Tips for shooting at the Rolex?

[Ian Kosiek]

Hey guys, im headed to daytona for the weekend tomorrow morning for the rolex 24. Do you guys have any tips or suggestions as far as shooting the cars? I will probably be using my 70-200 f4L most of the time. Looking for tips for daytime and night time shots. Thanks for anything.

Ian K

[Chris Weller]

Ian,

For what it's worth, here are my suggestions. If you have never been to Daytona's infield, these may be helpful.

1. Bring a stool to shoot over the fence. It is worth it.

2. If you have time look at the following:

The previous Rolex 24 posts on this site.

Flicker. Search on Rolex 24. I suggest looking at the wide shots from people with point and shoots to see the crowd levels and where the fences and bleachers are. On the "good shots" see if the EXIF data is available to see what it took to get the shot.

Look at Daytona's satellite image. You can see where the infield bleachers are in relationship to the track.

Have fun.

Chris

[Steve Stein]

Let's see some pictures! Come on guys! The race is almost over in 3 hours and no one posted anything yet? What were you doing all night? :)

[Ian Kosiek]

Well here is what i came back with. Unfortunatly we couldnt get the car into the infield because the fire marshal wouldnt let anyone else in. So i couldnt grab my stool or some of the other equipment i brought. But here are my best shots. Only my second time shooting at the Rolex. Hopefully next year I can get some much better shots.

You can check the rest of the set out here.
http://flickr.com/photos/boosted20th/sets/72157612978477532/

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3323/3226251596_52072bd7a0.jpg?v=0

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3512/3226249120_65a994572c.jpg?v=0

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3436/3226257790_b3d4224450.jpg?v=0

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3382/3226246002_939ee393a6.jpg?v=0

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3391/3225389513_a39bf7dfa3.jpg?v=0

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3366/3226269470_a3fc4e972c.jpg?v=0

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3386/3225415671_9674943031.jpg?v=0

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3082/3225418789_7822d1d4f4.jpg?v=0

[Steve Stein]

I checked out your Flickr gallery. You have some nice night shots there. It looks like you shot with the XTi. I surprised it tracked focus with the night shots.

The only thing I think I could recommend is to crop the shots with the car coming into the frame instead of dead center or leaving the frame. Also maybe not crop as tight like the last shot above.

I bet you had a great time. My trigger finger is getting restless for Sebring.

PS: I checked John's Exif info. Looks like he used his 40D, 70-200, and 500 on his shots.

[Chris Clark]

They look good.

I like #3 and #7. Nice job. Nice panning.