My Civic, Parked in PIR's Infield

Practice makes perfect is what they say. I have learned in a little over a year of autocrossing, that it's possible to start doing something just as a weekend hobby and steadily improve over time as long as you stick to it and review what you've done and compare to what you want to do. I have also learned that the same applies to my race photography.

When I first did the autocross pictures of the November 22nd autocross in 1998, I figured it would be easy stuff. I'd taken pictures of all kinds of things before and done photography for the better part of the last 10 years. Within the last three years, I'd averaged at least a roll of good pictures every month. Much like autocrossing, I was about to learn that average skill just doesn't cut it when you really want the best.

Although most of the pictures were good, they just didn't really convey the motion and speed all that well. Over time though, as I took pictures at more events, I started getting better. I also got a new camera for Christmas of 1998 which helped me to improve my photographs even more. This brings us to the November 27th track event at Phoenix International Raceway. Approximately one year after I first did photographs of a race event, I can say with certainty that I've improved greatly from where I started a year ago.

Since I'm trying to save up for a house right now, I've been holding off from doing the track events in order to save money and save my Kumho tires. As such, I loaned my in car video setup to Tage again and took pictures from the sidelines. Although still not perfect, PIR offers far better locations in the pits from which to take pictures. I did learn however that it's important to try and get pictures in the morning and mid-day since the lighting is less than great by afternoon.

My first picture of the day: A 3-wheeling Porsche 911	A Dodge Viper speeds through the S-curve	An RX-7; Possibly Dolf Strom's
All kinds of cars showed up from BMW's, to classic Mustangs, to Porsches	Tage chases a Corvette on the banked oval	A slant-nose Porsche 911 heading down the main straight
Nancy Maloney leads a pack of lesser sports cars in her 911 Turbo	A nice side profile of the Maloney Turbo. Dig the red brake calipers.	Sue Eisbrenner roaring around the track in her 85 C4
A classic Porsche 911	One of the other Corvette driving autocross regulars	Side profile of one of the monster Porsches
Another one of those 3-wheeling Porsches	A fine example of a Formula Mazda	An AC Cobra replica (at least I think it's a replica) takes to the track
	Tage Evanson racing down the front straight with a Carrera 4

Page created: 1-23-00
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