This event was catered to the ladies that drift and learning to drift. It was the fist event to do so here and the turn out was great. People come far and wide to drift since this was the first half of the drifting weekend.
As I was driving in, there was heavy fog and scattered rain. But as I got closer to the track, the conditions looked much better. I usually arrive early to prepare for the day and lately have been trying to add more of the human element to events. Everyone is busy preparing for the start allows me to capture candid moments.
I was able to scratch that itch of doing some product/lifestlye photography with some of the shirts being sold. I’ll have to remember to grab merch early because by the end of the day, everything was sold out.
With the drivers/media meeting out the way, time to start the event and start drifting! I wanted to start off to test shutter speeds at 1/5th of a second. What I didn’t realize that a 3 stop nd filter would not be strong enough. I had to stop down f20 but my biggest mistake was no cleaning the lens after taking it out the bag again. There was so much dust that appeared in the images. A 6 stop ND filter is on my list to buy for the 24-70mm.
Using such a slow shutter speed was a challenge. It got a bit better as the day went on but there were more jittery photos than not. In hindsight, I should have waited until later in the day as drivers are more familiar with the course and new their car set ups. Before I knew it, it was time to make the track cold for the raffle and group photo.
For the group photo, I had to do a composite to get everyone in the photo. I was worried that photoshop wouldn’t be able to handle the stitching. In the end it turned out pretty well. I requested a tall ladder for the next event!
Prizes raffled off and group photo done. Time to make the track hot again!
I changed my lens from 24-70mm to 200-400mm. It took some time to get used to using the big lens again. I haven’t used that lens for a few events. Also changed to 1/10th of a second and the keeper rate was better. Some of the guys were able to sneak in some laps during some down time.
Before wrapping up, shout out to everyone involved! Congrats on the successful event, now the tough part is raising the bar for the next one. While I wasn’t able to get a shirt at the event, I did get a bucket hat in my media goody bag. It was a nice gesture of appreciation!