily for the weekend.

Temporary street circuit