Indianapolis Motor Speedway - May 19, 2007

[DC Fan]

A few May 19 images from the top of the stands at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway:

http://www.fansview.com/racing/imspr051907a0163.jpg
http://www.fansview.com/racing/imspr051907a0164.jpg
http://www.fansview.com/racing/imspr051907a0178.jpg
http://www.fansview.com/racing/imspr051907a0191.jpg

[DegasGoneDigital]

Great shots, what settings and lens did you use??

[Rohn_S]

Very nice shots...will be there for the race. Hope to get some pics as well.

[DC Fan]

Great shots, what settings and lens did you use??

The lens was a 70-300mm image stabilizer lens in mode 1 (full stabilization). The body was an older Digital Rebel 300D. The body was set in sports mode, which usually chooses the fastest usable shutter speed. Since it was a bright day and the camera was set at ISO 400, shutter speeds for those images were 1/1600-1/2000. The pictures were taken at the fastest part of the track, where typical speeds are around 224-227 mph.

I once spoke to an Associated Press photographer at the Speedway, the stringer who got the shot of Sam Hornish Jr. upside down on the back stretch. He said that the AP has a Speedway rule of a minimum shutter speed of 1/1000.

[R Mutt]

No offense but that associated press guy doesn't know what he's talking about.

You should not be freezing the rims on a car going 200+ mph. For better results try 1/320 to begin with and and work down to 1/160th at the least and I guarantee your results will improve drastically and at an improved dynamic to the photos.

[agosling]

The problem with someone from associated press is that they are only interested in getting news type shots, they want the crashes and for that you want a higher shutter speed, if you actually want decent shots then you need to go way lower on shutter speed because there is nothing worse than looking at a car and not knowing if it is doing 200mph or if it is parked in the pits.