#4 Ford Mustang GT3 at Daytona
Welcome back to another instalment of One photo, one story, the place where I share a bit of background of some of my favorite photos. This time is the turn of the Ford Mustang GT3 at the 2025 Rolex 24h at Daytona, or what I would call my most 'murica photo so far. Come along and enjoy the ride!
For those who didn't go to the race, this year was exceptionally cold and the first day was overcast. That meant that the light was flat and that I'd have to work my creativity a bit to make interesting shots. It was late in the morning when the first practice for the Weathertech Series started, we had arrived shortly before and as the first spot we chose the International Horseshoe. A classic spot, good for getting some pans and head-on shots.
I sat on my stepladder by the fence, trying stay warm and taking some photos as the cars went by, getting to grips with my gear again. It was my first time with the 150-600 in Daytona, in 2023 I had a 70-300, so I was trying some new angles and photos in which the other lens fell a bit short. As I reviewed the recently taken photos, I saw an interesting element in the background, the USA flag at half mast (President Carter died earlier that month). I set my camera for vertical shots, to get as much of that pole/flag as possible and shot away. The whole field went by, I snapped some photos to prove that the composition worked. The wind was blowing barely enough to make the flag fly erratically from time to time, the shot was a bit harder than I thought it would be. My goal was to get any of the american cars in the picture, but I knew the Mustang would be the best, after all it was the only car carrying red, white and blue. After some minutes one of the Multimatic Mustangs came through my viewfinder, aligned as perfectly as possible with the flag pole and a gust of wind made the flag fly almost straight. A quick 6 shot burst was made and the photo came out as planned.
Later that day, when we went back to the house I was eager to check the results, and there it was. The car pointing towards the camera, lights on and the flag completely visible in the background. A shot that the weather conditions made harder than expected, not only due to the wind and the light but because my fingers were freezing as well!
Hope you enjoyed this short story as well as the photo below.
Nikon D7100 - Tamron 150-600 - F5.6 1/640 ISO200 320mm
