Motorsports: Drifting @ what?! an AFB!?

mr peas

The drift community here, including myself are happy to have had the chance to have a track event in Las Vegas which was truly needed after years of absence mainly due to the lack of sponsors to help pay for the events. So we have finally been saved by Nellis AFB, by them contributing their lots as a race track for us and for the airmen, whom in which we are trying to influence to race more at the track rather than the streets. Hopefully we can continue to have a good relationship with Nellis and hopefully it will result to a track event every month (for a good price and have it local!).

I took some snaps of it of course, hopefully, someone else will shoot it for me next time so I can pull some more seat time inplace of shooting time. Lmk what you think!

Link: http://third3ye.net/gallery/main.php?g2_itemId=26

Quick Views:

Stan

Good luck with the event, I hope you manage to keep it long term.

This one gives the greatest effect of drifting. Nice set

Cheers
Stan

crgphotographer

nice shots, i love the third photo best. go the trueno!

drifting is a motorsport that will only build with time, soon enough all promoters will be begging to have events at their door. Here in Aus it is really starting to kick of with events at most major tracks...

I have only been to one official event and can't wait for the next, as with other motorsport events I have shot it takes a while to find the different frame to use and whether it is best to have the car in the right third with the smoke trailing or another shot.

cheers!

mr peas

Thanks. Believe it or not, I think shooting it is just as fun as driving (other drivers wont say so). But its fulfilling at both sides of the track. These local events are also great because you really get to make new friends with everyone in your area and thats always a plus, especially when you need a tow, need an extra part or could use an extra pair of rubber cuz' you ran out during the runs before.

We're holding these events to help the airmen get into track racing and get out of the streets. A few people at the base told me, they lose more out in the illegal racing a year than they do when they're deployed. So it helps both the track enthusiasts in town as well as the military. I just hope we can have more soon.

Thanks for commenting, hopefully there will be a next time, I'll be sure to shoot it (and hopefully drive at the same). thx again

mercphoto

mr peas wrote:

Lmk what you think!

I'm not much into drifting so I don't know the sport. But one comment I would make is to pay closer attention to your composition. For example, image 1.jpg has part of the back of the car clipped off. Ditto for 3.jpg. Images 2 and 5 have part of the front clipped off. You get the idea. Be much more deliberate about your composition and don't chop off part of the vehicle.

Also I'm not sure why you would allow image downloading and yet still expect people to pay. My experience is that just won't happen.

DoctorIt

I think drifting might be one of the hardest forms of motorsport to capture in a photo. What makes drifting exciting, I think, is the arcing lines the cars follow, not so much the speed. I think what could make for great drifting photos would be a higher vantage point, wider angle, and the arc of the black tire marks behind the car, with lots of tire smoke, of course.

Your grabs are great, for sure, but you have to know drifiting to understand them. To a quick looker, they could be crashing. know what I mean?

mr peas

mercphoto wrote:

I'm not much into drifting so I don't know the sport. But one comment I would make is to pay closer attention to your composition. For example, image 1.jpg has part of the back of the car clipped off. Ditto for 3.jpg. Images 2 and 5 have part of the front clipped off. You get the idea. Be much more deliberate about your composition and don't chop off part of the vehicle.

Also I'm not sure why you would allow image downloading and yet still expect people to pay. My experience is that just won't happen.

Thanks for the reply

Are you looking only at the thumbnails? For example:


and when you click on it:




Also, I offer free downloads because these are people I know and know well, I would rather not charge for them to dl some images to put on their MySpace websites or signatures on local forums. Therefore I limited the size to only 800x600. However, there are some who may wish to use my images for their car pic portfolio for prints or their sponsors would like to use it and publish it on their websites, thats when the I plan to take it seriously and have them pay royalties for using my images. But I understand where these guys and gals come from because when I drive I have a very tight budget to use. Ive already had one customer and it has only been 2 days since the event. Its never a guarantee I'll make money for taking them, but I know I'll be making a few buddies' day by allowing them to dl it. Plus, if I turned on the 'lightbox' feature on my gallery to prevent right clicking via a flash interface, these people are resourceful enough to find a way to save it anyway (screen capture etc.). Plus, by offering my images for free, the drifting community will use my website more, compared to the other photographers that were there who were charging upwards of $20-$40 for sleezy inkjet prints. However, if it was a larger event, not exlusively for locals and knowing there is a real market for the images, I'll take my anti-copying to the next level. But for now, I'm pretty much offering my love for the sport by doing this. Thanks for the comment!

mr peas

DoctorIt wrote:

I think drifting might be one of the hardest forms of motorsport to capture in a photo. What makes drifting exciting, I think, is the arcing lines the cars follow, not so much the speed. I think what could make for great drifting photos would be a higher vantage point, wider angle, and the arc of the black tire marks behind the car, with lots of tire smoke, of course.

Your grabs are great, for sure, but you have to know drifiting to understand them. To a quick looker, they could be crashing. know what I mean?

I gotcha.

Those who know the sport and shoot it, also know that when cars are going at the top of 3rd gear at the first chicane, and unfortunately spins out, thats the best time to catch the best high speed sideways action, because thats when the smoke piles up and they get the stupid angles before they hit the cones and have their bumpers fall off on them.

mercphoto

mr peas wrote:

Thanks for the reply

Are you looking only at the thumbnails? For example:

Aha. Your thumbnails are getting messed up. Is that a "feature" of your webhost?

mr peas

mercphoto wrote:

Aha. Your thumbnails are getting messed up. Is that a "feature" of your webhost?

haha very funny. :P

i can change it to normal thumbnails but i like the way a square thumbnail looks. thought i can fix all the images one by one to make sure theyre all aligned in the middle of the box, thats too much work for me, . sorry for being a 'square'! :P

Mike02

1, 3, 4, and 5 are awesome, nice job! They really give the feeling of being there .

tsk1979

Great shots Mr Peas.
I love Automobile photography and still remember your "Negative Camber" series which won the challenge!

mr peas

Everyone - thanks for the comments, I really appreciate it.

Mike - yeah, I felt the same way when I got it home and took a look at em'. I didnt think so many would come out so well because it was so windy that afternoon and it took some extra muscle to keep the camera from flying off.

Tsk - wow, im glad you still rememeber that, its my most favorite shot of my own car, haha. thanks buddy.

tsk1979

Sorry to go off tangent here, but could you start a new thread about how to take such shots. What kind of Automobile mounted tripods work? Where to buy them etc.,

mr peas

tsk1979 wrote:

Sorry to go off tangent here, but could you start a new thread about how to take such shots. What kind of Automobile mounted tripods work? Where to buy them etc.,

Look up "suction mount" @ www.bhphotovideo.com

http://www.bhphotovideo.com/bnh/controller/home?ci=1&sb=ps&pn=1&sq=desc&InitialSearch=yes&O=productlist.jsp&A=search&Q=*&bhs=t&shs=suction+mount&image.x=0&image.y=0

You'll find several things you can buy there. For farther out shots, you'll have to build different rigs for different cars (or set them up differently for diff cars). For example, shots where you see the entire car in magazines and such were made with much longer arms, they simply photoshop the arms out soon afterwards. Lots of work and planning is required to do it.

They also have books available on the subject. Lots of ideas a friend of mine gave me were sourced out of books regarding the subject of 'camera rigs', if it be SLRs or video, the same concept is at hand.

When you find those books, just read read read!! Hopefully that helps. I'll try to make our own thread on the subject but I havent done shots like that in months and I borrowed most of the gear for it from a friend. If I find more information to help you, be it online or via the library, I will definitely refer you.

Found this do-it-yourself book, look up this thread here:

http://dvinfo.net/conf/showthread.php?t=16364

Camera mount movie they made: http://www.dvcamerarigs.com/carmountmovie.html

mercphoto

tsk1979 wrote:

Sorry to go off tangent here, but could you start a new thread about how to take such shots. What kind of Automobile mounted tripods work? Where to buy them etc.,

Look at http://www.filmtools.com/. Click the Camera Car Mounts link. I have this unit http://www.filmtools.com/gripsuccupca.html. I'm generally happy with it but you can drive very fast and keep the camera reasonably stable. I'm going to try small bean bags to add stability or might get one of the units with three suction cups and multiple arms.

mr peas

mercphoto wrote:

Look at http://www.filmtools.com/. Click the Camera Car Mounts link. I have this unit http://www.filmtools.com/gripsuccupca.html. I'm generally happy with it but you can drive very fast and keep the camera reasonably stable. I'm going to try small bean bags to add stability or might get one of the units with three suction cups and multiple arms.

Ive used a similar unit. The trick I used to keep it steady are stretchy bungee cords (the ones you would use to hang up signs and stuff). Wrapping that around and attaching it to parts of the car kept it steady for me. However, it may also make the suction fall off the car, so be careful!

tsk1979

I am scared of suction mounts
I always worry that they may fall off.
Is there any clamp mount so that I just roll down the window, and clamp it on the windowsill.
What if you hit a nasty bump with these mounts, do they fall off?

mercphoto

tsk1979 wrote:

I am scared of suction mounts
I always worry that they may fall off.
Is there any clamp mount so that I just roll down the window, and clamp it on the windowsill.
What if you hit a nasty bump with these mounts, do they fall off?

I need to edit my post and correct myself: "you can't drive very fast...". I don't feel comfortable much above a walking pace myself. I have been up to about 30mph with it on my hood and no issues, but if you go much faster than walking the thing shakes around too much. Having said that I have seen reference to someone using a setup with three suction cups (much more stable) successfully on a race car at speeds over 100mph. Amazes me.