Chasing Cars
Or how I got into taking photos in the first place.
Brian Cohoe
6/29/20263 min read
My friends and I were spending a lot of time autocrossing and going to track days, and in the deep cold of Canadian Prairies, going out onto the lake and being absolute menaces. When we weren't behind the wheel, we were wrenching on whatever inevitably broke, was crashed, or figured we needed to replace to get an edge. And because what does one expensive hobby need?
If you answered another expensive hobby, congratulations! You made the same decision I did. There's something amazing about taking photos of your friends while we do silly things.
While I am thousands of miles away from them right now, I managed to find something that reminded me of those times. A race track. So what better time than a moment of missing friends than going over those silly photos over the past 8 years (It's been 8 years??? Shit, I'm old.) and see where I started and maybe how I have improved.
2018
Don't know what we're doing here
There is definitely a style and pose that I really like, that much is apparent. My shutter speed was maxed, freezing that motion. Doing so really removes the dramaticness of what is going on when there's no motion blur. Without any blur, the cars look like they are hard parked. There are definitely times and places for that. Panning with the car... not so much.
2019
Developing the Roots
At this point, I am still shooting with a very high shutter rate; driven by keeping everything in focus and sharp. I didn't have a lot of flexibility and hadn't got my motion blur planning down.
2020
Something big happened this year
Something big happened this year... Can't remember what.
Oh yeah, I got deep into track days instead of auto-cross. Shot some rollers.
Tips for panning; your shutter speed should be ~about~ the speed of the car that you're panning on. (eg, a car going 60kmph, shutter speed 1/60).
2021
The Polarizer, a Saving Grace
Polarizers are in and basically welded onto my lens. How can I tell? The reflections are cut. The paint colour is a little sharper, but the biggest tell is the glass; can see right through them. They are very helpful and work their price. Get one for the biggest lens that you have and step rings to adapt them on the smaller filter size lenses.
2022
Something big happened this year
There is definitely a style and pose that I really like, that much is apparent. My shutter speed was maxed, freezing that motion. Doing so really removes the dramaticness of what is going on when there's no motion blur. Without any blur, the cars look like they are hard parked. There are definitely times and places for that. Panning with the car... not so much.
2023
Something big happened this year
There is definitely a style and pose that I really like, that much is apparent. My shutter speed was maxed, freezing that motion. Doing so really removes the dramaticness of what is going on when there's no motion blur. Without any blur, the cars look like they are hard parked. There are definitely times and places for that. Panning with the car... not so much.
2024
Stories to Tell
I had made the move to film at this point,
2025
Something big happened this year
There is definitely a style and pose that I really like, that much is apparent. My shutter speed was maxed, freezing that motion. Doing so really removes the dramaticness of what is going on when there's no motion blur. Without any blur, the cars look like they are hard parked. There are definitely times and places for that. Panning with the car... not so much.
2026
What now?
There is definitely a style and pose that I really like, that much is apparent. My shutter speed was maxed, freezing that motion. Doing so really removes the dramaticness of what is going on when there's no motion blur. Without any blur, the cars look like they are hard parked. There are definitely times and places for that. Panning with the car... not so much.