A couple of weeks before Christmas I flew interstate to shoot DriftFest, Australia's first drift racing and music festival. It was a good day, I started shooting at 9am and finished about 8pm!

Below are a few examples from the day. With the exception of a few crowd shots I used the K10D and my trusty Bigma. I used shutter-priority all day, AF.C and no SR.

I spent most of the day shooting with 2 photog buddies from interstate, one Nikon user and one Canon user. Made for some amusing friendly rivalry during the day, including them asking me if I get a special parking space for using Pentax. Both had a shoot with my Pentax and both said they were surprised at how bright the viewfinder was and how comfortable it was to hold.

I had a shoot with one of the Nikon-shooters bodies (he had 3 - D100 with Nikkor 300mm 2.8, D80 with 70-200 2.8, D40 with 24-85mm 2.8-4), the D100. Was very nice, surprisingly lighter than the Canon 300mm 2.8 I've used in the past, but the dark, small viewfinder was quite a step back from the K10D.

The Canon shooter had his 30D and a new 40D. In fact it was his second 40D after the first one died after only a couple of weeks. The one he was shooting with that day was using batteries really quickly, switching itself off and only shooting 3 frames in succession. He said he knows of a few others having similar issues.

Anyhow, time for some photos, there are a few so stick with me. C&C welcomed.

Gallery links: Single car runs, Tandem runs, Misc. shot gallery.

1/160, f/22, ISO-200, 270mm.


1/125, f/22, ISO-200, 270mm.


1/160, f/13, ISO-200, 310mm, +0.3EV.


1/160, f/16, ISO-200, 160mm, +0.3EV.


1/160, f/14, ISO-200, 270mm, +0.3EV.


1/200, f/11, ISO-200, 310mm, +0.3EV.


1/125, f/5.6, ISO-160, 125mm (18-125mm Sigma), +0.3EV.


1/500, f/9, ISO-200, 500mm.


1/100, f/11, ISO-100, 18mm (18-125mm Sigma).


Poor-mans fish-eye. 13 exposures, 1/500, f/3.5, ISO-100, 18mm (18-125mm Sigma), joined in AutoStitch.


P.S. Please excuse the watermarks, I was posting these up on another forum and didn't want to have to upload 2 lots of images.

[hooppjs]

Gday,
I enjoy looking at all your posts and photos involving motor sport and the BIG didily Bigma. Shot 4, the Skyline and shot 6, the go-cart, I think are the best. I actually liked all of them, but shots 4 & 6 brought work mates running over to the PC to have a look.
Regarding the go cart pic, I like how you caught the drivers eyes, the pressure on the soles of the boots and the rear wheel skipping in the air.
I use the Bigma similar to yourself, except shoot 1/10 to 1/4 scale cars, bikes, planes, boats etc.
Thanks for posting and please keep them coming.

Peter

[hooppjs]

Regarding the go cart again. I'd also like a firewall between my rude bits and the gas tank, lol. Very brave human beings.

Peter

[attack11]

great shots! i'm curious why you chose the settings you did. is 1/125 - 1/200 ideal for shooting moving cars? i've never tried shooting a race before.

[blwnhr]

Gday,
I enjoy looking at all your posts and photos involving motor sport and the BIG didily Bigma. Shot 4, the Skyline and shot 6, the go-cart, I think are the best. I actually liked all of them, but shots 4 & 6 brought work mates running over to the PC to have a look.
Regarding the go cart pic, I like how you caught the drivers eyes, the pressure on the soles of the boots and the rear wheel skipping in the air.
I use the Bigma similar to yourself, except shoot 1/10 to 1/4 scale cars, bikes, planes, boats etc.
Thanks for posting and please keep them coming.

Peter

Thankyou very much for your kind words Peter. It is interesting to see what shots people like. I am very partial to the go-kart one as well.

Shooting scale cars is certainly very difficult, I have friends who play with these and have yet to nail down the right technique.

Regarding the go cart again. I'd also like a firewall between my rude bits and the gas tank, lol. Very brave human beings.

Haha, I've raised this point with some kart racing buddies.

great shots! i'm curious why you chose the settings you did. is 1/125 - 1/200 ideal for shooting moving cars? i've never tried shooting a race before.

I base my shutter-speeds around focal lengths. The longer it is the faster you need (like the golden focal-length = shutter-speed), however, I find with panning you can bump that down a bit. Typically I will use the following settings:

18-80mm - 1/60-1/80
80-150mm - 1/80-1/125
150-200mm - 1/125-1/160
200-300mm - 1/160-1/200
300-500mm - 1/200-1/350

I find this give the best feeling of speed. If I am feeling lazy, or have shots I have to get, like the tandem runs then I'll move a stop or 2 faster.

[Mechan1k]

Nice work again ... has been a while since I have seen any of your work on here.
Thought you might have been away on holiday.

Gotta love the jibbing from the Nikon and Canon users.
By the sounds of it ... the Canon user was the one that needed the special parking permit.
hee hee.

Good to hear though that they were impressed with the K10D ... maybe some new converts.

[blwnhr]

A couple more. First up a crash sequence.




The devistation. I love the body language.




Back to the action.

[smcclelland]

And so he returns wielding the mighty Bigma! Nice shots again man, was waiting to see if you'd return with some more photos (curse you Aussies and your nice weather, we're burried under snow and sub degree temps now). Looks like the Bigma's been treating you quite well!

[vievetrick]

Your motor sport work is always worth the look. NIce job as usual with these. I really like the shot of the guys behind the wall watching the car going away from them. Somthing about it pulls me in. Great work

[daacon]

Ahhhhh photographer wise you may be considered by some as “Jack of all” but I would have to say you are the "Master of the Drifting". The composition, panning, sharpness are things I aspire to be able to do. Excellent series once again.

[blwnhr]

And so he returns wielding the mighty Bigma! Nice shots again man, was waiting to see if you'd return with some more photos (curse you Aussies and your nice weather, we're burried under snow and sub degree temps now). Looks like the Bigma's been treating you quite well!

Haha, I got sunburnt to a crisp that day! At the moment it's a chilly 75*F and it's only just gone midday, haha. It was the same temperature at midnight on the 31st of December, nothing like brining in the new year with a sweat, haha.

The Bigma is well, if a little dusty. Need to give him a clean around the lens hood mount.

Will have some drag racing photos up early next week and more the week after, then a car show, then 2 more lots of drift, another drift/drag festival and then some jet-cars at the drag strip. Should be an exciting couple of months.

Your motor sport work is always worth the look. NIce job as usual with these. I really like the shot of the guys behind the wall watching the car going away from them. Somthing about it pulls me in. Great work

Thankyou. I really like that shot too. The photog on the left is the Canon shoot er who was having all the problems.

Ahhhhh photographer wise you may be considered by some as “Jack of all” but I would have to say you are the "Master of the Drifting". The composition, panning, sharpness are things I aspire to be able to do. Excellent series once again.

Thankyou very much. Is certainly lots of fun! Look out for more Bigma action, haha.