This past weekend I made the trip out to Laughlin for the SCORE Laughlin Desert Challenge. This race always has a special meaning for me because it was the first I went to as a “photographer” 6 years ago. However more importantly, 7 years ago, its the place in which I met my wonderful wife Jamie. She’s been my biggest supporter with my photography, and she has no idea how much she means to me.

Here is my favorite shot from the 2004 race, you’ll never see a photograph like this at a SCORE race because they no longer use the road crossing.

If you want a good laugh you can see the full gallery on my site.
Old Skool HighRev

First on the agenda for the weekend was to hit up contingency Friday morning. After spending 10 minutes there and realizing it was a bust we headed over to the pits so that I could snap some pit shots of a few teams I would be covering for the weekend.

Fast forward to 1:30pm and it was time to shoot the qualifying session for the Trophy Truck class. Each racer would get one lap around the 6.25 mile course to set their starting position for Saturday. I decided to shoot at mile .5-1 because I knew during the race I wouldn’t have a chance to shoot there.

Andy McMillin

Robby Gordon

I tried to take advantage of that spot to get as many different angles as I could. I moved up on top of a small hill to get more of a birds eye view of a few Trophy Trucks.

Andy McMillin would get top qualifier for the day, you can check out video from his lap that my friend Scott Smith of Paradigm Productions made. Its all filmed with GoPro HD cameras and the footage turned out sweet.

SCORE made a great decision this year by moving the Laughlin Leap from Thursday night, to Friday. That meant that more spectators would be able to make it, and more importantly that I didn’t have to leave so early for the race. It was scheduled to start at 7pm, so I got there early to set up remote camera and lighting setup.

My friends Matt Kartozian and Art Eugeino both brought some Alien Bees and did a good job of lighting the vehicles up. I still don’t own any strobes so I opted again to just fire my Canon 550ex flash remotely. Its not as strong as a strobe but can still light the car up. I actually like the look it gives the photos, its more harsh of a light and gives a dramatic look to the photo.

For a few shots I walked well past the landing of the jump and put on a 2x Teleconverter on my 70-200mm lens. I wanted to get a shot from far away with the background all black and just the car lit up. I tried a few times but it seems with all the people lined up and blocking the Pocket Wizard, I only got it to fire once. Luckily it was of the winner of the Trophy Truck class.

The winner of the night however was Josh Daniels, who went 111′ feet in his Class 1 car (Note last years winner went 160′, but since SCORE decided to build a smaller flat “jump”, there was no way anyone would be able to beat that). Here is a shot of him after the event.

I also set up a remote camera to get a different angle of the jump. I clamped it on to a light tower via a magic arm and had it angled the opposite way I would be shooting the jump. I didn’t have the right setup so that it was in sync with my camera and flash, so I was just hoping to catch another photographers flash with mine. From about 60 frames there was 3 usable, with this being the best. I like how you can see all the photographers in the shot as well.

The nice thing about this race is that you get to see all the Trophy Trucks and Class 1 cars 8 times each day, but being that the course is only 6.25 miles long you have to hustle to your next spot or you’ll miss them. For Saturdays race we decided to stay near the infield which always has some good spots to shoot from. The hill right off the start line is nice because they start two wide and its always a mad dash to get there first.

Chad Ragland drove BJ Baldwin’s Trophy Truck on Day 1.

Right after the hill there was a nice hole developing that if the racers took the inside lane they’d pop out of it.

The last part of the course before they get into the infield section they go through a small canyon where some big holes always develop. I was in the right place in the right time when Ed “Clyde” Stout came through and his truck bucked on one of the holes.

It wouldn’t be Laughlin without a token Leap shot.

You can see some more photos from Saturday at the end of this post.

For Sunday I went out on the course near the high school section. Its nice out there because there are a few different options as far as shooting spots all within walking distance. I decided to shoot out here on Sunday because I figured the course would be much rougher. I was wrong. The first part of the day they bladed most of the course leaving the majority of it flat. But as always you make due and do the best you can.

There was a corner that I liked shooting at last year and was looking forward to shooting it again this year. It always has nice light, and the way the turn is, you can use the berm in the shot to make it look like you’re shooting at ground level.

If you followed them past the turn you could get them entering another turn.

Another spot from last year that is always good to shoot is yet another corner in the middle part of the course. Whats could about it is that it has one of the few long straight always before it, which means they would carry more speed into the turn. In years past the corner would be very whooped out, but since they bladed it, the corner wasn’t all that exciting. I ended up laying on the ground to try and get a different angle and shoot wide open.

Like the other spot, if you followed them through the corner you could get a nice shot of them leaving.

Something about this shot I like, between the colors, the depth of field, the angle, and the lighting, it works for me.

Earlier in the day I decided to give my remote a try, turns out I should of waited till the Trophy Trucks. Gerardo at work made a sweet trigger button using spare parts at work. Typically you can find them online for about $65, and they wrap around your lens so you can trigger a remote camera while still shooting your hand held camera.

So the camera lasted about 6 vehicles before it got clipped. The only real damage was where the battery makes contact, so it won’t turn on. Camera insurance is a good thing!

Below you can check out some of my favorite shots from the weekend. Up next is the BITD Parker 425!