Portland Gallery Reader's Choice

According to our voters, the Portland gallery was the best yet. Rain and clouds, sun and spills, and a great road course made the 3 day event a very successful photo trip. Plus, we had two photographers at the track, which really helped to catch important moments of the weekened.

Voter turnout was well up, most likely a result of my vote summaries now being mailed to all voters who have participated in previous contests. With 72 votes in a single week, this was definitley a busy vote, especially since we are now in the offseason, when people aren't supposed to care about racing, right? ;-)

This week's vote was a battle between two images - the Paul Tracy smoke stunt, and the race deciding (season deciding?) move of Zanardi past Al Junior. The action shot was too strong, though, and Detroit Diesel led from the first vote with a good margin. In spite of these two very strong photos, many others found fans, too. 17 of the 28 images were chosen as favorites by someone.

My own favorites? Hard to say, but I love the colors in "Battleship Fittipaldi" as well as the strange light that was above Emmo when I took the "It's a Shame" shot in the pits, possibly the best shot of Emmo in a car I will ever be able to take...

Here the complete vote ranking for the Portland Gallery:

Filename                     Thumbnail Caption        votes  percent
smokemaster_paul.jpg         Detroit Diesel              27  37.50%
seeya_junior.jpg             Seeya Junior                17  23.61%
digging.jpg                  Herdez Excavation, Inc.      6   8.33%
emmo_lurks.jpg               It's a Shame                 4   5.56%
itchy_nagen.jpg              I've got an Itchy Nagen      3   4.17%
moore_in_the_meadow.jpg      Portland Grasslands          2   2.78%
the_trafficmeisters.jpg      Portolando Trafficmeisters   2   2.78%
battleship_fittipaldi.jpg    Battleship Fittipaldi        2   2.78%
looks_like_water.jpg         Where did the Wipers go?     1   1.39%
look_at_the_drops.jpg        Big Water                    1   1.39%
zoom_the_sippy_hole.jpg      Zoom the Sippy Hole          1   1.39%
meister_mike.jpg             And Where is my Teammate?    1   1.39%
bobbys_windsock.jpg          Bobby's Windsock             1   1.39%
double_nametag.jpg           Double Pruett                1   1.39%
untied_shoe.jpg              Bobby, Your Shoe is Untied   1   1.39%
agricultural_aftermath.jpg   Dirty Feet                   1   1.39%
clean_me.jpg                 No Underbody Wash            1   1.39%
 total                                                   72 100.00%

Mr. Excitement Paul Tracy rewards the photographers for their patience on a gray Portland day. Exiting the Festival turns, he tried to feel out the limits of traction under accelleration, and as he realized he was losing the rear end, he decided to try for a 360 degree spin - NOT! It all stalled at about 270 degrees in this huge plume of vaporized Goodyears, pointing straight at me. Instant high-fives among all photo people - he made the day for us!