April 11, 2010 — A beautiful day for racing! It was warm, but not really too hot, high 70′s I believe. I got smart and bought sunscreen, so I didn’t burn hardly at all! It only took me three years to learn that trick, LOL.
Speed…. Shutter Speed.
At Myrtle Beach, I figured out THE secret to those awesome racing photos that portrayed the fact that we all knew, but is still wicked cool to see — that the car is in the middle of moving!
Panning shots eluded me for a bit longer than I wished they would have. I managed some, didn’t quite get what I did, and finally got back into it here as I’ve learned more about controlling the settings on my camera. Now I get how to do it.
Thankfully, I’ve got it pretty well figured out before my friend asked me to do rolling shots for him! Lucky for him, haha, because we should manage to pull off some nice pics before I leave this place.
I kinda miss the racing….
While it’s fun to watch, hang out with people and take pictures, I do miss actually racing myself. I have my reasons, though…
First, I need the picture-taking practice. If I ever want to get paid to do this, it’s practice, practice, practice for me! I want to put my equipment to good use and know how to use it to its full potential.
Second, with my pending unemployment, nearly all of my pennies have been accounted for in figuring out the final bits and pieces I’ve been able to afford…. I really don’t have the spare cash for an autocross.
Third, while I’d come up with the money if it were important enough, I’ve hit a wall with autocross. I enjoy it, yes. But I’d rather save up the money I’d spend on an autocross and go to a track day, where I get a lot more time to spend behind the wheel and work on my racing. I will probably autocross on and off my whole life, but I know my heart lies out there on the track. I’ll be patient in the hopes of getting out there later on this year sometime. (Or to Laguna Seca next year.)
At least I have the pictures!
I had a ton of fun taking the pictures, but sadly many did not turn out. I won’t have my shutter speed set so low next time, so that more of my pictures turn out here. I know I’ve always loved finding pictures of my car in action, so I hope to provide people with that at the next autocross, which will also be our last here. *Sniff* (It’s very bittersweet for me!)
Here are five of my favorite shots from the day, and of course the rest of them are posted to my Flickr page.
Easily one of my top photos from the day...
Turned out a bit blurry, but VTEC kittah had to make the cut, LOL!
Rotaries are so fun to listen to...
My favorite Porsche. 
She's been there every time I've gone, and the owner's pretty cool too. Been racing for a long time!
I swear my camera liked this car, I got some nice shots of it!
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Owner of the road racing RX-7 here! Would love to have a copy of the pic if you get a chance. I was driving like crap that day too!
I sure can do that!
Hey, you still looked good out there to me! Haha.
I like the yellow Porsche shot the best. great depth of field and nice blurring motion giving a sense of speed, while keeping the car sharp.
Invest in a monopod. That helps a lot with panning. Shutter speed is important, of course, as is a fast lens. Some are way faster than others. A lot of camera shops rent lenses that you otherwise might not find affordable (many fast sports lenses are crazy expensive). Ask around and see if you can rent one for your next race, and see if it makes a difference.
Don’t ask me how I know these things ; )
You’re a woman of many talents, I see. ;3
I think the monopod is a good idea, especially as the lenses get bigger and need to be stabilized. I’m sure I can find one for <$20 if I shop around a bit… I do feel bad that my tripod is overall rather neglected, but it's not practical for anything but planned out shoots.
I'm afraid that if I rent the fun, big lenses I'm gonna want one worse than I already do… Next one up for me is almost $600, but I have necessary car parts to buy too… (Like a $400 diff for the Miata, haha.) Plus my camera body's only going to go up so far with the faster lenses, it's certainly not the fastest camera out there. But I'm far from needing to upgrade that yet… I'm working on my basic skills here yet!