Iowa Corn Director Alumni Banquet

Before leaving Des Moines, I had one more fantastic event to cover!

It was an absolute pleasure to photograph the Iowa Corn Director Alumni Banquet at the Hilton Garden Inn. I’ve come to know a lot of the attendees through my coverage of various events involving the farming community…many of them I consider friends. It was wonderful to catch up with some of those friends like Julius, Maurice, Pam, Mark, and many others I haven’t seen in several years! But more importantly, it was such a joy to be there to capture Julie Kirby’s retirement roast at the end of the banquet. She has been with Iowa Corn for 39 years!!! Congratulations on an amazing career, Julie!

After a day of photographing the NASCAR Iowa Corn 350 Powered by Ethanol, a second day of photographing promotional photos at Paige & Joe’s corn farm, and this third day of photographing the Director Alumni Event, I have to say that Iowa Corn farmers are some of the nicest people on the planet!!! I was happy to be heading home, but sad to be saying goodbye to so many friends, new and old.

Iowa Corn Farm

While I was in Des Moines to photograph the NASCAR Iowa Corn 350 Powered by Ethanol, I had the opportunity to create some new marketing images for Iowa Corn. Getting to Joe’s farm was a beautiful scenic drive through endless fields of lush green corn. Joe and his beautiful fiance were wonderful to work with. Their passion and knowledge for farming was infectious! We had a blast and came away with a variety of great shots for Iowa Corn to use in spreading their message and promoting their product.

NASCAR Iowa Corn 350 Powered by Ethanol

Last weekend I had the honor and privilege of photographing the inaugural NASCAR Iowa Corn 350 Powered by Ethanol at the Iowa Speedway on behalf of the title sponsor, Iowa Corn!!!

The Iowa Corn 350 (currently known for sponsorship reasons as the Iowa Corn 350 Powered by Ethanol) is a NASCAR Cup Series stock car race held at Iowa Speedway in Newton, Iowa. It was NASCAR Cup Series’ first race at Iowa Speedway and first race in the state of Iowa. The Iowa Speedway is a 7⁄8-mile (1.4 km) oval short track featuring 10 degrees of banking in the frontstretch, four degrees in the backstretch, and a progressive banking system utilized from 12 to 14 degrees in the turns. It’s known as “The fastest short-track on the planet.”

After struggling earlier this year, Ryan Blaney in car #12 took home the trophy!!! Grabbing the lead on crew chief Jonathan Hassler’s two-tire call under the final caution of Sunday night’s Iowa Corn 350, Blaney led the final 88 laps of the inaugural Cup race at the 0.875-mile Iowa Speedway. In front of a large contingent of family and friends, the reigning series champion crossed the finish line 0.716 seconds ahead of runner-up William Byron, who was racing on four new tires after a pit stop under caution for Chris Buescher’s accident on Lap 260. The victory was Blaney’s first of the season and the 11th of his career. Blaney now has won at Iowa Speedway in all three NASCAR national series, having also triumphed in the Craftsman Truck Series in 2012 and the Xfinity Series in 2015.

Not only was this the first NASCAR Cup race at the Iowa Speedway, and Iowa Corn’s first year as title sponsor…it was also my first time photographing a NASCAR motorsport. I did my research, and was happy with the results. Yes, there were areas I could have been more efficient or come away with a better shot or two. But I’m pretty pleased with what I was able to capture, having never even been to a race like this!

It was a grueling day. I woke up in Charleston at 4:00 am to catch my 5:50 am flight to Des Moines. I landed at 10:30 am, picked up my rental car, and drove directly to the speedway. I started shooting at 12:00 noon and didn’t stup until 9:30 pm (minus a 30-minute break in the media center where I managed to grab a quick bite to eat and get re-hydrated. By the time I had packed up and fought the traffic back to my hotel, it was 11:30 pm. But it was 12:30 am before I had gotten all the images imported, backed up, and my head hit the pillow!

5 hours of sleep the night before
9 hours of non-stop shooting
30 pounds of camera gear carried
3,284 photos captured
20,665 steps walked

* All images captured with Nikon Z9 (x2), Nikkor 14-30Z f4, Nikkor 24-120 Z f4, Nikkor 70-200 Z f2.8 (frequently with TC1.4Z attached for a 100-300 f4 effective focal length), Nikkor 400 Z f4.5, DJI Mini 3 Pro, Sony XQD cards, and ThinkTank Speedbelt.

The Australian Open

It was a true thrill to be able to photograph the action at the Australian Open this week! I’m not only a tennis and sports photographer, but also a longtime fan and avid player of the sport. This has been a “bucket list” item for me to check off the list!!!

Congratulations to all the athletes, coaches, volunteers, organizers, sponsors, ball kids, media, and everyone else who helped make this awesome event possible.

The Lawn Tennis Association of Australasia was formulated in 1904 in order for Australasia to be eligible to contest the Davis Cup competition and for Australia to host the region’s Championships. 1926 saw a name change to Lawn Tennis Association of Australia and Sir Norman Brookes became President for 29 years. It became the Australian Championships in 1927 and the Australian Open in 1969.​​

Fast Facts:

  • The Australian Open was first played at the Warehouseman’s Cricket Ground in St Kilda Road, Melbourne in 1905 as The Australasian Championships
  • Since 1905, the Australian Open has been staged in five different cities: Melbourne (62 times), Sydney (17 times), Adelaide (14 times), Brisbane (8 times), Perth (three times), as well as in New Zealand (two times)
  • In 1972 Ko​oyong Lawn Tennis Club became the permanent home of the Australian Open due to Melbourne attracting the biggest patronage
  • In 1984, the Lawn Tennis Association of Australia became a company, and then in 1986 began to trade as Tennis Australia (TA)
  • TA is the governing body for the sport of tennis in Australia. The organisation exists to promote tennis and conduct domestic and international tournaments on behalf of Australia, including the Australian Open, Davis Cup and Federation Cup
  • TA and the Australian Open moved to its new, permanent home at Flinders Park (now Melbourne Park) in 1988
  • The tournament was not held between 1916 and 1918, or 1940 and 1945, due to international conflicts happening at the time

Double Your Pleasure

I used to love those Wrigley’s commercials…”Double your pleasure with double-mint gum”.  J 

At my workshops, one of the questions I get a lot is “how do you get enough power out of those little flashes for big groups”?  Well, I double (or even triple) them up.  I have a couple home-modified umbrella brackets that can hold 1, 2, or 3 flashes.  Basically, a flash like an SB-800 puts out around 50 watt-seconds of power.  So if you need more power, putting two together gives you 100ws, putting three together gives you 150.  Another reason for ganging flashes together is so that you can use a lower power setting on each, thus increasing your recycle time AND extending how long you can go before replacing batteries.

This is my 3rd year photographing the ESPN Charleston Classic.  The event is kicked off with a huge Welcome Dinner on the hanger deck of The Yorktown, a decommissioned aircraft carrier.  At the event, I have to photograph a group shot of each team.  The first year, I brought my big AlienBee studio strobes.  Well guess what I didn’t think of…wall outlets are EXTREMELY rare and hard to find on an aircraft carrier!  The last two years, I’ve made life so much easier by using my wireless lighting system; no hunting for outlets…no McGyvering several extension chords together…no taping down cables. 

I simply set up my light stands with two flashes in each, firing into a shoot-through umbrella for soft, even illumination.  Each flash is set to around ¼ power and triggered via a RadioPopper.  I’m using my D3 at iso 640, f5.6 for plenty depth of field, and 1/30 of a second for ambient light in the background.  If you’re still using studio lights on location, I recommend doubling up your flashes.  You’ll love the freedom of going wireless!