At the car races

[Chiller]

Got some tickets from Castrol to go shoot the races. They had a car in one of the races , so I had hoped to catch it in action. I was so close to the track, panning was killer and the cars were so freekin fast. Fired off a few blank screens, before I stepped back.
So this is only my second attempt at trying to shoot at the car races.
One from the cart series.

Not sure what this guys gig is, or what the blue flag means.

This was the only shot I got of "the" car. Unfortunatly, it blew a motor on the second lap. I wanted to get it with all the advertising in the back...but...there will be a next time.

One of my favorite cars of the day...this dude could book it.

 

[keith204]

Nice work! The photos are nice and crisp, they are great! I think you did an excellent job getting all of those Castrol logos in there, and making the picture look good without having any smoking tires and such.

Blue flag - in all the different types of racing I've seen, a blue flag of some sort (whether striped or not) tells the driver he is about to be lapped, so get out of the way & let the leaders pass. Typically, drivers don't like these shots for obvious reasons .

My favorite is probably the last one. Very sharp, with just the right amount of background motion blur. Very impressed with how sharp this is. Also, the colors are incredible.

If you did much post processing on these, you hid it pretty well. You didn't have to do color tricks or vignetting to make these look good...they're simply great photos. Nice work.

 

[Tennessee Landscape]

the Bimmer and the blue Stang are quite nice, very fine images in my book.

 

[250Gimp]

Very nice shots Chiller!!

Not quite darkside, but still awesome!

 

[DragonHeart]

friggin' awesome shots!

 

[ToddB]

Nice shots Chiller.

1. The first is actually the Skip Barber Pro Series. A great development series for drivers trying to make it in the IRL or other formula type racing. That is a great shot BTW.

2. Beautiful colors on the Auberlin BMW shot!

3. I LOVE this shot. I like how you captured the racing action but the focus is on the Flagging and Communications worker. Without them the event would NOT happen. The only thing I would like to have seen is the car that is about to overtake the Mustang. But it is a beautiful shot. If you knew who the worker was, I guarentee that he would buy that photo from you.

4. I like how you captured all the Castrol signs with the car. Not a surprise that it done blowed up, as they say here in the south. It is a Dodge afterall!!!!

5. I like the colors in this one also. Being the owner of a Mustang I have to like the car!!!

Nice shots overall!!!

 

[JHF Photography]

Great shots! The second one is my fave, the car is so sharp with the background blurred just right! It almost looks animated, but so real at the same time. LOVE it!

 

[Bifurcator]

Great images! I like 2 and 5 best. And 2 the best between them.

Keith is right on about the meaning of that flag. It's called a "courtesy flag" and during a race usually means get out of the way for the leaders about to lap your azzz. When leaving the pits it will almost always be held up stationary (not waved) if there's other oncoming cars. It can also be used for other courtesy requests but I dunno what all.

Blue, Blue with yellow stripe, Blue with yellow center box... all courtesy flags.

 

[Chiller]

Thanks so much for all your kind words and comments. Really appreciate all of you taking the time.

Sad news from this track today. A driver from the US was killed yesterday in the Vintage Car race. Apparently his car became airborn for some strange reason on the straightway, flipped end over end. He was rushed to hospital, but could not be saved.