Gatornationals Top Fuel Dragsters

Stilltime

These were from yesterdays races at Gainseville Raceway. Just finished getting them all up online. This was my first NHRA event, and I fricken LOVED it. It was a blast. Here's the whole gallery, but these are my faves. What a challenge in terms of action shots. Going from shooting dogs to 300mph drag cars was, uh, different.

t_hedlund

Nice photos, i was just thinking the other day what a challenge capturing 300 mph cars would be.

mercphoto

One big problem is you're too low to the ground. The safety barriers blocks the bottom portion of the cars. Get up in the grandstands a bit so you get some elevation and see the entire car. Also consider a much slower shutter speed and panning with the cars -- get some sense of motion in the shot.

Stilltime

mercphoto wrote:

One big problem is you're too low to the ground. The safety barriers blocks the bottom portion of the cars. Get up in the grandstands a bit so you get some elevation and see the entire car. Also consider a much slower shutter speed and panning with the cars -- get some sense of motion in the shot.

Yeah, actually, in the gallery I have a ton of shots from the stands, and a few panning shots. But these ones were taken down in the Snap On tent. I was hopping to get a few of the chutes deploying, but I was still too far away. Where those pictures were taken was about mid-track. I just like these because of the flames and the nitro cloud. I saw a guy with a shirt that that said; "Ahh.. nothing like the smell of nitro in the morning" with a picture of an old man with his hair standing on end, cross eyed, with his nostrils flared. Loved it.

Here are a few more:












Notice the tires warping...








And of course, the guy parachuting onto the track with the flag.