Offroad Racing Test Session

[captmjk16]

For the first time in 2 years on the team, I was able to have the stars align properly and get out to the test track with good light, working equipment, and a test course design that assisted the photography process. After a work-shortened afternoon on the south end of the race course, here's what I came up with:

Critiques are more than welcome!

We'll start off with a brake check:


Before getting into some maneuverability:










Before working the suspension out a bit more on the mounds with some on/off camber obstacles:

[captmjk16]

Right after this shot was taken (After his last lap) I had to dodge the car as that's my friend's favorite way of keeping photographers and over-enthusiastic corner marshals on their toes. We really do need to spend less time together in the shop...



Something a little more artsy:


Thanks for looking, any and all thoughts and suggestions are welcome!

[wunaladreamin]

I know I should be one to talk with my mad prop-blur skills (or lack thereof) but some motion in the wheels would have definitely helped the images along. Other than that, a great set. Those things look fun as hell to drive.

[captmjk16]

Definitely something I want to try in the future with the wheel motion. I know it kinda sorta barely shows up in a few of these, but nothing that good.

The #1 problem is how snappy the ride of these cars is in race trim, hard to keep anything sharp when shooting at wheel blur speeds for something that is (admittedly) pretty dang slow :P. Since I only had a limited time before heading to yet another damn ice rink I wanted to maximize the keeper ratio for use in next year's sponsor packages before getting too fancy. Our complete lack of straightaways with decent lighting may or may not have played a small part in my decision to not go for the blur shots :P

I'll try and dig up a few of last year's first drive shots where, thanks to my lovely luck with on track lighting, almost every shot had wheel blur!

As for fun to drive, yeah, they're fun for sure, painful but fun.

[megatop412]

sweet shots! you have a nice little bit of dirt being thrown up in a couple of them

[captmjk16]

Thanks William, it was one of the things I was looking for when shooting, usually we just get a stupid dust cloud trailing the car on warm/dry days!

[JDANDO]

Some good shots there. I would prefer a bit more room in the front of the image, giving the car somewhere to go. A little slower shutter speed would give some wheel blur which would be nice. Good job on the backgrounds, they are nice and clean for the most part. Do not be afraid to break out the flash for a bit of fill light on the driver.

Is Michigan Tech is the same "division" as you guys? That is my alma mater. Go Huskies!

[captmjk16]

I kept the crops a bit tighter on this set, and I was lens limited in many of the other shots, but it's something I'll definitely try next time in addition to the shutter speed.

I did my best with the backgrounds we have (and spent considerable amounts of time cloning out our track marshals/pit crew when they did show up).

I like the idea of the fill flash, I have used it a few times in the past with mixed results (shadows from the frame tubes can be problematic).

There aren't "divisions" in Baja per-se, but we do race against Tech frequently. They're one of the teams who frequently finishes roughly pretty close to us in the standings, though so far we're having a much better season than typical. Our team attends all the sanctioned events as well as Tech's winter baja "fun" event, so we're guaranteed to see them at least twice per season. Go Blue!