Nascar, Its Not So Bad

Sorry for the delay of postings, but my schedules been pretty hectic, with the end of the semester and other photography jobs I have outside of school. To mention one, over this weekend, I had the opportunity to shoot for Associated Press covering the two races that took place at Richmond International Raceway. At first, I was excited about the job, but have never been a nascar fan at all, never watched it, the sport just never interested me, it was just a bunch of rednecks watching a car go around a racetrack. I mean, thats what it is, but being able to experience my first race from that kind of perspective really changes my opinion. I got to walk right up to all the big name racecar drivers, I had a great spot to photograph the event, it was really a lot of fun, eventhough the hours were really long. Both nights, I didn't get out of the event until 1:30 in the morning, the traffic was absolutely horrible. There was 100 thousand fans at this event, well, the Nascar race at least. But all in all, it was a lot of fun, watching the cars speed past me at close to 200 MPH, i've never seen anything like it, and got some really good photos in the process. Besides that, I really can't add anything deep feelings about the race, because I still am really distanced from the sport, I know nothing about it, couldn't name any racers or their sponsors, unless it was part of my assignment. Only racers I know are Kyle Busch, Denny Hamlin and Dale Earnhardt Jr., because i was told to follow them around half of the day. Only other thing I can add, if its a night race and you're looking for crisp shots, shoot at 1000 ISO, aperture of 2.8 and shutter speed of 320. White Balance varies on the camera, for one of them I was shooting at around 5500 degree kelvin, when but with another, i had to compensate a little bit because the color balance was a little off. Just make sure you pan with the cars, or everything you take will be blurry, and watch cars that are riding close together, changes are, there will be a wreck, just keep your eyes open and your ears shut (earplugs are a lifesaver!)