Since this year is coming to a close, I thought I’d share with you what I think are some of the better photos from 2010. This year I shot the usual desert and short course races, along with King of the Hammers, some mountain biking, and the NHRA finals thrown in towards the end of the year. In total I went to about 28 events, and took around 40,000 photos. So be patient! Its a pretty long blog but hopefully worth the wait!

Before I begin I’d just like to thank my wife Jamie for putting up with another busy year of photography. I’m usually gone a few times a month which leaves all the responsibility of running a household on her while I’m gone. She is incredibly supportive and unselfish to let me do what I love and enjoy, and she is the backbone of our family.

First off I’d thought I’d show some of my favorite photos from mountain bike races I went to. I shot one endurance race called The Vision Quest / Counting Coup, and also covered a local series out in Irvine called Over The Hump Series. I started riding bikes myself the past few years and I’ve grown to really love the sport. Its man versus nature at the basic level, and the time you spend on the bike can be very relaxing.

The Counting Coup runs through the Santa Ana Mountains, and gives some great backgrounds and also some really good light in the morning.

The Over The Hump Race is held at Irvine Lake and also gives you some great backgrounds to chose from. OTH is a local series with great support from the community, and is a lot of fun to shoot. Its held every Tuesday for about 2 months so you get a lot of opportunities to play around with different angles.

The races are held during the end of the day so you get some nice lighting to work with.

Among short course racing, Crandon Offroad Raceway is the grandfather of all tracks. Its where the traditions and backbone of the sport started. Crandon is a great track with its wide open speeds, great scenery, and even better people. Here are a few from this years Labor Day race that I liked.

Here are a few of my favorites from this years LOORRS season. At the Surprise, AZ course one turn I like to shoot at is this photo below. Its a wide sweeping turn and during the race the sun is behind the corner so it gives the light a cool look to it.

Robby Woods flies through the air and into the sunset.

A course worker flags down the field silhouetted by the sun.

Ricky Johnson has the Santa Ana Mountains in the background has he hits a jump at Glen Helen Raceway.

Sean Geiser goes for a ride in his Prolite Truck.

Here is one shot from the King of the Hammers, this was taken at one of the more popular spectator spots called Sledgehammer.

At a few races this year I was able to mess around with remote flashes and cameras during the race, and was able to get a few interesting shots. At the SCORE Laughlin Leap I set up my Canon 550ex flash to the right of the trucks and walked farther down the landing area to get a nice head on shot.

At a LOORRS race this year Kyle Leduc let me put my flash inside his truck, so that I could fire it from the track. My goal was to get some interesting shots with the background and truck dark with the cab and him all lit up. You can see my blog about it here.

Here are two shots that I liked the best from the series.

That same weekend I also mounted a Canon 20D on the back of Kyle Leducs truck. Here is a blog about that as well.

I also had the opportunity in 2010 to help out a friend who runs the company Dirtbagz with some product photography. It was my first time doing product shots and I enjoyed it a lot and hope to do more in 2011.

Shooting desert racing is my first love. Its not just going to a track and shooting photos, its the adventure of racing from spot to spot to beat your client. Its prerunning before hand to find the best spots along the course, and the logistics of putting it all together with a game plan for race day. The course is constantly changing as more vehicles carve into the dirt. At a Nascar race you can go to the media center for lunch, in Baja you live off the local taco stand and Doritos.

I’d say overall one of the best desert races of 2010 for photos was the SNORE Mint 400. The course is rough with a lot of great spots, but the qualifying session the day before the race was a photographers candy jar. One spot along the qualifying loop was a jump at the bottom of a long downhill and the racers put on a great show, both intentionally and unintentionally. Here are three photos, one of Cameron Steele crashing his Trophy Truck after landing in a deep hole after the jump, and Roger Norman launching his truck in the air, and a Class 1 car who surprisingly saved it and just ended up breaking his front a-arm.

Here are some more of my favorite shots from the 2010 desert racing season.

Another photo from the Mint 400 where Zorba Racing blows their front bumper into the silt.

Overlooking contingency at the SCORE San Felipe 250 race.

Wilson Motorsports races down the town of Ensenada at the Baja 500.

Mastercraft’s Robbie Pierce and COPS Racing blast through a silt bed in San Felipe.

KING Shock using a Macro Lens.

BJ Baldwin launches off a jump at the BITD Vegas 2 Reno race.

Andy McMillin during qualifying for the BITD Parker 425.

Well thats it for the best of 2010, thank you for taking the time to look over my blog and photos for the past year. I enjoy showing my work to all of you and hope you enjoy checking them out. 2011 looks to be an even busier year then the last so make sure to keep checking back for updates! Thanks again and see you at the track/desert/mountains/dragstrip/rocks and more!

Jason Zindroski
HighRev Photography

This past Tuesday marked the beginning of a great local mountain bike series based out of Irvine Lake, CA. Its called Over The Hump Race Series, and its designed to be a fun environment where everyone from beginners to pros can come out and race, and share the experience with the friends and family. What makes it better is that they are held on Tuesday’s at 6pm so it doesn’t interfere with other weekend races, and anyone can come after work and check it out.

Last year OTH had two races and they were big hits with the local mountain bike community, so this year they stepped it up and there will be a total of 12 events. Since one of my goals at the beginning of the year was to get out and shoot more mountain bike races, I was excited to photograph as many of the races as I could. I like the fact that they are every week, because it will give me the opportunity to shoot at a lot of different places and try new things

I got to the event about two hours early so that I could check out the course. Because of the water levels the loop was a little different from last year, so I wanted to ride it once to check out potential photo spots. The course was a lot of fun with a nice mix of small climbs, wide open sprint areas, and some technical single tracks.

The first thing you notice when you get to the event site, is a large water bridge that was incorporated into the course, so I wanted to make sure I got shots of racers going across it. Its a unique thing to have be part of a race so I thought a lot of the racers would want to see themselves going across it, here are a few shots from the first lap of the race standing at the base of the bridge.

On my way to the second spot I’d be shooting at it gave me a nice high view of the bridge, so I made sure to photograph the leaders coming through. Here is the winner of the race Brandon Gritters crossing the bridge.

The next spot I went to was just a short hike from the base of the bridge, and was a short little downhill into a left hand turn.

I shot there for about a half a lap and began walking up course to a spot towards the end of the lap that was covered in foilage. My goal was to shoot one spot where I could get some photos with my remote flash. Along the way I made sure to snap some photos along the way to get some more angles for the racers.

A little distance away the racers were right next to a nice green background.

In the same spot I could turn around and get another angle of the water bridge but from further away.

Christopher “Ceedubb” Williams killing it on his single speed.

After a short (long walk in the bushes avoiding the racers) walk I got to the spot where I wanted to shoot everyone’s last lap. Again it was a nice little area covered in foliage so I’d have a decent background, and dark enough where I could use my Canon 550ex flash to light up the racers.

You can get some cool shots using the remote flash, but it can also be challenging since you have to time it just right. Shoot too soon and the rider won’t be lit up enough, shoot too late and everything is all dark. Because I wanted to make sure I got shots of as many riders as I could, I decided to stop using the flash for a bit and then move on.

On my walk back to the main area, there was a lone rider on the course finishing their lap so I snapped a photo from across the lake.

The race ended right at sunset and added a special feeling to the event. OTH put on a great event and I’m really looking forward to shooting more this year as they are a great group of people who put the event on for the riders. Everyone who raced had a smile on their face, and hopefully OTH can continue to grow each week.

For next race hopefully they have security on site, somehow Chris Hanson was able to get on the course and cheer people on. We don’t need your positivity and inspirational cheers buddy! Move along!

All our photos are up on our site, so check them out!

Over The Hump Race Series 5/25/10

See everyone next week!!

Every year PCI Race Radios puts out a 2010 calendar that show cases a few race teams. You can purchase your calendar by clicking on the link below!

http://www.highrevphoto.com/products/products.html