Daytona International Speedway, Yep it's Checked off on the Bucket List Now

Just about everyone these days has a bucket list and I am certainly no exception. Although I believe my bucket list is a little different than most. Most people construct their bucket lists around life events or places they want to see before they pass on from this world, mine, well mine is photography based. I have a bucket list of photographs and places to take photos at for my list and this past weekend I was able to check one of those places off of my list thanks to John Poole with Poole 1 Racing.

Saturday was my first race experience of any kind with a camera. I have photographed airplanes moving at a high rate of speed from the ground but I had never been out at a track trying to photograph fast moving cars at such a close distance. Obviously the closer you are to the subject, the faster you must pan in order to keep up and take a good photo. Now, to be honest, my first 10 minutes of shooting at the track was a real learning experience and since I was there by myself it was mostly a self taught learning experience. My friend Christopher Brut gave me some advice the night before and that helped quite a bit but even with great advice, you still need to actually go out and execute it.

I also want to thank my friend Joe Spoto for allowing me to borrow his 200-400mm F4 Nikon lens and monopod although I ditched the monopod early on I still appreciate the opportunity to give it a try. (I need to practice more with a monopod, I found it to be very restrictive and difficult to use when trying to keep up with cars that were moving at 150mph or greater). I was very impressed with the 200-400mm lens though. It was a little easier to handle than I thought it was going to be although its size is challenge at times, especially when hand holding and trying to capture the motion at 1/80th of a second.

All in all I am pretty happy with the results I achieved at my first race experience. I think I will get even better results the next time I am out photographing the action on the track. For those that are reading this blog for the first time, don't forget to check out my Facebook page at www.facebook.com/rorymadstudios to see more of the photos from this day at the track check out my ablum on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10153729559892941.1073741939.282713677940&type=3

Thank you so much for taking time out of your busy lives to read about my photography experiences. :)