I photograph these races every winter and the season is winding down, although the cold weather has shown no signs of relenting. I purchased a new long zoom this year, a Sigma 150-500 OS DG HSM and was anxious to use it. A thaw during Christmas week and the first week of January cancelled the first 2 events because of thin ice but by later in the month, the bitter cold weather had created 18-20 inches of ice on area lakes, more than enough for racing. The first day was very windy and the lack of snow had me back a very long distance from the track and I shot at 400mm most of the day. It was a new experience going that long as I'm usually closer and shoot with a 300.
I tried a few panning shots with mixed results. The biggest issue was the tripod head which got a little stiff in the cold but I did get some keepers.
I don't want to leave out the quads although they are difficult because so much snow and spray gets flying that it's hard to lock focus.
The Sigma performed well until the temperature dropped later in the afternoon and the HSM motor slowed to the point where I had to stop shooting. That problem showed up the following week quite early as the temperatures never got above 10F and I went back to my MF lens and I will do another thread with that lenses shots.
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