The Waiting Game

Part of this gig that will probably always drive me crazy is waiting. I'm not an inherently patient man. In fact, I'm not patient at all.

So I have several great projects out as proposals for magazine and book projects, and I'm waiting on all of them. If a couple of them come through, well, I can settle a bit and know what I'm doing for the year, but I'm kind of hanging until then. Sri Lanka or Texas . . . who knows? I think they will go through---all are viable projects that should make good reads. Still, I'd like answers shortly. Sigh--that's not how this business works. I've been on the other side of the desk long enough now to be aware of that!

The other part that is odd about my new gig is editing. Odd in the sense that it sort of takes some wind out of my sails--I'm suposed to be doing this new thing, but I still need to do some editing to pay the bills. It's not that I don't enjoy the projects, I'm just excited to tackle new magazine markets and see how far I can take this thing.

That aside, it is good to be able to focus exclusively on the projects on my desk. Both of the projects I worked on were terrific books. One is The 200-mph Billboard by Mark Yost. Mark is a WSJ contributor and former Speed Sport News writer who has carved out a niche for himself as a sports business writer. He's a good reporter, and a good writer, and the book is engaging, informative, and welll-constructed--a real pleasure to work with. One of the best parts is Mark is a neighbor and a friend, and being able to talk through things over a meal is a big help to the process. Plus Mark is an interesting guy, so it's all good. I can see the advantages of working in New York or even L.A.--it's rare that I get to work with authors who live in my neck of the woods.

The other is Top Dead Center, a compilation of articles from one of my favorite writers, Kevin Cameron. He's been writing for Cycle (and later Cycle Word) magazine since 1973, and was a well-respected privateer tuner before becoming a writer. I like his stuff, but had honestly forgotten how good he is. His profiles of racers and builders are insightful and a joy to read. He understands the racing mind in a way very few do, and is a great observer of people. The hardest part of the task has been trying to select 30-40 pieces out of the hundreds of great things he's written.

The week wasn't all editing, of course. I found some time to book my next ATV club ride down in Ocala, Florida. I discovered a group that volunteers to patrol the national forest, and the same crew is working hard to create an entirely new system as well as doing state-wide training. I think that will be a worthwhile story, and am also looking forward to taking photographs without freezing my fingers!

I have a bit more editing this week, but the big crush is past and I'll have time to focus on putting together queries and doing some background for a couple of story ideas.

So if I do my job, those queries will go out to magazine editors, and I can wait some more. I guess that's just part of this game, huh? ;-)

Road Ramblings

So I spent the day on the road yesterday. Drove down to a farm just south of La Crosse, Wisconsin to photograph a tractor for the 2008 Farmall Calendar (you'll be able to pre-order this at Amazon.com in a few months--watch this space for a note).

Nice to be out shooting, and nice to be on the road. Some observations from the day.

The built-in navigation system on my Garmin GPS V sucks. I used Mapquest to lay out the route, and the Garmin wanted me to go east on 94. I didn’t. Mapquest (and my contact from La Crosse) told me the way to go was down 52 to 90. The funny part was once I passed 94, the Garmin didn’t recalculate for an hour or so and told me I had 485 miles to go when the actual mileage was 175 or so. Stupid thing.

I like open spaces. I don’t particularly care for the flat, open section of southern Minnesota around Rochester. It has this sort of run-down, mullet and Quiet Riot feel that I don’t care for, but I do like seeing big expanses of sky. There’s something liberating about driving down a nearly flat road with nothing but sky and road in your plane of view. Clears the mind.

A couple of notes from the shoot (despite having done this for a while, I'm still learning ;-) ).

Bring a gazetteer along. Being able to pinpoint precise locations, beyond what you can do with a state map or a slightly whacked GPS unit, would have helped me find my destination (which was off the built-in grid on the GPS and off the Mapquest map).

The winter light is harsh and unusable mid-day, but warms up nicely about 2:30 p.m. and is nice and bright until about 4:30. The saturated light from 4:30 to 5:30 was nice but changed colors enough to be distracting.

Always bring my doubler. I could have used more lens for a shot. I had one of the machiines up high on the hill, and could squeeze a bit of cornfield, the tractor, and the blue sky into the shot. I shot it with my 200 and got it reasonably compressed, but it wasn’t as clean as what I had in mind. A 400 would have been perfect.

I’m concerned about the cheap-ish Manfrotto ballhead ($60) I bought. It just didn’t feel terribly stable. I may have to drop some money on a high-end ballhead down the road. The images confirm my suspicions about the unit's stability--some of the longer shots are not sharp. I shot them using the 2-second timer on the Canon and had the ballhead clamped down, so there's not much more I can do with the tripod. I wonder if I can find a good ballhead used?

I need to make sure that second battery for the 1DS arrives shortly. The battery died several times, as the cold shut it down. I put it in my pocket and warmed it up, which bought me another 10 minutes of time before it died again, but it wasn’t really that cold—the thermometer in my Audi read 24 degrees when I drove up. On a colder day, I would have been struggling with only one batttery.

I stayed relatively warm, by the way. I wore wool long johns under light pants and a heavy snowmobiling jacket. My hands got cold—I would have liked some chemical hand warmers in the my pockets, and a better pair of gloves. I used motocross gloves, which were too thick to allow me to use the small buttons on the back of the camera, and not all that warm. I think some thin poly gloves would be a good addition.

After waxing nostalgic about driving Sam’s pickup last week, I have to say, I really enjoy being on the road in the Audi. The car feels tight and is comfortable, reasonably powerful, and smooth. It’s an effective tool, plus the stereo is good.

Lastly, under the category of what six hours in the car with a CD player does to you, I've come to these conclusions: Jack White is a genius, The Pixies live up to the hype, and I want to hear more of the Dresden Dolls--those vocals are amazing.

Over and out, L

Riding the Rain

Last Sunday was spent riding with the Washington ATV Association, a club based in the Pacific Northwest. They were out on a work weekend, clearing trails in the Capitol State Forest near Olympia. The rain was heavy and steady, and it was a real challenge to keep the cameras working. The 10D fogged after two shoots, and the images were unusable after that (you could see they were fogged in the review screen, thankfully, as I realized the camera was toast and put it away). The 1DS was much better, hanging tough until we got back to the trucks. I think the better environmental seals on the 1DS body paid off. That camera worked through about a dozen stops, and then it fogged up back at the truck. The equipment was soaked by the end of the day, and I had to air out my bag and all of my equipment for a day when I got back. Happily, everything still worked just fine.

Incidentally, my flash and the new 1DS weren't on speaking terms (I think the contact pad wasn't hooking up, but I still have to investigate that glitch further), which meant that I had to shoot a lot of blurs and some static set-ups in low light. The blurs came out surprisingly well. The top photo was one of the first shot without a flash, and I think the soft light gives it a much more interesting look than all the second-curtain sync flash shots you see out there these days. I also hit a few pans on the nose and kept things sharp enough to work well, which I wouldn't have bet I could do in that light. Honestly, given the conditions, I was surprised to find plenty of good images when I came home.

As I noted a few entries back, I wanted to try having someone along to help out during the shoot. Tami Inslee, a graphic designer friend, was willing to lend a hand in order to get a dirt fix. While the tough weather and narrow trails made it pretty much impossible to put her to work while I was shooting on the trail, it was great to have a camera working while I was interviewing club members. As with the Wisconsin club, that is a busy time, and having someone else free to take photos of club members, the setting for the get-together, and so on is a big plus. It's also nice to have someone to help get names. An added bonus was she got one of the best quotes of the day, from four-year-old Hannah. Hannah rides her own ATV, and when asked why she likes it, she said, "Because it's fast." Nice quote, and the help was appreciated.

Big thanks are due to the club members who came out in nasty weather to take part in the ride. They were incredibly generous with time and machinery, and went out of the way to make us feel welcome. In fact, I think we both would have frozen without some borrowed clothes. And thanks to Ron Wolf, a Wisconsin guy who did his best to send us home smashed on his homemade cherry and booze concoctions. We managed to dodge that bullet, but I appreciate the hospitality! The club is doing good work keeping our trails open, and have logged a ton of time clearing trails. A hard-working bunch dedicated to their sport. If you ride in the Capitol State Forest, you have Kathy and Joe Heitmann and the Washington ATV Association to thank.