Roar before the rolex

[f86sabjf]

Hi Gang

My first real go at sportscar shooting. All of these were shot in shutter priority . With iso from 320 -800 and shutter speeds from 320-1000th/sec WB was set on cloudy a since was a really grey day



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heres a link to the full set. Feel free to leave comments

Rolex Roar 2013 - a set on Flickr

[wfooshee]

Cool. I just wish I could get excited about Daytona. Like I've said before in your posts from there, I used to go all the time, but the DPs have no appeal to me at all. Maybe the 2014 ALMS/Grand-Am merger (actually an un-split to my way of thinking) will bring back what I think are great cars to Daytona, even though the P1 class is going away.

All that is not relevant to your pics, though, sorry for the digression.

If I may suggest, you might try even slower shutter speeds and panning. You'll probably see more throw-aways, but the ones that work will be exciting shots, with sharp definition on the cars but motion-blurred wheels and backgrounds implying the action that is actually going on. Frozen wheels from high shutter speeds, IMHO, make nice pics, but not nice action pics, if you see what I mean. That last one of the Tel-Mex car comes close to what I'm talking about.

[f86sabjf]

I can understand your dislike . I cant stand Nascar. I'm hoping whatever comes out of the merger will result in full fields . Thats my main concern. I would prefer only 2-3 classes at most. I think thats what hurt ALMS so much . Most peole are casual watchers, at best they dont want to figure out 5 classes and whats going on. You and I are different and I dont think theres enough of us to keep it alive. At least we have a good open dialouge thats more than some places I've seen.

I was wondering about the slower speeds but didnt get down that far . My poor kit lenses were having a devil of a time yesterday. I'm guessing if I had a F2.8 lense I could have gotten my iso a lot lower to. The 300mm zoom was handy but you can shoot most of the place with a 200mm lense.

[wfooshee]

Yeah, I shoot racing with my 70-300 because its my poor self's best lens, but I'm usually only out to 100, 120 mm.

By "devil of a time" do you mean focusing?

And I'm not a NASCAR fan, either. B-O-R-I-N-G-!-!-!-!-!

[f86sabjf]

I went and checked my camera and i was using
continous shooting mode
focus mode was in Af-C
af area mode was dynamic area AF
metering was matrix

I mean that I felt I was having to run my iso to high in the overcast weather. 320-800 to get what I thought i needed to be doing with higher shutter speeds. My poor camera kept saying not enough light so I guess i should drop to 250th or slower on the shutter speed.
now if i moved up to a F2.8 70-300 would i have as much trouble???

I have also added another 90pics or so to the Flickr page above

[SmartWombat]

Good to see the race season has started.
The weather doesn't look too bad, there is a shadow under and behind the car in the first three shots.
The problem there is you're on the wrong side (shaded side) of the car so you have less light to work with.
I think that last one is the best, there's movement showing in the wheels.
First one looks almost like it's parked.

There's no one right shutter speed, it depends how fast the cars are going.
Generally I don't go much above 1/320 as the wheels get too sharp and it looks a bit like they're parked.
And it depends how well you can pan too, you will have more success as the car is passing you because the relative speed is constant.
Panning while they're braking for a bend, or accelerating out of it, is much harder.
Going as low as 1/25 is possible with practice, I've seen great shots in the pits like that.

I really want to get back to using my DSLR because panning with the OM-D is too hit and miss.
But it's the camera I can lift, and the OM-D and lens weight less than my 70-200 2.8 !

I'm not sure about the series merger either, from testing they've got the ALMS LMP2 worked into the new handicapping - but it may be a moot point if they don't get some signing up for 1024.

[f86sabjf]

the top three would have been leaving the international horseshoe

The bottom one was about the middle of turn 1 nascar

[f86sabjf]

Any ideas for night shots at this track??? I would live to get some of those glowing brake rotor shots and such but not sure if my equipment will do it.

[wfooshee]

My brake shots from Sebring were with flash. SB-600 on top of the camera, and most definitely not the built-in pop-up flash. You still have to pan because the sync speed is 1/250 (or slower, depending on your camera) and I manually focused, as well. (Basically autofocused a point on the pavement where I wanted to shoot, then turned off AF and waited for cars to show up. I rechecked it frequently just to be sure I hadn't bumped it off.)

I remember, though, that at Daytona I couldn't really get to where the brakes were in use as a regular spectator. I don't think I could get to the fence near the braking area for the east horseshoe, and the west horseshoe seemed to far away, if I recall. One year I was down at the inside of Turn one, just about pit out, but I'm not sure how I got there, and I've never been able to get there since. I might not have supposed to be able to get there that time.... But I had good shots of brakes coming off the trioval!

[f86sabjf]

i was thinking about shooting across the horseshoe from the stands but not sure my lens could pull that one off. The horseshoe after the kink is easily accessible with a small 2 step ladder. That will get you over the fence.

I just dont have the money for an extra flash right now.

[wfooshee]

Ooh, that's over 1,000 feet! your best shot might be after the kink. If you can get around there, maybe the end of the infield section.

[f86sabjf]

No no there's a set of bleachers right at the exit of the horseshoe. Actually it's pointed at about mid corner. Still not super close but no way it's 1000ft .

[f86sabjf]

Thinking on what you said I think somewhere past the kink towards the second horseshoe is my best bet

[wfooshee]

Oh, when you said stands I thought you meant the main stands on the front straight!

[MotorToad]

I remember, though, that at Daytona I couldn't really get to where the brakes were in use as a regular spectator. I don't think I could get to the fence near the braking area for the east horseshoe, and the west horseshoe seemed to far away, if I recall. One year I was down at the inside of Turn one, just about pit out, but I'm not sure how I got there, and I've never been able to get there since. I might not have supposed to be able to get there that time.... But I had good shots of brakes coming off the trioval!

I'm pretty sure we wandered through a gate that was supposed to be shut. I know when we tried again we were rebuked by Daytona's polite and considerate security. But I'm not sure if that was the next day or the next year.

Jeez, I think it was '95 the last time I went to Daytona. I sure miss paying a lot of money to be treated like a misbehaving hog.

[f86sabjf]

well ican tell you this . Our ticket was the Grassroots motorsports ticket. With that we get adm on thurs,fri,sat,sun . With reserved parking on everyday ,sat night buffet and sunday moring coffee and doughnuts for $119
The only place we cant go are the hot pits

theres actually 2 races to see . The Continental tire series runs a 2 1/2hr endure on fri and the Rolex starts on sat at 3pm. I find it cheaper than most. I know its seems to be cheaper than my next closest race at Sebring.

[f86sabjf]

Oh, when you said stands I thought you meant the main stands on the front straight!

well if you want to go in halves on a 600+mm lens we might can pull it off