Shooting at the dragstrip

[PhotoDude25]

Hey fellow photo enthusiasts......

I plan on going to the local dragstrip this weekend to shoot some local high schoolers that will be participating in the races. Anyone have any experience shooting the drags? Any advice anyone can give would be very helpful as this will be my first photo shoot at such an event (World Series of Drag Racing). I'd also like to get some of the pros in action. Thanks in advance for any advice ya can give me to help. . . . .PhotoDude25..... 8)

[where1]

I went 2 weekends ago. This was my first time with my rig. I used a D-Rebel with the 100-400mm IS. I went on Saturday for the qualifying runs. Not too many people, I had the stands to myself pretty much. I shot from the left side, the drivers side on those door slammers. I got up on the top row of the stands. This will allow you to stand up without disturbing anyone behind you. It also allows a better angle over the retaining wall that runs the length of the track. I was about 1/16 mile down or so. I shot the burnout and the launch at about 225mm and brought the zoom to 100mm for when they passed me, and out again to 400mm for the time and speed indicators with the car in the shutdown area. I shot the slower cars at 125th and up to 320th on the faster cars. With the rebel, I was able to get off 5 shots of an 8 second run with no trouble. I picked a car and stuck with it, I didn't try to go from car to car.

Get there early, find your spot and practice practice practice those panning shots, especially with changing focal lengths.


I forgot to mention, I was there on a cloudy day, so I opted to try to have drivers in the shot. I didn't have to worry about where the sun was.

[PhotoDude25]

Hey Paul,
Thanks for the tips. As I will be shooting with my D30 and my longest lens being a 75-300mm, I'll try your settings and see what I come up with. How did your shots come out? I'll probably use some of my shorter zooms and primes for pit shots.........PhotoDude25

[Vegas Poboy]

Drag strip Shooting takes some practice, Where do you plan on setting up? In the stands or down by the track? Daylight or Nightfall? The reason I'm asking it all can make an difference of your location. I shoots drags two or three times a month and still learning new angles.
Take a look at my pbase account and let me know what you think

[where1]

I'm at work and this is the only photo I have available.
http://www.ameritech.net/users/pgfotre/69Camero.jpg

This is the car I went to the track to shoot, and this was the only run I saw him do. He was in the first race, so I didn't get any practice shooting the cars at this speed, which was alot faster than the cars I practiced on. This run I had the camera in AV priority mode at F8, ISO 400. This shot the speed was 640th at 220mm. After going through some of the other photos, I was getting that panning effect with the faster cars at higher shutter speeds. (Next time I think I'll try a 500th or faster.) These are by no means the fastest cars racing, anywhere from 8.30s to 8.00 at 160-170+ mph on a good run, but they are alot of fun to watch. If you ever have a chance to see the Chicago Outlaws, check them out. They run on some of the Super Chevy shows on ESPN.

This run I snapped off 4 shots of the race, along with him and his crew waiting in the staging area (400mm came in handy here), the burnout, and the shutdown with his speed and time on the lights. He had a problem and didn't stay in it the whole run. I was looking to capture the whole run to tell a good story. (It told the story, I wanted a happier ending.) There will be more weekends and more races.

One thing to remember if you shoot from the perspective of getting the prerace, the race, and post race shutdown, you will probably not get the next racers prerace burnout.

Also checkout Vegas Poboy's site, some good shots to inspire us all.
Good luck, and remember to watchout in the pits and don't get in the racers way.

[PhotoDude25]

Hey Paul and Vegas......

Thanks to both of ya for your expertise! I'll more than likely be doing both day and night shots. I'm going there originally to get some shots of area folks that will be there as part of a race circuit ministry, but thought I'd stick around and try to get some car shots. By the way, kudos to each of you on your own shots. Great photos! Hope I can fare as well on my first attempt. Thanks again..............PhotoDude25

[Andy_T]

Look out for some threads by KennyG and GenEos ... there was some part on drag racing recently.

Best regards,
Andy