Hallett Raceway motorcycle track day

Today I went to Hallett Raceway to photograph a story on an up and coming professional road racer Dustin Dominguez of Newalla and while there, I also decided to photograph a very rare, old and very expensive Ducati motorcyle for another customer of mine. I had posted this trip on the forums here asking for assistants, and Jon Ervin, a sophmore photojournalism student at UCO volunteered to help out. We met at 6:15 am in Edmond and Jon rode with me to Hallett, about 1.5 hours northeast of OKC. That gave us a chance to talk about the assignment and my approach to it.

First order of business was to photograph the Ducati on the start finish line before the track day got started. I shot this pic with my D3 set to manual exposure but TTL flash using Nikon's Creative Lighting System (CLS). Since it was overcast the lights triggered easily infrared. We set up an SB-900 in an umbrella to camera left and a bare head SB-900 to camera right for rim lighting. I discussed the lighting with Jon as we worked. I wanted the ambient underexposed by about 1 stop and used flash to bring my subject up to the proper exposure. In this pic I had the left SB-900 at +0.3 TTL and the right SB-900 at +1 TTL. This was the third shot out of the bunch. I knew we had it as soon as I took it. We just stopped and went on to try other positions, camera angles, etc., but I have done enough of these I just new we were trying to improve on something that was already great so it was just more practice than anything. After I got the shots I want then I let Jon use my equipment and walked him through trying different settings, adjusting lighting, etc. You can read and study and watch others all you want, but there is NOTHING like doing it yourself and thinking through the decisions in your head as you work out the lighting and exposures.

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James Pratt
www.advridermag.com
www.-james-pratt.com
www.motorcyclestock.com

Once that was out of the way, next order of business was to photograph our assignment, Dustin Dominguez. I did a quick interview to learn more about him then went out on the track to catch him in action. This kid is FAST! One of the fastest I have seen in the local ranks and substantially faster than anyone at the track today. We would practice our timing with the other racers, but he was so much faster my timing would be off when I would shoot him. These guys are just flying by at warp speed and it is very hard to capture them properly with good framing and lighting. I was trying to use my SB-800's to help out but I think the better shots were done with just faster shutter speeds and no flash.

This photo is of Justin "backing it in" into Hallett Turn 2. He was just playing around, having fun, flicking the bike around like it was a toy and having a great time. There was nobody for him to race because nobody was even close to as fast as him, so he was just goofing off, sliding around, doing wheelies for us and still turning blistering lap times in the 1 minute 17 second mark - very fast for anyone who has ridden at Hallett. (I turn about a 1.34 personally Embarassed

) He said two weeks ago at the races he was in the 1.15 range, and he and another guy broke the lap record - and Justin is on a basically stock ZX-10. This photo is his ZX-6 (600cc) race bike.

At lunchtime I got Justin out on the start finish line for a portrait, kind of like with the Ducati. Same technique with the SB-800 except that I shot both lights bare head, no umbrella. A bit of underexposure and then post processing got me some dark, ominous skies.

After the lunch break we went around to turn 8 and tried our hand at fast pans and also some remote camera stuff. I didn't really like much of the remote stuff but liked this wheelie picture. Justin was pulling the front wheel up at insane speeds, standing on the pegs, just having fun and flicking the bike around like it was a toy. I would have crashed my brains out! This was my D3 and 300 2.8 lens.

All in all a successful, yet hot and sweaty day. Jon got to shoot with my 600 F4 and play around with lights.

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James Pratt
www.advridermag.com
www.-james-pratt.com
www.motorcyclestock.com

nice shots! i love how sharp they are even though they are going so fast! #1 is my favorite for some reason!

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Lora S.

Thanks. That old Ducati is extremely rare and someone told me it was worth about $60,000. It is a real work of art. I have been wanting to photograph it for months but wanted to wait until I got it at the track to photograph it, since that is where it belongs.

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James Pratt
www.advridermag.com
www.-james-pratt.com
www.motorcyclestock.com

Beautiful stuff. Does the Ducati have the Desmodromic valves?

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www.spiveyphoto.com
Canon 5D Mk II, S90

	lefturn99 wrote:
	Beautiful stuff. Does the Ducati have the Desmodromic valves?

I think so. It has a bevel gear valve drive.

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James Pratt
www.advridermag.com
www.-james-pratt.com
www.motorcyclestock.com

i haven't read about it in 40 years but if I remember right, there are no valve springs. Somehow, the cam opens AND closes the valve mechanically. When it came out, it was so good we thought everyone would use it. Must have had some limitations.

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www.spiveyphoto.com
Canon 5D Mk II, S90

	lefturn99 wrote:
	i haven't read about it in 40 years but if I remember right, there are no valve springs. Somehow, the cam opens AND closes the valve mechanically. When it came out, it was so good we thought everyone would use it. Must have had some limitations.

Ducati's still have desmo valves. They just won the world motorcycle road racing championship against all the big factories, so the technology works. Very Happy

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James Pratt
www.advridermag.com
www.-james-pratt.com
www.motorcyclestock.com

Can anyboby shoot at the track or do you need special permission?

Thanks!!!

Chris

No special permission required. They are very easy to work with. Some turns you can get within about 10' of the racers. If you have any questions just ask the corner workers. They will make sure you stay safe and don't endanger the racers. Very friendly atmosphere.

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James Pratt
www.advridermag.com
www.-james-pratt.com
www.motorcyclestock.com

Thanks for the lighting tips and for sharing the great results you got. Motorcycles are tough to photograph...at least they are for me. The first shot of the old and valuable Ducati is poster worthy.

Cool. I love shooting any kind of action. If anyone wants to go out to Hallet to shoot hit me up.

I will drive if you like. I am free any weekend. Wife is doing her residency so I am extremely bored. Lol

Chris

Outstanding work James. Would love to go with you and shoot sometime. I know I could learn a lot from you.