Grand Prix of Baltimore

So the Baltimore Grand Prix is coming up Labor Day weekend. I'm relatively new to the area and looking forward to going. I got Sunday general + paddock passes and a friend is letting me borrow his Canon 70-200 f2.8 lens!

Has anyone been to this event before? It is by far the most 'professional' racing event I've been to and I'd like any advice people have to give.

Smitty2k1 wrote in post #16228827
So the Baltimore Grand Prix is coming up Labor Day weekend. I'm relatively new to the area and looking forward to going. I got Sunday general + paddock passes and a friend is letting me borrow his Canon 70-200 f2.8 lens!

Has anyone been to this event before? It is by far the most 'professional' racing event I've been to and I'd like any advice people have to give.

Don't be surprised if your main challenge is finding a location that does not have a fence or wall in the way. Temporary street courses are not designed with photographers in mind.

Tons of fencing and last year had very limited chances for shooting with a GA pass. Hopefully it gets better this year (like it was the 1st year which actually wasn't too bad) but it doesn't look like it from what I saw of the track map. Thankfully I'm credentialed. Certainly take your camera but don't be surprised if you have to work very hard to get some decent shots.

Even a credential in Baltimore gives only limited locations and photo holes to shoot from which is why some photogs abandoned the idea of access to the track and went looking for unguarded rooftop access doors instead.

Well you guys just bummed me out.

Bicknell55 wrote in post #16232271
Thankfully I'm credentialed.

Keep in mind that at this event a photo credential is no guarantee of receiving a photo vest. Not sure what the point is of being issued a credential as a "photographer" and having no track access but that is how it is in Baltimore.

i had a media vest for the 1st year they were in baltimore...supposedly​....they had LESS vests than photographers...go figure.

i'll be there saturday and sunday....lmk if you'd want to meet up.....i'll be a spectator this year........

The first year was a disaster. They may very well have credentialed everyone who applied. The process was not handled by anyone who knew anything about anything until about 3 days before the event. At that point someone was brought in from outside. If he knew you or your organization you got a vest. If he didn'tyou were out of luck. They let all of the people who were not getting vests make the trip and incur all of the expense without telling them upfront. The few who knew what was happening and complained were told "if you don't like it don't come".
Appears that they are still operating the same way as a bunch of people are in for an unpleasant surprise.

I got a vest last year so we'll see what happens this year.

Smitty2k1;

Here's my gallery from 2011 when I shot with a GA pass. Friday is your best bet since you can go into any grandstand. Saturday and Sunday will be tough because your access is greatly reduced.

http://www.brentsmithp​hotography.com/2011/Ba​ltimoreGrandPrix2011

Bicknell55 wrote in post #16248574
I got a vest last year so we'll see what happens this year.

Smitty2k1;

Here's my gallery from 2011 when I shot with a GA pass. Friday is your best bet since you can go into any grandstand. Saturday and Sunday will be tough because your access is greatly reduced.

http://www.brentsmithp​hotography.com/2011/Ba​ltimoreGrandPrix2011

Thanks for sharing. I'll only be there Sunday, but the ticket I got has paddock access, not sure if that is something new/common or not. Either way should be a good day.

The American Le Mans Series paddock entrance is included with every ticket. Their paddock is outdoors and just outside the track.
The Indycar paddock is inside the Convention Center and requires a separate ticket.

aphphoto wrote in post #16253317
The American Le Mans Series paddock entrance is included with every ticket. Their paddock is outdoors and just outside the track.
The Indycar paddock is inside the Convention Center and requires a separate ticket.

I paid a few bucks extra for paddock access, so presumably that includes the Indycar area inside the convention center.

The Living Social price seemed like a pretty good deal to me.

Have fun and hope the weather holds for you smitty2k1. Forecast not so great right now for Monday.

In the convention center the lighting isn't so great so turn up the ISO or be prepared to use a flash. Lots of driver and crew candids possible.

Well I survived the weather. This was my first 'real' motorsports event and the 8 hours of 90° sun and drive about took it out of me.

DC Fan: you were certainly not kidding about trying to find a spot to shoot from. The few places where there were not double fences there was security shooing people along. Two of the bridges over the track had a 90° turn in them which gave an excellent spot for a clear overhead shot from the 70-200 lens, but again security/police shooing people along.

Because of the fences, I think my panning shots turned out the best. I also found a few holes in the inner fence (presumably for media or corner judges) that worked OK for freezing a single car inside of. This still put the other fence in the way, but with the lens right up against it it blurred out enough. My T3i did an OK job sustained burst firing with JPEGs for these shots. Panning I used RAW.

I had general admission access, no grandstand access. There were only a few stretches/corners that I could watch the race from on ground level, against the fence. Being so close, I never even took the 70-200 out and instead used my 17-55 the entire time. This made panning difficult being so near the cars on fast straights. Or maybe it was just because it was my first time trying panning shots...

I also had a terrible time nailing focus (on the non-panning shots). I figured manual focus would be my best bet for spray and pray shooting since my T3i doesn't have the best auto focusing and cars were out of the viewfinder in a split second so close up. I thought I did a good job of setting up focus and I figured 1/1000 shutter speed would freeze the cars. However, most of my non-panning-shots still seem out of focus, or motion blurred, I can't tell which!

If any of you guys could offer some critique as to what I could do better next time, I'd be happy to hear it. I pressed the shutter ~1100 times yesterday, immediately threw out all but 150, and uploaded about 10 shots to my website. Not very good numbers, and what I uploaded was the best of the best, so you can imagine how the rest looked.

I was pleased with myself on framing most of my shots well. Even my panning attempts more often than not put the car entirely in the frame with little need to crop later. It's hard to delete a well composed image because focus is off, or a well focused image that had poor framing!

Here is the link to the gallery:
http://panamapat.smugm​ug.com …/Grand-Prix-of-Baltimore/

Considering your lack of experience and limited access I think you got some very good results.
If you liked Baltimore do yourself a huge favor and attend a race at a track with excellent viewing from spectator areas and not a lot of fencing. You can get great un-obstructed shots at Lime Rock Park in CT, VIR in Alton VA, Watkins Glen in NY and Road Atlanta in GA. There are races coming up at Lime Rock and VIR that would be great opportunities. (all these are sports car events)

For fences you may have better luck standing back a bit but of course with general admission that's just going to put more people in front of you.
For panning shots you don't want the cars to end up looking like they are parked on the track so slow your shutter speed. Start around 1/320 and as you get acceptable results work down. Eventually you'll be able to get sharp results at 1/80 or even slower. If you don't have a monopod that would be a good investment.