The WORCS Off-road Series Quads/UTV ran from FEBRUARY 11-13, 2022 at the Glen Helen Raceway in Devore, CA. I attended on the 13th because it was a Sunday and I knew there would be fewer attendees. I don't mind crowds, but they aren't great for photography, unless your subject matter is crowds. I was wanting to get good pictures of ATVs in action. I was unsure of what the opportunities for photography would be, so to be safe, I threw my beater camera in the trunk along with a long lens (100-400mm) to compliment whatever kit lens was currently attached to it. In retrospect, my 80-200mm f 2/8 would've been the single best lens I could've taken, but my big lens did well enough and I'm happy with the results. Especially for my first time shooting this kind of action.
When I got to the venue, I was surprised to see that access was really good and that it would be easy to get good shots. The sun wasn't in the ideal location, but there was action at all corner, bend and straight, so all I had to do was move around. The track is huge and much of it is out of the spectator's view. I suspect that it would take a full 10 minutes to walk from end to end, but like I said, there was no shortage of accessible places to shoot from. Some of my favorite pictures are below and I've included lessons learned after the pictures. I definitely learned some things!
Lessons learned:
You need a fast lens when shooting action such as this. Even my Nikkon 80-200 f/2.8 would've been a bit slow for these speeds, but it would've been better than the big Sigma. Having said that, there's no way I'm going to spend $1,800 on a newer lens, but I would be willing to spend about $1100 on a fast, used lens such as the 70-200 f/4.
You need a camera with very quick focusing and my D7100 was not up to the task. I had a work-around though and that was to pre-focus at the point where I expected the action to be and wait for the action to occur there. That worked well enough but it does hasten my decision to upgrade to a D4 or D850.
I found that the most interesting pictures were the ones that filled up the frame with action. This is usually the case when shooting single subjects. See the first picture for an example of filling up the frame.
Pictures which feature lots of body angulation are much more interesting than pictures in which the rider is sitting still or riding stiffly, as necessary as that may be. The last picture illustrates this well.
When the subject matter is covered in the very dirt and/or mud that they're riding in, there will be less contrast in the pictures. Witness the sixth picture; it's a good action shot, with the wheels spinning madly, but the scene is all a sea of dirt. A conversion to black-and-white conversion would magnify the lack of contrast even more.
Pick the shots that offer the best chance of success, early. Is there a corner that the racers come out of all cock-eyed and churning wheels fast? Get there first! Is there a jump that gives good air and has an uncluttered backdrop? Get there first! You will always have more success if you envision the shots you want ahead of time. That is a universal truth in photography, regardless of the type of photography that you're doing.
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