One of the biggest challenges as a photographer is finding an outlet to unleash your deepest, darkest, creative urges.

I’m lucky enough to have Speedhunters as a platform to express my creativity in the photographic sense, and when you pair an event like Gridlife Alpine Horizon with the challenge to come back with something that hasn’t really been done or seen before, that’s when I start to get really excited.

As the night started to set in and the evening drifting course was set up at Pikes Peak International Raceway, we were fortunate enough to see one of the most beautiful sunsets of the week, even if it lasted all of three minutes.

If you’re somewhat into photography or have even tried to take a photo in low light with your cellphone, you’ll understand that without a flash or proper lighting it can be quite difficult to get a usable shot that doesn’t have too much noise or grain in it.

With the sun setting and the extremely low levels of light available on the track, it was time to get a little creative.

When it comes to low-light motorsports, I tend to find myself chasing as much light as I can find, usually with silly-low shutter speeds.

For Gridlife, Ryan Tuerck, Chris Forsberg, and a few other drivers installed under-glow and light accents all over their cars which amplified the light and also gave some interesting effects on panning shots.

With that in mind, I cranked my shutter down to a 1/4th of a second and let loose.

Shooting at a 1/4th of a second is fun and all, but it wasn’t really a challenge as I find myself around the range of 1/4th to an 1/8th for most of my panning shots.

A couple of clicks later I found that my happy place turned out to be around 1 to 2 seconds for my shutter.

While I would have loved to have shot these images on something like a 400mm 2.8 lens, my 70-200mm 2.8 was versatile enough to get the job done.

As the last sessions wrapped up, only the diehards were letting it slide.

With the last few runs of the night complete, Ryan Tuerck finished off the night with a couple of donuts that came out in an interesting fashion at a 2-second shutter speed.

Gridlife is one of those events that you could go in with a loose concept and come out of the other end of the weekend with memories and art that sum it all up better than words ever could.

Keiron Berndt
Instagram: keiron_berndt