A day at the races

[another view]

I've never tried to photograph car races before, and since there was a SCCA regional close by today I thought it was time to give it a shot. This track is 30 minutes from my house but I've never been there. I didn't know what kind of access I could get or if I'd even get one good shot, but I think these turned out OK. You can go pretty much anywhere you want - but there's a fence about 10' from the track when they're racing (close enough!). To give you an idea how close you can get, the cars leaving the grid area were shot with a 35mm lens (OK, about 50mm equivalent).

All shots on Fuji S2 with 20-35 or 80-200 2.8 Nikon lenses, JPEG. The blur shot is 1/30 at f22 - handheld... I actually found autofocus to do a great job, but the movement of a car is very even and predictable which helps.

[bjtindle]

I've never tried to photograph car races before, and since there was a SCCA regional close by today I thought it was time to give it a shot. This track is 30 minutes from my house but I've never been there. I didn't know what kind of access I could get or if I'd even get one good shot, but I think these turned out OK. You can go pretty much anywhere you want - but there's a fence about 10' from the track when they're racing (close enough!). To give you an idea how close you can get, the cars leaving the grid area were shot with a 35mm lens (OK, about 50mm equivalent).

All shots on Fuji S2 with 20-35 or 80-200 2.8 Nikon lenses, JPEG. The blur shot is 1/30 at f22 - handheld... I actually found autofocus to do a great job, but the movement of a car is very even and predictable which helps.

My favorite is the second one, total movement and action in there!! Makes me jealous, haven't had much luck with action shots. I haven't looked at many shots of cars or races yet. I honestly don't know how they could be made better or anything. They are all very clear, have nice color tones. The only thing I can think of is in the third one, crop it off a little at the top. There is quite an expanse of trees above the car.


Betty

[CaraRose]

I agree with Betty, the second one really good. The action is really nicely blurred and creates a great feel of speed. The angle of the car in the shot just intensifies this. The first one doesn't do much for me-- it seems a little too busy and the background too distracting. The third one doesn't have enough motion seeming in it. The background is blurred but not enough to create the same feel as in the second. There's also a bit too much trees in comparison to the car. I think cropping out the upper half would also improve it.

I do have to say again though, I think that second one is outstanding.