Sebring Pt. 2 - Shoot the Sunset

The sunset at Sebring is very beautiful, and presents many different shooting possibilities. As the sun was getting low, I still wasn't sure whether I was going to shoot the sunset at the hairpin turn or along the front straight. Both are beautiful in the sunset light, and I was at the hairpin at the time.

I got some of my favorite shots of the race during the golden hour.

Sebring Pt. 1 - Think Different

In the photographic world, almost everything has been done before. It's hard to do something really different. On the first day that I got to Sebring, I was feeling a little stale, and not in a creative frame of mind to be taking really good pictures. So as I was moping around the track, I decided to try and do something different. There are many, many awesome motorsports photographers out there, and most of them are getting similar images. I know I don't have the experience to go toe to toe and get better "typical" racing pictures. I think that I do have the ability to bring my own vision to the ring, and shoot things a little different.



This shot was taken on the inside of turn 17 at Sebring, one of my favorite corners at the track. The drivers have just finished the longest straightaway on the track, and take a sweeping right hander at very high speed, and then go under a bridge. The cars come VERY close to the wall at 17, sometimes within three or four feet from the concrete barrier that photographers stand behind. The light at this time was not very flattering, and my head on and panning shots of the cars were looking flat, and I didn't really feel like walking to another part of the track, so I decided to try something different. Creating framing within shots is one of my favorite techniques, so I decided to give it a whirl. The concrete barriers have small breaks at the bottom of them, just big enough to fit a camera in. So I stuck one of my cameras in the hole, and shot the cars through it as they drove by. This was really tough, as the cars were driving probably 135 MPH at this point. It took about 10 minutes of squating down, trying to watch the cars coming by, and timing everything just right to get them in the little frame. It worked, and this turned about to be one of my favorite shots from the race. I've never seen a photo like this before, so it's cool to think that this might be a pure original.

Don't forget to think different, and never be afraid to try out new things. The pro photographers that were around and watching me probably thought I was nuts, but it worked!

Here are a few more shots that I thought were a little different: