Photographing NASCAR at Pocono Raceway

If you are following along on the Facebook or Instagram pages, then you probably know that I spent the last weekend shooting the NASCAR race in Pocono, Pennsylvania. I was there to capture the #1 car. This car is part of the Chip Gnassi race team driven by Jamie McMurray, and this week was skinned with the Lexar logo.

I am going to take you along with me as I shot the preparations for the race and the race itself. If you are a NASCAR fan, then you will like the up close view of the race. If you are a fan of photography, you might appreciate my shared camera settings and thought processes as I shot the race. Either way, I hope you enjoy this...

I got to the track on Friday morning to take photos of the car and Jamie. Most photographers are not allowed to go into the garage area, but since I was shooting for this team, I was allowed to do so. I was using my Canon 1Dx and 1066x Lexar Professional CF cards (of course!) for all the photos this weekend. For these inside photos, I was using the Canon 24-105mm lens.

This is a photo of Jamie McMurray in the car and getting ready to go out and test the car, prior to qualifications. It is quite a process getting into these cars. They climb in through the window opening and then have to get connected to the communication system. Then they have to get their fire protection and helmets on. Then they harness into the seat and head support, and connect the steering wheel to the car.

I went out to the track to get some photos of Jamie and the #1 car driving his practice laps. I changed lenses from the wide lens to the new Canon 100-400 lens, and grabbed this simple close-up shot of the car waiting on the track.

After taking the close-up shot, I put on my Tiffen HT Circular Polarizing filter and zoomed the Canon 100-400mm lens out to show the car, grandstands, and a little of the cloudy sky.

Then it was time to grab a couple motion panning shots of the car on the track. In order to get this photo, I turned the polarizing filter to it's darkest point and then set the camera to ISO 100, f/9 which gave me a shutter speed of 1/80th sec. Because the car was moving at close to 150mph, this shutter speed was enough to achieve the motion blur but also get the car sharp.

Let's now fast forward to Sunday...race day!

The race started at 1:30pm, but I left for the track at 8:30am to beat the traffic and make it in time for the mandatory photographers meeting at 10:30am. In these meetings, the track officials and NASCAR officials explain the dos and don'ts for the track (including where we can go and where we can not, how to best navigate the track, possible dangers, and best shooting positions...) They also hand out maps of the track and field any questions from the photographers.

Having a little spare time, I made my way up to the Chip Gnassi suite and grabbed some lunch before the race began.

From the suite, I saw this view of all the race team's trucks and the American flag, and thought that it would make a good photo.

I then made my way out to pit row.

I saw these people walking around pit row and had to take their photo. These are some serious race fans! After hanging out at the Gnassi pit area for a while, I made my way to the driver introductions.

I love that some of the drivers bring their kids with them for their introductions. This is a photo of Sam Hornish and his little daughter.

And here is Ryan Newman with his little girl.

Danica Patrick making her entrance...

And...of course...I had to get a good photo of Jamie making his way onto the track wearing his Lexar fire suit.

Jimmie Johnson making his way out.

And for what will likely be his final race at Pocono Raceway, Jeff Gordon, is still the all-time winningest driver at this raceway, with 6 career victories.

Here is Jeff Gordon making his introductory circle of the track.

For the National Anthem, I switched back to the Canon 24-105mm lens to get this wide shot of Jamie and his crew. I have to say...It is always a weird time for me to shoot, since I am always torn between getting the shot and paying respect to the country. This time I chose to do both, shooting a couple of photos and then stopping and turning to the flag.

Most of the teams will huddle together and pray before the start of the race. This prayer must have worked for this team, as nobody was hurt during this race and they ended up winning the race in a dramatic fashion.

Now...for the photos of the race.

I started out by turn 1 so that I could get some photos of the race start. This turn also has a steep bank, making for better motion blur shots of the cars.

Since I was at the race to get photos of the #1 car, you can bet that I prioritized this car over all the others on the track. If you follow my work, you know that I am not a big fan of "freezing" race cars on the track, when shooting them from the side. Using a fast shutter speed on race cars does not do the sport justice. So I used the Tiffen polarizing filter to cut the amount of light coming into my camera and went for a slow shutter speed for these photos. I set the camera to ISO 100 with an aperture of f/16. This gave me a shutter speed of 1/30th of a second. The trick is to pan at the EXACT same speed of the car (using my hips) while firing off shots.

The slow shutter speed not only blurs the background, but it also shows the spinning of the tires.

Although it is more difficult to track multiple objects while panning, I actually prefer this photo since it has more cars in the frame.

This photo was taken with a shutter speed of 1/60th of a second. You might be wondering why this has as much blur, if not more, than the photo taken at 1/30th. The reason is quite simple. Jamie was driving much faster when I took this photo, and I was panning the camera at a faster rate.

One of the advantages of motion panning, is that you can isolate your subject. If you look at this photo, you will notice that the cars in the center of the frame (where I was focusing and tracking) are the only cars in focus while the others are at different levels of blur.

After shooting at different positions of turn 1 for half an hour, I walked back towards the grandstands. I wanted to use the crowd as a different background for the motion blur.

I really like the way that the yellow Menards car "popped" out of the background in this image.

While I was standing on pit row, Kurt Busch came in for some fuel and a tire change. I quickly changed the camera setting from f/16 to f/4 to get a shutter speed of 1/1250 sec and freeze the action. Although, if I had photographed more pit changes, it would have been fun to try motion panning on some of the crew members. Maybe next time!

My next stop was the outside of turn 3. I wanted to get into this shooting position to get a head-on shot of the cars. Not long after getting to this position, there was a caution and the cars had to follow the chase car. I was happy to get a photo of the #1 car amongst all the other cars in a tight formation.

And then, not long afterwards, they were back to racing. You might notice that I did switch the Canon 1Dx back to a high shutter speed for this shooting position. Since the cars were coming towards me, I figured that motion panning would not work very well here.

But...

I decided to give motion panning a try to see if it was possible to get a good shot from this head-on position. Believe it or not, this photo was taken with the new Canon 100-400mm lens all the way out at 400mm, at 1/30th sec (handheld). And you know what? I kinda like the results!

As I was leaving the race, I saw this large sign by the exit. I was so flattered that they would build this huge sign for me. I thought to myself "Really - it was just nice to be here. You didn't have to do that for me!" And then I realized that this was for the "other Jeff" at the track. :)

Special thanks to Gnassi Race Team and NASCAR for the credentials.

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