Photographer's Perspective: Daytona

By: Motocross.com

Posted: 03/18/09

2212 Views

0 Comments

Tags:

photographers

,

perspective

,

pp

,

jeff

,

kardas

,

daytona

,

kardy

,

photos

,

photo

Rating:

0

Vote it up!

Sign in or register to vote.

Words and Photos: Jeff Kardas

The Daytona Supercross and I have always had a love/hate relationship.

What it's got going for it is that it's not a Pace/Clear Channel/Live Nation/Feld (did I get them all?) produced event, so the regular rules are out the window. This can be a double-edged sword though, since the normal avenues to gain access are different and much more restrictive, yet if you can get in you're in for a real treat. It's sort of the best of both worlds - indoor and outdoor/supercross and motocross - in that the track is rough and gnarly, and you get to shoot it in full daylight and under the lights with a sea of people in the background, with the most varied and interesting dirt textures of the entire year. Tantalizing, isn't it?

To make things even better, the rules of engagement on the track are pretty much non-existent. You can literally stand anywhere (well, except on top of the big DAYTONA logo on the infield) as long as you don't interfere with the racing. You are not at all restricted in using off-camera flash, and you can - are ya ready for this one? - cross the track during the race! It's crazy really, and almost a little bit scary, because now it's completely up to you to not make an ass of yourself and/or get hurt or cause injuries to anyone else throughout the evening. It's actually a little bit too much freedom and some apparently can't handle it, as I witnessed several guys nearly get hit out of sheer ignorance of what's going on around them (see lead image below).

The 'hate' part of the relationship, besides the difficulty of getting in to shoot, is the poor lighting. Although slightly better this year, it's still bad and really spotty. At best we're talking ISO1600, F/4, 1/500th, at worst it's ISO3200, F2.8, 1/640th. Thankfully, since i shoot raw and sort of know what I'm doing, the ISO3200 shots turn out pretty nice and print just fine with a little bit of noise reduction applied in Capture One in post processing, so we're good to go on that one. I did use a bit of off-camera flash, but not the way I wanted to. I brought my Qflash with me but it decided to breathe it's last breath and I wasn't able to use it at all. Instead, I hooked up my pocket wizards to a 580EX and put it on a mini-tripod on top of some Tuf Blox around the track. I didn't use it long, but got a few keepers, so it was worth the effort. Garth Milan and Frank Hoppen both busted out the big guns, so check out their pics if you can to see what they were able to come up with.

How clueless can someone be? Not only did this guy barely get across the track in front of Mike Alessi, but this was on the FIRST LAP of the MAIN event! Mikey's probably moving about 40MPH at that moment.  Data: ISO3200 1/640th F/3.5

ISO3200 worked for this baby, shot at 1/640th F/3.5, and it's still a little dark...

I can think of at least three reasons why this shot would never happen at a Feld produced race. True, there may be good reasons for that, but the fact remains that anything goes at Daytona. I can't wait for next year!! On a related note, I only recognize two photogs in this group, which means there was a lot of outside interest in this race plus they all look to be heavy hitters with big white lenses and multiple bodies, etc. Data: ISO1600 1/320 F/3.5