The Need for Speed

I'm curious your thoughts. While many of the race pictures target keeping the car sharp (with some wheel spin to accentuate motion), here instead of panning the car, I stayed stationary, burst fired, and let the car speed past the frame. It's the effect I was after. Just wondering what other lens freaks have to offer....

For this type of shot, I think the background doesn't add much to the photo. I think it would be way more interesting with a pit or a an S curve or other backgrounds that would add to the story. I like the effect on the car but the whole car might have been better.

The effect might work if there was an interesting subject in the image. Perhaps some admiring spectators, or another car that has broken at the kerb with the frustrated driver watching the throttling passing car, or something. Just a proof of concept does not a photograph make.

This particular shot is not working for me.

A wider shot with a blurred image of the car traversing from edge to edge and beyond, for instance, might have worked; but in this shot the car has been cropped on the left edge and there's no really no "breathing room" on the right edge for it to move into making everything feel cramped.

That being said, thinking of how everyone else would take a particular shot and then turning that thinking upside down just to see what you might get out of the experiment is always a worthwhile endeavor in my mind. Though the results typically don't pan out (pun intended), every great once in a while the Gods of Light smile and reward our foolishness with a mind-blowing shot. One you got only because you dared do what no one else was doing.

I have a few such shots and they're among my all time favorites for that very reason.

Thanks for the feedback. Access to locations is to some degree limited, although I can get shots with no fences in the way from many locations. For this one, no spectators could have been behind; I will have more opportunities in the coming season, and will also take into account a shorter reach to bring in more of the subject.

Some angles do offer the curves of the track, and I do have shots from those vantage points; this was the one angle where I was experimenting with the car in such a motion blur. The pit area is a tough angle, as I think the only vantage point is from the grandstands opposite, and may have some blockage due to walls.

Still, it's all a fun venture, and I appreciate the comments thus far.