Occasionally I come across photographers who's work I am confident you have seen before, but just didn't know who the artist behind the lens was. George F. Williams is one that falls into this category. Hailing from London, he's won acclaim throughout the world for his original images. Below is one of his famous pictures of a Pagani Huayra.
In what he calls his bag of tricks, you will find the following pieces of equipment:
- 36mp Nikon D800 with 24-70mm, 16-24mm and 20mm lenses,
- 12mp Nikon D700 with 70-200mm lens,
- 6 meter bespoke Carbon Fibre Rig,
- Lencarta Li-ion Flash and Nikon SB910s
To learn more about GFWilliams (as he's known) please visit his website by clicking here.
Another photographer covered on FulTrot is Mark J Rebilas. He's an S.I. Award winning sports photographer. Click here to view the blog on him.
As a rule of thumb, I try not to favor one sport or topic, but what happened in NHRA on Sunday merits extra attention. Unlike the two nitro categories, the pro stock (PS) class cars reach 200 mph in the top end with very little down force. Consequently, if the track lacks the normal traction, meaning not enough traction compound has been sprayed onto the track, the car will skate around considerably. In the past, ex-champions have complained to the race officials about this, but to no avail. That is until last Sunday.
At the zMAX race in Charlotte, NC, PS driverLarry Morgan said he had the steering wheel turned a quarter turn in his first round race. Morgan, a veteran driver of 20 years, said he's never made this much of a drastic turn in his PS racing career.
Furthermore, this years' hottest driver Erica Enders, with three event wins in 2012, admitted she threw in the towel early on what could have been a winning round run because she felt the car do the same as when she crashed in testing a couple of years back.
"Nine times out of ten, it straightens up", explained Enders. "It's hard to say but I will tell you that's the loosest I've been in a race car in eight years."
Unfortunately, things only got worse once the second round eliminations got underway. Second generation PS driver, Shane Gray got the ride of his life when he lost traction in the top end, the same problem area.
Below, I have posted the pictures of the most spectacular PS crash I have ever seen. These pictures are courtesy of professional sports photographer Mark Rebilas, who acknowledged: "...the car flying through the air on fire is most likely a pro stock crash shot I will never top for the rest of my career."
Luckily, the driver walked away uninjured. NHRA usually doesn't share crash footage on YouTube, but this time they did. Below you can see NHRA's footage of the crash.
Larry Morgan, one of the drivers who had spoken out regarding track prep in years past, believed that this time around, the traction compound wouldn't adhere to the track. "[when] you have moisture in between [the track surface] and there's nothing you can do," explained Morgan.
Let's hope that going forward, both event as track officials are going to pay more attention to the top end traction situation for the PS class. Hopefully, we won't have to witness such a terrible crash again.
Thanks for reading.
Source: Competition Plus
Video Credit: NHRA
Photo Credit: Mark J. Rebilas
Absolutely love this picture...the Hectors against the Harleys. The latter's incredible win streak this season is reflected in their confidence. The Hectors intensity to wrestle them back to earth is shown here as well. Too funny....let's see what happens tomorrow.
Matt Hines sits in a PSM photo session, Hector Arana (in red) has fun with Mark
For more on the Hectors, please click here. For the Harley's story, please click here.
Living on a paradise island has its pro's: the beach is just a couple of minutes away, it's white sand warm while the clear blue ocean is always cool and refreshing.
However, being so far removed from large scale motor racing events, of any kind, is my biggest con. Photographers, the internet and cable TV do their best to bring us what we missed. And boy, do we owe them a great deal of gratitude. Well, maybe less of cable TV!
Take for example photographer Mark J. Rebilas, who goes to great lengths to push the envelop each time he has a camera in his hand. Sometimes he goes beyond the call of duty, as is shown with the picture on the right, by renting a helicopter in order to get the optimal view (for us). Click on the pictures to see a larger version.
Ok, anyone with sufficient funding can get himself a helicopter. So one has to have an eye for taking pictures too... and quickly. Earlier in the year his shots of Pro Mod racer Mike Janis running into trouble down in Gainesville, Florida, were placed centerfold in premiere drag racing magazine Drag Illustrated.
Thanks to Mark and photographers like him around the world (yes, here in Curacao too) that fools like me can live happily on a paradise island, far removed from the racing action.
I didn't want to pass the opportunity to show Todd Robertson's great funny car paint job, which won the 2012 Detroit Autorama. Gotta love that creativity.
Thanks for reading.
Source: Mark J. Rebilas, Drag Illustrated, Todd Robertson
