Travel

About two weeks ago I came across a post on craigslist that read “Wanted: photog for Baja 1000”.  That’s about all the information included and about all the info I needed.  After a quick consult with the eldest Jorgensen brother we quickly determined that this was an opportunity that could not be missed.  Two emails later we had our instructions:

CONSIDER YOURSELVES TO BE HIRED.
PREPARE TO MEET ME OR ONE OF MY GUYS ON WEDNESDAY MORNING IN A TOWN CALLED OJOS NEGROS, ABOUT 25 MILES EAST OF ENSENADA.
JIM OBER, TRACKSIDE PHOTO.

Visions of Hunter S. Thompson’s coverage of the Mint 400 immediately came to mind, although our adventure turned out to be much less drug infused than Fear and Loathing.  We set out Wednesday morning at dawn to meet the rest of the crew in Ojos Negros, a tiny town (if you can call it that) in central Baja, about 100 miles south of the boarder. We pulled into the Ojos Negros Motel, which appeared to be one of two functioning business in town, and sat down with Jim and a couple other seasoned race shooters over a plate of machaca and eggs.  Jim has been covering the Baja 1000 for over 40 years, he knows what he is doing.  We got some brief instructions, were handed a radio, and were told to follow him another 25 miles down the road to a dirt road turn off.

Jim came over the radio explaining that we were now on part of the actual Baja 1000 race course and that we would be doing a “prerun” of about a 10 mile segment.  We would be looking for shooting locations, anything with a dip, bump, or jump… anything that would put the 300 plus vehicles that would run the race the next day up in the air. Another veteran shooter comes over the radio to explain the golden rule of selling off road racing photos “if they ain’t flying, they ain’t buying”.. sounds simple enough to me. Jim is barking orders over the radio while flying down some of the roughest dirt roads I have ever been on.  He insists that I take perfect notes on where were are, how we got there, and exact distances from point to point so that we can find our chosen location the next morning in pitch dark before dawn.  Taking notes is not easy to do while prerunning the Baja 1000…

We found our spot,  a nicely graded out spectator area in the middle of the desert, with a big dirt jump built right into the middle of the race course.. this should get em flying.  We were off again, back on the course to find locations for the other shooters, then back to the hotel for dinner and an early bed time. We would be up at 4am the next morning.

That’s it for now, more about our shooting day and photos will come soon. For now here are a couple panoramas from our trip.. The first is out front of our hotel in the bustling town of Ojo’s Negros, and the second is a sequence shot of the race in full action..

_CLICK IMAGES BELOW TO LOAD PANORAMAS_