Hey everyone, your host BB here with you guys once again and today as a change of pace here's a special blog for y'all.

My name is Rich Singer and I'm Terminator Motorsport's in-house graphic artist and photographer. Berserko and Gilby thought it would be interesting for you readers to have a look at what I do here at Terminator Motorsports, so I decided to write a blog.

My position encompasses many duties. As a graphic artist (I had my own sign shop for many years), I'm responsible for designing and overseeing the production of anything printed; from sponsorship proposals to business cards to autograph cards to hospitality passes ... and then some! Not only for the race team, but for TEMCO and Trick Tank as well. My duties also include maintaining the Trick Tank website, Jake's motocross Web site, and overseeing the maintenance of www.bobgilbertson.com. I make most of the decals for the Funny Car as well as the decals on all the Trick Tank Products. I design all the logos and lay out magazine ads for Trick Tank Racing Products. I also make signs and banners for both the race team and TEMCO, as well as the motocross team. Driver uniform & crewshirts? I design those, too.

As the team photographer, I get to travel to some of the races to shoot images for our team stock image library. These photos are used for anything from sponsorship proposals to autograph cards, advertisements for our sponsors and of course, bobgilbertson.com. A lot of my photos end up in magazines and, newspapers, as part of my job is to make sure we see as much of Gilby in print as possible. Providing publications with good shots certainly helps. Sure there are lots of photographers at the track week after week, but they're spread thin between many teams and its hard for them to devote the time to one team that I do for ours. I know that because at one time I did exactly what they do in NASCAR. It was a lot of fun, and I had some great shots published in major publications including the late Dale Earnhardt on the cover of People magazine. But working for just our team affords me the ability to spend more time getting specific shots I need for projects I have going on back at the office.

Shooting at the track is a cool job, but it’s far from all fun and games. It entails getting to the track early, making sure all my gear is in working order and all my batteries are charged up and ready to go. Sometimes just getting my gear to the track is a chore in and of itself. It also means having all the different lenses I need to get the various shots with me as well as plenty of memory cards. But when all that's checked off the list, nothing beats standing at the wall anticipating the launch of the fire-breathing nitro burners. And meeting the challenge of finding just the right balance of shutter speed, aperture and camera sensitivity to capture the car sharp, the background motion blurred and both sides flaming. This is very tricky even for a seasoned photographer with years of experience shooting stock cars. I remember the first time I stepped up to the wall and for the life of me couldn't get a shot with both sides flaming. I also remember the first time I stood at the starting line behind Gilby as he launched. My body shook so hard I couldn't get a shot off. I've come a long way since then with the help and friendly advice of some of the more seasoned veteran photographers at the strip and just plain trial and error … more of the latter!

If you'd like to check out some of my work go to: www.kwikshots.com

I'm really looking forward to the up-coming Carolinas Nationals next month at zMax Dragway as racing in our own backyard is exciting and being able to sleep in my own bed sure beats the heck out of another weekend in a hotel. If you're coming to the race stop by our pit and say hi.

Rich Singer