I’ve been looking for a good place to stash pictures.. the main thing I wanted was the ability for people (you invite) to download full-sized images.. most photo sites are decent about uploads and album sharing, so that’s not a big deal.. but very few offer the feature of downloading full-sized images.. I tried a few (like Fotki) but I didnt want to pay too much since offering full-sized downloads is not really for me.. meaning, I derive no enjoyment from others downloading my full-sized images.. its good for archiving or redundant backup.. but I already backup my pics many times over (on computer, on second computer, on external hard drive, on DVD).. but it would make it easier to share with certain people that may need the full-sized images for publications..

So now I’m trying out Sony Imagestation.. it only cost $4.99 per YEAR to be able to store pics there, allow invited users to download full-sized images, and you also get 20 free 4×6s (a $2.40 value).. thats all I really need..

Anyways, I’ve been playing around some more with Photoshop.. mainly the levels, saturation, and unsharp mask.. so I uploaded some more pics of Robbie Nishida driving the Peak Performance 240SX S14.. I could upload ALL the pics (about 8.5GB between me and James), but lots of them are crappy.. so I have to go through them, pick out the good ones, photoshop them, crop them, etc.. then upload them.. anyway, if you want to check it out, you can see the album here:

Formula D: Streets of Long Beach 2006

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All pictures were taken with my Canon 20D and Ed’s Canon EF 70-200mm f/2.8L IS USM or Ed’s Canon 20D and Ed’s Canon EF 16-35mm f/2.8L USM.. pictures were all cropped, shrunk, sharpened, leveled and whatever else I could do to make the pictures look better (with the exception of major sharpening artifacts.. but who’s looking, right?) and then saved at ~30% quality..

It was an OK event.. there werent that many good picture taking spots.. you probably noticed lots of the pics I took were of the back of the car, almost.. it was because that was the only “open area” (no fence) where you could take panning shots.. by the time the car was ending that wide sweeping turn, the back of the car was facing the “good spot”.. also the section of the Long Beach Grand Prix they used for the drift course was relatively slow.. about 60-65MPH, max.. compare that to Irwindale where they’re going like 90-95MPH on the bank.. it kind of sucks that D1 and Formula D only hit up So Cal twice per year and G4TV won’t be broadcasting the Long Beach event until June 18th or something like that.. man, listen to me.. I’m like a drifting event junkie..

I’m heading to the IDRC season opener at Palmdale tomorrow to shoot some pics.. hopefully I’ll get some good Skyline GTR shots from the Skyline Shootout..

On another note, I got my Canon 30D on Friday.. but I’ll talk about that later when I run out of car stuff to talk about..

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I had the opportunity to go out to the Formula D event in Long Beach this past weekend. What made this event cool was that it was run on a portion of the same course used for the Long Beach Grand Prix. What kind of sucked though was that the course was pretty short and slow (about 60-65mph max). It was also tough to find a good spot for pictures.. well, for “still” pictures, there are plenty of spots.. but I really like the panning shots, so it was had to find a spot where the cars were even going at a decent speed and have enough space to click off some panning shots.. I was armed with the usual arsenal.. one Canon 20D with a 70-200 f/2.8L IS USM and another Canon 20D with a 16-35 f/2.8L.. after about 10 minutes, I realized a good focal length to have at the track was in the 50mm range.. hahah.. oh well, maybe next time.. my friend James went with me.. he was packin’ a Nikon D200 with 70-200 f/2.8 VR and a Nikon D70 with 18-70 something.. the Nikon D200 was actually DSport Mike’s.. for the record, James said (1) the D200 made his D70 feel like a toy and (2) he loves the screen.. combined, we shot about 8.5 GB worth of pictures, which I handed over to Mike today.. hopefully we got some decent shots.. a few notable things about this past weekend’s events and realizations:

1. Hulk Hogan was there with his son.. his son is building a drift car now and said he should be ready for competition around July-August.. Hulk said that drifting is cool and that it will be bigger than NASCAR

2. Some chick from American Idol was there to sing the national anthem.. they said she’s from season 3.. I dont think I watched season 3.. I didnt think she sang all that great, but the sound system sucked also.. one things for sure, she was short..

3. Steph Papadakis destroyed his Honda S2000.. I saw him smash the rear bumper.. I think on his next pass, he smashed the front bumper.. luckily he didnt qualify because his car looked pretty damn bad after that..

4. The Canon 1D MkIIN is one bad ass camera.. I saw some dude messing with the 8.5fps continuous shooting.. the sound was sweet..

5. 98% of everyone shooting pictures at the event was shooting Canon.. 99% of them had L-glass..

6. Being a photographer at an event is rough.. standing, fighting for positition, starving while you’re shooting pictures.. the list goes on..

7. Formula D issued “All Access” badges/passes.. D1 gives/loans you a Caltrans orange vest.. I like the vest.. people move out of the way for people wearing Caltrans orange vests..

8. Drifting really is fun to watch..

9. I love the Canon 70-200 f/2.8L IS USM lens.. I’m definitely going to have to get myself one of those (been using Dynamic Ed’s.. I think I’ve used his lens more than he has himself)

10. The older I get, the more I hate the loud music at the events in the vendor area..

I’ll post some pics later.. I havent gone through all of them yet.. lots of them are crap, as is expected when I’m shooting.. but I think I got a few pretty good ones.. resized and post-processed for the internet, they’ll look pretty good at least..

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