El Mirage

It’s a fever, it’s a disease, it’s an addiction…It’s a lifestyle! I’m talking about land speed racing, racing on the dry lakes of the southern California desert or on the salt beds of ancient Lake Bonneville. Yes, I guess I have to admit it is a lifestyle for me.

When summer time rolls around most folks dream of taking vacations in an Exotic Island location, a distant shoreline, or some overpriced theme park where a rabbit mouse siphons’ money from your wallet! I dream of heading for the hostile parched climate of the dirt or salt to watch purpose built cars go really fast in a straight line. I’m not alone in this affliction thousands around the world are hopeless victims as well, there is no cure other than looking forward to the next race. I have now passed this affliction onto my two sons. I’m surprised that they will willingly spend countless hours in the desert sun watching roadsters move along at 250 mph!

This June the weather was perfect at El Mirage! A great time to take photos!

Film

Do you remember film? How about slide film? I remember just 10 years ago when I would go to the Bonneville Salt Flats to catch the races, and besides a case of my favorite cold drink, I would have a case of my favorite film. Usually it was Fuji Velvia. (Yes….I did keep the film in the Ice chest till I was ready to use it.) The brilliant colors of that chrome film are still unparalleled today. Here’s to the good old days.

Today, I have about five rolls of unprocessed film sitting in a cabinet just waiting. There’s no close places anymore to get medium format rolls processed! It used to be that a couple miles in any direction you could find a lab to process your film. Now the nearest place is twenty miles away! Twenty miles there and twenty miles back. Then you got to go pick up the film in a week so there is another forty miles tacked onto the trip. Add $4 dollar a gallon gas into the mix and a vehicle that only gets 15 miles a gallon. It gets expensive. On display are a couple of frames from a roll I took about 11 or 10 years ago on good ol’ fashioned Fuji Velvia film. It’s fun to reminisce isn’t it? Were the good ol days really that good? I have to admit I love my digital camera when I think of the instant gratification of photography.