Motor racing at Oran Park

[barry]

Below is some shots I took at Oran Park on the weekend. It was first outing with my new 80-400VR.

#1 - A little legend.


#2 - A flame out.


#3 - V8's No 1.




#4 - A bit of off track action.

[Glen]

Barry, 1 & 2 have a lot of appeal

[BBJ]

Hi Barry, great shots of the cars and the attraction.LOL Nice lens that and yeh good for this sort of sport where you need some reach.
Enjoy

[barry]

Thanks BBJ, with a bit more practice I should be able to get a better hit rate. What I found was the depth of field is very shallow so focusing is very important. Most of the time I used manual focus. I could not get use to AF-C bacause the action was too quick.

Barry

[Jeff]

Great shots Barry,You did better than me,I struggled to get close enough and got heads in the way. Where are the shots taken from and was the VR facility of assistance?
Jeff

[Oneputt]

Barry yo said that you had trouble with focussing at certain times. What I sometimes do with motorsport is to prefocus on a certain spot before the car arrives. It doesn't always work, but often enough to be useful.

[KerryPierce]

Very nice shots, Barry.

[barry]

Jeff - All motor shots were taken at the bottom end of the course. Tander shot was at the end of main straight. Legend was just before cars go under the tyre bridge. Head on shot of Ambrose was just before going over tyre bridge. Side on shot of Ambrose. Oops that was taken Eastern Creek with 70-300ED, back in May, just slipped in. The girl, she was in the promotional paddock. The good part about the bottom of the course is not many people go down there. You can even drive your car up to the fence. Saves lugging the heavy ESKY and camera gear.

Oneputt - Most of the time I manually focused on a preset point. Also I had VR on but did not use AF-C much. Being that it was a once a year event I wanted to make sure I got some decent results. Now this event is over I will take some time to practice and learn how to use the AF-C properly.

Barry

[Jeff]

Thanks for the information I was at the corner just before the main straight and was very crowded. The previous week I was at a bike ride day and was able to walk any where on the circuit, which makes taking shots a lot easier. I thought the VR facility would make panning more difficult.
Jeff

[barry]

Jeff, the thing I noticed about the VR was that you needed to keep your finger on the shutter release button to keep it active. I guess it is something that needs practice.

Barry

[BBJ]

Barry, what focus area mode did you use when in AF-C?

[barry]

BBJ, I'm not sure of the name but it is the default. The bottom square in the 4 square pattern was highlighted.

Barry

[robw25]

hey barry
good shots !! did you see a fat bastard in a white d70 shirt walking around with a 200-400vr ? i was there too ! was a great day eh ? i will post some of my pics friday night when i get home ( i took 760 pics, lucky i bought a 2gig card from birddog )

cheers rob

[fozzie]

Rob,

Lorraine informed me that you were cute and cuddly

[BBJ]

HAHAH just as well i wasn't there would have been a fatter bastard there.LOL ha anyhow barry i have found the best focus postition for me it set it on single focus area, although the book says something like dynamic for moving objects i have found for me that i get better results on sngle area focus. Give it a try see what you think.
Cheers

[barry]

Once again BBJ, thanks for your input. Like you have said before it takes practice and knowing your equipment. I will keep working on it. The 80-400VR is a great lens, just got to get use to it.

Hey robw25, I seen plenty of fat bastards there but none in a D70 shirt. As far as big lenses go, it is mind blowing to see the amount of hardware floating around, particularly amont the pros. You must be a weight lifter to carry the 200-400 all day. I managed to get my hands on one at one of Birddogs mini meets and was buggered after 5 minutes.

By the way, when you get back the 2 tier V8's are running at Mallawa this week end.

Barry

[BBJ]

Cant help myself here but Barry why do you think he married Lorraine????

Sorry Lorraine.

[robw25]

fozzie...... that's another way of saying "fat bastard "
bbj...... yes thats why i married her.... to carry the big lens and walk 3 steps behind
barry.... i wanted to call into mallala on the way home but, her indoors wouldnt let me !!

will post my pics tomorrow night... have taken 2,170 pics on this trip

cheers rob

[maca]

Barry
Nice pics , just a couple of questions what speed were you shooting at
because you have nice wheel movement , when I shoot at lower speed
it becomes overexposed any tips on that ? Are you using speed or aperture priority or auto seetings ?

[BBJ]

Maca, These are great shots barry has taken, but the trick is to use shutter priority and not too lower a shutter speed i would say between 1/160 and 1/320 400 the most or you will freeze the action. keep an eye on the histogram and adjust accordingly.