So one of the things I went into this year's Vintage Grand Prix hoping to accomplish is some panning shots. Basically, you keep one of the cars in the same spot within the view finder as you track along with the car as it moves. Doing this produces a blurred background with a sharp in focus car. The blurred background generally will have a streaked appearance, giving the sense of speed and motion. It is much easier said (and typed) than done!

I took probably at least 200 photos, and only got a couple that were worth keeping - and even those are a bit blurry and probably should be deleted... but for a first attempt, I figured they were good enough. And in one case, I used a sepia tone treatment to give it an even more vintage look (and to hide some flaws).

Technical Details: Canon EOS 7D, Canon EF 50mm f/1.8 II, 1/10 at f/22. ISO 100. 2011 Pittsburgh Vintage Grand Prix, Pittsburgh, PA. Raw conversion and sepia tone conversion in Photoshop CS5 (mouseover for original).

Obviously, unless all of the cars are moving at the exact same speed, only one will be in focus. In this case, I was focusing on the red 71 car. If you look closely at the 71 on the door, you'll see it is a bit blurred, and other parts of the car are not as crisp as I would have liked. This either means I panned too quickly, too slowly, and/or moved the camera up/down.

I think I chose a poor location to try this... as the cars would enter the turn, they would change speeds - making it much more difficult to pan at the right speed. It also produced a rather cluttered and confusing background.

But all in all, I still like the shot - despite its flaws, it was a good learning experience, it has a fun feel too it, and I enjoyed capturing it.

- Bill