My racing pics are boring

[chevyasylum]

I've recently (like last year) gotten back into doing some road racing photography as a hobby. I did some while I was a GI in Europe in the late 60s, but times have really changed.

After finding a Sony Point-n-Shoot digital and my old Pentax Spotmatic lacking, I bought a Canon Rebel XT with a 2gb fast card and a 75-300 zoom lens. I'm real happy with the technical results of the pics. Those that I've done this year are here:http://www.chevyasylum.com/racing07/Welcome.html

All of the events I shot were done with the Canon. Now: I have some constraints I have to deal with. I'm disabled as the result of some heart trouble and I can't walk all around the track to get lots of different perspectives, although that would be nice, especially when the light turns against me. I should mention that all these races have been at Miller Motorsports Park in Tooele, Utah. It's one BIG track....the perimeter configuration is a little over 3 miles, while the full course is 4.5 miles or thereabouts.

The other thing is that I haven't been able to convince the people at the track to grant me press credentials so that I could get into more interesting locations. Since I just do this for grins, and have no accreditation, it's, "tough luck, Charlie." So I'm kinda limited in the areas I can get to, although I have no problem getting into the paddock area.

I would have investigated a few other angles at the last race, but I wasn't up to hiking around in 100+ temps...just being there for 12 hours wore me out completely. Sorry for the whine, but it's part of the story.

One of the other constraints is that I try to get at least one shot of each car that's competing. In the past when I've done photography on the Bonneville Salt Flats (I hope to be there again in August) I've had people email me and ask if I got any shots of their race vehicles. So I try to shoot what's there.

Finally, I don't mind "art shots" as a supplement to plain-jane car pictures, and I spose I need to work on a few more of those. But that's not my primary goal. It's to tell the story of a racing event for those who are involved or attending...or wish they could have attended.

One of the things I'll try at the next race is panning with a monopod and using a slow shutter speed to blur the background and hopefully keep the car in the frame and in focus. I just ordered the monopod this week, so I haven't tried the technique yet.

I'd appreciate any suggestions about making my photos a little more interesting, while dealing within the constraints that limit some of the things I could do. I'll put on my firesuit now and hit the "Submit" button.

Ray, aka ChevyAsylum
http://www.chevyasylum.com/

[Tyson L. Sparks]

Telephoto lens, big one for close ups, F1.8

[chevyasylum]

Telephoto lens, big one for close ups, F1.8

Could you expand on that a little? Since the conversion factor on the Canon is 1.6:1, the 300 zoom is equivalent to a 500mm lens on a 35mm film camera. What size do you use?

[Tyson L. Sparks]

I am a married man with kids, I just get closer LOL i can't afford a new lens.

[Greg McCary]

From where you were shooting I think these are good. Dead on focus and crystal crear pictures. I agree your main problem is location. Maybe you could just find a shorter track in your area? I would think a road course would be tough to shot. Drop down into the Sports forums and look around. We have some really good photogs there and they can help you with lens choices.
Greg

[chevyasylum]

I am a married man with kids, I just get closer LOL i can't afford a new lens.

LOL!!! I understand that. I'm retired and widowed. My sons are both happily married. So I could afford to throw a temper tantrum and buy the Canon and zoom lens when I got so frustrated with getting film developed properly, That was a nightmare in and of itself.

But it was the best temper tantrum I ever pitched, cuz I'm REAL happy with the camera/lens setup I have now. That darned camera is a whole lot smarter'n me, that's for sure.

But let us return to the "closeup" concept. When talking about racing photos, how close is close? This close?


Or this close?


Or do you mean close enough to see the whites of the driver's eyes? That seems like overkill and kinda like shootin squirrels with a howitzer. But I spose I won't know until I try.

A quick search of eBay showed this lens:

http://cgi.ebay.com/420-800mm-Lens-f...em160136842879

which is a 400-820mm f8.3 lens, but it's a Kenko brand and I've never heard of it. I've also heard horror stories about lenses that fit the Canon body but won't do little things like autofocus. At $160, it seems to be too much of a bargain, if ya know what I mean.

Here's the opposite end of the spectrum: a 100-400 Canon brand zoom:
http://cgi.ebay.com/Canon-100-400mm-...em160139599648

I'd be confident in buying something like that, but it costs more than the camera and extra lens together at $1400 and change. Buy a few like that and pretty soon we're talkin serious money.

Ray aka ChevyAsylum


Ray

[chevyasylum]

From where you were shooting I think these are good. Dead on focus and crystal crear pictures. I agree your main problem is location. Maybe you could just find a shorter track in your area? I would think a road course would be tough to shot. Drop down into the Sports forums and look around. We have some really good photogs there and they can help you with lens choices.
Greg

Thank you for the kind words, Greg. As I said, I'm very pleased with the technical aspects of the photos. I should say that they've been "tailored" in PhotoShop to crop extraneous stuff and tidy up the umage a bit.

As far as tracks, well, you'd have to live in Utah to understand. This is NOT a racing state, especially road racing. The guy who built this track (Larry Miller: http://www.millermotorsportspark.com/ put $150 mil into it...out of his own pocket...just cuz he likes racing Mustangs, Cobras and GT40s. He's somewhat well to do. There's one more event at that track (actually the only road course in Utah) and I have a little personal difference of opinion with the owner of the only oval track in the northern half of the state...I quit racing there because it stopped being fun, and spectating was even worse.

Back to "location, location, location" what types of location relative to turns and straightaways would you recommend? I know it's a whole lot easier to hang around the apex of a corner and get a shot as the car(s) being their transition from "straight at you" to heading down the next straight. Much better results, since the lateral movement of the car is minimized from the perspective of the camera. I'll try to do more of that at the next road race I attend (08/03-08/05.) Speaking of strategic locations, I find that I like pics of cars entering a corner from a head-on or trackside perspective. I'm not all that excited about pics of cars in a corner from their rear ends...sorta like takin pics of the southern end of a northbound mule.

Anyway, I'll really hope to be shooting on the salt flats later this year. Here are the pics from last year's September meet, the first opportunity to use the Canon on the salt:
http://www.chevyasylum.com/bsf2006/w...12/060912.html

So all I have to do is get my 29 Model A rat rod sufficiently functioning so I can trailer it out to the salt and use it as a pit rat. More things on the list to be done. (Sure...just a wee bit of a task...like getting the suspension and brakes rebuilt and re-installing the rear axle.

Again, thanks for the compliments. I guess I'll have to repost this in the Sports forum tomorrow (cuz my eyelids are gettin heavier and heavier tonite.)

Ray, aka ChevyAsylum
(or vice-versa.)

[Jimmy B]

Ray, As for getting credentials, it's tuff . If you are out there enough talk to the corner workers when they are accessible, slide the corner workers a print and the like and get to know some of the local teams. Last weekends race is what the track considered a bigger race, being NASCAR little league was there. The shots on the link look really good ! It's nice to see the GN West cars, other than the photogs that cover that series. Did you spend any time watching the tech area for the west series?
Jimmy B
At least the wind was blowing all Day last Saturday!

[Frog]

I know nothing about shooting races. If you are actually considering a new lens, you might consider the sigma 50-500 which gets mostly good reviews and costs less than the canon one you pointed out.

[livin4lax09]

sorry to be the party pooper here...but if you are shooting for yourself you shouldn't get credentials. Creds are for professionals who have a job to do, and are making money, and need the valuable positions. The more people there are, the harder it is for them to move around and the more they are being restricted, for the sake of "getting good photos by the amateurs." On small events, it is alright, just make sure you know the food chain, and that they are the ones getting paid, and the ones that NEED the shot.

nothing personal against you, and I know how hard it is to get photos without credentials, but it can most certainly be done, you just have to get creative...

kenko's a decent brand, but not that lens...most likely you are looking at a standard zoom lens with a lot of built in teleconverters. canon con/prosumer bodies will not AF on any lens with a maximum aperture less than f/5.6, pro series bodies won't AF on anything less than f/8. it's also f/16 at 800mm, and the image quality is probably pretty bad. Some of the time you can get high quality glass for a cheap price, but if you want reliable AF you're going to have to spend a bit more money. Lenses (especially high quality ones) are not cheap, that's for sure.

good luck, i'll write more when you post in the sports forum.

[chevyasylum]

Ray, As for getting credentials, it's tuff . If you are out there enough talk to the corner workers when they are accessible, slide the corner workers a print and the like and get to know some of the local teams. Last weekends race is what the track considered a bigger race, being NASCAR little league was there. The shots on the link look really good ! It's nice to see the GN West cars, other than the photogs that cover that series. Did you spend any time watching the tech area for the west series?
Jimmy B
At least the wind was blowing all Day last Saturday!

Based on the responses I read about credentials, I probably won't worry about it too much. I DO have a friend who's a corner captain so I might be able to get some assistance from him. But I was an SCCA corner worker in the 70s and I take track safety very seriously. I won't take advantage of my friend's position to do something that might endanger them or the drivers.

Yeah, they considered it a big race and drew 7000 spectators. Pretty sad. But as I said before, Utah's a lousy market for racing...unless it's a demo derby or something equally destructive. Bread and circuses for the masses, I spose.

Thanks for the kind words on the pics. When you say, "tech area" do you mean the pits and garage area? If so, the answer is that I usually do make at least one round thru the paddock but I just wasn't up to it physically this time. The heat probably had a little bit to do with it, too. I'll have to make up for it the next time the NASCAR boys come back. As far as the wind (I'm assuming you were there, too) it was a very welcome relief. I was sure covered with grit when I got home, tho.

I'm gonna hit a couple other things in this reply. That Sigma lens looks like a real beauty. But I'm not sure I can spare $900+ at the moment. Maybe I'll start saving my pennies. Of course I have a rat rod to finish...or at least get to the point of licensing, a race car for the salt flats that needs time, money and effort and I need to change transmissions in my El Camino. All on an income that's based on retiring several years before I'd planned to because of the health issues. But things could be a lot worse, yanno?

If you'd like to keep this conversation going, please feel free to PM me. I'm gonna go make a post in the Sports Photography area.

[Grandpaw]

I would like to say that I have no experience in shooting racing pictures. After looking at the pictures in the link you gave I think if the pictures were taken more down on the level of the cars than from the higher up angle looking down on the race that the pictures would be more interesting. I think this would give the picture taker more of a feeling of being in the race and not being up in the stands watching.

The pictures you have are good clear pictures but I think if you could get more down on track level and try panning to get the background blurred this would add a lot to the excitement factor, Jeff

[Jimmy B]

Brent how one goes about getting credentials is their own biz, Miller motor sports complex is huge. The track they were running that weekend is just under 4 miles in length x2 both sides of the track 8 miles,thats a lot of room for folks to shoot. There is a photog that I talk too at every west race and I did ask him who he shoots for? His reply was Himself and some of the teams, at that point I didn't inquire any further. Brent you have been more than helpful with my questions in the past and I hope in the future, you are a very gifted photographer. Remember life experience counts for a lot.
Jimmy B

[jacobyja53]

Ray, I think the only thing about your photos that might be boring is the background. Maybe you need to think about a road trip. The really scenic tracks are more in the midwest and northeast.
I've taken a lot of racing photos over the last 40 years and I'd have to say that I can count the interesting ones on both hands. One cool one that I remember (but can't find now) was a 911 at a parking lot autocross with about 3 inches of air under his inside front tire as he exited a turn. "Wheelie"
Good Luck
jim