by "sonicgabe" (gabeloewenberg)
Published 03/13/2017 at 10:18
by "sonicgabe" (gabeloewenberg)
Published 03/13/2017 at 10:18
Tags: Grand Prix Of St. Petersburg
; Sebastien Bourdais
; IndyCar
STARS: 4
Sunday didn’t go as planned, but it couldn’t have gone any better. My alarm went off, but I decided I needed a little more sleep rather than Stadium Super Trucks. I was going to hang out in the Pirelli World Challenge paddock to take pictures of them prepping for the second GT race of the weekend. Because it was going to be crowded, I wasn’t even going to bother shooting during the IndyCar race. Well, as you may have seen, that all went to hell in the best way possible.
!!! UNKNOWN CONTENT TYPE !!!
The short story is that while waiting in the really long line to get in the gate, I was talking to the guy next to me. He pulls out a couple of Paddock Pass wrist bands . He was by himself, so I jokingly asked if the other one was spoken for. He said “No.” and gave it it to me. He then gave me the VIP Club wrist band and the Pit Suite pass. I offered to pay him, he declined. He had others that he gave to some friends, but had one extra set left over. He said he was hoping to give them to a pretty girl. I told him that if he needed me to be a pretty girl, that I would be a pretty girl. Thankful, he declined.
Then, as we were still waiting in line, realizing that we’ll probably miss the start of the race; he was chatting up a cop, asking about something or other. The cop saw the badge for the suites and told us to go to the credentials entrance (which was right by the suites) and we’d get right in. I knew where that was, so off we went. Got in and up to the suite just in time for the formation laps.
Had I gotten up when planned, this wouldn’t have happened. Because so many people were filling in to the line every second, had I done anything different Sunday morning, I wouldn’t have randomly ended up in line where I did. Had I not stopped to re-tie my shoes, I would have been 20 people in front of him. If I would have gotten stuck at a crosswalk, I would have been 20 people or more behind him.
This was my exchange with Azrek about it. You can clearly see that the suite life was going to my head.
There were brownies and whiskey. They were delicious.
So, I shot the race from up above the front straight. My long lens is not the right lens for shooting race cars traveling at 150mph at a good distance in front of you. It’ll take great pictures, but it’s sensitive. And old. The slightest bump will rotate the focus ring. I did manage to get some cool shots. Enjoy.
"OneFastPuertoRican" (OneFastPuertoRican)
03/13/2017 at 11:03, STARS: 0
Neat! What camera set-up did you use?
"shop-teacher" (shop-teacher)
03/13/2017 at 11:25, STARS: 1
That’s freaking awesome! Great pics too!
"sonicgabe" (gabeloewenberg)
03/13/2017 at 12:12, STARS: 0
I have a Nikon D5200. The long lens I have is a fully manual 1970s 80-205mm, which converts to 120-307.5mm when used on a cropped sensor. It’s not the best lens, but it’ll take some good pictures if you spend some time getting used to it. It is not ideal for doing tracking shots of race cars on the front straight. I noticed that as I was following the cars with the camera, it was ever so slightly rolling the focus ring as I rotated to follow the car. Well, not just the focus ring, but the whole barrel of the lens. The whole damn thing moves. It’s like having the whole barrel as the focus ring. Because it’s a 70s lens, it’s heavy, so you instinctively want to hold it by the barrel when you shoot. Works great if you aren’t moving around too much.
Had I known that I would end up where I did for Sunday, I would have borrrowed or rented a lens that was better suited for these shots.
"sonicgabe" (gabeloewenberg)
03/13/2017 at 12:17, STARS: 1
It was a helluva way to watch a race.
"AntiSpeed" (AntiSpeed)
03/13/2017 at 14:54, STARS: 0
Nice! A couple years ago a friend of mine was in law school down there, and his friend was having a birthday party in the party room at the Signature Tower on Saturday. THAT is a good place to watch a race. I’m surprised it’s not booked by any of the teams’ sponsors.
"sonicgabe" (gabeloewenberg)
03/13/2017 at 15:15, STARS: 0
That is a good place to watch the race from, so i’ve been told. At last year’s race, an old friend of mine who lives in Australia now was in town and knew someone who lived there, so he got to watch the race from the balcony. We were comparing pictures that I took from the ground in turn 5 to the ones he took from above. Some of them seemed to be taken at virtually the same time.
"ttyymmnn" (ttyymmnn)
03/13/2017 at 15:15, STARS: 0
Does the number on the air box indicate track position?
"sonicgabe" (gabeloewenberg)
03/13/2017 at 15:23, STARS: 0
Oh, also with this lens, there is no vibration reduction. I’m shocked at how well it did at such a distance while tracking cars and firing in burst mode. This year’s major camera purchase will be a new long lens. I’ve been putting it off. My last good one was stolen almost three years ago (along with all my camera gear), so I’ve been rebuilding the gear collection ever since.
"sonicgabe" (gabeloewenberg)
03/13/2017 at 16:35, STARS: 0
Yes, but because it’a an LED and does that weird flickering thing, sometimes in photos, it doesn’t show up properly, or at all.
If someone wants to explain the LED flicker, please have at it. You can probably do it better than I could.
"ttyymmnn" (ttyymmnn)
03/13/2017 at 17:19, STARS: 0
Something about refresh rates and scan rates on the camera.
"AntiSpeed" (AntiSpeed)
03/13/2017 at 18:00, STARS: 0
That’s awesome! I absolutely loved going to the race, I was thinking about doing it this year but then I saw there was a race I could enter in Virginia. Hopefully it won’t be too long before I’m back as a competitor!
"sonicgabe" (gabeloewenberg)
03/13/2017 at 18:07, STARS: 0
Yeah, something like that. With a slower shutter speed in photos, it’ll look fine, but with higher ones, you get the flicker in a still shot.
"sonicgabe" (gabeloewenberg)
03/13/2017 at 18:10, STARS: 0
It’s an amazing race, and a stellar spectator track. Even though they’ve moved back the inner fencing in the last several years, there are still places you can go where you are 8 feet away from a race car blowing by you.
"Reavyn" (Reavyn)
03/13/2017 at 18:46, STARS: 0
That is so completely awesome! Haven’t stories like this can be better than any photo!
Every time I look through my shots after a day out I think about how if I’d done one thing different I would have missed all of them. It’s such a crazy feeling when you really think about.
That flaming tire....damn!
"sonicgabe" (gabeloewenberg)
03/13/2017 at 19:48, STARS: 0
He was coming in to the pits and the brake rotar exploded. Once they pulled the wheel off, all the bits stuck on the inside just ignited. It was an amazing scene that happened to unfold right in front of me.
The whole day was really amazing.
"OneFastPuertoRican" (OneFastPuertoRican)
03/14/2017 at 00:23, STARS: 0
I’m in the market for a nice zoom lens. Being a Canon guy myself, I can see we’ll probably have our differences :D
Regardless, I’ve been eyeing a Sigma lens for its practicality/cost vs the Canon lens. Hey, I’ve got a German car to maintain, people!!!
https://www.sigmaphoto.com/lenses/18-300mm-f35-63-dc-macro-os-hsm-c
"sonicgabe" (gabeloewenberg)
03/14/2017 at 11:26, STARS: 1
I’ve got no issues with Canon people.
That seems like a good lens at a good price. It might be worth trying to get your hands (and camera) on one to try out first. I’ve looked at some lenses that seemed good, but just through reading about them found that many people have issues with slow focusing, issues focusing, very muted colors. I know nothing about this particular lens, so I can’t say if it has any of these issues. You might be able to rent one for a few days at a fairly low cost to try it out.