NHRA pre-season testing in the desert
Every year the cars and stars of the NHRA converge on Firebird International Raceway to test out their cars in preparation of the 2009 season which begins in two weeks. Preseason testing usually is the best time to get images of the drivers due to the small crowds and great access. Continue on to see my first motorsports shoot of the new year!
On the first day I got out there and walked around and got right to work looking for shots as crewmembers were unloading the cars from their haulers.
Below the car of funny car driver Jack Beckman is unloaded from the hauler.
Nikon D3, 80-200mm, 500iso, f4.5, 1/5000th
The car of funny car driver Ron Capps is pushed into its pit area after being unloaded.
Nikon D700, 14-24mm, 800iso, f2.8, 1/8000th
Rookie top fuel dragster driver Spencer Massey warms up in his car prior to a test run.
Nikon D3, 80-200mm, 500iso, f4.5, 1/250th
The car of funny car driver Jack Beckman goes through a tech inspection.
Nikon D3, 80-200mm, 250iso, f5.6, 1/1600th
I headed to the starting line to get setup and look around. The track sat empty of all action?
Nikon D3, 80-200mm, 500iso, f4.5, 1/4000th
?but that was about to change as the track opened and drivers were invited to take their turns racing.
At Firebird they have all credentialed photographers wearing these really cool photo vests??too bad they look like construction worker vests. In the below photo you can see how happy I am to wear the brightly colored vest.
Photo by Brian Losness
Robert Hight prepares to climb into his car in the staging lanes.
Nikon D700, 14-24mm, 200iso, f5.6, 1/200th
Spencer Massey does a burnout during testing.
Nikon D700, 14-24mm, 100iso, f18, 1/30th
Funny car driver John Force sits in his car prior to making a run.
Nikon D700, 400mm, 1600iso, f2.8, 1/1250th
A few minutes later he blasted off the starting line on a pass.
Nikon D700, 400mm, 640iso, f5.6, 1/4000th
After a few more passes I got bored and called it a day.
Day two was a nice sunny day with temperatures in the upper 60?s. Prior to making a run funny car driver Jim Head walked down the track inspecting conditions.
Nikon D700, 400mm, 200iso, f5.6, 1/2500th
Below I shot funny car driver Ashley Force reflecting off her tow vehicle as she prepared to climb into her car for a run.
Nikon D3, 80-200mm, 400iso, f5.6, 1/500th
Then she climbed into her car.
Nikon D3, 80-200mm, 1600iso, f2.8, 1/1000th
Once strapped into the car it made for a nice shot of Force as she waited her turn to run. Lots of photographers shoot in car shots like this with flash but in my opinion it looks horrible compared to naturally lit, plus a lot of drivers get mad if you are firing flash when they are about to run.
Nikon D3, 80-200mm, 320iso, f2.8, 1/160th
After shooting drivers in their cars I started walking towards the startlign line to shoot some cars. On my way I stopped and tried to shoot a photo of Cory McClenathan through a bunch of crew members that made for a somewhat interesting layered photo.
Nikon D3, 80-200mm, 500iso, f2.8, 1/8000th
Another thing I noticed was the overabundance of credentialed ?photographers.? I counted over 40 ?photographers? who had credentials. You would have thought it was the Daytona 500 with the amount of ?photographers? running around.
Nikon D700, 400mm, 400iso, f5, 1/4000th
The background is filled with heatwaves as top fuel champion Tony Schumacher launches off the starting line.
Nikon D700, 400mm, 400iso, f4, 1/1600th
The next two shots don?t look like anything too amazing but the crazy thing is they were shot via remote from over a half mile away using a remote set up created by photographer?Robert Benson.?
Brandon Bernstein pops the parachute to slow down from a 300mph run.
Nikon D3, 600mm, 2000iso, f11, 1/1250th
Troy Buff blows an engine as he crosses the finish line.
Nikon D3, 600mm, 2000iso, f11, 1/3200th
For more info about the?20 mile remote check out the link.
Jack Beckman gives a crew member a fist bump prior to climbing into his car.
Nikon D700, 14-24mm, 640iso, f5, 1/1000th
For Beckmans run I slowed down the shutter speed big time to do a pan blur of his burnout.
Nikon D700, 14-24mm, 100iso, f14, 1/30th
As John Force was waiting his turn to run I shot him driving around his car on his little scooter as he talked to various drivers and crew members.
Nikon D700, 14-24mm, 400iso, f5, 1/640th
I got down low directly in front of the car of Morgan Lucas as he prepared for his run.
Nikon D700, 400mm, 400iso, f4, 1/800th
Lucas smoked the tires right at the hit of the throttle. The header flames and heatwaves took a throw away photo and made it pretty cool.
Nikon D700, 400mm, 500iso, f6.3, 1/1600th
Below I shot a picture of the rear slick on a top fuel dragster as it sat still and then I shot the tire the moment the driver hit the throttle to show the severe stress that Goodyear Tires go through with these 8000 horsepower machines.
Nikon D3, 80-200mm, 1600iso, f2.8, 1/8000th
I shot a semi close up shot of top fuel driver Antron Brown as he sat in his car waiting to run. The colorful reflections off the side of his car makes it look like two photos side by side which I like. (the odd blue look around his eyes is due to the photo being shot through his cars windshield)
Nikon D700, 400mm, 400iso, f4, 1/1000th
Southern California based photographer Will Lester sets up a wide angle remote camera at the base of the starting line. To see some of Wills awesome racing photos?click here.
Below the car of Steve Faria spits out heatwaves as he races down track on a top fuel licensing attempt.
Nikon D700, 400mm, 400iso, f2.8, 1/6400th
A crew member provides some shade for top fuel driver Cory McClenathan as he waits to run.
Nikon D700, 400mm, 400iso, f2.8, 1/1250th
Funny car driver Jim Head sits in his car prior to making a pass.
Nikon D700, 14-24mm, 400iso, f2.8, 1/400th
My day ended with another cool heat wave shot as Larry Dixon deploys his parachute while still on the gas.
Nikon D700, 400mm, 400iso, f4.5, 1/5000th
On the final day I waited till late in the afternoon to head out to the track to take advantage of the great light. One of my coworkers had to fly home early so I was lucky enough to get his parking pass which was much better than the one I had been using the other days. I couldn?t resist including my car in a photo with a nitro funny car in the background.
While driving through the pit area a short time later I noticed some nice light coming in as the Larry Dixon car warmed up in the pits. I honestly nailed the brakes and ran from my car to shoot a few shots.
Nikon D3, 80-200mm, 400iso, f5.6, 1/1000th
As you can see, all the crew members are wearing gas masks, the reason for that is the nitro methane fuel they use makes your eyes water. To some it sounds like a pain in the ass but trust me, it is the greatest smell and feeling in the world to be up close to one of these cars running.
After they shut the car off some smoke trickled from the header pipes.
Nikon D3, 80-200mm, 400iso, f5.6, 1/500th
Cory McClenathan sits in his car as the sun lights up his eyes for a cool look?where?d his umbrella holder go?
Nikon D3, 80-200mm, 500iso, f5.6, 1/2000th
Back trackside the sun was dipping lower into the sky and if positioned in the right spot you could see a blinding reflection off the timing tower.
Nikon D3, 80-200mm, 400iso, f5, 1/1000th
I shot a wide angle shot of top fuel driver Antron Brown as he drove past the shining tower.
Nikon D700, 14-24mm, 400iso, f3.5, 1/500th
So it looked pretty cool but still wasn?t as cool as I felt it could be. Below, funny car driver Matt Hagan was racing in the far lane so I was able to use a zoom lens and get close on the car and make the shining tower fill the entire frame. The result was much cooler looking.
Nikon D3, 80-200mm, 400iso, f5, 1/320th
The sun dipped behind the mountains on the horizon as a lone fan watched the racing from his grandstand spot.
Nikon D3, 80-200mm, 250iso, f2.8, 1/8000th
The best part about darkness setting in was that you could now see the flames from the exhaust as the cars raced.
Del Worsham launches off the starting line on a pass.
Nikon D3, 80-200mm, 400iso, f5.6, 1/250th
So now with it being pretty dark outside I wanted to mess around with some off camera flash images. I busted out a set of pocket wizards to sidelight cars as I shot from head on. I didn?t have a tripod or anything to mount the flash on so I resorted to simply setting the flash and pocket wizard on the wall aimed where I wanted to light the vehicles. Here is how the setup looked.
The first car I tried to do the side flash with was Cory McClenathan. As soon as the light turned green and he launched from the starting line I shot pics. For some reason the flash didn?t fire.?
Nikon D3, 400mm, 250iso, f2.8, 1/100th
It was still a cool photo but wasn?t what I was looking for.?For some reason if I was standing more than 20 feet away from the remote flash it simply wouldn?t fire for some reason. I ran to my car and pulled new batteries from the trunk and replaced the batteries which I figured would fix the problem. I tried a test shot from 100ft away and had no luck. (The next day while talking to friends about the problem they mentioned perhaps the antennas and/or circuit board had gone bad on the devices which severely limited the range) Anyone wanna buy me some new pocket wizards??
So what I ended up doing was moving the remote flash?s position much closer and I stood in the center of the track behind the starting line and used the flash as a background prop to add a cool effect.
First up was funny car driver Robert Hight. As he lined up the car for his run I positioned myself where the flash would be visible just above the edge of the car. The exhaust was pretty much aimed right at my face and while the car was there idling tears were just streaming down my face as the fumes overwhelmed me. I forced myself to stay there to shoot the launch.
Nikon D700, 14-24mm, 320iso, f2.8, 1/250th
The next car up was Mike Neff in the unsponsored John Force Racing car. I stood downtrack a bit and shot a slow shutter speed wide shot as he raced downtrack.
Nikon D700, 14-24mm, 320iso, f2.8, 1/50th
I headed back to the spot behind the starting line and moved the flash to the other side of the track to shoot top fuel champion Tony Schumacher as he made his run. The flash really made this shot pretty cool as it shows one of the front tires off the ground. I also benefitted from another photographers flash going off directly behind the car out of frame which added some good fill light.
Nikon D700, 14-24mm, 320iso, f2.8, 1/160th
For the last run of the day Brandon Bernstein lined up to run. I had to run and move the flash back to the other side of the track. For the burnout I shot to line up a Budweiser sign on the tower with his Budweiser sponsored car going past.
Nikon D700, 14-24mm, 320iso, f2.8, 1/125th
Bernstein backed up into his rubber tracks as the burnout smoke hung over the starting line making for a unique looking shot.
Nikon D700, 14-24mm, 640iso, f2.8, 1/125th
For the launch I got closer than I did with the other cars and once again benefitted by catching the flash of another photographer directly behind the car. If only the grandstands were full this shot would probably be a portfolio image.
Nikon D700, 14-24mm, 640iso, f2.8, 1/80th
With that NHRA testing wrapped up for me. I had some hassles over the weekend but overall I had a pretty good weekend.
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-Mark J. Rebilas is a freelance sports photographer based in Arizona. His work is seen regularly in Sports Illustrated, ESPN The Magazine, USA Today and many others around the country. Visit?www.markjrebilas.com/blog?to learn more about his work.
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