Nascar Pit Photos

[Photo-John]

Thanks to member Jimmy B, who is an official Nascar tech, I got to spend a few hours last week in the pits at Miller Motorsports Park, near Salt Lake City. I took two test cameras, the Olympus E-P1 and the Nikon D5000. These photos were taken with the Olympus.

[Mimi111]

I love how you have the mountains in the background in a few of the shots. The second one is particularly striking - almost a painted effect.

[Photo-John]

I love how you have the mountains in the background in a few of the shots. The second one is particularly striking - almost a painted effect.

Thanks for commenting on my Nascar photos. The background is an often neglected, but critical element of a photo. I am always looking at my backgrounds trying to use them to compliment the subject and convey a sense of place. The soft background is a combination of a long lens and a large aperture. Try it!

[SmartWombat]

I love how you have the mountains in the background in a few of the shots.

That is a P-J signature landscape-with-sports shot

[Jimmy B]

John in photo 2 it looks like Bill and Bob are mimicking each other (the 2 officials). Great looking shots!
Jimmy B

[Photo-John]

I've got wayyyy too many tasks to juggle so it took me a while to get through all my photos. But I didn't want to let them go so I kept plugging away at the processing. Finally finished them all late last week. So here are a few taken with the Nikon D5000, which has really impressed me. Keep your eyes open on the Home page, the right-hand column here or the Pro Reviews index page because I'm putting the final touches on my detailed pro review.

[Photo-John]

One of the benefits of being in the pits with Jimmy was him pointing out stuff I wouldn't have otherwise noticed or seen. This first photo is of the forms the inspectors use to make sure the cars meet official race spec. If they don't fit these forms (and a bunch of other specs), they don't race. Part of Jimmy's job is checking this stuff before the cars go out on the track.

The second photo is a race who I think Jimmy said is 71 years old. Hopefully Jimmy can jump in here and give us his name and confirm the age. He was really nice about me taking his picture. And again, I never would have taken this picture if Jimmy hadn't pointed him out to me. So if you ever get a chance for an insider's look at anything with your camera, jump on it! You never know what you might see and learn

[Jimmy B]

John it is a real pleasure seeing what you saw through your camera. You have a way different way of seeing things that most of the photogs that cover our races miss.
That young man of 81 years of age is the legendary Hershel McGriff. Yes he is 81! He came out of retirement this year to run the three road coarse races in our series. When NASCAR put the list together for it's top 50 drivers back in 98 for their 50th year Hershel was on that list.He ran in the very first southern 500 at darlington back in 1950.He is a true gentleman.
The templates in picture #1 are for the over all body shape, I believe there is about 20 different templates that get put on the bodies to make sure teams don't get to carried away. The cars get weighed and wheel base is checked after the body inspection. The cars are grouped to come through inspection by points, first 15 in points stay in the garage area assigned to them for the Under car inspection( Jimmy B's job ) motor and carb inspection. the others go to the template room and then come back for the previous mentioned.
I hope that was in lightening and not to long winded, Jimmy B