Last updated July 5, 2005

These galleries will always be in process, so please check back occasionally!

Also, I no longer display my racing galleries here.  For a complete look at my work, check my photo sale page at www.speedweavergraphics.com.

Speedweaver Graphics
I have been shooting kart racing now for about 6 years. I have always offered my shots to magazines and websites for free to help promote our club. I feel that I have done my part in getting Badger Kart Club to be a nationally renown club! 

Over the past couple of years, I have been getting more and more requests from people to buy my photos. I have always accommodated them but not without a lot of work!  For some reason, getting a photo of mine to print on an inkjet printer seems to escape me!  I can do it but not without burning up 3-5 sheets of photo paper and half my ink!

Therefore, in 2004, I contracted with an online photo shopping website to host my photos. In addition, their software allows viewers to purchase the photos at prices "I" dictate. Like I have said before, I don't plan to retire off of this income, so I've kept my prices pretty low. Additionally, they have a great interface to a local lab so I can electronically send the purchased photos to them and have them professionally printed by the lab!  And they do great work!

So if you like a photo you see online, please feel free to purchase it! If you are not 100% satisfied, I will refund your money!  If you have a request - special cropping of a photo, text overlay, racing trading cards, or a special shot you want me to take, feel free to contact me! Heck! I'm out there shooting for that week's magazine/newspaper articles anyhow so just let me know!

Mike's Photo History
As you know, I fancy myself as an amateur/pro photographer. I have taken a boatload of schooling on photography and I always am reading on it, or playing with it.

It all started around 1981 when I bought a 1976 Minolta XG7 SLR. Man, I loved that camera (and still do). I bought it from a friend who knew photography pretty well. I shot literally a thousand photos without any training or schooling. I got good enough to load it in the dark (I have some awesome concert photos!). I bought zooms, filters, EVERYTHING for it!

In 1996, I decided to go back to college to get my bachelor's degree in Business. Well, I needed an Art credit so why not photography??? I went to Carroll College in Waukesha, near my house. Phil K.(?) was an eccentric, but awesome, instructor. I learned so much in just one course that I fell in love with it.

Although it really was an "Intro to Art" class, I still had to learn all about the camera and how to develop my own film and photos. I got even better at shooting nature and objects. But I got really good at shooting people inside the college's studio! I shot a couple of my friends that first semester and they still have those photos framed at their house! Well, needless to say, I got a solid "A" in the course.

I then moved on to the Advanced class because I loved it so much. There I Iearned a lot more advanced art and photography. Again, I shot a lot of people because I somehow knew how to shoot them well and make them feel and look great! My favorite to date is a full-sized collage of color photos I shot of my niece Tasha. I hope her mom still has it! I shot really close up at her body (clothed!) and then pasted them all together on a big board after getting them developed. Of course you move the camera in and out an inch or two and Whala! Instant Picasso!

I then bought some used b/w darkroom equipment and set up a darkroom in my house in Waukesha. I then took 3 "self study" photography courses at Carroll and Phil helped guide me as to what I would try and do. I still use what I learned back then today! Unfortunately, my new house in New Berlin didn't really have a good place to set up my darkroom and I abandoned b/w. I now shoot color only and digital. Keep reading!

When I got into kart racing, around 1998 I started bringing my Minolta out to the track and shooting karts. I took "OK" shots as I had never done action before - especially FAST action. However, I started getting frustrated in that it costs MONEY to develop photos for people who don't pay you! So in 2000, I bought a digital camera. A point-and-shoot Kodak. As simple as that camera was, I began shooting some fantastic shots of karting and my family, which I posted on my website or let Badger post on theirs. I also became the PR guy for Badger Kart club and my photos were getting published in racing papers constantly.

In 2002, I was asked to shoot the WKA Manufacturer's Cup race in Ocala professionally! I had never been paid for my work before so I was actually very nervous. I took my trusty Minolta with me and my digital as well as my friend's digital as backups. As I shot hundreds of photos that weekend, I was really bothered by the fact that I couldn't instantly see my shots with my film camera and I began relying on the digital more and more.

Afterwards, when I reviewed my developed photos, I of course had some good shots. But ironically, I had more good shots with my digital point and shoot! So now I was mad. So I researched digital cameras. OUCH they're expensive. However, I found a Minolta Dimage 5 for around $600 on the internet and bought it. It was a full-featured digital SLR and it was a Minolta.

Although the camera was definitely not the same as the $3000 Nikon digital, it absolutely took me to the next level! In fact, if you peruse the galleries in here, I'll bet you can tell which photos I used the expensive digital on! Although this camera took me to the next level, I had a bunch of beefs with it. It's reaction time from when I clicked the button to when it shot was awful! It's auto focus was horribly slow and inaccurate for racing and because the viewfinder was actually a digital image instead of a true image, focusing manually was very hard.

So, in 2003 I bought a used Olympia E-10 digital SLR with two add-on lenses - a 200mm and a 300mm!  I bought the entire setup from a pro racing photographer who just upgraded himself.  At first I used the auto focus and let the camera do all the settings automatically. But in 2004, I really started experimenting with tips I got from other photographers and my work got even better. So today, I am taking shots that I can use myself! I have printed photos of my karts, racers, and my family all over the house!

The only downside with the E-10 is it's 4-megapixel limit.  So now I'm researching new SLR's around 6-8mps.  Ouch!