It’s #wheelswednesday and in Part 3 of my Car Portraits series, I’m shifting today’s normal focus from the cars to the people who, in this case, appear to drive them. Today’s portrait is one that I made of a model—the footwear is a giveaway—at Sonoma Raceway.
Today’s Post by Joe Farace
It’s always a little different, racing on your hometown track. It makes it more special.—Buddy Rice. (He’s not related to my wife but signed a nice poster for her that’s hanging in our garage.)
Several years ago Panasonic had a press event at Sonoma Raceway to launch three new cameras and I was invited because a magazine editor knew of my love of cars and motorsports and suggested me to Panasonic. At Sonoma I got to dive an Audi TTS and R8 during an autocross and on the track and . Overall, it was an unforgettable automotive experience.
On The Track
Sonoma Raceway is a combination road course and dragstrip that’s located at Sears Point in the southern Sonoma Mountains of Sonoma, California. Sonoma Raceway hosts amateur, or club racing events with some of them open to the public. The track is 30 miles north of San Francisco and Oakland. The road course features 12 turns on a hilly course with 160 feet of elevation change, although when you are driving, it sems more than that.
In addition to participating in The Audi Sportscar Experience, the press group also got to photograph models who were standing next to a formula car. It was an extremely hot day at the track with temperatures over 90 degrees F and because the event’s organizers evidently had no experience in organizing these kinds of portrait/fashion shoots there was no lighting provided, not even reflectors, so we were stuck out in the near noonday sun to make these portraits.
How I made this photograph: The camera used was a 12-megapixel Panasonic Lumix DMC-FZ200 that, these days, can be found used for around two hundred bucks. The camera has a 25-600mm equivalent f/2.8 lens (24x optical zoom) and this image was made with the lens at 75mm. The exposure was 1/1000 sec at f/4 and ISO 100. I had never used a superzoom camera before that day or since. Because of my inexperience with working with these kinds of cameras, I did not fire the built-in flash. My bad. I promise not to do that again.
If you enjoyed today’s blog post and would like to treat me to a cup of Earl Grey tea ($2.50), please click here. And if you do, thanks so much.
My book Joe Farace’s Glamour Photography is full of tips, tools and techniques for glamour and boudoir photography and includes information on all of the cameras used as well as the complete exposure data for each image. New books are available from Amazon for $23.82 with used copies starting around ten bucks.as I write this. Kindle version is $19.99 for those preferring a digital format