The quiet before the storm Options

[Demick]

Things have been pretty quiet in the planning forum the last week. I take that as a good sign. All things are in motion and don't need much group discussion. Rob and I have been very busy with autocross planning and are coming together nicely.

2 weeks and counting......

Demick

[Keith Sammons]

(IMG:style_emoticons/default/blink.gif) I think that the large chunks are done and it's just a question of fine tuning. Will be making the final test of the Monterey Run next week w/Jeff and anybody else who wishes to come along. I have to get a insurance rider going w/NCRC for Laguna. Afterwards, I believe that we will give everybody their choice of activity(17 Mile Dr/Carmel Valley/Laurel Ridge, Carmel shopping, Monterey Aquarium, etc.). The only thing missing are tech sessions, but there doesn't seem to be any time space to hold them.

KK

[Demick]

Do we have an approximate timeline for activities on Friday? Just wondering what to expect and trying to figure out approximately when I might get home.

Demick

[JeffBowlsby]

I am finalizing the registration conformation packets right now, which will be mailed out on Monday. There will be an event schedule included which will hopefully answer most detail questions.

The Friday breakfast will start at 8:00 am sharp, so get there earlier to sign in and get your goodie bags and meet people. We need to eat and get on the road at 9:14 (IMG:style_emoticons/default/wink.gif) so that we can make it to Laguna by 11:30. Its a 2hr-15 trip at least through the backroads. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/biggrin.gif) Keith tells me that the opportunity to get onto Laguna is only a brief window over the lunch hour, when the group renting the track that day takes a lunch break, so we don't want to be late. After that there will be a map provided with various places to sightsee as Keith mentioned...basically you are on your own to do what you wish in Montery and get back home, after Laguna. Ken Schipper will lead a pack for wehoever wants to see teh 17-Mile drive....There are also more twisties available for anyone who so wishes...All will be on the map.

[carreraguy]

Keith, a few questions re: Laguna Seca for which you may already have the answers but I thought I would raise them:

- I assume we will have to stage the cars somewhere at Laguna before getting permission to enter the track. Where are we staging? The lot near the entrance close to turn 5? We could line up like we did for the SCCA parade laps a few weeks ago. This will take some thought on how to do it safely/efficiently.
- Who/what will be the pace car?
- Unless someone has a better idea I propose turn 3 for the group shot at Laguna with the tire bridge in the background and the cars facing away from the tire bridge; i.e. facing the "wrong way" on the track (similar to John Peterson's photo attached).
- If we plan on using turn 3 for the group shot, I assume we will do a few laps, do a u-turn somehwere or turn off the track and return in the opposite direction to turn 3. Some thought should be put into how this will be safely/efficiently done since time will be at a premium. Maybe turn off the track at turn 5, u-turn in the parking area and drive back on track using the same exit point but in the opposite course direction, drive thru turn 4 to turn 3 to stage for the photo? I'm guessing we will most likely need to do 5-6 rows of cars, 10-12 cars per row with some cars off the track on each side.

Other stuff: I was investigating a photo op at the Pruneyard garage rooftop but have not heard back from the garage owners. Considering that fact, plus considering it will be very hard to set a time that would accomodate assembling 60+ cars for the shoot, I recommend we skip the proposed Pruneyard shoot.

I still intend to have a support car for the Monterey Run which will carry a ladder for elevated shots.

[JeffBowlsby]

Those are some good thought s about the group shot Tom.

I presume that in the interest of time we will skip the other stops and shots we considered on the twisty Road Tour...Calero, Madonna and Elkhorn. I am sure some will stop maybe at Madonna and Elkhorn, but just for momentary breaks. All other shots including the Pruneyard can be just unstaged casual photos. One good quality high-res photo would be my goal. Brad told me he thinks that Excellence magazine might be at Laguna too, for us.

At Laguna, I dont know how much time we will have, but should we set-up for the group photo first, then use any remaining time for parade laps? I assume you are turning us around at Turn 3 because the lighting is better? Once this is figured out, I will create a small diagram in the event brochure to show people where to be for the photo. I hope it will help coordinate the set-up.

About the chase car with the ladder. It may be possible for one of the trailered cars to haul the ladder to make it easier for you and your son. They will drive straight from the breakfast to Laguna. If we only need the ladder at Laguna, should I ask them to haul it for us? One of them already offered to do that.

[Demick]

That Laguna shot above looks like a ton of cars, but I tried to count them (approximately). There are about 75 cars in that picture. So we will have a similar number of cars! Wow. That really puts it in prespective!

Demick

[VegasRacer]

I assume you are turning us around at Turn 3 because the lighting is better?

That shot was taken in the fall in the early afternoon. For lighting for our shot wouldn't it be better to shoot from the other side of the bridge looking back? North at Laguna is counter course up the front straight. If we pose the same as the posted shot the sun will be behind the cars. How high would you guess the photographer is for that shot? 20 ft? How tall is your ladder?

One good quality high-res photo would be my goal.

I dont know how much time we will have, but should we set-up for the group photo first

I will create a small diagram in the event brochure to show people where to be for the photo.

(IMG:style_emoticons/default/agree.gif) Even with the best plans I expect the placement of the cars to be a bit of a cluster-fuck. We need to have a great plan and synchronised precission execution to get it done in time for a parade lap or two. If we can let eveyone know exctly where they are supposed to be and stage all the cars in the proper order, It will help make things go more smoothly. We really only have one chance to get it right.

There was mention a while ago that maybe we would have access to the roof at the swap meet site on Sunday. This might be an opportunity for a back up location without a lot of extra planning effort.

[carreraguy]

Jeff:

Okay, we'll skip the Pruneyard group shot idea, all the other group shots and only plan on a group shot at Laguna and only use the ladder at Laguna. I'll plan on going out with you guys next weekend to eyeball the lighting at Laguna for that time of day; please let me know the details.

Sure, if someone will haul the ladder, my son can ride with me. Problem is, how do I get the ladder to them? I can bring it to Coyote in my wagon, but we'll have to hook up with them at Coyote when its all over to get it back. Email me with the volunteer's name and I will contact him and see if we can work something out.


John:

Duh, I was not "focusing" on the lighting but more on the background. You are right, light is the prime consideration but I think background is important too, thats why I thought of the tire bridge. In a perfect world, 60 cars on the Corkscrew would be a dream shot but probably impossible to pull off because of all the angles, lighting etc. I think the best thing to do would be to go to the track at the same time with a different eye than I had last time since then I did not know the track would be available to us. But, aside from lighting, its still the same problem of height, distance, lens and formation of cars. The shot at turn 9 is nice but the camera needs to be closer, higher and the background is not that photogenic. Granted, background is probably the last consideration, all things considered. If Excellence will have a photographer there, I will ask what he thinks of course!

I think planning the arrangement of the cars for the big shot at Laguna is a good idea, but what system to use. Line up by number assigned? That would probably be the easiest to arrange but does not account for years, colors etc. IMHO, I recommend we do it by the numbers Jeff already assigned and line up that way, otherwise too much planning/coordination is involved.

My ladder is a very hefty "Little Giant" style, 12ft tall using as a "A" frame or 24ft if leaning on something. My guess the photo at turn 3 was taken somewhere between 10-15 feet up. If necessary perhaps the ladder can be placed on top of a truck?

I am not familiar with the layout for the swap meet/concours so we will have to "wing" that shoot since the time factor will not be as critical.

[JeffBowlsby]

For anyone that wants to make the final pre-event road tour drive, I have scheduled it for this next Saturday, May 29. Meet at the Coyote Creek Golf club parking lot and we will leave at 1:00pm, I expect to return by 5:00pm, it wil be just a quick jaunt down and back to test teh map and resolve any issues. I have contacted several volunteers who will be pod leaders...'guide cars'...who will be there to drive with us and become familiar with the route.

We will also be able to scope out Laguna a little bit better while we are there.

Tom, there are several people who will have their 914s on trailers at the event, non-streetable race cars. Bernie Thomas - aka' Bernbomb' will be traliering his car directly to Laguna and not doing the road tour so he could meet us there with the ladder. Can you find his contact him to coordinate? Let me know if you need my help. He is at bernbomb914@verizon.net

The swapmeet views are not advantageous unfortunately, but there is nothing we can do about it. The area that they have assigned us is the parking between two adjacent buildings set at angles to each other. The parking configuration, whilke dedicated to our 914CLub, is in plan, like a 3-fingered 'Y'shape between the two buildings and a rear fence. Each leg of the 'Y' is double loaded in that there can be cars facing each other-two rows in parallel, but it willl not be possible to get all 75 cars visble in one frame due to the layout and visibilty blockages. We may be able to get elevated and a 12 foot ladder would go along way here, but I dont know if we can get on the buildings. These photos will have to very much candids and impromptu. There will be alot to see that day. Ask me any other specific questions if you need to.

[carreraguy]

Jeff:

Thanks, will contact Bernie. I sent you a PM.

[VegasRacer]

One of the most obvious part of our group photo of the cars will be their color. The primary options would be to either group similar colored cars together or go for the maximum diversity. I think a more random looking shot would be better. There would still need to be a plan so that no 2 cars the same color are next to each other, and the brightest / darkest ones are equally spread out. Another way to make the shot more interesting would be to have all the cars in the 1st row with their tops off. The second row would all have the targa tops on.... and so on.

What is the exact count on the number of cars? Is is 64 or will there be more? The more we can plan before the shoot, the quicker and easier things will be and the results are sure to be better.

I will also be driving my trailerd car directly from breakfast to the track. LMK if I can help with the ladder or in any other special way.

[carreraguy]

John/Jeff:

The cars can be arranged any number of ways and this would take some detailed planning; I will defer to others (you/Jeff?/Keith?) to make the decisions as to how the cars are to be organized for the shot. As mentioned previously I think the lineup should driven by the already assigned participant number to ease planning/coordination, but I expect that the lineup can be determined well in advance since Jeff has all the details re: the participant's cars, colors, years etc. and I am assuming ONLY registered cars will be in the shoot.

Its hard to tell exactly how many cars abreast we can fit into the picture until we know exactly where and from what angle the shot will be made. Assuming we want to get as close as possible, we would have to use a wide angle since a tele would limit the field of view. Judging by your shot of 52 Miatas at Turn 10, 4 abreast is easily doable but I think we would want to go to 8-10 abreast to get as much detail/cars as possible. Some areas of the track will likely allow 10 abreast easier than others. I'll do some more research when I go out there next Saturday.

Thanks for the offer re: the ladder, I already emailed Bernie to see if he can carry it.

[Demick]

Just my 2 cents, but I think it will be nearly impossible to try and arrange all of the cars in a certain way. Sure, it sounds easy to arrange them by WCC number, but just try and cordinate that with 65 cars. That's a line of cars 1/4 mile long!

I think you should only worry about the cars in the first 2 rows. Arrange for color/type or whatever. Put some of the nicest cars in those rows. Beyond that I wouldn't worry about what color or type of car ends up where. Nobody will really see beyond the first couple of rows anyway. Beyond that is just a sea of 914's.

Demick

[carreraguy]

Demick:

I agree that lining up by WCC number would be a hassle, but IMHO it would be a much lesser hassle than lining them up by another system. Additionally, I would not want to be the guy deciding what the 20-or-so "nicest" cars are since that would be a very subjective decision.

[rick 918-S]

Everyone, FYI: I spoke with the guy doing the trophies. He told me he would have them done tomorrow(May 25,).

No total yet.