Double the Fun!

Next weekend I’m going to Watkins Glen International in Upstate New York with my father-in-law to see some car races. He’s been into racing for years, both as a driver and as a writer. He goes every year to cover some of the races and do a bunch of interviews and this year I’m tagging along to shoot a pile of photographs. I went with him last year up to Mosport in Bowmanville, Ontario and enjoyed it quite a bit. It was my first time seeing a car race right up close. We both have media passes so we’ll have access to a lot of areas which means I might want to invest in some ear plugs if I go into the pits.

I’ll be shooting primarily with my 70-200 2.8; my 50 1.4 and 24-70 2.8 will also be packed. The 70-200 gives a good amount of reach, but I’ve always wanted to try out one of Canon’s extenders and figured this was as good a time as any as I don’t know exactly how close I’ll safely be able to get, even with the media passes. Anyhow, I rented Canon’s 2x Extender III from the folks at Lens Rentals Canada. Originally it wasn’t supposed to arrive until Tuesday, but I lucked out and it arrived on Friday. I was actually almost able to bring it to the ball game we went to in Toronto that night. We sat in dead centre field so it would’ve been perfect but we had to leave by a certain time and the delivery person didn’t come until a few hours after we left. Anyhow, I was able to pick it up early Saturday afternoon and have gone out a couple times with it to see exactly how much further it can reach.

Short answer: far.

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