Your favorite Sebring photos

[Kings_Suck]

Here's a couple of my favorites:

This one is from 1980.  My Dad's friend Luke didn't pack any shorts and it was a hot day, so my Dad made cut-offs for him--with a machete.  Luke was only bleeding from 2 or 3 spots afterwards.  He just left the pants legs balled up around his ankles.  It got cold that night, so he just pulled them up and duct-taped them in place.

He's hard to see, but my little brother is in the truck.  He would have been 9, and I think this is his first Sebring.   He's got a look like: "I can't wait to be old enough to start drinking so I can do even stupider stuff than Dad."  He's accomplished that goal.

[Kings_Suck]

My favorite car shot.  I took it in 2000 by panning and zooming at the same time.

[DKWEST]

I took these in 1990,.. The Winning Car, and the Winning Driver

[KTJeffries]

[1BaD97TA]

im gonna have to post some pics tommorow when i get back to my dorm room!

[Ollie]

Hi all. Been lurking for a couple of years. Decided to finally post.

This is a pic of the boys on the "Supercouch" Just before turn 1.

[BuckeyeBreezer]

Both of these are from last year.  These were from night practice, which was also my first time with my new camera.



Damn fire extinguisher

[Kings_Suck]

Hey Buckeye:

Can you give me some tips on the night shots?  I've never been able to catch a good one.

[KTJeffries]

a slowish sutter speed (if you're shooting at 200mm say, around 1/150th of a second, possibly a little slower if you've got steady hands) depending on how blurry you want the wheels, use some fill flash for the reflective vinyl, but not enough to kill the glowing rotors, prefocus, get solid footing, and pan from the hips.

[Kings_Suck]

You're not Buckeye.  Tell me more about the flash.  Isn't the range of a typical flash less than 20 feet?  Where on the track can you get close enough for it to light a car?  Are you shooting an offset flash so you don't get vignetting from the long lens blocking the camera's pop up flash?

[KTJeffries]

i'm not buckeye, but i do get paid to do this stuff.

You dont need much flash, just enough to make the relfective vinyl pop. You dont want to light the entire car, the other corner lights do that these days (unfortunatly). I was making the assumption that an attached flash would be used or else you might run into the vignetting issues.

If I get a few minutes I'll post some examples from last year.

Photography questions ... first, "vignetting issues"?

Haven't heard that term before, but from reading the two previous posts I see that refers to longer lenses interfering with the pop-up (or built-in) flash on cameras.  Is that referring to the diameter of the lens (i.e. the width of the lens blocks some of the flash) or the length?

And, is there a 'rule of thumb' regarding lens size / length with regard to pop-up flashes?

KT, with regard to the pointers you gave KS ... what are you using as an f-stop when you're shooting night shots?  (lower the better?)

Cheers,
Scott

[Kings_Suck]

Photography questions ... first, "vignetting issues"?

Haven't heard that term before, but from reading the two previous posts I see that refers to longer lenses interfering with the pop-up (or built-in) flash on cameras.  Is that referring to the diameter of the lens (i.e. the width of the lens blocks some of the flash) or the length?

And, is there a 'rule of thumb' regarding lens size / length with regard to pop-up flashes?
,
Scott

Here's a definition and example I found:
http://www.dpreview.com/learn/?/key=vignetting
It refers more to lens exposure errors around the edges of the shot.

I may technically be misusing the word.  I found that if I forget to take off the lens hood on my short lens (28-80 zoom on a Canon EOS Elan II) when shooting flash there's a dark arc at the bottom of the shot where the flash was blocked by the hood.  It's easy to forget and I continue to make the same mistake (especially while drunk at Sebring).  I figure that if that little ring makes a difference that I'd really be wasting my time trying to use the flash with my long lens.  That's what I was talking about.  There's probably no rule of thumb, just test your camera and lens combinations.

[KTJeffries]

There is no rule of thumb, it all depends on your flash and lens combination. Generally pop up flashes aren’t high enough above the lens to avoid such issues and there is some interference with lens and lens hoods. Sometimes it also depends on the lens...for instance, regardless of the subject or setting if I try to use my flash in the hot shoe on top of the camera with my 10.5mm fisheye it's going to give funny shadows due to the coverage area of the lens. The only way to avoid this would be to use some kind of off-camera strobe setup.

In general you're going to want to use the largest aperture (smallest f-stop number) you've got that gives you the motion blur you desire. The larger the aperture the more blurry the background is going to be (or in technical terms, the less depth of field), which makes the subject pop. Definitely shoot wide open at night.

The single best advice I can give for getting a decent racing picture, day or night, is this. Get good footing and pan with the car. Keep both eyes open, pick up the car with your left eye, look it into the lens with your right eye, follow the car, hit the shutter when it's framed how you want it, and FOLLOW THROUGH.  If you're going to use a digital point and shoot type camera, make sure you take into account the delay when hitting the shutter.

Also, to this day I use a lot of manual focus for shooting race cars. Due to the predictive nature of the car's path (ie. racing line) it's easy to prefocus on a location and wait for the car to come to your spot.

/tutorial

KT,

Thanks!  I'd consider myself a step or two above amateur (or, if you're aware of Ken Rockwell's 7 Levels of Photographers (http://www.kenrockwell.com/tech/7.htm) I'm a Snapshooter) when it comes to taking pictures ... if we hook up during Sebring for a time, please don't mind if I pick your brain a bit more.  (May even be a beer or two in it for you!)

Cheers,
Scott