I went to the practice session of the Indy Races in St petersburg. They also have the Le Mans races, but the big one is the Indy cars. Fri is the best day to go, got in for $10, not too many people there so you can maneuver around and get good photo spots.
I attempted to take quite a few "panning" shots. Normally, with really fast cars you shoot with a really quick shutter speed, most of mine are 1/1000th of a second or faster. With the panning style I shot 1/40th of a second, which means the car will just be a blur... except you pan along with it. This isn't the easiest thing to do, but occasionally when one works right, you get a car in focus, with the background a blur because you were sweeping through in motion attempting to exactly follow the car's speed. About half the ones I took like that here are absolutely horrible... some decent, and a few look really nice. My favorites when they work. This is the one that came out the best, a nice panning shot of the Target #10, Dan Wheldon
Danica Patrick, pulling out of pit row.
One of the Le Mans cars:
Finally, what would a race be without race girls? I believe their official job description reads like this, "Walk around and look hot."
I also have a few
More Photos from the track.