There’s a lot of down time when I shoot a road race.  Even though there are 3 fields on the course at once, they pass by me within 10 minutes of each other leaving me a big gap of about 25-30 minutes until they come by again.  What do I do during those breaks?  These days I attract a lot of attention with the drone.

Whenever I shoot a race I’m always concerned about being on somebody else’s property because most road races are out in the country and the only place to park is along the road.  And when I’m in their way it’s even worse.  At my first location today I ended up blocking the entrance to a farmer’s field.  He needed to pull in and I was in the way.  Great!  Not a good way for me to start the day.  Fast forward to the last location of the day.  I had pulled over near a very colorful barn because I thought it would make a great background in my shots.  Next thing I know, a truck pulls up and I get that feeling that I’m about to get chewed out – you know the feeling.  But no, that same farmer (the one I had blocked before) pops out of his truck and excitedly asks about my aerial camera.  We get to talking and I discover that he’s in the Screen Actors Guild and he’s met some amazing people through that work.  He asks how long I’ll be there because he wants to go get his daughters to watch me fly.  Then he flags down a buddy to pull over and watch, too!  Party at Jimmy’s place!  He tops the day off by telling me that he respects all the riders in the races and thinks it’s a great thing for the county.  There are some awesome people in Page County!  Thanks Jimmy for letting me park on your property today.

Click here for more race photos from today.