{"id":802,"date":"2017-09-26T09:10:57","date_gmt":"2017-09-26T09:10:57","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/samuraijosh.com\/?p=802"},"modified":"2018-03-02T07:27:06","modified_gmt":"2018-03-02T07:27:06","slug":"red-bull-soapbox-race-la-2017-part-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/samuraijosh.com\/index.php\/2017\/09\/26\/red-bull-soapbox-race-la-2017-part-2\/","title":{"rendered":"Red Bull Soapbox Race LA 2017 Part 2"},"content":{"rendered":"

So here’s part 2 of the 2017 Red Bull LA Soapbox Race. As I’ve said before I should really start breaking up some of my larger stories into multiple posts and given all the photos I took at this event this definitely needed to be split up.<\/p>\n

Like I said in my previous post the Soapbox Race was a really great opportunity for me because I was able to get a lot of practice with my photography shooting action shots and moving objects.<\/p>\n

It also gave me a great opportunity to fully use my 70-200mm 2.8 telephoto lens. Before the Soapbox Race the only opportunity I had to fully use it was when my uncle asked me to bring it to shoot my cousin’s high school graduation other than that it mostly just sat in my drawer. This thing was a 2,000 dollar lens and it was top of the line when I bought it. I know I probably could have bought the 70-200mm 4.0 but I really wanted the 2.8 aperture range. I remember when I told my coworker, Beto about it he kept telling me how it was too much lens for me especially considering my skill set and how I never had any use for it, and in a way he was right. But honestly now that I’ve decided to really pick up on my site and after learning a little more about photography having that thing is a godsend.<\/p>\n

Back to the Soapbox Race, like I said in part 1 this thing was a huge learning experience with the main lesson being I was way in over my head and there is no way to be able to fully cover this with just one person. Between the fact the track was like 2000 feet long and all the people there it was really hard to get some good action shots. Honestly if you really want to do a good job covering an event like this you easily need at least three people: One to post up by the starting line, another at the finish line and the other guys either set up throughout the track where some cool shit will happen or at least wandering up and down the track.<\/p>\n

Another obstacle I had earlier was just the sheer crowd. So many people were in my way. According to the Red Bull media kit they gave me there were supposed to be a few media only viewing areas but I don’t know if it was just the ones I was in or if Red Bull was just lax on enforcing it but they were letting anybody in those areas. Luckily people have short attention spans so after the first few rounds people started clearing out and it made it easier to shoot in some areas but unfortunately it was still pretty congested around the start\/finish areas as well as the areas with the ramps and tight turns where crashes were most likely going to happen.<\/p>\n

When the actual race started I was in a pretty bad location since people were crowding around the starting line. Luckily, I was smart enough to bring my parents to get them out of the house and they were able to set up in a pretty good location and snap a few pictures with the iPad we brought with us for directions.<\/p>\n

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Team Fresh Prince were the first guys to go. I really wish I had a clear shot of their skit. These guys were easily one of the most popular teams of the event with people chasing the members down for pictures. Unfortunately this picture is the best I could do standing on my tip toes from like 100 feet away with all these people in front of me.<\/p>\n

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My mom was able to get a good shot of them rolling for me. I wish I was able to get a pic of them at the bottom because I heard they crashed pretty hard.<\/p>\n