Fade to Black

I think most race fans who have been to both day and night races, agree that races held at night and under the lights can be a spectacular experience.  The cars seem to be going faster, and the visual confusion can be both beautiful and scary.

Racing photographers are no different.  That is except that they need to carry much more equipment in the form of electronic flash.   I began with Hershey and Honeywell gun flashes, moved on the the incredible (and expensive) Norman 200B, 400B and others.  In the few years that I was a digital racing photographer, I used a variety of small Nikon flash units and they performed well unless I was dealing with distant cars or very dark backgrounds. 

I especially enjoyed weekly short track programs at night and during the summer months.  Practice, qualifying, heats races, semi mains and features.  You would begin by photographing heat races in bright sunshine, move on to more heats and semi mains at dusk, and finish under the track lights in the dark of night.  The three late model images below were all taken at the same track as the day/evening progressed.

Photographing racing front lit in bright sunshine is without question the easiest photography the racing photographer will do.  Plenty of light means plenty of shutter speed with enough depth of field to cover a couple of cars. 

The most difficult time to be a racing photographer is around dusk.  It is dark enough that you need flash, but there is enough ambient light that there will be some recording of movement due to the slower shutter speeds.  This shot is actually receiving some back light from the setting sun. It is important to execute careful panning in order to prevent ghosting.

I was always relieved when it finally got completely dark.  The image below is a nice one but it would have been perfect if the dark car was on the inside and the white car outside.  The balance and details would be optimum.

I want to thank you for stopping by and I hope you stop back soon.
The Outsider