Carroll Shelby Heritage Center

Mikhail Aleshin - Schmidt Peterson Motorsports Ryan Hunter-Reay - Andretti Autosport Max Chilton - Chip Ganassi Racing Takuma Sata - AJ Foyt Racing (#14) and Spencer Pigot - Ed Carpenter Racing (#20) James Hinchcliffe - Schmidt Peterson Motorsports Ryan Hunter-Reay - Andretti Autosport Scott Dixon - Chip Ganassi Racing Tony Kanaan - Chip Ganassi Racing Tony Kanaan - Chip Ganassi Racing

A selection of photos from my Friday visit to the IMSA Northeast Grand Prix event held at Lime Rock Park.

Pippa Mann (Dale Coyne Racing) James Hinchcliffe (Schmidt Peterson Motorsports) Tony Kanaan (Chip Ganassi Racing) Simon Pagenaud (Team Penske #22) Townsend Bell (Andretti Autosport) Conor Daly (Dale Coyne Racing) Will Power (Team Penske) Ryan Hunter-Reay (Andretti Autosport #28) Matt Brabham (PIRTEK Team Murray) Helio Castroneves (Team Penske) Alexander Rossi (Andretti Autosport) Simon Pagenaud (Team Penske) JR Hildebrand (Ed Carpenter Racing) Spencer Pigot (Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing)

Thanks for visiting my blog. Feel free to leave comments or questions.

Romel

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Thanks for visiting my blog. Feel free to leave comments or questions.

Romel

Facebook - Romel Evangelista Photography

Instagram - @romel_evangelista

Twitter - @Romel_E

Below are some of my photos from my visit to the park. The area had experienced heavy rains the previous two days, so the stream had a higher than average water flow. Thanks for visiting my blog, and I hope you enjoy the photos.

Romel

The Gorge Trail of Watkins Glen State Park. The Gorge Trail of Watkins Glen State Park. The Gorge Trail of Watkins Glen State Park. The Gorge Trail of Watkins Glen State Park. The Gorge Trail of Watkins Glen State Park. The Gorge Trail of Watkins Glen State Park. The Gorge Trail of Watkins Glen State Park. The Gorge Trail of Watkins Glen State Park. The Gorge Trail of Watkins Glen State Park. The Gorge Trail of Watkins Glen State Park. The Gorge Trail of Watkins Glen State Park. The Gorge Trail of Watkins Glen State Park. The Gorge Trail of Watkins Glen State Park. The Gorge Trail of Watkins Glen State Park. The Gorge Trail of Watkins Glen State Park.

     I only learned about the BMW UDE at MetLife Stadium in East Rutherford, NJ, less than an week before it was to take place. I happen to pass the stadium during my commute to/from work, and noticed car haulers unloading a bunch of BMWs one morning. That evening, I noticed that tents were also being set up, so I did a Google search of "BMW MetLife Stadium", and that's when I learned about UDE. I immediately tried to register for one of the autocross events, but all of the ones I chose were already booked. Fortunately, you can register to be put onto a waitlist. What does it mean to be on the waitlist? Here is the explanation given on the BMW UDE website:

"Signing up for the waitlist allows drivers to obtain driving spaces in the event that pre-registered guests do not show up for their appointment. Similar to flying standby, waitlisted drivers must check-in at registration at the assigned activity time and will be notified shortly thereafter if space is available."

    I employed two strategies that I felt would give me a good chance of getting "bumped up" into an autocross session. First, I registered for a session that took place on a weekday, as opposed to a weekend. I felt that there would be a good chance that some of the registered autocross drivers would not show, and that there would be less people to compete with on the waitlist. My second strategy was to arrive early to be placed at the top of the waitlist.

     Upon arriving at the event, you will notice the Registration and Hospitality tents. I proceeded to the Registration tent to check-in and get placed on the waitlist. Once at the tent, they will ask for your name and your registration confirmation code. Unfortunately, I forgot to bring mine and was not able to pull it up on my smartphone. Fortunately, they said that would not be a problem and had no issues finding my name as being pre-registered. After they take down some information from your driver's license, and after you sign a release waiver, you are given an event badge. This badge will allow you to street drive the BMWs that are available onsite. More on this later. Once registration was completed, I was placed on the waitlist and informed to come back to the registration tent roughly 10 minutes before the start of the autocross session to make sure that I was present when they started calling out the lucky names. I then went on to look at the BMWs that they had on display outside of the Hospitality tent. The Hospitality tent is where they offer free refreshments, have BMW merchandise available for purchase, and where they hold the classroom portion of the autocross event.

     When I was done looking at these vehicles, I proceeded over to the street drive tent. The street drive portion of the event is where you are able to road test a variety of BMWs. Since the tent was not busy, I simply looked to see what vehicles were currently available on the lot and asked the representative to take it out. The representative will take down your name, cell phone number, and event badge #. Another representative will take you to the car you chose, set up the navigation system to take you on a loop of the area, and ask any questions you may have. After that, the car is all yours to drive, no representative from BMW accompanies you on the drive. Since it was a weekday, I never had to wait for a vehicle. It was slow enough where if someone was taking out a vehicle I wanted to drive, I would simply choose another one and be taken to it right away. The only one that seemed to have a wait line was the Z4. I would imagine you may experience a wait during the weekend when it would be busier, but they would probably also have a greater quantity of each vehicle available to deal with the higher attendance. This is all speculation on my part. The photos below are the cars that I had the opportunity to street drive. In order, they are the 328d, X5, 640i convertible, 228i convertible, 740i, Z4, and the i3.

Here is an extra view each of the 740i and i3.

Here are my quick driving impressions of a few of the vehicles I drove.

328d - Lots of torque, as can be expected from a diesel engine. Also sounded as quiet as a gas engine.

X5 - Good power for an SUV, and little body roll.

740i - A good handling car for its size, however I was definitely able to tell that it a was a heavy vehicle by feeling more body roll and weight transfer than any of the other vehicles I drove that day, especially in one particular turn that I attacked along the street drive route.

Z4 - Loved the exhaust note and the crackling sound when going off throttle.

i3 - Described as a golf cart on steroids by the representative who was setting up the navigation, this thing really does move! Strong regenerative braking that I hardly had to use the brake pedal. By far, this car gave me the biggest grins of all of the cars I drove. I was giddy the whole time behind the wheel.

Going in, if I were to be in the market to purchase a BMW, I believed that the 3 Series would most closely match my style and needs as a practical daily driver. Coming out, I believe that notion was reinforced. With that being said, I would definitely consider the Z4 and i3 as fun alternate vehicles to supplement a daily driver.

     I decided to end the street drive portion of my visit and headed back to the Registration tent to be present should they start calling out names from the waitlist. To my joy, I was one of the names called to be bumped up into the autocross. I would estimate that there were at least 7 people's names called from the list for this session, which took place at 2pm on a Thursday afternoon. I'm sure this number will vary depending on which session you attempt to attend, but hopefully it shows that people do get bumped up, so you have nothing to lose by pre-registering to be on the waitlist. Even if you don't get bumped up, if you have free time to kill, I'm sure you can ask to be placed on the waitlist for the next session if one is available, or just use the time to do street drives.

     The autocross program starts with a brief classroom session. Here, an instructor will give an overview of the specs of the cars that will be used. The car that I would be using for my autocross session was the all-wheel drive X4 SUV with a twin turbo V6, pushing out 300 horsepower. Next, they briefly go over weight transfer, describe the difference between understeer and oversteer, and describe how to correct for those conditions. A couple of other tips that were given were to look where you what the car to go, not at the obstacle you are trying to avoid, and to look far ahead in front of the car. If you do these things, time will seem to slow down behind the wheel.

     Once the classroom session concludes, it's off to the autocross track. Autocross is a form of competition in which cars are driven around an obstacle course, typically marked out by cones. Once at the track, you are assigned a driving coach who will drive you around the track for two laps. The first lap will be done slowly with frequent stops as the instructor offers tips for maximizing your lap. The second lap will be done at full speed to give you a sense of how it should go if done correctly. Next comes your turn to tackle the course behind the wheel with the instructor riding shotgun. We were given three turns behind the wheel for a total of five laps. The first two times behind the wheel, we were given two laps around the track. The instructor quickly assesses your ability and comfort level behind the wheel, and will call out instructions during your lap, such as "full throttle", "coast", and "brake".

Photos from the staging area of the autocross track.

    The third run behind the wheel would be a single timed lap, and each participant would be competing against each other for bragging rights. In the end, I ending up P2 in my group of fourteen drivers, with a time 0.02 seconds off the fastest lap. I give a lot of the credit to my instructor, Byron, who definitely shaved seconds off of any time I would have posted had I not had him coaching me from the passenger seat.

     I enjoyed my time immensely at the BMW Ultimate Driving Experience. I did it mostly to participate in the autocross, but even if I hadn't been bumped up from the waitlist, being able to take a bunch of BMWs out for street drives makes this a worthwhile event. If you are a BMW fan, a car/driving enthusiast, or want to see how good a driver you are by tackling an autocross course, I highly recommend registering for the BMW UDE should it come to your area. I know I'll definitely look forward to attending another one in the future.

Thanks for taking the time to read my blog post. If you have any questions or comments, you can reach me on Twitter (@Romel_E) or Facebook (Romel Evangelista Photography).

Romel

The above is a photo of the #42 Acura TLX driven by Peter Cunningham, competing in the Pirelli World Challenge Series. The photo was taken from the inside of Turn 1 of the Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course. This location is a great place for spectators to take photos because you are fairly close to the track surface, and you have an unobstructed view.

The image settings for this photo were 1/200 sec., F/11, ISO200. The camera was set to shutter priority (Tv setting on a Canon), where I selected a shutter speed of 1/200 second. This shutter speed allowed me to keep the car sharp, while introducing blur in the wheels and the background. This is accomplishing by panning, or moving the camera and following the car in your camera's viewfinder, as you are firing off the shutter. Panning is a technique that requires practice to perfect, as smooth movements are the key to getting the car to remain sharp. If you find that you are not getting any sharp photos, try a quicker shutter speed such as 1/500 sec, then as you feel more comfortable, slow down your shutter speed a little at a time.

My camera was set to auto focus tracking (Servo AF for a Canon). This allows the camera to adjust focus on moving objects. Finally, I was shooting with my camera set to high speed burst mode, which allowed my Canon 60D to shoot at 5.3 frames per second. When shooting panning shots, shooting a burst of shots allows you to review and select the sharpest photo.

Post-processing of this image consisted of initial adjustments in Adobe Lightroom, with further processing made using the Nik Collection software to make adjustments based on my artistic preferences.

Prints of this image are available here. Thanks for reading my blog, and feel free to leave comments or questions.

Romel

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The above photo was taken in the garage area of the Indianapolis Motor Speedway. I was walking around during Indy 500 practice, and came across these tanks that were set up on the south side of the garages. I knew right away that I wanted to incorporate them into a photograph.

I decided to take a head-on photo. This would allow me to show how many tanks there were, which teams they belonged to, and it allowed be to include the letter "B" on the building which would allow me to place the photo as being taken outside of Garage B. As an added bonus was that there was a beautiful blue sky with beautiful clouds.

I set my lens to its widest setting, 17mm on a Canon40D, which is a cropped sensor camera. This would be equivalent to 27mm on a full-frame camera such as a Canon 5D, or on a regular 35mm format film camera. The camera settings for this particular shot were 1/1000 sec., F/5.6, ISO100. After I took my initial shot, I looked to the right and noticed that a mechanic on a bicycle was approaching. I lined up the shot again, waited for the mechanic to enter the frame, and took the photo when the mechanic was where there was an opening between two of the tanks. I really liked the way it turned out because I feel the mechanic adds something to the photo.

Post-processing of this image consisted of initial adjustments in Adobe Lightroom, with further processing made using the Nik Collection software, making adjustments based on my artistic preferences.

Prints of this image are available here. Thanks for reading my blog, and feel free to leave comments or questions.

Romel

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The above photo of Pirelli World Challenge driver Shea Holbrook was taken at the Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course in 2014. In the photo, Shea is going through Turn 5 on the Pro Course, which is the first lefthander after the long back straightaway. It was shot using a Canon 60D with a Canon 70-200 F/4L IS lens. The camera settings were 1/200 sec., F/10 ISO200, with the lens zoom set to 200mm.

For this shot, I was positioned on the spectator section of the infield just past Turn 5. Although there is catch-fencing in this section of the track, I worked around it by framing the shot by shooting though one of the photo cutouts that are in place for media photographers. My camera was set to shutter-priority mode, and I set a shutter speed of 1/200 second. This shutter speed allowed me to get a good amount of sharp photos, while still being slow enough to be able to show motion in the wheels and tires. My focus point was set to one of the ones on the lower left, so that the shot would be framed as close as possible in camera to how I envisioned the finished product to be. Auto focus was set to focus tracking (Servo AF in Canon speak), and drive mode was set to hi-speed burst mode (5.3 frames per second on the Canon 60D). I usually shoot a burst of two or three shots, and then choose the best one to keep. I do this because the first shot is usually a throw away as the camera is still working to lock on focus on the moving subject.

Initial adjustments to the photo were made in Adobe Lightroom, where I also decided to crop the photo using a 16:9 widescreen aspect ratio. I felt that cropping the photo this way worked best, and it also allowed be to crop out a concrete barrier that was in the foreground. Additional post-processing was made using Nik Collection software, where I made further adjustments based on my artistic preferences.

Thanks for reading my blog. Feel free to leave comments or questions.

Romel

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The above photo of USF2000 driver Aaron Telitz was taken at turn 1 of the Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course in 2014. It was shot using a Canon 60D with a Canon 70-200 F/4L IS lens. The camera settings were 1/400 sec., F/8, ISO100, with the lens zoom set to 200mm.

For this shot, the main setting I wanted to control was the camera's shutter speed. Past experience has taught me that shooting around 1/400-1/500 of a second would be slow enough to show motion in the wheels and tires for this type of tight shot, so I set my camera to a shutter speed of 1/400 of a second. So how do you know what shutter speed you should use for panning shots at the track? There really isn't one correct answer. A lot of variables come into play, such as your distance from the track, the zoom setting of your lens, and your ability to hold the camera steady while panning, so you just have to experiment. The main thing I want to avoid is using a shutter speed that is too fast where you would not be able to see any motion on the wheels and tires. So how do you get to that point? Start shooting at a relatively fast shutter speed that your are comfortable with, and then if you like, start to challenge yourself by slowing the shutter speed a little at a time. Don't worry if you end up getting more blurry photos the more you slow down the shutter speed. It happens to everyone, even the pros. Finally, whenever I shoot sports, my camera is set for continuous focus (Servo AF in Canon speak) and the highest continuous shutter setting (5.3 frames/second for this particular camera).

Post-processing of this image consisted of initial adjustments in Adobe Lightroom, with further processing made using the Nik Collection software to make adjustments based on my artistic preferences.

Thanks for reading my blog. Feel free to leave comments or questions.

Romel

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Grand Central TerminalGrand Central Terminal during the holiday season.

I chose to use my Canon G11 for this shot over my dslr because it's smaller image sensor would provide me with a greater depth of field. This made me feel comfortable that using an aperture of F/4, (the G11 has an aperture range of F/2.8-F/8), would be sufficient for my needs.  I set the ISO at 100 to keep noise to a minimum. With those two settings set, the camera chose a shutter speed of 0.8 seconds. The shutter speed was sufficient to capture most people sharply, but those that were walking briskly do show up as a blur. Personally, I think this adds to the shot since this is one of the busiest rail stations in the country.

I processed the RAW file using Canon's Digital Professional Pro software, which was my RAW image converter back in those days. Nowadays, I use Adobe Lightroom to process my RAW files. The image was then brought into Nik Color Efex Pro where I made further adjustments based on my artistic preferences.

Prints of this image are available here. Thanks for reading my blog, and feel free to leave comments or questions.

Romel

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Below are some of the photos I took during my visit to the site. I hope you enjoy them.

A photo from Sandy Hook shows the Twin Lights sitting atop the Navesink Highlands.

A panoramic shot of the Twin Lights taken with an Apple iPhone 4s. This photo shows how each tower is shaped differently.

The North Tower

The South Tower

A view of the World Trade Center, which is approximately 21 miles to the north.

The strip of land going through the center of the frame is part of Sandy Hook, NJ.

More photos can be seen in my Navesink "Twin Lights" Light Station gallery on Flickr. As always, thank you for stopping by, and I hope you enjoyed the photos.

Romel

Looking at the map of the art center, the South Fields are almost the size of the other three areas combined. I choose the South Fields because it contained the giant steel sculptures that I had previously seen in photos, so I wanted to see them first hand. I timed my visit for autumn because I wanted to incorporate the the colors of the changing leaves in my photos. Once autumn came, I kept an eye on the weather forecasts because I wanted to make sure that I picked a day that not only had blue skies, but also had some clouds mixed in. I'm of the opinion that while blue skies are definitely better than grey skies, clouds can add another dimension to the photos. Below are a selection of photos from my visit, and I'll let you be the judge.

So, what do you think? If you liked what you saw, please visit my Storm King Art Center gallery page to see more photos from my visit. As always, thanks for stopping by.

Romel

Red Mill Museum Village website

Below are a few photos I took during my visit to the Red Mill. I hope you enjoy them.

Thanks for reading my blog and viewing my photos.

Romel

Romel

National September 11 Memorial and Museum website

Tribute in Light website

This trip was my first time ever to visit the World Trade Center (WTC) site and the surrounding area of lower Manhattan. I traveled into NYC using the PATH train for its convenience, which has a station located below the WTC. Upon exiting the station, I began my walk to the 9/11 Memorial. On my way, I took some photos of One World Trade Center (1 WTC), the building formerly known as the Freedom Tower.

Once I reached the 9/11 Memorial, my first stop was to see the South Pool. The first thing I noticed were the many flowers and flags placed on the names of some of those who had lost their lives.

Below is a photo of the South Pool looking towards the northwest. The building with the slanted roof line in the background is the 9/11 Museum.

I then started to make my way towards the North Pool. Along the way, I took another photo of 1 WTC. Looking for something different, I also took a photo of 1 WTC reflecting off of the glass of the 9/11 Museum.

Just like at the South Pool, the North Pool had many flowers and flags placed on names to honor and remember those who had lost their lives.

Below is a photo of the North Pool looking towards the west.

After spending time at the pools, I decided to leave the memorial site to begin positioning myself someplace to photograph the Tribute in Light. On my way out of the memorial, I took a photo looking straight up 1 WTC near the base of the southwest corner of the building.

One of the reasons I decided to shoot the tribute lights from lower Manhattan this year was because I wanted to take photos of the light cannons that are used to produce the Tribute in Light. Knowing where the lights are set up, I began walking south as the sun began to set. During my walk, I turned around to look at 1WTC and saw the building relecting the pinkish hue given off by the clouds from the setting sun.

As a walked past where the lights were set up, the sky was not at its darkest yet, so I continued to walk south to find compositions where I would be able to include both the lights and 1 WTC. I would then photograph the light cannons as I made my way back up north.

As I reached Battery Park, I looked back at the lights and saw a building that I wanted to use as a compositional element.

I originally planned on taking some photos from within Battery Park, but when I saw that portions of the park were fenced off due to construction projects, I decided to forego that idea and began to make my way back north to where the tribute lights were set up. As I approached the parking structure that is used to set up the lights, I took a photo including the southern part of the parking structure.

I made my way to the top of the parking structure and took a few photos of the light cannons and of the beams of light shooting up into the sky. I was only allowed to shoot the light cannons from a distance as I didn't have the necessary "wristband" needed to walk up to them. I believe that the people with wristbands were part of a private catered event that was taking place in another portion of the parking structure.

Next, I pointed my camera north to photograph 1 WTC. The people in the foreground are taking photos of the tribute lights, which are to my left.

Before leaving the parking structure, I took one final photo of the Tribute in Light from the top of the parking structure.

Upon exiting the parking structure, I took a couple more photos including the parking structure in the composition before making my way back north.

Before crossing the street to re-enter the 9/11 Memorial, I took a photo that incorporated the roadway so that I can include some light trails from passing vehicles in the photo.

Once inside of the memorial, I retook photos of the North Pool, which was now lit up. In the first photo, I am facing north, and facing northwest in the second one.

I then went to the South Pool to photograph the tribute lights with the pool in the foreground.

As I was getting ready to leave the memorial, I noticed clouds starting to move over the tribute lights. I took a quick photo because I really like the way the clouds add something to the photo. Seeing the lights project on the passing clouds made me think of the Bat Signal.

I left the memorial for the second time and proceeded north. I wanted to take some photos of 1 WTC and the Tribute in Light facing southward.

At this point, I decided to end my night's adventure, and begin to make my way out of the city. If you would like to view all of the photos from this blog in album form, you may do so by visiting my Tribute in Light & 9/11 Memorial - 2014 gallery on Flickr.

Thank you for reading my blog and viewing my photos. I hope you enjoyed them.

Romel

I always enjoy shooting fireworks because I find it fun to shoot, and fun to find out afterwards what kind of "light creation" the camera captured. I didn't have the opportunity to attend the actual game, so I positioned myself at a vantage point outside of the stadium near the time when the game would be ending. Below are some of my photos from that night. On my next attempt, I will try to scout out a different vantage point to photograph the fireworks.

Please visit my Flickr gallery to see the rest of the photos.

Thanks,

Romel

I arrived at the track Friday morning and spent the day walking around the track to become familiar with the parts of the track that would offer good photo opportunities for a non-credentialed photographer. I decided that the inside of Turn 1 and the area from the Esses to the Honda bridge would be where I would be spending most of the time for photos. From the point of view of sitting down to watch a race, I think the hill overlooking the Esses offers one of the best views of the track. Television does not do justice to the amount of elevation change in this section of the track. My second choice for watching a race would probably be the hill overlooking the Keyhole.

I liked shooting from Turn 1 because it allows you opportunities to pan with the cars as they go through Turn 1 and as they head down the straight towards the keyhole. I try to incorporate recognizable parts of the track in the backgrounds of my photos when possible to try and give a clue as to what track the photo was taken. For some of the panning shots that I took from this location, I incorporated the flag starter's stand that is located on the back straight of the track.

Sebastien Bourdais / KVSH Racing Another reason I liked this part of the track is because the close proximity to the track allowed me to take closeups of the drivers in the cockpit. This is a type of shot that I always try to incorporate when photographing open cockpit race cars.

Graham Rahal / Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing

The section of the track from the Esses to the Honda bridge was the other area where I liked to take photographs because it offered many different photo opportunities (close-ups, panning, 3/4 panning). Even though the majority of the track is surrounded with catch fencing, I constantly try to find areas where I can try and shoot through the cut-outs that are made for the credentialed photographers. I was able to find one such hole that allowed me to take head-on shots as the cars crested the lefthander at the top of the Esses.

Simon Paganaud / Schmidt Peterson Motorsports Another area where I was able to overcome the catch fencing was the back straight. I knew that if I panned with the cars, it would minimize the distraction of the catch fence.

Juan Pablo Montoya / Team Penske Mike Conway / Ed Carpenter Racing These are shots that I waited until race day to take because I wanted the grandstands in the background to be full of people and color. It just wouldn't have had the same appeal if it was an empty grey grandstand in the background. I also experimented by using the spectators on the hill as a foreground element.

Charlie Kimball / Novo Nordisk Chip Ganassi Racing

I find it fun to experiment with taking different types of shots because it is so easy to get caught up with concentrating on taking photos of only the cars. I constantly try to challenge myself to come up with something new every time that I go out to a race. Please visit my Honda Indy 200 gallery to see my favorite IndyCar photos from the weekend.

Thank you for stopping by and taking the time to read my blog.

Romel

Changing weather conditions for Round 9 on Friday made for some interesting racing. The cars were lined up on the grid when a quick passing shower started right before the cars took off for their formation lap. Although the track was now damp with rain, very few teams decided to change to rain tires. Once the race started, there was excitement at every turn as drivers struggled to find grip on the wet track with slick tires. Shea's race was up and down as she started P1 for TCA, but later fell to the back of the TCA field. She was able to recover during the later stages of the race, where she was embroiled in a fierce fight with Ernie Francis Jr. and Jason Cherry. She passed both drivers, working her way back up to 2nd, but had to settle for 4th when the checkered flag flew.

Round 10, run under dry conditions, was a more straight forward race for Shea. Starting from P1 for the TCA grid once again, she was able to maintain the position to claim her 5th win out of the 10 races so far this season. Shea currently sits 2nd in the points standings, 33 points behind 1st place, with 4 races remaining.

You can show your support for Shea by following her on Twitter (@SheaRacing) or on Facebook (Shea Racing - Shea Holbook).

Below are photos I took during Shea's visit to Mid-Ohio. Enjoy!

More photos can be seen on my Flickr gallery.

Romel

Please visit my Flickr gallery to see more photos.

Romel

I started Friday taking photos from the outside of Turn 4. This turn provides lots of photo opportunities for panning, 3/4 panning, head on shots, and shots from behind of the cars going down No Name Straight. Some of my favorite shots from this turn are the 3/4 panning shots because of the background in the shots.

The #48 BMW M3 of Terry Borcheller and Mike Lamarra.
Team - Fall-Line Motorsports I also liked playing with the composition of my head on shots from this location.

The #76 Subaru WRX STi of Ray Mason and Ryan Winchester.
Team - Compass360 Racing The #96 BMW M3 of Bill Auberlen and Will Turner.
Team - Turner Motorsport My next shooting location for the day was the outside of Big Bend. This location allows for photos of the cars entering and exiting Big Bend, as well as panning shots. For the panning shots, I liked using the colors of the Turner Motorsports paddock setup as a backdrop.

The #41 Nissan 370Z of John Farano and Dave Empringham.
Team - Tower Motorsports The #48 BMW M3 of Terry Borcheller and Mike Lamarra.
Team - Fall-Line Motorsports The #97 BMW M3 of Michael Marsal and Tom Kimber-Smith.
Team - Turner Motorsport I have to admit that the panning shot above was one of my more conservative ones for the weekend.

My final shooting location for Friday was at the inside of the Downhill turn. This location offers opportunities to pan with the cars as they are coming down the hill, going through the turn, or starting down the front straight. It was at this point during the day that the rain finally arrived. While I am not particularly a fan of shooting in the rain, it does make for interesting photos.

The #5 Mazda MX-5 Miata of Stevan McAleer and Chad McCumbee.
Team - C.J. Wilson Racing The #77 Subaru WRX STi of Kyle Gimple and Ryan Eversley.
Team - Compass360 Racing Saturday was race day, and the first up to race was the ST class of the CTSCC. After the pre-race grid walk, I spent the beginning of the race in the infield walking from Big Bend to the Lefthander. This allowed me to get panning shots with various backgrounds. For the later part of the race, I spent some time at the back end of the track by the Uphill and West Bend.

The #80 BMW 328i of Kevin Gleason and Corey Fergus.
Team - BimmerWorld Racing The #4 Honda Civic Si of Juan Leroux and Jorge Leroux.
Team - LRT Racing Next up was the Porsche GT3 Cup race, and I spent the entire race in the infield section from Big Bend to the Lefthander.

Driver: Wiliam Peluchiwski
Team: Kelly-Moss Motorsports For the GS class race of the CTSCC race, I decided to shoot from the outside portion of the track stretching from the end of No Name Straight to the bridge located just after West Bend. These shooting locations were the longest walk to get to, but i knew that I would be able to get shots of the cars coming down No Name Straight, through the Uphill, and on their way through West Bend. It was definitely worth the long walk. Besides providing good angles to shoot the cars from, you get a good appreciation of just how much the cars are on the edge of control as they drive though the Uphill. Because of this, standing on the outside of Uphill section was definitely one of my favorite parts of the track to shoot and watch the cars from.

The #01 Camaro Z/28.R of Eric Curran and Lawson Aschenbach.
Team - CKS Autosport The #76 Subaru WRX STi of Ray Mason and Ryan Winchester.
Team - Compass360 Racing The #76 Subaru WRX STi of Ray Mason and Ryan Winchester.
Team - Compass360 Racing The #13 Porsche 997 of Matt Plumb and Nick Longhi.
Team - Rum Bum Racing As the race was coming to the end, I made my way back to the infield section to be near the podium for the end of the race. I decided to shoot the podium from the fan area not only to get something a little different, but also because I was planning to shoot the second Porsche GT3 Cup race which was supposed to start shortly. Unfortunately, the skies opened up and the race was called off due to torrential rains.

The beginning of the podium festivities.

Please visit my motorsports gallery to see more photos from the race weekend.

I'd like to thank Shea Holbrook, the staff of Lime Rock Park, my friends, and my fellow photographers for their help and support for making my weekend at Lime Rock Park a memorable one.

Romel

Big thanks to Shea Holbrook of #SteelOvaryNation, the staff of Lime Rock Park, my friends, and my fellow photographers. Their help and support made sure that my weekend at Lime Rock Park was a memorable one.

Big thanks to Shea Holbrook of #SteelOvaryNation, the staff of Lime Rock Park, my friends, and my fellow photographers. Their help and support made sure that my weekend at Lime Rock Park was a memorable one.

The Pennzoil "Yellow Submarine" livery of Helio Castroneves and Team Penske going through IndyCar tech inspection. Townsend Bell

I arrived in Indy Wednesday evening to get settled in. The next morning, upon entering the track, I couldn't believe I was actually there. The track is so huge and so full of history. All throughout the weekend I felt like I had to pinch myself to make sure I wasn't dreaming. I spent most of Thursday getting myself familiar with where everything was, and trying to figure out where I wanted to take photos from throughout each day. I typically like to shoot with the sun behind me, so my favorite spots to shoot in the morning were the turn 1 & 2 area, and the turn 7, 8, 9, complex from driver's left.

Shooting ProMazda at the Turn 1 and 2 complex. You can get great photos in the turn 7, 8, 9 complex with the pagoda in the background, or panning shots with the Hall of Fame museum in the background.

Will Power - Team Penske For the Thursday afternoon sessions, I tried shooting between turns 10 and 11 to keep the sun at my back. I really wasn't a fan of shooting in that part of the track because I couldn't find a worthwhile background to work with. Also, since it was the one of the farthest parts of the track from the media center, this was the only time that I ventured out there. I checked out turn 14, but once there,  I wished I had a longer lens to shoot from that vantage point. I took some wider shots with the giant IMS logo in the stands, but I didn't return to that spot for the rest of the weekend.

Friday brought rain to the speedway. Rain and the long straights can only mean one thing...rooster tails! I was lucky to have watched qualifying from pit lane to witness the rooster tails as the cars raced down the length of the straight. Earlier in the day I found it funny that it would start to rain at the beginning of every session that I went out to photograph, and stop once that particular session came to an end. IndyCar qualifying would be no different. With the exception of the first group to go out, the rain would start as soon as cars were about to take to the track, with the heaviest rain coming right before qualifying for the Fast 6. Right as that session was about to come to an end, Ryan Hunter-Reay spun coming on to the front straight and backed it into the wall. Two things stood out to me as I witnessed the crash. The delay in seeing the impact and then hearing the impact, and once I did hear it, even though it was a relatively light impact, it sounded a lot worse than any impact that I've heard for any IndyCar crash on television and it is not a sound I would like to hear again.

Will Power - Team Penske

Saturday, race day, turned out to be a beautiful day. The IndyCar race didn't start until the middle of the afternoon, so that gave me time to look at some of the cars on display in the Pagoda Plaza, and to stop by the Indy Fans Tweet Up. I spent the rest of the morning in the media center before going out to shoot the ProMazda race. Once the race was over, I grabbed lunch and prepared for the IndyCar festivities to begin. Once the grid walk and pre-race festivities were over, I spent my time watching the race from pit lane and turns 1 through 4, spending the majority of my time between turns 1 and 2. Standing on the inside of turn 1 without a view of the front straight, you begin to get a sense of just how long the straights are. It would seem like it would take forever for the cars to reach turn 1 after hearing them accelerate after taking the green flag after a caution period. Turn 1 is probably one of the better parts of the track to watch the race from as it is one of the primary passing zones, and it proved to be very popular with the fans.

Simon Pagenaud (Schmidt Peterson Motorsports) locks up the brakes at Turn one as he enters three-wide with Will Power (Team Penske) and Jack Hawksworth (BHA / BBM with Curb-Agajanian). As the race was coming to a close, I headed back to pit lane to see the waving of the checkered flag and the podium ceremony.

I enjoyed my time at the track immensely, and left with memories that will last a lifetime. I look forward to returning for next year's GP, and attending my first Indy500. I'd like to thank Shea Holbrook, #SteelOvaryNation, and the staff of the Indianapolis Motor Speedway for the help and support they have provided to me.

Please take the time to view my IndyCar and ProMazda photos from Indy on my website or Facebook page.

Romel

Below are photos I took of Julia during the IndyCar Grand Prix of Indianapolis weekend.

I'd like to thank Shea Holbrook, #SteelOvaryNation, the staff of the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, and others for making my weekend at the Grand Prix of Indianapolis a memorable one.

You can follow Michele on Twitter (@MicheleBum), Facebook (Michele Bungarner Racing), and Instagram (michelebum).

I'd like to thank Shea Holbrook, #SteelOvaryNation, the staff of the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, and others for making my weekend at the Grand Prix of Indianapolis a memorable one.

Feel free to Like and Share the photos through my website or Facebook galleries.

Visiting a track for the very first time is something that always leaves me awe struck, and Road Atlanta was no exception. Although I have watched many Road Atlanta races on television over the years, it did not prepare me for just how hilly the track was once I was there. Upon driving into the track, the first section of track you see is the downhill drop into Turn 12, which is the final turn leading on to the front straight. Television does not do justice as to just how high and steep that hill is. The steepness of the hill is reinforced as you drive up the road that takes you into the infield portion of the track. The hills don't stop there though, as driving to the turn 5 area of the track revealed another hill that was longer and steeper than the one entering the track. Luckily, there are shuttle buses that operate within the track that will take you to different sections of the track and hopefully save you having to walk up the various hills located throughout.

After setting up camp, I walked around as much of the track as possible on the first day to know the lay of the land, and to see how many areas around the track were photo friendly. As I also prefer to shoot with the sun at my back, I tried to plan out where on the track I would prefer to shoot from as the day went on. Fortunately or unfortunately, most of the weekend ended up being overcast and rainy. It's a good thing in that it provides even lighting, but I like to shoot some wide shots, and blue skies definitely are preferred for those types of shots. The sun did make an appearance for qualifying and for the hour before sundown during the race. For qualifying, I positioned myself at turn 6. This allowed me to shoot with the sun at my back as the cars were making their turn-in into the apex. Turn 6 is probably the closest you can get to the track as well, and this allowed me to get some tight shots of the open cockpit prototype cars.  sun.

When race day came, much of the weather during the first half of the race was either rain or overcast skies. It seemed like the sun would not be making an appearance during the race. Luckily though, the sun finally did make an appearance, and it did so at the best time of day...about an hour before sunset, also known as the golden hour. I was at Turn 5 at the time, where the sun was casting a beautiful warm glow onto that part of the track. I think my best shots of the weekend came during that hour as the sun was setting, but I'll let you be the judge of that.

Below are a handful of shots from the weekend. I hope you enjoy them.

The #12 Rebellion Racing Lola B12/60 of Nicolas Prost, Nick Heidfeld, and Neel Jani.

The #3 Corvette Racing Chevrolet Corvette C6 ZR1 of Jan Magnussen, Antonio Garcia, and Jordan Taylor.

The #31 NGT Motorsport Porshe 911 GT3 of Nicolas Armindo, Christina Nielsen, and Angel Andres Benitez.

The #11 JDX Racing Porshe 911 GT3 of Mike Hedlund, Jan Heylen, and Jon Fogarty.

The #3 Corvette Racing Chevrolet Corvette C6 ZR1 of Jan Magnussen, Antonio Garcia, and Jordan Taylor.

The #25 8Star Motorsports ORECA FLM09 of Ozz Negri and Sean Rayhall. (Sean Rayhall behind the wheel)

The #10 Dempsey Racing Porshe 911 GT# of Charlie Putman, Charles Espenlaub, and Darren Law.

The #91 SRT Motorsports SRT Viper GTS-R of Marc Goossens, Dominik Farnbacher, and Ryan Dalziel.

Please visit my gallery to see my other photos.

Romel Evangelista Photography on Facebook

I had always been a fan of the Mazda6 ever since the 1^st generation Mazda6 was released in 2002, so I was thrilled to learn that Mazda had chosen the new 3^rd generation Mazda6 to campaign the 2013 season, replacing the RX-8 used in previous seasons. What better place than the track to prove and develop their SKYACTIV Diesel technology.

Congratulations to all of the folks at Mazda and SpeedSource for all they that were able to achieve in 2013, and best of luck during the 2014 Tudor United SportsCar Championship!

My complete SpeedSource Mazda6 photo gallery from Lime Rock Park may be viewed on either Facebook or Flickr. I hope you enjoy the photos!

Romel

The Grand-Am race at Lime Rock Park was an event that I was looking forward to attending for the entire year. Having attended last year’s season ending race at Lime Rock, I knew how picturesque the changing leaves of autumn add to an already beautiful setting. Even though the leaves this year didn’t have as much color as I was hoping for, I think it definitely added to the photos.

Below are a few select photos from the weekend. Enjoy the photos and please visit my gallery for more photos from the weekend.

Romel Evangelista Photography on Facebook

The #7 TRG/AMG Aston Martin Vantage.

The #01 Chip Ganassi Racing with Felix Sabates BMW-Riley of Scott Pruett and Memo Rojas.

The #46 Fall-Line Motorsports Audi R8 of Al Carter and Brett Sandberg.

The #25 Freedom Autosport Mazda MX-5.

The #44 Magnus Racing Porshe GT3 of John Potter and Andy Lally.

The #13 Rum Bum Racing Porshe Carrera of Matt Plumb and Nick Longhi.

I started off my night of shooting at Liberty State Park. Even though I have shot from there before, I never had the opportunity to try to work the Empty Sky Memorial into the shot as it had not yet been completed during my previous visits shooting the tribute lights. The Empty Sky Memorial is the official State of New Jersey's Memorial that honors the memory of 746 New Jersey lives lost at the World Trade Center on Sept. 11, 2001. I never did find a way to work the monument into a shot that I was happy with. There were numerous other photographers set up with tripods taking photos of the memorial, and this limited the places I could shoot from as I didn't want to get into their shots. I probably only took 2 photos that included the memorial. I decided to take some of my "normal" shots of the lights just to get some in. Although I was trying to be more creative this time around, I would've been upset with myself if I didn't at least get one photo I could be happy about. Even if it was a from an angle I have shot before and nothing new creatively, at least it would have the completed WTC1 tower in the photo.

I wrapped up shooting at Liberty State Park and decided to find Tear Drop Monument. At this point, I was not sure if it would be accessible at this time of night (it was 10:45pm by that time), but I decided to give it a shot. Luckily, access to the monument was still open and the monument was lit up. Unfortunately, I did not have the opportunity to work the monument into a shot with the tribute lights in the background before the lights lighting up the monument were turned off. I did manage to take a couple of photos of the monument itself while it was lit up, but my priority at the time was to photograph the tribute lights with the Statue of Liberty in the photo. That was my whole point of going there in the first place. So did I get my shot? And was I happy with it? I think so, but I haven't had the opportunity yet to download my photos and view them on a big screen.

However the photos turn out, I will definitely return to Tear Drop Monument to actually visit the monument and "take it in". I would definitely like to take more photos of the monument, both during the day and the night, and I will most definitely be returning to the monument during next year's Tribute in Light.

If you'd like to, you can read more about Tear Drop Momument on snopes.com (Snopes.com article on Tear Drop Monument) or at www.911monument.com.

Romel

UPDATE - 9/13/2013 - Photos added.

So what cars tickled my fancy? It would have to be the Trans-Am cars of the late 60's and early 70's, of which they were well represented. When I first started driving, my friend and I would always argue over which was the better car, the Mustang or the Camaro. It was nice to be able to step back in time to the golden era of Trans-Am racing to see the old Mustangs and Camaros on the track, and to look back to the time when the rivalry between the two cars started.

Other than the Trans-Am cars, there were so many other cars of all types that I was happy to see. As you walk up and down the paddock, you never knew what surprises lay ahead.  If you are an automotive enthusiast, I highly recommend you try to attend this event in the future. I know I will.

Below is a selection of photos from the festival. Enjoy!

Ford GT40

1967 Lotus 41C Formula B

1964 Fiat Abarth TC

1931 Bugatti T37

1951 Jaguar XK120

Sam Posey's 1970 Dodge Challenger

1975 Chevron B31

1961 Dreossi Special Formula Jr.

Formula cars going through West Bend.

Gilles Villeneuve's 1975 March 75B Formula Atlantic

More photos can be seen in my gallery.

Romel Evangelista Photography on Facebook

If you have never seen a Pirelli World Challenge event,  I highly recommend you visit their website at www.world-challenge.com where you can watch past races, view information on future events, and keep up to date on the latest news. But before you do that, here is a selection of photos from the weekend.

More photos can be seen in my gallery.

Romel Evangelista Photography on Facebook

Many thanks to the American Le Mans Series for their annual trip to the northeast, and to Lime Rock Park for hosting the event. It has been a wonderful 10 years!

Please enjoy my selection of photos from the weekend.

More photos can be seen in my gallery.

Romel Evangelista Photography on Facebook

Excerpts from Wikipedia - The DeltaWing was designed to reduce aerodynamic drag dramatically, to allow a marginally faster straight and corner speed than a 2009-2011 Dallara IndyCar on both ovals and road/street courses with half as much weight, engine power and fuel consumption. As the name suggests, it has a delta wing shape, with an unusually narrow 0.6 metres (2 ft 0 in) front track and a more traditional 1.7 metres (5 ft 7 in) rear track. The car lacks any front or rear wings - downforce comes from the underbody.

The braking system weighs 13.2 kilograms (29.2 lb), about half the normal weight for a race car. Also unique compared to other race cars is that 72.5 percent of the mass and 76 percent of the downforce is at the rear. It has a moveable Gurney flap, normally not allowed but can be used by experimental vehicles.

Whatever your personal opinion of the DeltaWing may be, I was glad to have had the opportunity to see something so innovative up close, and to see it out on the track. Best of luck to DeltaWing Racing in their continued development of the car.

Enjoy the photos!

Romel Evangelista Photography on Facebook

Now to get back to the racing, fans were treated to lots of on track action from 4 different race series: SCCA F2000, IMSA GT3 Challenge, Grand-Am Continental Tire Sports Car Series, and the headlining Grand-Am Rolex Series. Fans, drivers, and crews were kept on their toes thanks to Mother Nature and her ever changing weather. The track would be dry for one session and damp for another. Rain varied from sprinkles, steady rain, and torrential downpours. There was even a brief hail storm, at least at the section of track I was at during that time. The sheer size for the track meant that drivers could encounter varying weather and track conditions throughout a single lap. It must have been a nightmare for the crews to decide on race setup and race strategy.

Well enough of my rambling, here are some of the photos that I took during the weekend.

More can be seen in my gallery. Enjoy the photos!

Romel Evangelista Photography on Facebook

Complete gallery can be seen here.

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