Call me a creature of the digital age or just a creature of instant gratification—I’ll plead guilty to both—but waiting for pictures really sucks. And nowhere is that more true than in the world of offshore powerboat racing and poker runs, where the pictures of the boats running, at least to the owners of the boats in the images, are often more important than the events themselves.
Powerboat photographer and videographer Jeff Gerardi of Freeze Frame knows this all too well. For 36 years, he’s had customers asking him, “When am I going to get my pictures?” (A good problem to have, Gerardi freely admits.) To expedite the process, Gerardi recently purchased a motor home complete with its own generator and a high-definition printer, so he can create large prints on location at races and poker runs. He debuted his new mobile lab at the Offshore Super Series “Smokin’ the Sound” event May 20-23 in Biloxi, Miss.
“I knock out prints and bring them to the awards ceremonies,” Gerardi told me earlier today. “That’s when everybody is pumped and really wants to see their photos. People really appreciate it.”