On this special Holiday and #throwbackthursday I’d like to say Thank You to all the people out there who help me with this blog and my life, starting with (and in no particular order)…

Thanks to Barry Staver for his continued friendship and  inspiration that his images have always given me. Our conversations over coffee (and tea) and donuts create many a special moment each month. Thanks to Cliff Lawson an amazingly gifted photographer for the time we share together laughing and learning about life, cars and photography. His creativity in producing and directing a series of YouTube videos, Joe and Cliff go to Cars & Coffee have been the highlight of my car year. A big thank you to Tim Fiedler for his hard work in shaping this blog as well as my photography how-to website.

Thanks goes out to Mark Toal who’s not just a great photographer but a great human being and I’m glad I met him a few years ago at Sonoma Raceway. Mark likes car (and trains) as much as I do I want to thank him for the inspiration and friendship that he has shown me over these past years. Thanks also goes out to Kevin Elliott whose calm measured response to my panic at whatever the current computer crisis that I’m going through and for his skills and talents that always rescued the day.

Thanks to all of you blog readers, Twitter followers and Instagram friends for hanging in there with me over all these years. It’s your loyalty and support that help me write these posts.

And finally finally a special thanks to my wife, Mary who makes me happy every day of my life by showing how much she cares. She is a shining beacon of what being a truly kind person is all about and by her daily actions show me how to be the person I try to be. I only hope to live long enough to become that kind of person that she is.

PS, The reason that this is also a #throwbackthursday is that the photo is from several years ago and was made in Florida at the private track of a friend of Mary’s family who took me for a rode in his Maserati.

May is also National Photography Month, something that began by in 1984 as part of the week long American Photography Celebration but later came to include the entire month of May. For a short time it was also the home of “Take Your Camera to Work day” a website that was funded out of my own pocket but faded after a few years because of the cost of creating a site that was user-friendly enough for people to upload photographs. If anybody’s interested in helping me relaunch the Web site, it could restart next year with your help. May is also my birthday month and I’d like to thank all of this blog’s readers for their support over the years.

Last month our theme was Monochrome; In May it’s going to be mirrorless cameras and you will see mostly color images of cars that were created with my mirrorless cameras, including Olympus and Panasonic cameras that are part of the Micro Four-thirds system.  I became enamored with this system in 2012 when Panasonic launched the Lumix G5 at a press event at Sonoma Raceway, a road course and dragstrip located at Sears Point in California’s Sonoma Mountains.

During the event, I got to drive various Audi models including V8 powered R8’s and TTS’s as well as S-model sedans. I also got to drive the then new Lumix G5, which started my interest in mirrorless cameras.

Lately however I have shooting a Canon EOS M6 Mark II. You might want to read my Shutterbug review of this clever little camera and I had written a series of Sigma lens reviews for Canon’s M-series camera on my main photography blog. You can see one of them here but use the Search function to find the others. 

How I made this shot: At Sonoma, Panasonic divided the press into two groups: One would drive the track, while the others photographed them. Then we would switch places and I would drive while the other journalist photographed me! I can tell you this, Sonoma Raceway is a twisty and technical track and while I’m not the fastest driver (maybe the slowest) but it was a blast to drive. To photograph this V8 powered R8, I used a Lumix G5 with a Lumix G Vario PZ 14-42mm f/3.5-5.6 lens (at 14mm) with an exposure of 1/800 sec at f/13 and ISO 400, with a minus one-third stop exposure compensation.

So say tuned during Nation Photo Month, which will also be Mirrorless Month on the blog for more information about various mirrorless cameras and lenses as well as photographs of cars and motorsports made with these wonderfully versatile cameras. And there will be a new “Name that Car” contest starting next Tuesday.

As Jason Anderson advised in his post, How to Keep Your Sensor Clean, he suggests that you to “avoid changing lenses outdoors because dust can enter from uncontrolled areas and it’s the place where you have the least control.” Unfortunately the reality is that, especially when shooting motorsports, sometime you just gotta change lenses .

How I made this shot: This Audi ALMS race car was shot driving into The Corkscrew at Laguna Seca raceway using a Canon EOS 50D and a EF 75-300mm f/4-5.6 III USM lens (at 160mm.) Nighttime exposure was 1/500 sec at f/8 and ISO 400.

Here’s something that might help: MindShift Gear’s Lens Switch Case ($42.50) is a modular lens/accessory pouch that can be carried or attached to the belt of your favorite backpack. The company’s inexpensive ($16.50) rotation180° Professional Attachment straps make that something that’s easy to do.

This lightweight belt pouch accommodates most wide angle to telephoto lenses including 17-40mm, 14-24mm, tilt shift, 24-70mm and 70-200mm lenses. In addition to lenses you can store a professional speedlight or maybe two pro speedlights or a 4×6 filter kit and accessories. All of the zippered closures can be opened and closed with one hand

An external zippered pocket holds filters, cable release or a cleaning cloth. The removable padded divider lets you protect two items placed side-by-side. A custom-fitted rain cover stows the bottom pouch.

The case measures 7 x 4.5 x 3-inched when retracted or 10 x 4.5 x 3-inches when it’s extended. The Lens Switch Case weighs six ounces and is made from 30D Ripstop PU, 210 D nylon, 140 D silver toned nylon, has YKK zippers and like all MindShift Gear products, it’s able to stand up to the elements.

It’s something to think about the next time yoy head out to the track…

If you enjoyed today’s blog post and would like to treat me to a cup of Earl Grey tea ($2.50), please click here. And if you do, thanks so much.

Along with photographer Barry Staver, Joe is co-author of Better Available Light Digital Photography that’s out-of-print but new copies are available for $21.88 or used copies for giveaway prices—less than two bucks—from Amazon, as I write this. The Kindle version, for some reason, is expensive.

If I can be cruel; I’m not a big fan of the Audi R8, actually—Richard Hammond, Tp Gear TV show

The Audi Sportscar Experience at Sonoma Raceway offers four programs: R8, S Model, The Audi Sportscar Experience Challenge and private and corporate groups. I was in the latter with a group of photography writers and had a chance to drive cars as well as photograph them with other people driving. Check their website for details on each program but so many people asked me what it was like that I wanted to share the experience.

My day at Sonoma started with a briefing from one of the Experience’s instructors. It was brief but full of hard-headed advice on what to expect from the car and the track. Audi provides helmets and paired us up and so I went out in the first session with an Audi TTs with my friend Peter initially driving. Audi S4 sedans were also available. Afterward we changed places and I drove. I’ve seen Sonoma on TV but believe me nothing prepared me for actually driving it and hitting the same turns that Jeff Gordon and Tony Stewart were racing on. During the session, you follow an instructor around the track and he talks to you via radio giving advice on line, braking, apex and it helps that cones are placed around the edge of track in all the turns—especially for its apex.

After the first session there was a debriefing and instruction for an autocross that followed. The autocross set up on the large parking lot and everybody got to drive Audi TTs models. This was the most fun I had all day. As on the track there is an instructor but here he stands in the middle of the course telling you via radio what you are doing wrong as well as encouraging you to stand on the brakes and mash the accelerator. These instructors are hands-down the best that I have ever worked with. I was always a mediocre autocross driver but in that TTs, which is an amazing car, I felt like Mario Andretti.

Then it was time for the Audi R8—a V8 model, not the V10— and boy what a thrill. Most of us never get a chance to ride in one but having the opportunity to drive one of the most sophisticated supercars in the world—on a racetrack no less—was one of my favorite moments in the world of cars. People always want to know how fast we were going: There was no way I could look at the speedometer when I was driving so I can only tell you what it was when my co-driver was at the wheel and we hit 60+ in the Audi TTs and more than 100mph in the Audi R8. Keep in mind that Sonoma is a twisty track lacking the long straightways at Laguna Seca or Watkins Glen. But it wasn’t the speed I remember most, it was the turns and the thrill of driving a really capable automobile around a legendary race course.

The Audi Sportscar Experience was one of my life’s all-time motoring highlights. If you ever get a chance to attend, go for it. I am sure that it will be one of your most unforgettable experiences as well.