Covering the Races - Daytona's Speed Weeks

For six years I had covered the Daytona 500 and I thought this was
going to be the year I didn't.

Lately I've been focusing on telling the
story of weddings and not NASCAR, but I got a phone call a
couple weeks ago. My roots are still in editorial and I still do quite a few of those assignments when they roll in and I don't have anything else. My old newspaper had credentialed me so I could help them out.

Like every other speed weeks, that I've covered, this one kept things
interesting. For the first time ever I had a chance to cover the pits during the race. I even had a chance to get up close to Keith Urban as he gave the media room a two song concert.

It's nice to mix things up every once in a while, it keeps me fresh.

Headed to Daytona!

When I grew up I knew what the Daytona 500 was, although I didn't know that much about it. Even when I interviewed for the job at the Daytona Beach News-Journal, I didn't put two and two together until Sam Cranston started asking me about race car drivers. Now that I have been here for six years I haven't missed a 500 and I can slide my way through a conversation with the die hard NASCAR fans.

I thought this would be the first year I was going to miss the race, but then I received a phone call the other day. The News-Journal told me I am credentialed and hired to help them with the races.

So it looks like I will be covering the Daytona 500 and the Speed Weed races leading up to. It will be the first time I am doing it as a freelancer. I will be available for contract work, that doesn't involve the actual cars on the track, if you know anyone looking.

Pilster Photography is advertising!

So I've taken some of that money that the Daytona Beach News-Journal paid me and gave it back to them, and this time it wasn't for a newspaper subscription. They will be coming out with their bridal tab/magazine February 22 in all editions. Also the tab will be given to every couple who puts their engagement in the newspaper.

I have heard thoughts from other photographers who have done advertising in print publications and not seen results. Some said that it really only brings brand recognition. In many cases I agree with them, but I have thought through it pretty thoroughly and I felt like taking a chance. Here is my reasoning.

1. I looked at last years tab, and although it has no influence over this tab, there were a very limited number of photographers advertising in it. If someone is looking at this and needs a photographer, hopefully I will stand out.

2. They cut me a pretty good deal for being a first time advertiser

3. Many of the ads are complex. Small pictures and small writing that would make you skip right by it on the page. My awesome brother Shane, who is a freelance graphic designer and a full time web page designer at Giant Ideas, helped me come up with an ad that is simple and will hopefully stand out. I'm hoping that the image is simple enough, but conveys my pictorial style, that it will pull the reader to it. I tried to keep the text as minimal as possible. I'm also hoping the text won't be too small, but we didn't want it to take away from the image. The whole ad will only be about as big as a business card.

4. Outside of networking with some amazing wedding planners and photographers. I haven't been seeing much response to my current ads with people who are in my market.

5. I'm hoping that with a down economy people will be cutting their ad spending, so there will be less of any types of ads allowing mine to stand out even more.

6. It's all one big experiment to see what works and what doesn't.

7. I believe that a lot of those I am marketing to, still read the newspaper, or at least their parents do. I've heard that parents can be influential decision makers for weddings these days.

8. I'm an awesome photographer and this is just one more place for me to show off one of my favorite photos from the wedding of Summer and John organized by Wonderful Weddings at Isleworth. I hope that others will get some enjoyment out of it, and maybe call me so I can tell the story of their weddings!

I'll definitely be watching my StatCounter closely on the 22nd!

Old times (File)

I'm hitting the rewind button here. I've been so swamped with stuff that some photos have fallen through the cracks. I just downloaded my card with pictures from my last day at the Daytona Beach News-Journal. It was on June 23rd.

I've talked about the day before. To recap, nothing was told to us but we knew something was up. I pulled out my camera and documented as much as I could.

It wouldn't be a documentary of my last day if I didn't have a shot of myself.


What a wonderful day for layoffs....


They were very welcoming...


The room of doom...


It helped that everyone, even those staying, had to clean out their desks. It's really too bad that there is no bureau in DeLand anymore, there are a lot of great stories and no one to do a decent job of covering them.


Ronald Williamson is the man! This guy is one of the greatest writers around. He can take you from place to place with his words. You won't know quite how you got there, but you'll know it was one of the greatest rides you ever had.