See these two guys and their Mini? I’m going to be their Service Crew Manager for the 2011 Monte Carlo Historic Rally. Yes that rally, put on by the same people who host the F1 and WRC events in Monaco, L’Automobile Club de Monaco. These two Mad Englishmen, John Morrow and Bill Richards have asked me to join their team and help them win their class at the 2011 event.
My duties will be wrangling the service team, and making sure we’re in the right places, at the right times, with tires, tools and fuel (for both the Mini and the guys in the Mini!), and documenting the whole experience via photographs, video, and the written word.
John sent me an invitation a couple of weeks ago, and we have been engaged in an email Q&A session for a while to determine if I am the right guy for the position. We met for a few beers last night at a spot in Snohomish, halfway between his home in Bellevue, and mine in Arlington, and I agreed to join this band of lunatics. Wish us well.
I started off the “documentation” part of my duties with a few photographs:
More news coming soon.
Chuck, you lucky dog! Hey MD…need a crack Mini wrench, too?
Good luck, break a leg, happy sailing, all that rot! I can’t WAIT to hear alll about it.
Follow that bliss, CG….doors will open… 🙂
Photo-geek aside: Those shots were taken with the very well-regarded Panansonic 20mm/f1.7 ASPH lens. Behind John’s shoulders is a BRIGHT south-facing window, so the fact that any detail is apparent in his face, much less his dark coat, is nothing short of amazing. I shot RAW and used Aperture 3 to pull details out of the shadows and white balance off a shot of a grey card I carry in my camera bag. There were neon signs off the right edge of the frame that were making odd tiny lens flares when the f-stop was wide open – a lens hood would have helped. I just fixed them in Photoshop. I love the bokeh… so I think I found the right lens for a lot of the detail shooting I do.
Congrats sir! Can’t wait to see the photos.
tres bon!
Congratulations !
Make sure you share the dates and start details on time. I want to be in Reims
for the start and meet you all there if possible. Will you install the “time lapse”
camera in the mini ? I look forward to see all your good photos. He by the way this
will be a nice opportunity to practice french.
Best wishes to the team !
Merci Philippe.
I doubt we’ll have room or time to fiddle with the equipment required to get a time lapse rig in the Mini, sorry.
As for the Français, I may contact you offline for help with that!