St. Louis at the end of September. That would be Gateway. It's a national event, so there will be a full complement of photographers, probably fifty or more. You'll need press credentials to get into the photo area near the starting line. Generally, only a handful will shoot the amateur classes, but it fills up quickly for the pro classes, so it's good to time your arrival. From most venues I've shoot at, you need to shoot with a lens of around 200 millimeters, but it's hard to pinpoint the exact focal length you'll need as your position may depend on the number of photos and background elements. I would definitely want to work with a zoom, in my case it would be the 60-250, although something like the 80-310 would be very good as well. Shooting at a 45 degree angle or so, you'll need about f8 to maintain depth of field when focusing on the front of a funny car. Top fuel cars I used to shoot at f11 and focus on the driver.
Put a high quality UV filter on your lens and bring some lens cleaner and lens cleaning cloths if you shoot top fuel and funny cars from the starting-line photographers area. You'll be getting some rubber particles on the lens on a regular basis. Usually only a few photographers are allowed to shoot near the finish line. Most often those who work for the house organ, National Dragster. When I was shooting commercials for Fram and Autolite, they let one of my camera guys camp down there, but I had to provide security in the form of extra insurance and production people to watch out for him. If you have to shoot from the stands, you'll definitely need as much focal length as you can handhold, and you might want to try to use a monopod. When the pro classes run, the spectators will all stand, so it's going to be hard to shoot. Again, you'll have better luck shooting the amateur classes, some of which can be quite entertaining. Many of the super stock cars, for example, lift the front wheels, and some are muscle car classics, such as late sixties Mopars, Chevelles, etc. Paul On May 28, 2012, at 12:11 AM, Walt Gilbert wrote: > Hi all, > > First, please forgive my lack of participation in the list of late, in the > event it caused any sleepless nights among this peculiar throng of > photographers great and small. Life has just been busy, the weather > inhospitable, and I have been too tired, lazy and mired in a photographic rut > -- so, I haven't had any shots to share. > > That said, come the end of September I'll be going to the NHRA drag races in > St. Louis. I've taken plenty of shots at drag races, but nothing like the > ones that'll be happening that day. But, from what I understand, I'll be in a > good place for taking photos -- assuming I have a clue what I'm doing, which > is no small caveat. > > I know a few of the guys on the list have a lot of experience shooting > motorsports, so I figured I'd ask for any pointers on how to get interesting > shots. One of the main drawbacks of the drag races I've shot before is the > sheer monotony of the photos given the limited number of vantage points > available from which to shoot. > > Most of the shots I've taken in the past have been from the starting line, > where I try to capture the action at take-off -- the warped tire walls, wheel > stands, etc. I suspect the NHRA cars are going to be more of a challenge in > that aspect, given that they'll be moving a whole lot faster off the line. > So, any pointers on how to get decent images out of this opportunity will be > greatly appreciated. > > Thanks for any input y'all might have! > > -- Walt > > -- > PDML Pentax-Discuss Mail List > [email protected] > http://pdml.net/mailman/listinfo/pdml_pdml.net > to UNSUBSCRIBE from the PDML, please visit the link directly above and follow > the directions. -- PDML Pentax-Discuss Mail List [email protected] http://pdml.net/mailman/listinfo/pdml_pdml.net to UNSUBSCRIBE from the PDML, please visit the link directly above and follow the directions.
