Breaking my 14 year photography hiatus with some race cars

[DSLR noob]

Hey, I'm surprised I was able to log into my old account here, but my last activity was from October 2012 lol. I have an enormously popular sticky in the people photography section.

When I was 22, I got into a financial situation, and I had to sell off all of my gear. It absolutely killed the hobby for me, and I went on to spend nearly a decade mastering digital editing working for a print shop.

Well, present day, 14 years later, a friend of mine just sold me a killer full gear setup with a 5D Mk II, 24-70 f4 L & 70-300-3.5-5.6 IS USM II for nearly nothing. I decided to break back into it all with a trip to Road Atlanta for the Mitty 2026 this past April, and got to finally hear some 4 rotor cars in person as well. I need to get comfortable with the camera again, as I took 400+ shots that day, and I am only sharing the 2 that I really loved.

 

[petrochemist130 155]

I've taken quite a few racing car shots myself over the years (I used to work in motorsparts, checking compliance of control fuels). GT cars & historics have always been among my favorites.
I suspect on the occasions I've been able to concentrate on watching/photography I've probably taken a lot more than 400 shots, panning & trying to get that perfect picture...
FWIW I particularly like your first shot, the post processing really makes it stand out.

 

[DSLR noob]

Great you are back in the hobby! I'm a novice, but took a shot at your pic to bring out the background, for better or worse. I added Dynamic Range Compression using the free program RawTherapee.

I appreciate the sentiment, However, I took the background out on purpose as an artistic decision. I wanted the car to pop against the background. The original shot has all of the gentlemen in the back in full lighting and saturation just as the car is.

EDIT: (to admin / moderator) => my profile did say I was okay with other people editing my photos at the time. It has since been changed to "Not Ok" following this, so this edit was completely okay to do

 

[terri48 19]

EDIT: (to admin / moderator) => my profile did say I was okay with other people editing my photos at the time. It has since been changed to "Not Ok" following this, so this edit was completely okay to do

Thank you for this clarification!

Welcome back to the site! I lived in the big ATL for many years and remember Road Atlanta well. The one time I attended I just about passed out from the heat.



These are good shots - nice work!

 

[cgw130 155]

Don't think I've ever been on any wagon that long! Welcome back.

 

[Rickbb78 17]

2 out of 400 isn’t bad, just be glad you’re not shooting film.

Nice shots.

 

[DSLR noob]

2 out of 400 isn’t bad, just be glad you’re not shooting film.

Nice shots.

Thank you! I was pretty pleased with the outing as a whole. I also got some decent panning shots with motion blur in the bg which was a first for me, but I always felt like the composition/framing on those shots wasn't quite right. Like here I played with a crop for the rule of thirds on the number on the side of the 911 and the rumble strip 1/3d from the bottom... but then the 911 would have just looked better centered more, but there is no more content out of camera in front of the car etc. It was already hard to track thru a telephoto as it is, so I need practice for framing up and tracking at the same time.

 

[SommarShade]

Hey, I'm surprised I was able to log into my old account here, but my last activity was from October 2012 lol. I have an enormously popular sticky in the people photography section.

When I was 22, I got into a financial situation, and I had to sell off all of my gear. It absolutely killed the hobby for me, and I went on to spend nearly a decade mastering digital editing working for a print shop.

Well, present day, 14 years later, a friend of mine just sold me a killer full gear setup with a 5D Mk II, 24-70 f4 L & 70-300-3.5-5.6 IS USM II for nearly nothing. I decided to break back into it all with a trip to Road Atlanta for the Mitty 2026 this past April, and got to finally hear some 4 rotor cars in person as well. I need to get comfortable with the camera again, as I took 400+ shots that day, and I am only sharing the 2 that I really loved.


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Hey, Im not sure if we ever talked back then, but I JUST re logged in - the other day and I felt like posting, the forum seems alive. Holy wow ! Great pics

 

[DanOstergren35]

Thank you! I was pretty pleased with the outing as a whole. I also got some decent panning shots with motion blur in the bg which was a first for me, but I always felt like the composition/framing on those shots wasn't quite right. Like here I played with a crop for the rule of thirds on the number on the side of the 911 and the rumble strip 1/3d from the bottom... but then the 911 would have just looked better centered more, but there is no more content out of camera in front of the car etc. It was already hard to track thru a telephoto as it is, so I need practice for framing up and tracking at the same time.

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Wow that is a cool looking car!

Honestly, I think this composition is interesting, and fitting. Perhaps having the car to the far left of the scene while also facing the left isn't a typical composition, but I think it helps emphasize the speed of the car in a "can't keep up with me, I'm too fast" sort of way.

 

[DSLR noob]

Hey, Im not sure if we ever talked back then, but I JUST re logged in - the other day and I felt like posting, the forum seems alive. Holy wow ! Great pics

Thank you! Yeah I am quite pleased to see a web forum still doing this well. I think the format for these well-organized, easily searchable online communities beats the pants off of just consuming the same 4 big social media apps as everyone else all the time.