ASK Cubby- Whoop, Here Comes Your Answers!

“Photography

I have been admiring the action photography in your reviews, do you have any tips for an aspiring rc photographer?

Pete C.”

Cubby- Heyyyy now Petey, what’s up with ya? Thanks for writing in and be sure to send us your snail mail for the hook-up on one of our uber sticker packs.

Ya know, rc photography is not easy. I often relate it to attempting to catch a clear shot of a cat running around with its tail on fire. The subject is small, fast, and you never know where it is gonna go next.

So here ya go, here is Cubby’s List Of How To Improve Your Noobie RC Photography-

1. The obvious. By obvious I mean get yourself a decent DSLR and practice. Then practice more. Then practice more, then practice a LOT more.

2. Always shoot with the sun at your back. Ok, maybe not “always”, but for most rc action photography the sun is your friend, and pictures just look better when you are not shooting from the shadow side of the car. Some very cool and dramatic shots can be had from the shadow side, but if you are noobie, make life easier on yourself and shoot with the sun to your back.

3. Speaking of the sun, light is your friend in photography, especially when shooting a small, fast, rc car. Overcast days present a lot less light, thus making you go to slower shutter speeds, which in turn can make it harder to get a pristine shot. Shoot on sunny days when ya can.

4. Don’t shoot up close, get back a ways. This will require a long lens, but it keeps you from having to pan the camera quickly. The slower you pan, the more likely you are to get a clear shot.

5. Also to make it easier to get a good, clean shot, keep the car’s speed to a minimum, but have a lot of wheel speed. The faster a car goes, the harder it will be to get a clean shot.

6. Assuming you aren’t shooting a picture of a car sitting still, you need to be sure and capture some sort of action in the shot. Speed/action can be represented in the photo by roost, a big ballooning tire, or plenty of blur on a spinning tire. Ever see a pic of a car jumping a double, but the shutter speed was too fast and all four wheels are perfectly in focus? It makes it look like the car isn’t moving, which looks really odd when going over a double. Same can be said about a corner shot, cars just look “odd” if some sort of action is not shown.

7. Shoot only in SoCal. All the smog lets in a lot of light, but without the harsh reflections or shadows. Just say’n…

There ya go brah, practice some of those and be sure to shoot me some pics in a couple months once you are getting some epic shots.

“Tire Loyalty

Cubby,

I read over on Facebook where a factory driver just got busted using tires from a company he does not represent. What are you feelings on the subject?

Sincerely,
Tom B.”

Cubby- Yo hey Tommy, thanks as always for writing in.

No, I have not read what you are talking about, but it isn’t uncommon for something like that to occur. It isn’t uncommon in rc, or motocross, or in many other forms of racing.

I don’t know if you’ve ever raced rc or not, but I have been for close to 30 years now. I can tell you from first hand experience that using one set of tires might give you a fast lap of 20 seconds. Then you might try another set and your fast lap suddenly drops to 19.5. Simply by bolting up different tires you can drop half a second per lap, all the while not driving one bit harder or making any other changes. When your livelihood is racing rc cars and your paycheck depends on winning races, dropping a half second a lap is a HUGE deal, one that is really hard to pass up.

With that said, I am old school. When you sign on the dotted line to represent a company, you represent them and their products for the duration of the contract, NO MATTER WHAT. There are a lot of tracks where a certain brand of tire is simply the fastest, while there are other tracks where another brand might be a bit faster. IMO, these guys need to remember “you win some and you lose some”. It is much more admirable to come in 4th place at a race doing your best to represent your tire company than to get a first by running another brand for the day. Some people just gotta learn that one the hard way…

In closing, rc is a Very small industry. Torquing off one sponsor has a much larger snowball effect in the long run than most factory drivers realize.

And there it is folks, once again you’ve read the entire thing. Ya know, your question/rant/idea can be in ASK Cubby too, all ya have to do is write in. Letters that make the big time will earn you a free BSRC sticker pack, while making “Letter of the Month” will win you one of our uber t-shirts. thecubreportrc at gmail dot com

YOUR Cub Reporter