At the Honda Indy in Toronto (Photos)
Posted: Sun Jul 14, 2013 4:32 am
So on Friday, I was at the Honda Indy. I had a very exclusive pit pass which I could wave at all the intimidating security guards to walk right past them (they won't even let spectators bring in opened bottles of water into the stands), directly into the pit stop and hang out with the crew. With me, I was packing a total of about $30,000 worth of camera equipment.
My job was to take pictures of F1 cars zip past me in a blur, faster than I could possibly hope to release the shutter fast enough to capture the shot. I had to set the shutters at ~2000-3000ths of a second, shooting 10 frames per second, continuous auto-focus, and pray that I could catch a single frame as the car went by. Naturally, I ended up with a lot of shots of disappointing blurs, or either the front or rear half of a car.
Changing tactics, I used traditional lenses to take pictures of the cars and pit crew close up and walked all.......... the way down to the end of the straightaway and set up my massive super zoom lenses to snipe shots of cars speeding towards me from a few hundred meters away.
My gear:
Sony Alpha SLT-A99's ($3000 each, body only)
Sony 24-70mm f/2.8 Wide Angle Lens ($2000)
Sony 70-300mm f/4.5-5.6 Zoom Lens ($1000)
Sony 300mm f/2.8 Telephoto Lens ($7000) - Yep, that's a BFG.... at least until you see what's next....
Sony 500mm f/4 Super Telephoto Lens ($13,000) - trying to balancing this monster on a monopod while taking shots of cars charging towards me at 300km/h could be classified as a circus act.
Stacks of spare batteries, monopod, tripod, etc. Also the all important ear plugs, walking around the pits all day even with earplugs in and I think I'm still slightly deaf.
Jellus?
My job was to take pictures of F1 cars zip past me in a blur, faster than I could possibly hope to release the shutter fast enough to capture the shot. I had to set the shutters at ~2000-3000ths of a second, shooting 10 frames per second, continuous auto-focus, and pray that I could catch a single frame as the car went by. Naturally, I ended up with a lot of shots of disappointing blurs, or either the front or rear half of a car.
Changing tactics, I used traditional lenses to take pictures of the cars and pit crew close up and walked all.......... the way down to the end of the straightaway and set up my massive super zoom lenses to snipe shots of cars speeding towards me from a few hundred meters away.
My gear:
Sony Alpha SLT-A99's ($3000 each, body only)
Sony 24-70mm f/2.8 Wide Angle Lens ($2000)
Sony 70-300mm f/4.5-5.6 Zoom Lens ($1000)
Sony 300mm f/2.8 Telephoto Lens ($7000) - Yep, that's a BFG.... at least until you see what's next....
Sony 500mm f/4 Super Telephoto Lens ($13,000) - trying to balancing this monster on a monopod while taking shots of cars charging towards me at 300km/h could be classified as a circus act.
Stacks of spare batteries, monopod, tripod, etc. Also the all important ear plugs, walking around the pits all day even with earplugs in and I think I'm still slightly deaf.
Jellus?
I guess they should be though for $30K of gear. Is this what you do for a living, or is it a hobby and you happen to be filthy rich?
myself to a proper race event...