NASCAR - Through my eye

[Camden Thrasher]

These are from back in June at the first road course race of the 2010 Sprint Cup season, Infineon Raceway.

I may point out that these images were shot as a spectator, with no credentials, just for the fun of it. I hear tons of trash talk about Nascar but I really wanted to get a feel of it for myself in real life and I decided that once school got out I would go and experience it first hand. While i'm no stranger to Infineon Raceway, the whole world of stock car racing is fairly foreign to me, and for that reason all the more interesting in my mind.

The way the drivers fling these large and akward beasts around the track, especially during qualifying, is quite incredible. They may appear wild and out of shape while on track but you get a real sense of seriousness when you see the level or performance that the drivers manage to wring from them.

The mid day lighting during the race was fairly ugly, as mid day usually is, so some of my processing of these images reflects an attempt to present these scenes in somehwat of a different light (pun intended) from what may or may not have been reality.

This is the way I saw it.

How do you see it?

1
http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4133/4952519969_8bf886bc3f_z.jpg

2
http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4087/4956613336_df7c7ff781_z.jpg

3
http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4082/4956362194_22311d9821_z.jpg

4
http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4151/4956613232_59cb97ea4c_z.jpg

5
http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4109/4956022605_d4bd7fb203_z.jpg

6
http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4149/4953113604_45001c75c8_z.jpg

7
http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4151/4956022673_ef4524ff37_z.jpg

8
http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4083/4955787905_5f622008d1_z.jpg

[John Thawley]

These are cool.

I think it's become popular to trash NASCAR and another example of people attempting to elevate their sense of self importance by talking something down.

On the other hand, however, NASCAR has earned some of the bashing by whoring their product to the n'th degree.

But from the inside looking out, there's a lot of work, long hours, stress and all the other behind the scenes emotion that goes into the racing. And emotion always provides good photos. If you shoot the glitz and glamour... that's all you get. If you get in and dig... find the people and the moments that are a struggle... you'll come away with inspiring images.

#5, #6 and #8 have a great feel.

#3 is cool shot of any race car.

#4 I would have like more with the guy to one of the extreme sides of the frame.

[Todd Corzett]

I love #5... that is so descriptive of NASCAR at Infineon Raceway. Just pile into a turn on lap 1 and see who makes it out. Great job working the crowd into the background of your shots... for someone who shoots at Infineon all year, NASCAR is the only even that will have packed grandstands (most events you shoot to avoid the 5 people in the stands that "busy-up" your backgrounds).

-Todd...

PS - #8 is great... like how Infineon paints the "curbing" on the way to the general offices on the hill... makes me feel like a race car driver every time I head-up there.

[Daniel Buck]

I like the ratio that the black bars masking the images provide, but they make me want to see some video footage

[Jeff Kapic]

I dig the chaos in 5 and 6.

Jeff