Back in April, I went to the Long Beach Grand Prix and shot some photos of the American Le Mans Series (ALMS) race on Saturday afternoon. I always look forward to ALMS races because of the diversity of cars.
For races, I typically plan out the locations to shoot from based on lighting conditions, passing locations, restarts, etc. But I always try to start by shooting the action from the first turn at the beginning of the race. And in this respect, the ALMS race was no different.
But instead of moving on after the start as I normally do, I decided to stay put to see if there were any caution periods and subsequent restarts. Mostly, this was because I didn’t have good access at other locations where the lighting conditions were favorable. But also, I kept hope for some yellows and restarts that would produce some actions photos.
Unfortunately, after a while this began to feel like a mistake. All the smart photographers had moved on to better locations. But I stayed put anyway (I’m either lazy or stupid…sometimes both). And then it happened…
Out of the corner of my eye, I saw a car with flames coming out of it. I had a good angle on it and started shooting as it came into the runoff area after the main straight. Some 40+ frames later I had witnessed a nasty fire from which a driver was lucky to escape.
200mm 1/500 at f/8
And is it turned out, I was the only photographer to have caught the action. Everyone else either didn’t have the angle or had moved elsewhere. I had captured some images that were unique and made the whole wait worthwhile.
More photos from this set can be found here.
