Celebrities at Grand Prix of Long Beach

What an AMAZING weekend! Three days of non-stop shooting. A wedding on Friday night (post still pending), and Saturday and Sunday I had a wonderful opportunity to shoot all-access at the Grand Prix of Long Beach. Yep, I said ALL-ACCESS!! I jumped at this opportunity since this would be my first attempt shooting track side at any professional race. For those who know me, understand my love fast cars! After all, if I had my chance, I would love to be a Formula 1 driver! But that wont happen in this lifetime..

My day started at 4:30am, I finished charging my camera batteries and downloading images from last nights wedding. I only had 4 hours of sleep and since i’m not much of a morning person, dragging my tired, lazy butt out of bed was a challenge. I packed my gear and was on the road by 5:20am. I wanted to get an early start since I really didn’t know my way around Long Beach due to the different street closures for this race. Plus, I still had to pick up my press credentials at a separate location (Long Beach Hilton). To top things off, I had a mandatory media/press meeting at 7am! This was waay too many things for me to manage this early in the morning, without being armed with breakfast nor coffee.. Luckily everything worked out and i was able to make my mandatory meeting. Even better, they had free Starbucks at the meeting! Must. get. coffee!!!

The big event today was the Pro/Celebrity race. Luckily for me I was able to get into this event. I didn’t realize that there was a separate credential list I needed to be on, in order for me to access these festivities.. Luckily, I met some people, who know some people..