On April 16 and 17, 2011 I shot the Long Beach Grand Prix.

After the press photographers' meeting at 6:15 am on Saturday April 16, I got the printout of the track layout. It was physically impossible for me to shoot at different vantage points since I had to walk very far...so I tried to pick one spot...the best spot. IMHO that was the exit of turn 6 of the track. There was a high chain fence atop the concrete barriers. I didn't want to shoot against that fence...so I tried to find an opening...and luckily I found one!

NOTES:

1. On the first day of shoot I got hit by debris from the track. Luckily it hit my Falkland Islands cap (souvenir from my brother Ed) before it hit me. I warned the other photographers about this. Hopefully nobody got hurt in this area.

2. Since the cars were very near me (it got as close as less than 10 feet away), it was pretty scary at first since they drove at very high speed. Also, IMHO with a 1.6x crop Canon EOS 7D, a 100mm lens was perfect for the job. I used my brand new Canon EF 100mm F2.8 IS macro L lens...it was great!

3. I used a B+W 6 stop ND filter so that I could shoot wide open (F2.8) with a slow shutter speed (1/160) to show the wheels spinning.

4. Tracking high speed objects right smack in my face was very difficult. It was not that easy...I tell you! This was more difficult than tracking jets in air shows. So practice makes perfect...remember that!

5. Some shots are uncropped...some shots are barely cropped...it goes to show how close I was to the cars...