5 questions for David Vaughn

The Sporting News

Published September 19, 2007 at midnight

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This Toyota photographer travels the NASCAR Nextel Cup circuit in a motor home to provide the most convenient access to his job. Sporting News caught up with Vaughn as he was driving from New Hampshire to Dover, Del.

1 What led you to NASCAR photography?

I started working for a paper back home (in southern Illinois), doing some races. That paid very little. Then I started working for more national papers like Speed Sport News and Hawkeye Racing News. I also started working for LAT Photographic, a worldwide agency, and that took me to full-time status in this business. Toyota is a client of LAT.

2 What's the most difficult aspect of shooting NASCAR racing?

It's probably the access, shooting candid photos of drivers - building relationships with some of the people on the teams to be able to get access to shoot some of this stuff. Other than that, they're long days. You get to the track early and it's hot in the summer. After you leave the track, you have a lot of images to edit, so, sometimes, you keep working for four, five or six hours.

3 How many miles do you log in your motor home every year?

This year, it'll probably be close to 40,000. If I didn't fly to seven races or so, it would be a lot more.

4 Why don't you fly?

I try to avoid some of the traffic and the time-consuming travel back and forth to hotels and having to move your gear in and out of your hotel room every day because you don't want to leave your gear in a rental car. You have thousands and thousands of dollars of equipment with you.

5 Which drivers are most comfortable in front of a camera?

Dale Jarrett, for instance, is a great driver to work with. When we're out on the grid for qualifying, or before a race, he'll stand posed leaning up against the car. He might stand there and face you, cross his arms, look this way and that way - he gives you a huge variety of stuff without having to say anything to him. For me, on the photography side of things, if they were all like Dale Jarrett, it would make things really, really easy.

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