Winter Doldrums or Brief Hiatus?

Acura Leaves Team Penske Next Season

Now all the major North American racing series have wrapped up their seasons and the 12 Hours of Sebring just concluded the wackiest year in memory for major motorsports series in America. Sadly I couldn't shoot at Sebring this month but next March is a possibility since it fits into my teaching calendar better. I have photographer friends who were in Florida for Sebring so I just enjoyed their photos and the television coverage of this year's delayed IMSA sports car classic. Ironically, Sebring was the last major United States race of 2020 and was one of the first races postponed this year by the coronavirus. It was great to see long-time Penske Indycar driver Helio Castroneves finally win a season championship, even though it was in sports cars. He'll be back in Indycar next year with Meyer Shank Racing for six races including the Indy 500 to go after that elusive fourth 500 win which would elevate Helio to legendary status along with AJ Foyt, Al Unser, Sr. and Rick Mears.

Mazda finally won an endurance race 

I am working on scheduling race assignments for next year which might include the Rolex 24 Hours of Daytona at the end of January. That would be an awesome start for 2021 and it would be my fourth Rolex since 2014. Given how virus cases are spiking across the country right now, I must say I'm a little skeptical that the Rolex will be held without restrictions on fans, media or both. Shooting at Daytona would mean a short hiatus for me from racing which I would dearly love, but like seemingly everything else these days, planning must remain flexible so I won't be booking any flights or hotel rooms anytime soon. Watching Mazda win at Sebring over the weekend was satisfying since the marque has consistently had beautiful machines since joining the prototype ranks in 2014, which was ironically the first year I shot the Rolex 24. Even though I'm personally a Honda/Acura guy, I've had several of my Mazda prototype photos used in Autosport Japan magazine so they hold a special place in my heart.

Will Tony Kanaan return to the 500  in 2021?

I have three main goals for my 2021 racing photography. First, shoot the Indy 500 again. To do so, I need a team or media assignment and I will be in hot pursuit of that the next few months. Second, I must get back to the 24 Hours of LeMans, preferably as a credentialed photographer, but that will take some work. Absent credentials, if travel to Europe is allowed, then I will go as a spectator anyway as I know plenty of places where I can still get photos of this epic event. On top of that, I have friends in France now that I'm dying to see again. Third, I'd like to continue my relationship with the ARCA Menards Series in support of their marketing efforts and hope to do more than the one race I got to shoot this year

LeMans is calling with echoes of 2017

I have other photography goals for next year, including doing more assignments for Speedway Illustrated magazine and promoter Track Enterprises that I hope will involve dirt track races in USAC or other open wheel series. Of the seven races I shot this year, four were on dirt tracks and I loved them. They took me back to when I first started shooting races but more importantly, they reminded me of how my love of racing was originally sparked by my Grandpa Jay Shue at the fairgrounds track in Warsaw, Indiana before I was even in kindergarten.

My other photography goals involve branching out into other ventures. I've already put some of those into place by contributing stock photos to Adobe Stock, setting up a retail store on my Alleygroup website, and creating artistic content for sale on the website Fine Art America. Along with my photo work, I have a non-fiction book that I've been working on especially hard during this pandemic that I should have more announcements about very soon. If you are a regular reader of this blog and would like to among the first to get those announcements, I am starting to build an email list so please let me know if you'd like to be added to the list. Until next time, please visit the store on my website and order some unique photo products - just in time for Christmas! Thanks!

Act "As if..."

Sometimes it just takes faith and you get what you dream of. Sometimes you just have to act "as if" your plans are going to come to fruition and let the universe know that you believe.

When I use the royal "you" I really mean me as that's what I have to tell myself at times. Once I let the universe know that I believe, then I have to take action as though the outcome has already been determined, like the golden slipper I need to fit has already been made and I am just moving along the stream of life until I find it and slide my foot into it. I have plenty of examples in my life the last 15 years to prove this concept if I look for even a minute, but sometimes I forget to look or I don't understand what I'm seeing, as though my glasses are fogged.

Here it is February of 2020 and my racing assignments for this year are standing at just three events so far. Last year at this time, I was preparing to go to Daytona to shoot the ARCA Menards Series race. I planned on shooting the rest of the season schedule after my lung cancer surgery, plus the Indy 500 and Grand Prix of Indianapolis, so I knew I had 21 race events lined up to work for 2019. It promised to be one of the busiest years I'd ever had as a motorsports photographer, plus I had the added challenge of recovering from surgery, but I did it. I will be turning 63 this year and feeling close to 100% recovered. Now in 2020, it's a whole new ballgame at ARCA as different people are making the hiring decisions for the ARCA events and I have zero assignments booked for ARCA races so far. Maybe that will change, but I am going to act "as if" it will not and try to find some other outlets for my photography. The three races I know I will be doing include two of the biggest races in the world so I really can't complain: the Indy 500 and the 24 Hours of LeMans are the centerpieces of my 2020 motorsports season at this time. Heck I haven't even written a blog post this year prior to now as I was hoping I would have more to report on.

Last June I knew I would be going back to Europe this summer. I just knew. I didn't know how I was going to make it happen but I had faith it would. I knew there was a grant program for teachers through Lilly Endowment that might help make it a reality and even though three prior applications of mine had been rejected, I was confident I could put together a proposal that could get funded. So even before I submitted my application, I made lodging reservations for a couple of locations and pre-paid for one of them. The grant program application deadline was the Tuesday after Labor Day last year and I knew award announcements wouldn't be made until January of this year but I made those moves anyway. I acted "as if" my grant proposal had already been approved when I started making those reservations and I continued to act with faith that I would make it back overseas again.

Now I know that trip is a reality and it will go well beyond just shooting a race. The trip will center on work that will enhance my teaching and be spiritually renewing through the study of French and Greek mathematicians and Greek Revival architecture. I plan to visit locations where historically significant people in those fields worked, studied or created finished products in the physical world. I will create videos that attempt to reinforce the importance of their discoveries and show their ongoing relevance to our daily lives, even now some hundreds or even thousands of years later. I heard the question again yesterday from a student - a question that I will attempt to address through math history at locations where some of its most important ideas had their origins: "When I will I use this in my daily life?"

Once the trip begins in June, there will be no shortage of things to report on here and perhaps between now and then my racing schedule will expand. I don't have any control over that so I will continue to demonstrate faith in action and let the universe decide what comes next. Stay tuned!

I created these message images using photos I took and modified them with text in the Adobe Photoshop mobile app.