Texas Motor Speedway

[MAB3]

Hello all,

I will be going to a NASCAR race next month at TMS outside of Dallas. The race starts around noon or 1PM, so the sun will be directly overhead. For those of you who have been there before, I will be sitting in the Speedway Club seats which are located in turn #1.

I have been to TMS twice before and have taken some cool shots, but I was wondering if anyone had any suggestions for shooting vehicles that are moving at nearly 200MPH? There is a chance that I will be getting into the infield too, so any suggestions of good locales (both infield or from the stands) for photos would be nice as well.

My lenses are somewhat limited though. I will be shooting with a Rebel XTi and a 10D, but my lenses only consist of an EF-S 18-55mm, a 28-80mm, and an EF 75-300mm. Aside from UV on all of my lenses, I currently have no filters in my arsenal either.

Thanks,
Mike

[AdamN]

I went back in October and used a Sigma 70-300 f4-5.6 and had no problems. Just be ready to shoot at a moments notice. I was panning with cars as they came by and took a few shots of the pits when cars came in for fuel and tires. But the best(and luckiest) shot of the day was a wreck in turn 3 that was captured. Other than that, have fun and buy the ear muffs(I think they were $10) because they are ALOT better than ear plugs.

[RightAngle]

A friend of mine shoots the Nascar stuff all the time and produces amazing results and he is shooting with a D2x or whatever it is and a 70-200 2.8 vr so your 75-300 should work well as long as it doesn't get dark on you. If you have some specific questions you want me to ask him I can try and get a hold of him, he has some great advice and even better shots.

[Cope]

Check out these shots at Laguna Seca using a KM 5D and Sigma 100-300 f4 and Minolta 28-135 f4-4.5. The origginal thread is on page two of the forum.
http://forums.dpreview.com/forums/re...ssage=22408450

[tabasco333]

Hello all: i know a guy who knows a guy and have been lucky enough to get passes for the brickyard 400.

Tips, i love a good pan shot, they are a bit tricky but well woth it. i have found the best results shooting at a shutter speed of 250 or slightly higher. This is slow enough so that the background / tires are in motion but the car is sharp. it will create some 'misses' but the hits are awesome. your 75-300 should work fine.

if you can get in the garage be sure to know what the drivers's faces look like. quite often a big name will try to get around with jeans and a t-shirt. most of them are quite small (casey k, gordon, biffle, martin, etc... On race day find out where the drivers meeting / church services will be held. all the drivers will have to show up at the meeting for sure so this is a good place for action. The meeting is usually about 2 hours before the green drops.

enjoy it, should be fun

[MAB3]

Here's one of the cooler shots I've taken at TMS. It was back in November 2005. Too bad the fence was in the way, but hey...safety first, right?

Mike