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Here are some of my pics from the Nitro Thunder event at WSID over the (extra long) weekend. Paul was out there with myself and Gladys, hopefully he can post some too! They're thumbnailed for your convenience (and the poor buggers on 56k), click to enlarge, then click on the subsequent photo to enlarge further. Enjoy!

'Aussie' Dave Grubnic, 2nd in Top Fuel
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Gary Phillips, winner of Top Alcohol
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Darryl Walford in Supercharged Outlaws
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Steven Fakes in Modified Bike
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Ian Brown in Super Stock
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Peter Merrigan in Supercharged Outlaws
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Phil Read in Top Fuel
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Brett Stevens in Top Alcohol, before putting it in the gravel trap!
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Adam Nicholls in Supercharged Outlaws
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Gladys took this one, I think it's hilarious! "Come back here"!
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Jim Denaro in Super Sedan
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Neil Constantinou in Super Sedan
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Scorchio!
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Enjoy, the rest of the album is here!

Nice series Trent, nice to see Gladys taking some shot too, pass on my congratulations on her entertaining shot. I especially like the last one nothing like a good fireball.

After a VERY loud day at the drags here is some of the shots I caught.
Still uploading more to the website so will post more tomorrow.

http://PaulQuinn.smugmug.com/photos/49887857-L.jpg

http://PaulQuinn.smugmug.com/photos/49887860-L.jpg

http://PaulQuinn.smugmug.com/photos/49887859-L.jpg

http://PaulQuinn.smugmug.com/photos/49887868-L.jpg

http://PaulQuinn.smugmug.com/photos/49887865-L.jpg

http://PaulQuinn.smugmug.com/photos/49887864-L.jpg

http://PaulQuinn.smugmug.com/photos/49887861-L.jpg

Some awesome machinery there (and some nice scenery too )... It's amazing whatching these things tear down the strip so quick, their acceleration is incredible...

Great images of something very noisey and demanding. The car photos are good too.

Steve -

Trent and Paul - a great selection of pics and obviously an enjoyable day for you guys

Aaaaahh....fast ladies, great pics guys, hope you remembered the earplugs!

Bob.

.

moggy wrote:hope you remembered the earplugs!

What?

One more: Scott Kalitta vs Darren Morgan in the semis:
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Thanks for the comments guys, and LOL Steve! Great pics Paul, I think you've captured the speed and power of the top fuellers better with your angles. In hindsight trying to pan for the top fuellers was a bit retarded because they're SO fast and you only get 7 goes at it (well 6 for me, as I chose to watch the final rather than shoot it. The light was pretty crap at 9:30 or whenever it was).

Shall we do it all again on February 9-11 for the Summer Nationals?

Sounds good Trent!
Might try a different location next time, maybe at the start line where everything explodes
Here's one for all you Holden fans.

http://PaulQuinn.smugmug.com/photos/49890221-L.jpg

This one was getting a tad out of shape!

http://PaulQuinn.smugmug.com/photos/49890241-L.jpg

Trent, Paul and Steve, these are all great pics. love them and i have never been to the drags but do hope oneday i could get to go to one in the big smoke maybe where some real action happens but i think you all have done such a great job, i take my hat off to you.
Well done fella's.

Hi Trent
I was just looking at your shots on your web site of the drags and was impressed. Would you mind giving me some hints? What lens do you use,where abouts were you positioned and did you pan.I positioned myself behind the start line but the angle does not seem as good.

Jeff

Jeff,

My setup was remarkably simple, and worked ok (still need to work on my technique, got far less keepers than I'd have liked). I'd be interested to see what Paul used!

I shot all day from about the 400 feet mark, just after the burnout pad on the Western (K&N Filters lane) side. This is great for panning shots, not so good for start shots (goddamn proper media shooters in the way ). I was on the lowest terrace, which meant I could only really get good shots of the far (Wynns) lane. Ideally I'd have shot from one or two terraces higher up for panning shots.

Both Paul and I used the D70 + 70-200 VR lens. I shot most of the time in shutter priority, 1/250 s, ISO200 and panned. In the bright sun this meant f/14 or so, which is a bit much for my liking, but I didn't have any ND filters on me (might have to invest in a 4x ND soon). In terms of shutter speed and panning, for the top fuellers something like 1/500 might have been more appropriate, and I could have gone slower for some of the slower classes (Super Street for example). For the top fuellers and long dragsters I was shooting at around 80 mm, for the bikes I was at 200 mm (probably could have gone a bit longer for them too); the 70-200 was pretty much the perfect range. The focal length is a bit of a compromise between filling the frame and getting enough keepers through not chopping fronts or rears of vehicles off. Other than that, once you have the shutter speed right, it's down to getting your panning 'rhythm' (which I need to get more of ).

I think Paul's shots show the power off the start line better than mine (taken from the same spot but on an angle rather than side-on), something I should have tried more of. Also something I'd like to try next time is to head further down the track towards maybe 600-900 yards with a big-arse prime, or prime + TC (maybe 300/4 + TC17EII) to get front-on start shots (hard unless you can get media access). Anyway I learnt a lot, hopefully my pics will be better and with more keepers next time!

My only regret is that I didn't get a pic of that awesome turbo LS1 VZ ute that did 7s, that thing was insane!

To echo Trent's accurate points on panning, I was mostly firing in shutter priority at 1/320sec for most of the day with ISO 200 and using either sunny or cloudy WB.
VR or IS is not required for these fast machines as it adds a little bit of lag to the shutter firing.
As Trent said it's really hard to pan a dragster at full throttle, your best to fire the shutter off at the start just after they have left the start line and are past the dozens off press photographers.
With full zoom on the 70-200 you will cut of either the front or the back end of the cars as they throttle past you, go for a more conservative zoom at say 100-150mm to catch all the action then crop later.
I had a lot of binned images due to this, sometimes it's best to be conservative especially when these cars only do a couple of runs over the whole days event.
You also need to be aware of track officials and the press guys as well, the amount of images ruined by these guys is a lot which makes it even more frustrating.
Ideally if you get there early practise with "slower" cars then you'll be ready for the top fuelers and there higher speeds later on.
Last tip, put your camera down and take out your ear plugs for the last final event and enjoy the full power and sight of a top fuel dragster in top flight!

Thanks Paul and Trent for the information. From my position in the stands behind the start most of mine turned out OK but had officials etc in the shot but managed to crop most of them out. I tended to use aperture priority but kept an eye on the shutter speed as the light changed .
I agree that ute is something else.
Look forward to the next meeting