Butterfield Photography » Automotive

Sierra Sports Car Club, SCCA Solo event

Robert — Thu, 12 Jan 2012 18:53:29 +0000

2005 Lotus Elise, Doug McBride

On 8 January 2012 I had the pleasure of shooting an event for the Sierra Sports Car Club here in Sierra Vista, Arizona. I hadn’t shot a SCCA Solo event before so I was excited to get the chance to come out and shoot, learn something new about a racing series I have never experienced, meet new people and have some fun. The event was held at the Sierra Vista Regional Airport so it was a quick drive for us, which was a good thing seeing as it was a bit chilly Sunday and Maria ran back home to get us some sweatshirts… brrr.

For over 30 years now, the Sierra Sports Car Club (SSCC) has been holding SCA Solo Autocross events, normally held the first Sunday of every month except for December. It provides a safe way to test your driving skills and limits of your car without having Cochise County Sheriff or Sierra Vista Police Department write you a ticket. If you happen to have a need for speed, visit their page on “Getting Started”.

Sunday had approx. 50 cars entered ranging from a race built 1965 Lotus Elan to a factory 2012 Ford “Mayhem” Mustang and even a couple Rotax Go Karts!! Each entry would have 4 timed runs for points and some would run another set of 4 timed runs in what they call the “Fun Run”. Here are some of my favorite images from the event, I don’t know all the drivers well enough to associate them with the right car but if you know, comment below or email me and I’ll get them captioned.

From a photography stand point, I don’t recall shooting an event of any kind that took place entirely on concrete. One cool benefit I found about shooting on a concrete surface was that I was able to use the surface as a reflector which gave me some cool glare and reflections off the cars. Using my histogram I was able to find a happy spot with my settings so I could capture the details on the car, keeping decent colors in the background, not have them racing on a blowout surface and keep the subject integrity intact.

We brought our Alien Bee AB800 strobe heads, Vanguard II battery pack and a soft box using Pocket Wizard Plus II’s to remote fire the strobes. I learned a technique a while back shooting a LOORS event and below is one example along with several head shots of the drivers in their machines. Using this, I could close my aperture down to get great color and darkness in the back ground and have the subjects lit up.

2012 Ford "Mayhem" Mustang owned by Jack Drummond ran a 80.653 in the Street Tire Class

Dave Rock crouches outside his Toyota MR-2 Spyder

Dave Rock in his Toyota MR-2 Spyder sets a course time of 70.174 in the PAX Class

Lotus Elise

Justin McCraw rides along with Doug McBride in the Lotus

Using the side mirror I capture Doug McBride as he focuses in on his next timed run.

Dan Gurney in his 2007 Cadillac CTS-V turns a 76.640 in the Street Touring division

Ted Lewis gets under the hood in his 1965 race built Lotus Elan

Rob Love piloting his 04 Mitsubishi EVO to a 70.692 in the SCCA Open Class

2009 Chevy Corvette Z06 driven by John Burbano cuts the lights at a 74.072

69.347 was the SCCA Open Class best time by Doug McBride.

Michael Whitehouse, with passenger in his 2007 Mazda Miata convertible

Sierra Sports Car Club members in the staging area

Chris Drummond in his beautiful 2003 Mustang Mach 1 eats a course cone that hands out a one second penalty

Novice Class driver John Semon lays down a 83.814 in his 2004 Audi A4

Chris McCraw lines up for a run in his 2006 Rotax Kart

Chris's fastest time of the day was a 74.748 as he competed in the SCCA Open Class.

Ken Reno, also in a 2006 Rotax his the track in the SCCA Open Class.

Mark Knable in his 2011 Chevy Camaro

Janet Forbes in her 1999 Plymouth Prowler in the Novice Class

During post processing I noticed I caught her face in the side mirror.

Susan Love wheels her 2004 Mitsubishi EVO through the course. This lady has all my respect, she really pushed this car to an impressive time of 74.212 in the Ladies Class.

Donald Waller in his 71 Pontiac Firebird clips the lights at a 87.704 in the Novice Class

This wraps up this post and look forward to the next time I get the chance to shoot a SCCA Solo Event, special thanks to Club President Tammy Butterworth for having us!

Robert Butterfield – Butterfield Photography – Sierra Vista, Arizona

A different look at Bisbee, Arizona.

Robert — Fri, 30 Dec 2011 01:48:25 +0000

Bisbee, Arizona

One of the cool things about living in Sierra Vista, Arizona is the historic area we live in. Just north of us we have Benson with Tombstone and the historic mining town of Bisbee to the east.

Bisbee, Arizona was founded in 1880 with the explosion of mineral mining such as copper, silver and gold in this area. The town was named after Judge DeWitt Bisbee who was one that provided financial backing to the Copper Queen Mine. Bisbee has been the county seat for Cochise County since it was moved from Tombstone in 1929. In the mid 70’s, the Phelps Dodge Corporation shut down mining operations but part of the Copper Queen Mine has remained open for tours. Recently in 2007, Freeport-McMoRan Copper and Gold bought Phelps Dodge and has resumed “some” work in the area. Gold prices are motivating these days.

During the renovation taking place at the Stock Exchange Saloon in Old Bisbee, the bar owner, Patricia Steward was working a water damaged wall and uncovered colors that caught her eye. Soon she discovered an old fresco painting that may be dated back to when the building had first been constructed in 1905 but had been painted over years ago. I first heard about this while I was working overseas and read about it in this article from the Sierra Vista Herald and I had to go see it for myself in hopes to get some pictures of it. Remodeling is still underway but I was lucky enough to get some images of this cool find.

1905 Fresco painting in the Stock Exchange Saloon.

Modern Bisbee as it is called nowadays, was named runner-up by the AARP publication “Modern Maturity” as one of the quirkiest cities in America as it is filled with color whether it be local artisans displaying their artwork or colors chosen for some of the buildings. The town has a mixture of Historic Buildings occupied with some of the most creative Artists around, from pottery to painting, crafts to repurposed creations. Several antique and consignment shops for the collector can be found.

The street signs and little details around town could lend to the quirky reputation but you have to respect the creative sense of humor in some of this.

A cool looking street sign for Simanis Gallery

A Bicycle Brothel.... ???

Maria and I spent a couple hours here today, she was on an assignment shoot capturing Brandon and Tricia’s engagement shoot that you can see here. Originally I planned on capturing some images concentrating on the Historic side of Bisbee, which is easy enough to do…..

Explosives mining cart sitting outside the Bisbee Museum

Storefront window decorated with painted bottles

a 4 panel door in the Stock Exchange

Vintage Delco sign in Lowell, townsite of Bisbee

…… but today I was pulled in by the colors around me. I am a huge sucker for Graffiti Art, not to be confused with “tagging”, I am talking about thoughtful creations where some carry a message. The graffiti below is not plastered on Main Street taking away from a historic look but walking around on side streets, alcoves or alleyways and you can’t miss it, no really… YOU CAN’T MISS IT. Some of the graffiti street art resembles “Banksy”, an anonymous UK based street artist with a twisted and funny satirical message in all of his work; you can see his web site here . It’s been documented that he has been to the United States and shared his street art in California, New York and other places in the world so it’s not impossible that he could have stenciled his way through Arizona.

I stared at this one for quite a while trying to figure out what the message was but clowns with guns scare the hell out of me. Could this be a genuine Banksy or a wannabe?

Occupy Bisbee Protest?

This skeleton with a chili pepper necklace was cool

I took this one for Maria, Michael Jordan is her favorite athlete (Ha, snort) but I doubt his number ever took on this look.

Anywhere I go, I am always looking for things that you would normally overlook just walking around. Sometimes it’s just a crazy looking texture at eye level, something ornate or right above your head, something subtle that few people would notice but they are there. Here are 3 examples of what I am talking about.

spent staples and disintegrated flyers on a telephone pole made for an interesting texture

pick axes for door pulls on this metal gate caught my eye, I liked the shadows and highlights

Looking up, this Freemasonry Symbol, the square and compass on a keystone over an archway caught my eye. Next time you are out and about, take a close look at things and see how many times you see this iconic symbol pop up.

When I was taking the shot of the over stapled telephone pole, there was a sign for a local artist that read…. “Vixens Metal Art…. 40 steps this way”. What’s 40 steps, especially when you forget to count. Brenna Curry is a local artist with a killer collection of metal art using vibrant acrylic colors, I was hooked at the window and took a few more steps inside to meet the artist and hopefully take some pictures of her work. As it turns out Brenna is a photographer as well and has incorporated her photography work in with her art. I really loved the colors and textures she pulls off with some woven metal and colors that really pop. If you are in the area, stop in and visit or stop by her Facebook page and give it a like.

Vixen Metal Art

Vixen Metal Artist, Brenna Curry in her Bisbee, Arizona studio

Vixen Metal Art by Brenna Curry

This one was my favorite by Brenna... I like the little clues or messages hidden inside the brushstrokes

You can’t visit Bisbee without checking out the townsite district of Lowell and it’s Main Street that winds back the clock a bit. If it weren’t for a couple modern cars parked here and there, you’d swear you fell into a time machine. All I could think about as I studied which angle I wanted to shoot from was getting some shots and using High Dynamic Range (HDR) Tone Mapping as a post processing treatment. HDR basically takes the light and dark areas of an image and gives you an unrealistic and exaggerated effect of the original, which is what you see below. You can tone it back a bit let’s say on a city or land scape and not be so drastic with the nuclear fallout kinda feel. There has been a lot of debating back and forth between digital photographers over the years, some like, it some don’t while some make a living from it and don’t’ even realize it or maybe they do but the bottom line is; HDR has been used since 1850 and was pioneered by Gustave Le Gray, so it’s not something new, if you are a photographer today and have used “dodge and burn” in digital post processing … then you know what it was like to HDR in the mid century.

Too much or too little is really up to the photographer and viewer, personally I won’t use it but on certain images such as these involving old cars and buildings. Anyone using this on technique on people or animals should have their computers taken away and forced to stand in the corner.

HDR Image from the townsite of Lowell in Bisbee.

Star Chevrolet in Lowell

That wraps it up for this post and if you are in the area, you should stop in and see Bisbee; it truly has something for everyone and you might end up experiencing something you didn’t expect!

Robert Butterfield – Butterfield Photography – Sierra Vista, Arizona

Tucson Kart Club: A look back at November 2006

Robert — Sat, 10 Dec 2011 01:17:18 +0000

Tucson Kart Club 2006

In November 2006 I shot and event or Daron Shade at the Tucson Kart Club (TKC), the cool thing was I would shoot that event that took place earlier in the day then hop right over to the big track Tucson Raceway Park and shoot back to back.

Tucson Kart Club 2006

TKC operates as a not for profit organization and their 1/5^th mile dirt track is located on Pima County Fairgrounds property just off of Houghton and Dawn Rd., snuggled in between Tucson Raceway Park and Southwestern International Raceway. TKC has been a karting club for 40 years and has been sanctioned by the International Karting Federation (IKF) since. I was really impressed with how well they prepped this little dirt track. It is a smooth dirt surface with a mixture of clay and other goodies added for grip; it was cool to see it rubber in and it looked real grippy.

Tucson Kart Club 2006

The track mandates the use of Burris Kart Tires if you want to accumulate points, the tires on these things are cool no matter what brand you run; they have all sort of compounds, stagger and widths to choose from.

Tucson Kart Club 2006

This would be the first time I had ever shot go-karts but I knew I would have to either use long glass (bigger lens) or get real close to the track, so I did both. No matter what you are photographing, you should always fill your frame with the subject and that could be tough shooting karts since they are so much smaller than stock cars. A track 1/5^th of a mile in size may sound small, it is, but when you consider the from and back straightaways are 225ft long with two 100ft radius turns I didn’t have to move around as much as I normally would at a big track. I didn’t have my 300mm Canon yet so I mainly used my 70-200mm lens and it worked fine and was able to fill in the frame after I cropped a little bit.

Tucson Kart Club 2006

Arizona rewards you with the most beautiful golden hour light anywhere I have seen but the midday sun was harsh as usual and I couldn’t pull off any creative shots with natural light as the event was over before 4pm, I was still able to get some decent images that I was happy with.

Tucson Kart Club 2006

TKC runs twice a month with the following classes:

Jr Jr Class: ages 5-8 and a 200lb limit

Combined JR Class: ages 8-15 with a 16 option year

Junior Rookies: ages 8-15

Adult Clone: ages 16 and up

Unlimited All Star: U.A.S. guide lines with a local option

Powder Puff: ages 16 and up

Sportsman Pro: ages 16 and up

Sportsman Rookie: ages 16 and up

More classes are possible but there is a 3 Kart minimum before it can be considered a Championship class.

Robert Butterfield - Butterfield Photography - Sierra Vista, Arizona