12 Hours of Sebring - John Thawley

It's an amazing event... long, tiring, strange... definitely a love/hate relationship... but it makes you think and makes you work. Here are few of the results from race day.

JT

1.

JT

As always well done, love the detail in #1.

Yes, long day and IMHO a difficult track to shoot.

Rick

Nice shots.. it is an interesting place to shoot. I am glad my first trip down there was just for fun. Interesting to see you take on the event... some good take aways for me. I struggled and really didn't shoot all that much.

Great shots John.

Some really nice up-close-and-personal shots and angles in there.

Good stuff.

Vick

Hey John, where was the last photo taken? I can't pick it out. Fantastic by the way. As a spectator I definitely agree with the love/hate relationship you mentioned. Every year is my last.

JT,
This set is a bit different from the other one I have already seen. Excluding the previous post, I really like 2 & 8. Was 2 intentional or did it just happen?

Loving #2.
Shots nothing short of amazing as always..

24zero wrote in post #2910413
Was 2 intentional or did it just happen?

Not sure what you're referring to. Did you mean the lighting on #3?

Either way, I always set out with the best INTENTIONS... so, yes... in some way, everything that works out intentional.

Seriously, though... I think we all have an idea of what we want to shoot. But, in the area of motorsports things are moving fast and often things work out "better" than you expected. Take the 100 brake marker "hologram" shot. Did I got to shoot that? No. Was I shooting with an extreme slow shutter and a tiny amount of flash to pop the decals? Yes. While shooting, this phenom occurred via the combination what, where and how I was shooting. After seeing it appear by accident, I set out to improve upon it. I guess that's the beauty of digital and the ability to "chimp" on the sport.

I think you're asking about #3... the trailing car's headlights lighting up the side of the Ferrari. Someone else had pulled this off in a going away shot. I think it was Regis. I happened to be shooting the car exiting the corner... so in this case, a trailing car that was in the right place at the right time lit up the side of rear quarter of the Ferrari. Again using just the small built-in pop-up flash, the combination of lighting produced a really natural looking night time shot. Had I been shooting (like everyone else) with a regular hot-shoe mounted flash, the effect would have been MUCH different.

What is the old saying? Luck is merely preparedness meeting opportunity.

JT

bullitt_60 wrote in post #2910326
Hey John, where was the last photo taken? I can't pick it out. Fantastic by the way. As a spectator I definitely agree with the love/hate relationship you mentioned. Every year is my last.

There is a complex of esses through 2, 3 and 4. I was shooting with a 400mm and picking the cars up in three spots... a 3/4 shot coming from 2 into 3. Then coming straight at me as they came off the exit of 3 and then panning tight as they came passed me heading to 4. I was getting about a 3 frame burst that would give me a tight 3/4 pan of the full car angled... then a 3/4 fender/nose and driver face shot (depending on the mirrors) and finally a tight cockpit head shot almost from the side. The middle frames of the last set were hitting a dark spot with selective lighting on the fender and the driver. The lighting was pretty special across the whole set and at a glance, the dark ones might have been throw-aways. But, there was someting that I liked about them... the drama of the dark shadows against the low warm light of the "magic hour." It sort of demonstrates the race against time we face once the sun starts to go down.

I may still have a little work to do to get them right... but there's something I like about them.

BTW, the posted image has changed already, since my original post.

Thanks,

JT

John

Great stuff as usual.

As I watched the race on TV and saw the setting sun, I figured you were hard at it using the dramatic lighting to as great effect as possible.

Bosscat wrote in post #2912903
John

Great stuff as usual.

As I watched the race on TV and saw the setting sun, I figured you were hard at it using the dramatic lighting to as great effect as possible.

Thanks!

I like the night pics

loving 2, 6 and 7. all good. but, those are exceptional!

ramo wrote in post #2915753
I like the night pics

Always a challenge, though.