Shooting drag races

[M.O.Photo]

Hello,

I am off to Santa Pod Raceway tomorrow for a drag race in jap show. I was wonderign if anyone had any tips on how to capture the shots. All i have is 17-85 mm kit.

What settings you guys use to shoot drag and what technique. Thanks

[DC Fan]

Unless you can get down to the wall, 85mm may not be long enough for drag racing.

http://www.kevinlillard.com/racing/20100613a0639.jpg

110mm.


http://www.kevinlillard.com/racing/20100521a1425.jpg

135mm.

As with most sports action photography, there are no miracle camera settings. What counts most is location and the photographer's ability to spot and capture the most compelling situations. The favored location for drag racing photography is the start line, and there's often more interest in burnout images than in anything else.

[M.O.Photo]

Thanks DC, will try to get as close as i can to the action, but i suppose there is going to be many photographers there already, well i will post some images tomorrow evening so you guys can C&C on them.

[mdaniel]

there are no miracle camera settings. What counts most is location and the photographer's ability to spot and capture the most compelling situations.

Very well said. A $10,000 lens would be useless if you didn't have a good angle to shoot.

I went out to our local strip last Wednesday to shoot. It was just Test/Tune (T&T), but the weather was gorgeous and I figured it'd be a nice opportunity to get out of the house and shoot..

I had a great time, but I did get a wrist band from the track that allowed me down by the starting line / inside the fence to shoot. Honestly, they wouldn't have let me down there to shoot I wouldn't have bothered. Shooting from the stands would get old really quick as the wall obscures the shots, even if you have a huge lens..

Here are a few snips. The whole gallery is on my SmugMug (http://mdhmi.smugmug.com/Cars/Milan-Dragway/) Page.

http://www.mdhmi.com/pics/Dragway/Milan-06-30-2010/IMG_9500.jpg

http://www.mdhmi.com/pics/Dragway/Milan-06-30-2010/IMG_8949.jpg

I did shoot from the stands for a few minutes. This is the best I could do, and was probably my favorite shot of the night.

http://www.mdhmi.com/pics/Dragway/Milan-06-30-2010/IMG_9005.jpg

[M.O.Photo]

Thanks guys for ur help, I shot a lot of pics during the weekend, but what happened i used too high of a shutter speed so all action got frozen :( and no panning happened.... didnt know how to do it

[button]

Hi everyone

I do alot of photogrpahy work at santapod and avon park i have a sigma 18-200 and a canon 70-200 L series lens i was at the rwyb on the sat of the jap show and though i would post up a couple of my photos of my mates Top fuel bike and see what you guys thought

Lisa

[button]

some more x