It’s almost strange to say, but with the long winter off and a lot of work done behind the livestream camera, working OSCR VI feels like a return to something I hadn’t done in forever. I think LS Fest East 2018 was the last time I really burned through photos in any real regard, and it was certainly the last time I really had to keep up with the machines I was shooting. Returning to the walls of Beech Bend always feels like a homecoming, and shooting Pro Mods brings me back to why I love doing what I do. It’s a fun job, but I always have to remember that at the end of the day, it’s still a job…we cover events and make content for you.

Shooting properly fast cars at a drag strip requires energy, motivation, and timing. If you don’t have those three things, you wind up with blurry photos, cropped cars, and the like. Since I don’t do energy drinks anymore, and because I can’t stand coffee, I have to get a bit unorthodox in my motivational methods. In my case, it’s music: the faster and angrier, the better, but I don’t want hyper-thrash screaming that’s fast just for the sake of being fast. I wouldn’t dare say I’m picky about my music, just that I have my favorites.

Today’s Tune-Up is one of my current playlist features. Mark Morton is the lead guitarist for the band Lamb of God and their alter-ego version, Burn The Priest, whose cover of “Jesus Built My Hot Rod” we covered a little while back. He’s been working on a solo project for years and “Cross Off” is one of those tracks. Recorded with Chester Bennington of Linkin Park in one of his final bits of work, and featuring Trivium’s Paolo Gregoletto on bass and and Alex Bent on drums, the song was a project that Bennington was eager to try out. He was looking forward to trying out a heavier sound than what he had been doing, and helped create the final sound of the song. You can read into the lyrics or the video’s “missing singer” setup and how it relates to Bennington’s 2017 suicide all you want, but I hear two things in the song: heavy music and a singer going ballistic.

I’ll be living on music like this all weekend long, so hit play, crank the volume, and enjoy a brief insight into my head as I snap off pictures!