NITRO - NEWS Delving deeper into the world of -N-I-T-R-O- image

Did you know, that Main Gate Inc.is the company that produces and markets all the merchandise for the NHRA as well for a number of other companies and organizations from select NFL and NCAA teams to the LPGA to name just a few.

My good friends at Firebird Raceway have also partnered with Main Gate Inc. to provide their own event t-shirts. It's no wonder that Firebird's event t's are so damn awesome! But, did you ever wonder where the imagery on the t's comes from?  I know what you're thinking, "gosh Nitro, and artist of course". Well of course! But did you know that a lot of times the artist works with an original photograph??

Take for example, Firebird's most recent event t-shirt graphic from their famous Halloween Classic race

This is the art work that was on the front of the 2009 'Classic t's, pretty cool huh? Designed and produced in-house at Main Gate Inc. the t-shirts were sold through the track store and on-line through the track website. The clown sure has a wicked Pro Mod Duster huh?  Well by now I'm sure you've figured out the secret. The image of the Duster came from a photo I captured of Dennis Radford laying down some rubber during the 2009 edition of the Nightfire Nationals this past August. Scott New, Director of Racing Operations at Firebird Raceway requested a few different angles of Radford burnouts that I shot at the Nightfire's to send to Main Gate Inc. and this is what they came up with.




I think it's pretty "crazy", but then again so is the Famous Firebird Raceway Halloween Classic!

With Christmas around the corner, and a new year looming in the not-so-far off distance, I thought I better put something up here to let you all know I'm still alive and around. I'm somewhat surprised at all the people who have reminded me that it's been 5 months since I made an entry to the blog, that must mean you folks are reading it - wow, thanks! I haven't died, slid under a rock, or gone into hiding, it's just been, ahem, busy since July. I know, I know, that's a poor excuse, but the reality is that writing this blog stuff really takes some time, and that was what I had little of the last few months. I'm going to try and streamline a few things for 2010, and my hope is to be able to make these entries a little easier, more frequent and hopefully less time consuming. That being said, I have been searching for a fresh new blog 'look' so you might see some changes during the next few weeks as I try out a few new templates. I get bored quick so maybe a new face will also inspire me to get in here more often!

For now, though, let me make this short and sweet. As Arnold famously said "I'll Be Baaaack"

BA

Did I say 'Back in a couple of weeks'? Riiight, sure. Seems the older I get the quicker life seems to fly by. There's lots happening all over the place and summer is almost half gone. The shooting season is well underway and I have been busy with a few other assignments as well. Lots to catch up on but first I'll start where I left off in June and tell you Hemi Nightmare had an awesome debut at the Southey Mopar Meet in Southey SK. Lots of activity in the Bert shop the week before the Fathers Day weekend making sure every little detail was attended to. I was there Saturday when the car rolled out of the trailer into the public eye for the very first time. The car looked simply amazing and attracted more attention than expected. I wasn't surprised, you hafta see this in person. The attention to all the details is pretty intense, but then again if you know the guys that were involved in this project you wouldn't be surprised. There are really only three awards handed out at Southey, all chosen by the participants, Best in Show, Participants Choice and Top Ten, of which Best in Show and Participants Choice are included. The remaining 8 spots of the top ten are basically the same, and there is no ranking designated. Hemi Nightmare placed in the top ten, which isn't surprising. I think Ray was very proud!

I have also been busy with my work at S.I.R. or Saskatchewan International Raceway with 5 of 9 races completed this season. I added a 'pit bike' to my equipment list this year. Not that walking wasn't good for me, but when you have a number of acres of real estate to traverse in a weekend of picture taking, it's good to be able to get from one end to the other quicker than slower. It's also opened up a lot of other potential photographic opportunities and can get me in and out of the pits or to and from the top end and even from the concession quickly. Here's a shot of the NITROIMAGE pit spot taken early Sunday morning at the last event. NITRO-scooter is a 2006 Yamaha BWS, and is street legal so I can even use it around home. (don't laugh, I have) You might even notice the new NITRO banner in the background which is a beautiful larger than life rendition of my business card thanks to the boys at Intelligent Design Inc in Regina. It turned out so well, that I'm now pondering the idea about getting my trailer 'wrapped' Should I do it? What do YOU think?

I have been a fan of the amazing cut-away illustration artist David Kimble for more than 30 years. If you have never seen his work, click on his name in the previous sentence to learn all about him. I have a number of his prints and they are simply incredible. I have had an idea for a photo shoot largely inspired by Kimble's illustrations for a very long time and was able to attempt it at the last S.I.R. event. I enlisted the beautiful 1963 Corvette of Gord and Tanya Spak (and their help of course) and spent a few minutes before racing started to get the frames I needed to work with later in post (Post Processing is a term for all the processing work that is done to an image file before printing or displaying on the web) Unfortunately I didn't have enough time to move the car to a better vantage point (we just placed the car in an open pit spot behind their trailer) Studying the photo I wish I would have taken the door off too, and then had Gord suit up and sit inside, but hey, there's always next time. I'm going to have one of these prints mounted for display on my boards so if you are an S.I.R. regular, stop by and see it next time, it's pretty cool. And if you have a race car that has some removable panels, I can shoot one of these for you too, just let me know.

Next assignment, Kambusters Main Event, July 18/19 weekend in Yorkton, SK. Wait a minute, that's today, gotta run, till next time...


PS - Check out my friend Paul Grant's article in Drag Racing Online. Nice work Paul!

Where did the month of May go?? Well according to this blog it never came and is now gone forever. Holy smokes! I'll be honest, I gained another year in May and subsequently thought that if I didn't say anything about May 2009, I can pretend it never happened. The reality though is that there has been a lot going on that has been keeping me from posting entries here, but I'm gonna make a better effort to get over here more often. It's one of those things though that is sorta at the bottom of the priority list. You know, you have a list of things that get attended to in a certain priority and this is one of the things on my list that is near the bottom or under the category "Time Permitting". Now that the racing season is in full swing, and the house renovations are under control (for the time being) I may have a little extra time, or not, to come on over and let you know what's new. So, having said that, lets get this going...

FLEETWOOD MAC- A Musical Feast
Cheryl and I along with some close friends had a chance to take in the Fleetwood Mac concert in Saskatoon last Friday night and first and foremost, I will tell you that it was one of the best stadium concerts I have seen in a long time (We're gonna catch AC-DC this summer in Regina so I'll let you know how that compares). It was my first concert experience at the Credit Union Center in Saskatoon too. Sure, I have been a 'Mac fan since the release of their Rumors album in 1977 (who wasn't after that album soared to the top of the charts, I was 14) but probably more a fan of Stevie Nicks and Lindsay Buckingham's solo careers more as I have waay more Nicks and Buckingham albums than Mac albums. So to get to see both of them under the 'Mac banner was a real treat. I'm sure there are a ton of reviews all over the place but I will say that Stevies sultry voice is as good as always and even if she's 61 years old she still caries hereself with grace and looks great too. What can you say about Buckingham's ability to pick the guitar strings? I'm no music expert but man can he play a mean guitar. Whew! The show was packed full of energy (Buckingham demonstrating that) and the sold out audience was ever appreciative. It was certainly one of those once-in-a-lifetime experiences that has me looking for all my old 'Mac, Nicks and Buckingham albums.

HEMI NIGHTMARE
The countdown to the reveal has begun and in less than two weeks, this more than two year project will debut on June 20th at the 2009 Southey Mopar Show,in Southey SK. There have been a number of people involved in this project but none more important than Felix Bert of Moose Jaw. Felix has been ultimately responsible for putting this entire car together and coordinated every other external expert that have contributed to this unique build. I have never been short of amazed watching him engineer and fabricate almost every detail of this project. The amazing stuff I'm talking about is the attention to detail that you don't see. For example, did you know that the trans tunnel had to be enlarged to accomodate the GearVendors overdrive unit? You would NEVER know it has or was not done like this from the factory. I could go on and on, but then you won't have the fun trying to determine if the details are factory produced or not. You can see Felix attending to some details in the sneak peak photo above. (IF you look very closely, you can see three scenes in the image, one of the car, one of the shop in the reflection of the paint and the other if you look real carefully, of one of the many '65 Coronet parts cars that contributed to this just outside the doorway, coool huh?). I asked him the other day if he could estimate the number of hours he has put into this project. He laughed, a lot. Let's say it's been over two years almost every day. I'm not sure what he's going to do once the car leaves his shop, but he says he has lots of catching up to do around the ranch. I'm sure! Even I had small part in this project as I was honored to be able to to design and build the showcard, thanks for the opportunity to be part of this amazing project Ray!

There's a few more things that I will add in the next few days, (probably more like weeks) but I promise to be back soon. I will add now that the rained out S.I.R. Season Opener in May is rescheduled to this upcoming weekend June 13/14. Check the official S.I.R. website for more details, I'll see you there!

Home Time - reminds me of that old television show on PBS hosted by Dean Johnson I used to enjoy. Home renovations can be fun and at times they can be downright nasty. If you have been following along, we are going through a number of upgrades at the homestead. Late last summer and into the early fall we had the complete exterior envelope upgraded with new windows, doors, soffit, fascia, insulation, and siding. We added a 2 story portico over the front entry supported by a pair of 30' columns, and I had designed an attractive pediment that has really set off the front of what was a pretty mundane albeit custom mid 60's 5 level split. (yep, 5 levels!).

So now Cheryl and I have been feverishly working on the interior the past number of weeks with hardly a day off, and I'm happy to say that this place is really starting to come together. Oh there's still more that needs to be done and the list is as long as a list can get, but we're knocking off items every day. Some planned and some not so planned. It's like you know you need to change something, but while you are preparing for the change, you just might as well do THIS other thing you didn't plan for because it makes sense while you have the OTHER thing torn apart! One of these 'extra's' was the restoration of the magnificent original fireplace. It was painted when we moved in, and I was curious to see what was underneath the paint once we had the great room carpet removed in preparation for new flooring. So with a little paint stripper applied in a small obscure area, I uncovered the most beautiful grain of oak I have ever seen. Now oak is not my wood of choice, but we made a decision to uncover the original beauty by stripping off all the paint and then stain it a more modern darker color.

Hey it sounded easy! Exactly one week, three large containers of stripper, two brushes, a couple of pairs of jeans and lots of sweat, we had all the paint off this bad boy. Yeah, I would never do it again! But knowing what we started with, and what we have now makes it all worth while. The craftsmanship on this is amazing. We are anticipating a new gas insert in the fall and I'm going to find some attractive tile and/or granite to place on the surround and hearth.

I have the new flooring installed in all the rooms except one, and have taken delivery of 200' of 6.5" baseboards which of course all require at least two coats of paint. I have completed the installation of all the polished wire glass transoms on all the new main floor doors (you can see the ones above the foyer closet doors) and almost all the trim (casings, architraves, rosettes etc) are done. Whew!

Stay tuned, more updates to come!

I know it's April, and I guess I missed my March entries (where the heck does the time go??), but I didn't want to begin April without paying a small tribute to two very close friends of mine who both left the world last March. I still find it difficult to remember my time with each of them knowing that they are physically gone. Gone but certainly not forgotten.

Tom passed away on March 12, 2008, and was one of my closest friends for many years. He and his wife Evelyn lived only a few blocks from us when we were in Regina, and we all became very close in short time. I guess we had a lot in common. Sadly, Tom succumbed to lung cancer, he was only 59. Rest in peace my friend, I will not forget you.



I met Gerry about 10 years ago when the organization I worked for then retained Gerry's architectural firm for their design services. Gerry and I collaborated on many capital projects and we became quite good friends over the years. I will always value his wisdom and strength. Like my friend Tom, Gerry also succumbed to cancer. Gerry was 68 when he passed away on March 20, 2008.

Both of these amazing gentlemen had profound influences in my life, and I miss them both dearly. I know my tributes are very short, but it's all I can muster. I don't think I have completely accepted their too early departures :-(