Burning Rubber (4 photos)
All Photos © Jamie Kripke
“I’ve been wanting to shoot some personal work of drag racing, and I was lucky enough to land a couple media passes for a big event at the local strip a few weeks ago. My friend Steve and I donned green photo vests, doubled up on the ear protection, and hauled the Profoto kit to the starting line to go breathe some nitro fuel vapors, eat tiny bits of rubber, and witness massive amounts of fuel consumption. (About 30 gallons in 7 seconds for the jet cars)
I never have seen or heard anything like this before, let alone being five feet away from some truly terrifying cars. When the first nitro dragster took off, I nearly threw my camera down and ran away, screaming like a little girl. I thought I was having a heart attack.
The jet cars are equally ridiculous, and there is no way to really explain the sheer insanity of strapping four wheels and a seat to a JET ENGINE.” To see more of Jamie Kripke’s work click here
Tags: Drag Race, Jamie Kripke, Racing
July 8th, 2010 at 12:56 pm EEDT
Very cool shots.
July 8th, 2010 at 2:52 pm EEDT
These are magnificent. Not the usual drag racing shots, and not at all what I expected. I also liked his comments!
July 8th, 2010 at 5:42 pm EEDT
1. The back end of a car just sitting there, nothing happening. Aren’t drag cars suppose to be burning rubber and/or moving? What’s with the vertical orientation with the car dead center. Same with the smoke. Center focus point, click.
2. That bright sign is stealing the smokes ‘thunder’. All my eyes are drawn to is the bright signs.
3. Decent detail shot, would go well with a story about drag racing (vignetted why though?).
4. Probably the better of the four but still just doesn’t seem quite there.
Also, it looks like these photos were batched vignetted the exact same way to make them dramatic but the photos themselves lack any action/dramatic events happening. For PDN I would expect better work to be praised.
I just checked out the photographers site and he’s got some nice work (a little heavy on the same post-vignetting), much better than what these photos portray. I would expect much better out of this photographer, especially one who has access to get 5 feet away from the cars.
February 4th, 2012 at 8:44 am EEST
Nice photo’s I really like them.
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