Photographing The 2024 IMSA Battle On The Bricks

I recently had the opportunity to do something. I haven’t done in almost 20 years – photograph an IMSA sports car race.  As fans of ThruMyLens know, back in the early 2000s. I did a lot of freelance writing and photography and the luxury watch industry.  One of the perks of that gig was that watch companies invited me to attend the various sporting races that they sponsored.  I used to joke that if you could race it, I’ve photographed it. in 2006 I was invited to photograph the IMSA American LeMans Series race held at Laguna Seca racetrack.  it was super fun and super challenging.  Fast forward to present day, and I had the opportunity to buy special tickets through my local chapter of the BMW Car cCub of America to the IMSA Battle On The Bricks – I did up a nice photo report for the club here on ThruMyLens.  So I thought I would talk a little bit about my experience, photographing the event, and lessons learned.  It’s particularly important for me to take a critical look at the weekend because I’ll have the opportunity to go back next year.  First, let’s look at the gear the I brought for the weekend:

CAMERA BODIES	LENSES	BAG	OTHER
Canon R5 Mark II, R6 Mark II	RF 15-35 F2.8, RF 24-70 F2.8, RF 70-200 F2.8, Voightlander 50mm F1.0	Ulanzi BP09	Ulanzi F38 Travel Tripod, K&F Concept Nano X filters

*Reviews of all listed items can be found here and on the ThruMyLens YouTube Channel.

Prior to the event, I did try to obtain a photo vest through the press department at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway and IMSA.  As a journalist, when you’re issued a photo vest, it’s essentially an all-access pass anywhere you want to go on the track.  Back when I was doing freelance writing and photography for print magazines and had invitations directly from high-dollar sponsors of the races, it was never a problem to get a photo vest.  Now I’m on the outside looking in.  While I was granted media credentials (by virtue of this website) to get into the media center at the track, I was denied a photo vest.  Which surprised me because I went through the BMW CCA Chapter President who negotiated the group deal for our members to attend the race and had contacts at BMW, IMSA, and the Indianapolis Motor Speedway.  We tried going up the chain for a couple of  weeks before the race.  And I continued to be denied.  So I knew I would not be able to get close enough or in position to get the kind of photographs that I used to at these races.

Currently my longest lens is a Canon RF 70-200 F2.8.  I wasn’t completely familiar with where our club members would be located at the race in relationship to the track.  But I was reasonably sure that my 200 would not be long enough to get really exceptional shots.  I’m still a member of Cannon Professional Services, so I reached out to Cannon to see if I could get the new Canon 300mm F2.8, but the lens is extremely popular and has been sold out since it was introduced and the loaner copies CPS had were all spoken for until December. That lens would’ve been about perfect for the distance we were from the track during the race.  Maybe even the Canon 400mm F2.8.  Next year, I think I would like to bring both the 300 and the 400, And maybe a crop sensor camera body like the R7.  Having my own 70-200 on the 1.6 crop sensor body (effective 110-320 focal length) and the 400 prime on another body would be pretty ideal think.  In terms of camera bodies, I brought both my canon R5 Mark II and R6 Mark II.  The combination work extremely well.  I got the R5M2 when it first came out and I’ve reviewed it here on ThruMyLens.  In that review, I lamented that I typically don’t do a lot of action shooting to take advantage of the upgrades in the auto focus.  But I absolutely did so during this event and let me say the auto focus is astoundingly good.  I put the subject detect in “vehicle “ priority and I don’t think I missed a shot.  The 45 megapixel sensor on the R5M2 saved my butt because I had to crop the snot out of these photos.  Here are some examples of what I was getting:

The single car shots were the most problematic, but shooting a group of cars wasn’t too bad from the distance I was shooting.

it rained during the main race on Sunday so I had the opportunity to shoot race cars in the rain which I had never done.  I had no concerns about the camera and lens getting wet and did not have any issues.  I didn’t shoot in a torrential downpour by any means – a  little stronger than sprinkle.  The lens hood was all that was needed to keep raindrops off the front lens element.

Out of desperation, I did go to the fence closest to the track I was allowed to go to and tried my hand at shooting through the fence.  The photos came out remarkably well – fully zoomed to 200mm, the fence essentially disappears:

OTHER SHOTS

When I wasn’t shooting cars, I was largely using the RF 24-70 F2.8 and the Voightlander 50mm F1.0.  Surprisingly, I mainly used the 24-70.  We did 3 different “meet and greet” sessions in the garage area of IMS and between the tight quarters of the garages and the crowd of BMW CCA members in the meeting, the 50mm was often too “zoomy” – in many cases I couldn’t back up to make shots work.  So I’d switch over to the other camera with the 24-70.  I’ve been shooting with primes so much this Summer I’d forgotten how good the 24-70 F2.8 truly is:

Here’s one I got with the Voightlander 50mm F1.0 which I’m particularly proud of – Indianapolis at sunrise:

ROOKIE MISTAKES

I did make a couple of bone headed mistakes I’m still kicking myself over.

1.  I didn’t bring my CF Express card for the R5M2.  I’m so darn used to SD cards it never even occurred to me to put my CF Express card in my R5M2 before I left.  I was really excited to try out pre-shooting feature on the R5M2.  Auto racing was the perfect application for it.  But I soon discovered that my SD cards were just too darn slow.  I find a car I wanted to be my subject, half-press focus on it, then try to fully press the shutter release when it came into position. Each time the shutter release was non-responsive.  Why?  Because buffer was overflowing with 15 full size images with each 1/2 seconds of pre-shooting.  Fortunately the cars weren’t going super fast in the turn by the Performance Center so I didn’t really need the feature.  But I think I’m going to entirely switch over to my CF Express card for the R5M2.  Change is hard.

2.  I didn’t have a tool to tighten down the quick release plate on my R5M2 causing it to fall from chest height on to the pavement.  In 25 years of shooting professionally and for enjoyment, i’ve never before dropped a camera.  That’s pretty good record.  To Canon’s credit, the R5M2 took the fall like a champ.  There’s just a bit of “road rash“ cosmetic damage in one corner on the back of the camera.  The next time I sent it into Canon Professional Service for routine maintenance I’ll see if it’s possible to repair the damage.  I’m guessing they just need to replace a plastic section of the camera body.  What really helped is that when the camera fell from being mounted on my backpack strap via quick release plate, it had my lightest lens on it.  How did this happen?  Well, I’m going to chalk it up to my only having used Ulanzi F38 quick release plates for the past roughly 3 years.  20 years prior to that I used the older, larger, and less universally compatible Manfrotto quick release plates.  The ONE feature that they have which would’ve prevented this entire incident.  The mounting screw on the plate has a small flip up to torque down the screw if it starts to back out.  When I noticed the screw on the quick release plate was starting to come loose. I attempted to tighten my hand.  But I wasn’t able to talk it down enough to overcome the golf cart ride to our destination And I took maybe 10 steps out of the golf cart before the screw backed out entirely, causing the camera to fall to the ground.  To prevent this from happening in the future I purchased two of these little pocket tools (only $13 each) made by a European company called Spinn Design:

B&H carries them in the US (called The Photographer’s Tool).  I purchased two and intend to keep them in my camera bag.  Yes, I have a number of Leatherman multi tools that have flathead screwdrivers on them, but you can’t get those on an airplane.  I don’t think he would have a problem with these little guys.

Overall this was a fantastic weekend and an opportunity to take a trip down memory lane back to the an exciting time in my life when I was a photo journalist.  With lessons learned this year I’m greatly looking forward to next year.