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

It's been quite the - ahem - party since the end of April! Between my day job and the photography gig, there literally hasn't been enough proverbial hours in the day to keep up with a number of things and updating NITRO-NEWS fell embarrassingly low on the "when I get a minute" overflow list. I'm not sure that I can sufficiently keep this going considering my schedule and not to mention that this is pretty useless when it's not updated. That being said, a number of close friends have pretty much persuaded/convinced/coerced  me to jump on that Facebook band wagon and I'm thinking I am going to relent and give it a try. In which case this will come to an end, but a new NITROIMAGE social network will spring up where 'everybody' seems to be hanging out.

I haven't set anything up yet, and it may be a few weeks in the making, but I'll let y'all know when and where the grand unveiling will be. Till then, keep shooting!

Allrighty then! The snows are outa here and I'm gearing up for the new shooting season. Well, actually I never really quit shooting during the year, but when I'm two weeks away from my first drag racing event, those that know me, know I'm getting pretty anxious and am having trouble sleeping through the night!

Sunday, Sunday, SUNDAY... That's right, in two weeks from today, I'll be back at Firebird Raceway in Boise Idaho for the NHRA D6 season opener. For those of you that may not know, this is the event that kicks off the Division 6 season and there will likely be close to 500 sportsman cars in the park! The other interesting aspect of this event is that the 'air' in Idaho at this time of the year can be pretty attractive for record setting performances, and I know the D6 certification team ALWAYS looks forward to verifying every attempt to shatter class records. Ok, so I'm being a little cheeky, because its an incredible amount of work not only for the racer to WANT to attempt to set or reset a performance record but also the certification team who has to verify each and every 'record run' to ensure it was set within each class rules. As a racer, you'll have to literally tear down your engine in your pit and face the scrutiny of the rule book wielding cert team if you have claimed to set the record in your class. If there are a lot record setting runs, the certification team led by NHRA's D6 Tech Director, Dave Schaffel, will be working from early morning into the wee hours of each night measuring and inspecting the engines and the cars in question. It's a grueling but extremely interesting process that I have witnessed first hand. I will be watching qualifying runs closely and counting the shoe polished "circled R's" on the wind shields of the class cars but mostly I'm really looking forward to visiting with all my Idaho friends... CYA SOON!

If you've been hanging around here for a while, you know that each winter I design a brand new but limited edition business card for the new season. I'm surprised (and flattered) that these have become somewhat of a collectible for some of you. Its one way to get your very own NITROIMAGE print for free!! (my cards are printed on the super cool, exclusive and optional metallic photo paper, just like a real print!) So feel free to stop by my booth at selected Saskatchewan events or stop me and ask for one or two if I'm in your area. Darren Bay's awesome jet funny car, above, was my pick for last year's card, and this year I chose my shot of Rick Williams CBS Fueler from the 2009 Nightfire Nationals, in ultra cool black and white, below. Get your copy today, but hurry, when they're gone, they're GONE! (I always wanted to say that!)



I was commissioned recently by my friends Rob and Chad Woloschuk at Dream Rides and Fabrication in Yorkton, SK to shoot one of their latest client builds, a wicked 1966 Pro Touring Mustang. The photo shoot with the car happened at the owners farm, south but mostly east of Yorkton. I had a great time and the image files have been processed and ftp'd to Canadian Hot Rods magazine where the car will be featured in volume 5 issue 6. Keep your eyes on your local news stand and make sure you pick up a copy of this cool Canadian hot rod mag. In the meantime, here's a couple of sneak peeks...


If I told you any more about the car, I'd have to kill you. No, no I wouldn't (I was just kidding) but it would ruin the anticipation of it's debut in the magazine. Speaking of which, I now have at least two more VERY cool (okay, how many times do I have to say "cool"??) Saskatchewan cars to photograph that have peeked the interest of Canadian Hot Rods magazine publisher/editor Terry Denomme. This could be a good year for local Sask cars and builders getting some well deserved attention!!

I'll keep you posted!

While waiting for spring, I have been keeping busy in the Nitroimage Studios. Ok, so there's no 'REAL' studio per se, but I like to think any location where I'm toting my camera is my studio. What exactly does that mean? Ok, here's a few examples;

Say I'm touring with my pals on a snowmobile run across the frozen prairie and one of them decides to perform something cool - I'm in my studio;

WOW! I really have to thank my good friend James Johnson (Brighter Image Studios) who contacted me almost two months ago and asked if I would be interested in helping him cover the Olympic torch relay when it came through the city. James is a member of the local torch relay committee, and is also the official photographer responsible for all the imagery for the local event. He also recruited ace wedding and swimming shooter Rob Harden and the three of us were assigned to cover specific areas. James and Rob handled the route while I stayed at the designated site in the city.  I  really had no idea what to expect and was not prepared for how inspiring and uplifting it was as the day proceeded. I think we all felt that way after wards. I can tell you that if you haven't experienced the torch relay and it hasn't come through your community yet, JUST GO! Don't make any excuses not to, seriously! If you don't feel proud to be a Canadian after, then there's really no hope for you! A few images summarize my day...

I was working in Regina during the winter of 1988 when Calgary hosted the winter Olympics. Calgary made us proud to be Canadian as they threw one heck of a party. At least that's what I heard. A lot of my good friends at the time were either living there, or unemployed through the winter and found their way to Alberta to party it up at the Olympics. I had lots of chances to go, but for one reason or another I stayed home and worked. The daily television news reported the events of each day and I can recall vividly how we embraced that underdog from England, Eddie the Eagle or who can forget the antics of the Jamaican bobsled team. Occasionally, I would receive a land line phone call (texting, email?? yeah, not for years to come!) from whichever inebriated pal with comments like "hey man, your missing the biggest effn' party of your life, get your ass out here, WHOOO HOOOO!!" certainly didn't make it any easier not to be there. But I never went and always wished I had. I'll be in Vancouver for work next week and I doubt there will be much pre-Olympic partying going on. I won't be there when the Olympics kick off in February either. I had my chance in '88. But as fate, luck or a friend who's on the local committee would have it, I was able to obtain a media pass with my name on it to help shoot the Olympic Torch Run traveling through this area tomorrow. I'm really looking forward to it. Its great to be a Canadian!

I can't believe how fast 10 years can go by. 10 years ago, some of us were more worried than others about Y2K. Through my work at the time, I was involved with the local authorities (Fire, Police, Emergency Services) to ensure that there were buildings, schools in my case, that would be able to be alternately heated and powered should the gas and electrical supply be interrupted. You know, as a result of a computer somewhere on whichever grid unable to tell its the year 2000. I can recall watching the t.v. closely and somewhat nervously as Australia rang in the New Year hours before us here in North America and, miraculously the lights stayed on down under - go figure. Y2K was the biggest non-event in a lot of history before it and amazingly, we never heard another peep about it afterwards.

Soon after the intro to 2000, I responded to an ad posted by the S.D.R.A. on the S.I.R. website looking for someone with a camera to assume the duties of photographer at S.I.R. after their real photographer retired. I'm not sure exactly what I was thinking at the time as I was no more a real photographer than Mozart was a painter, a complete amateur would have been better qualified than me. I did possess a Minolta X-700 manual focus film SLR camera (remember film??) and a couple of lenses and honestly I really didn't have a clue about how to use them (I'm still learning). But I loved drag racing and would be at the track anyway so I thought if I could fake it just enough, I could hang out along the guardrail for a while at least, until the club realized I was a phony and that I signed up only to get in for free. "Can you start this weekend" was the question from the club spokesperson when I called, "Um, yeah, I guess, don't you want to know if I can even use a camera?" I replied, "You did say you had a camera... right?" she said, "yeah, but how do you know I can use it?" I said, "As long as you have a camera you'll be great, see you then" click. Fast forward 10 years and the rest is history! Little did I know that responding to that little ad would take me on such a long and fulfilling journey. I have loved every second of every minute of it and hope I can continue for some time to come!

The March 2010 issue of Drag Racer Magazine (hitting the news stands now) has a terrific feature on the 2009 Pepsi Nightfire Nationals that I attended in Boise Idaho last August.

I'm pretty pumped to tell you that my shot of Sean Dale piloting the Revell-ution nostalgia nitro funny car from that event made the cover of the mag!! Although I have had my work published in numerous mediums over the years, and have even been on some other 'covers', this is by far my very first main stream-big time drag racing magazine cover, WOW, I'm blown away! Thanks to Editor Randy Fish and Art Director Jerry Bassett for choosing my shot to grace the March cover of  their terrific publication! And special thanks to Scott New, Director of Racing Operations at Firebird Raceway for choosing mine and local Boise shooter David Fudge's work for the 7 page feature article inside. What a way to start the New Year!