Indycar Driver Dario Franchitti At The Office

May 17th, 2012

“Introducing…… Dario—oooo   Franchitti—iiii.” Here are some pre race photos of Indycar race driver Dario Franchitti at the office. On this day the office was at Las Vegas Motor Speedway.

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Dario FranchittiDario (freaking!) Franchitti

Dario Franchitti's introduction at Las Vegas Motor SpeedwayDario Franchitti’s introduction at Las Vegas Motor Speedway. (The awesome filmmaker Eric Goodfield at left.)

Dario Franchitti works the crowd.Dario Franchitti works the crowd.

Franchitti Facts
• 4x Indycar Series Champion: 2007, 2009, 2010, 2011
• 3x Indianapolis 500 Winner: 2007, 2010, 2012
• 239 starts under his belt between the CART and IZOD IndyCar Series
• 151 top-10 finishes
• 108 top‐five
• 26 poles
• 31 wins
• Has raced: CART, NASCAR Truck, NASCAR Sprint Cup, AMLS, Indycar
• Born in Scotland
• Married to actress Ashley Judd

 

Ashley Judd and Dario FranchittiMr and Mrs Franchitti. Ashley Judd with husband Dario Franchitti before the race.

Dario Franchitti during his pre race ritual.Dario Franchitti during his pre race ritual.

Some Info About Shooting Motorsports

  1. Don’t even think about bothering the crew, the drivers, and definitely stay out of the way.
  2. Cars move faster than people so bring plenty of media storage cards. You’ll be shooting/editing more than a handful of images and maybe a few thousand.
  3. If you take a souvenir home with you from the track, just consider yourself uninvited to ever shoot there again.
  4. Better have some liability insurance if you want access. $2,000,000 in coverage should do. This isn’t your local pinewood derby race.
  5. Carry everything you need via backpack or speed belt. Your chapstick, sunblock, earplugs, energy drinks, and snacks are just as important as your camera.

2x Indy 500 Winner Dan Wheldon

October 6th, 2011

Below are portraits of two time Indianapolis 500 winner Dan Wheldon (2005, 2011) shot at Infineon Raceway in Sonoma, CA. Mr. Wheldon is an INDYCAR race driver from England who is currently living in Florida, and driving for the team of Bryan Herta Autosport (owned by former driver Bryan Herta). These images were shot for Simraceway which is an online simulation racing game. It’s available for free in beta, but a kick ass game controller is right around the corner! I am not a gamer, but after seeing a demo of Simraceway this past weekend I can see why a race fan might get addicted to this one.

The second image is from a studio set up we built inside a garage bay not far from the racetrack. The coolest thing about shooting the 2x Indy winner was seeing his professionalism on set. He was all business! However once the shoot was wrapped up he was personable, humble, and incredibly thankful. I dig that.

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