owens

Photographing the Rolex 24hrs at Daytona

     The Rolex 24hrs of Daytona is one of the most unique car races in the world. From a photographers standpoint it's nothing less. What other event do you photograph that starts with a clean shiny object that finishes completely covered in rubber, tape, dirt, cracks? You also experience many weather conditions in 24hrs. This years 24hr race saw sunrise, sunset, clouds, rain, hot days and cool nights! That's a lot to change and adjust for a photographer. Working for the Indycar series, i'm used to photographing one and a half to three hours and running from spot to spot. Shooting a race that lasts 24 hours gives me infinite time to get everywhere and spend as much time as I want in each location.  The thing I enjoyed most about the 24hr race was getting to hang out with a new group of photographers than I normally do. Those guys sacrifice everything just to get a photograph (even at 4am). Lot's of the photographers stayed up all night shooting at the track, I bailed for 4 hours to go nap. Next time i'm in for all 24 hrs!