Suggestions for Sno Drift Rally shooting

[swizcore]

Im gonna go outside tomorrow and shoot some cars going down my snow laden dirt road to practice because I think the majority of the people who drive down my road think they are in a rally.

Im heading north on friday to shoot the Sno Rally in Atlanta Michigan; Travis Pastrana will be racing which is always cool.

BUT I would like to hear what some of you would do shooting this type of racing.
Thanks!

[Simon Harrison]

An almost impossible question to answer without knowing what the stages will be like, how close to the action you'll be etc etc. Does the term 'rally' even mean what I understand it to i.e. cars running at 30s to 1min intervals through a special stage with driver and co-driver?

In general, I would try and walk into stage as far away from everyone else as I could get. Also, watch your exposure as if there is a lot of snow about it will trick your camera into under exposing.

Simon.

[swizcore]

Hi Simon,
Yes it is the Rally America Series just in the northern snow. I'll be right along the edge of the course so I think I'll probably shoot more with the 17-55 than the 70-200. Your mention of the snow tricking the exposure is what I was most worried about. I would think that spot metering would be preferred in this situation, is that right? This is my first time shooting action which isnt poorly lit indoor motocross, so although tricky Im thinking it might be a touch less difficult than my normal issues.
Thanks for any insight. Would you prefer Aperture or Shutter prioirty to start out with? Im mostly comfortable in manual as well which is where I usually end up; but since the action is rather limited and I want to ensure I get "the shot" I was thinking maybe I should start in one of those two priority modes and fire off high speed until I see how the camera is responding?.

[Simon Harrison]

Hi Simon,
Yes it is the Rally America Series just in the northern snow. I'll be right along the edge of the course so I think I'll probably shoot more with the 17-55 than the 70-200. Your mention of the snow tricking the exposure is what I was most worried about. I would think that spot metering would be preferred in this situation, is that right? This is my first time shooting action which isnt poorly lit indoor motocross, so although tricky Im thinking it might be a touch less difficult than my normal issues.
Thanks for any insight. Would you prefer Aperture or Shutter prioirty to start out with? Im mostly comfortable in manual as well which is where I usually end up; but since the action is rather limited and I want to ensure I get "the shot" I was thinking maybe I should start in one of those two priority modes and fire off high speed until I see how the camera is responding?.

If your light is going to be consistant (which in the UK rarely happens) or if the cars are running with lights on, then I would shoot in manual. I would take a couple of shots prior to the cars getting there and chimp the histogram until I got the settings dialled in. Otherwise, I would shoot in Tv mode with a shutter speed around 1/320s.

There's many ways to skin a cat as they say, but for Tv or M mode here's how I would set the camera up for a 3/4 type shot.

- Set the shutter speed I want, say 1/320s
- Adjust ISO until I could achieve around f8 to give enough DoF to get the whole car sharp.

Now if you're in Tv mode, you may also need to dial in a reasonable amount of exposure compensation to keep your whites white. I would also set a custom WB using a CBL colour balance filter, but that is not strictly necessary.

Simon.

[swizcore]

Thanks a bunch Simon, will do.

[yup talon]

I'm also heading to Atlanta, but on Saturday. Never been to this event before and am excited to see what sort of shots I can get. swiz, have you gone before? Im checking out these spectator maps on thier website and am not sure what areas would be best.

Another question i had regarding shooting snow races... How do you keep your lenses clean? Wont they fog up after being outside for hours? Any tips to keep them useable throughout the entire day?

[Simon Harrison]

They'll only fog up if you take them from a very warm environment to a very cold environment or vice versa.

In the winter over here in the UK with temps down around -5 deg C some mornings, my experience is that taking my camera bag from the house to the book (trunk) of my car driving to the stage and then hiking into stage means that my gear has aclimatised by the time the start of the rally is approaching so it doesn't fog when it comes out of the bag. If it's really cold, just watch condensation from your breath casuing problems.

When I get home, I usually leave my kit in the bag for say 24 hours to let it gradually warm up. This means that I dry off the equipment (if it's got wet) before packing it away back at the car and heading home.

This is what I find works for me. Others may have other methods for achieving the same thing.

Simon.

[swizcore]

I'm also heading to Atlanta, but on Saturday. Never been to this event before and am excited to see what sort of shots I can get. swiz, have you gone before? Im checking out these spectator maps on thier website and am not sure what areas would be best.

Another question i had regarding shooting snow races... How do you keep your lenses clean? Wont they fog up after being outside for hours? Any tips to keep them useable throughout the entire day?

Hey Ryan,
This was my first time there, it was VERY cool but the spectator areas crowd up REAL fast so you need to get there early for a good spot. Sorry your certainly reading this after the event since it is now saturday lol. I chose to vary my spots a bit, mid corner and corner entry/exit and some high speed sweepers. My lens never fogged up unless I gave it a light blow of air if there was a fuzz on it or something but then it cleared right up.

I found you need to plan really well where you want to shoot from before hand as the stages are a ways apart and your either gonna be rushing around like mad or have some down time. The 3 stage was about 1.5 hrs behind yesterday and I had a horrible spot, darkness had overcome ,my horrible position and numb feet called my day to an end at about 6:40 pm; it just wasnt worth the frustration of trying to get a flash shot from where I was at that point.

I'll be there both days next year for sure with a bulletproof plan! :)

Here are the fruits of my labor from yesterday-(If anyone from POTN was there, you may have seen me at Stage 1, I was the guy who brought the shovel! WOOT)
http://photography-on-the.net/forum/showpost.php?p=7226019&postcount=10

[yup talon]

I also found out planning was key. I too intend to make a weekend of it next year - seems to be part of the experience to travel around to each stage with the rest of the spectators. My lens didnt fog up much either. I only ended up making it to one full stage, but i felt i got a somewhat decent spot considering my options. Talked to a few workers there about nabbing myself one of those media vests for next year but we'll see how that goes... Perhaps I'll post a few shots here later.

[660Photos]

Very Cool Shots!

I think it would be neat to get one with a huge trail of snow behind them, dont know if its possible, i always like to look at other things though.