ADRL Dragpalooza 2011 in Baytown, Tx.

[Zylone]

Here are a few shots I took this past weekend shooting the ADRL Dragpalooza event in Baytown. Excuse the watermarks, I was shooting as well as doing same day updates for Dragzine. The full article can be viewed here:
ADRL Baytown 2011 Season Opener Same Day Coverage - Dragzine.com

[crbeveri]

I soot my brother there every now and then on Friday nights. Looks like so much nicer conditions to shoot during the day lol.

[Zylone]

It is very nice there during the day except maybe late afternoon when the sun is towards the end of the track. Here is an example of one of my night shots. No flash, pushing the camera pretty hard and at ISO 6400.

[groovyone]

Nice! It has been a long time since I have been to the strip in Houston.

[crbeveri]

nice, did you do any noise reduction with the one at night? I dont have any of the ones of my brother online to link but can later tonight when I get home. It was my first time and ya I pushed my poor 50D to it's limit on ISO. they are really granny but was learning slow shutter panning. used a monopod

[Zylone]

Yes sir, I did some noise reduction in Lightroom 3. I was shooting with my 300mm f/4 wide open. It would be much cleaner if I was shooting with my 70-200 f/2.8 wide open. I just like the angle of the car when shooting with the 300 too much. =P

Honestly, that night shot was one of the final runs and I didn't have time to run and swap lenses since it was in the media room. That is Lamarr Swindell Jr. is a local to Houston so the crowd went nuts and I wanted to make sure and get a shot of him if he did win.

[crbeveri]

Understandable. I believe I was using my 70-300 at the time and was limited to where I could stand as the track marshal kept yelling about being 2 close b/c other ppl (viewers) were being stupid so messed it up for me. Was all good. At 300 it 5.6 so to say the least my ISO was WAY up there. I just got LR so haven't gone back to reprocess those but should.

I've never been out there to shoot on actual race day just open track on Friday nights. Be fun to go with the pro's and/or locals (non street cars) are running and shoot.

[Zylone]

I hear ya! Yeah, I was working on these on a little laptop I had never used before. It was hard to really see what I was doing compared to my dual 22" monitors at home. I am sure I could clean them up better on my main computer.

If you can get out there during a day race, even from the stands.. I highly recommend it. The light is great there!

[crbeveri]

Here are 3 I did at baytown back in December of last year of my brother. This was my first time to ever shoot drag racing. Click on the images for bigger ones. Every time i tried to upload they did it as way 2 big ion why.

[crbeveri]

delete post pls

[groovyone]

Originally Posted by crbeveri

Here are 3 I did at baytown back in December of last year of my brother. This was my first time to ever shoot drag racing. Click on the images for bigger ones. Every time i tried to upload they did it as way 2 big ion why.

Nice Stang!!

[Zylone]

Not too bad for your first time out! Panning is an art in itself for sure!!

[crbeveri]

Originally Posted by Zylone

Not too bad for your first time out! Panning is an art in itself for sure!!

Thanks, I am getting a 70-200 f/2.8 so maybe that'll help some too with being able to use a lower ISO and faster zoom speed. It's crazy how different it is shooting a drag race at night than a motorcycle street (track) race during the day.

[Zylone]

Awesome! Oh yeah, you will probably still have to shoot at pretty high ISO.. but you can shoot at a much lower aperture which will gain you faster shutter speeds which helps a lot at night! Then again, street car races are not near as fast out of the hole as say the ADRL cars.. so you might be able to lower the ISO's after all! It is definitely a different beast at night though and I tell ya what, it has made me a much better photographer from shooting so much at night. It makes daytime shooting at the track almost easy! ;)