Tug of War in 55mm.

Banks is a small town in Oregon that on most days is a bit sleepy, yet polite, and a fine place to start a bicycle ride in the country. But on a hot Sunday afternoon last week the town came alive for a tractor pull competition and a combine demolition derby of all things.

Now I don’t pretend to be an expert on motor sports such as this and I don’t live in this town. What I do have is a press pass and camera, which gave me access to the infield of the track. Always looking for something off the beaten path and being a lover of the vibrant in life, this was an action photography shoot that was a lot of fun to do.

If you look closely at the nearest combine, you can see the reflection of its cab in the dust.

For many of the shots I chose a 55mm focal length because I discovered that, for one reason or another, when combined with ISO 200 in bright sun the color pops. This tends to be true whether a polarizing filter is used (it was here). And this event was delightfully saturated with color to begin with.

Adventures in new places, such as this, is why I got into photography.