Remote Photography

As my camera collection has modernized, I have ended up with a D100 which is really not used that much. Along wiht that are a few lenses that while usefull at the time, have also been upgraded to more "workhorse" style lenses.
With the use of Phottix remotes, I've had the opportunity to set up the old camera as a remote.
Now, I shoot the Nascar Canadian Tire Series, for Inside Track Magazine, so it can be a bit dangerous to use a remote.
My first version was at Mosport, but I found that it didn't really provide me with what I wanted. The camera was too far from the action.
When I went to ICARs last weekend (in Mirabel), I had an opportunity to set up the camera on the inside of a turn.



It was well protected by a fence and a hunk of concrete.
It produced some nice images, but nothing spectacular.





After all, the thought of using the remote is to but it where I couldn't normally be. In both Mosport and ICARs, I didn't have that perspective where I set up the camera.
This past weekend I was at Delaware Speedway outside of London. Now, for practice of the NCATS guys, I had it strapped to the fence in turn 1. Once again, nothing to great.
My original thought was the tire that protects the pit wall. It's set in concrete, and pretty rigid. But, I have to admit I was nervous about it.
After setting it up (you can see it here, inside the tire),



I took some shots of the NCATS cars as well as the Street Stock cars of Delaware, all during practice and qualifying.
The biggest issue I had was timing. Its very difficult to predict "where" the car is in comparison to the angle of the lens. So, for every shot you get like this,







you end up with 4 times more of these kind of shots!





After the qualifying, I debated removing the camera. But heck, it should be easier to capture some action during the actual Street Stock race, as the cars would be grouped together. The odds of getting a good shot would increase a lot!
Or so I thought. Cause on lap 2 of the race, one of the cars nailed the tire a glancing blow. And with it went my camera, flying to pit side of the tire.



Fortunately it was off the track, and did not impact the race, but within a few laps, there was a accident that brought out the red flag, so I took that opportunity to recover my camera. The Manfrotto arm and vice were fine, as was, suprisingly, the camera. The lens, an 18-70 Nikon, did not fair so well. In fact, I never did find the rest of the lens!



But heck, it was definately fun while it lasted!